Flight to the Unknown

THURSDAY - Part 1

I decided to move to Alaska to be close to nature. One of my friends upon hearing I was going to Alaska had warned that I not become like the guy in "Into the Wild." While I am probably one of the few people who saw that film and thought "That sounds like something I would do!" in actuality I think I'm much more safety conscious. But for years I had wondered what it would be like to live in a cabin in the middle of fields and trees and mountains.

I bought a ticket to Anchorage with the intention of buying a beat up old car and sleeping in it while I traveled around and looked for jobs. While I know that straddles the line between free-spirited nomad and straight up transient, I couldn't afford both accommodations and transportation. So I decided to settle on what I like to call "Accomotransmodation."

But two days before I left I found a job working in Talkeetna (the town that they say inspired the TV show Northern Exposure). I was delighted! As a huge fan of that show, I had always said if Cicely, Alaska, was a real town I should move there. Talkeetna - a tiny town with a view of Mt. McKinley and an eclectic group of artsy nature lovers seemed ideal - I thought "these are my people." And I must say, I was relieved to be going to a destination with housing and a job all set up. The process of background and reference checks began, but we agreed that I should look to start on the coming Monday. With a few days to kill, I decided to go to Denali National Park. I quickly bought a $20 tent thinking that that and a sleeping bag meant I'd always a place to stay (I have never camped on my own, and haven't been in tent since I was a minor, but how hard could it be...).

I left Wednesday night on a plane from Los Angeles, CA, at 9:10pm to arrive Thursday morning at 1:27am in Anchorage, Alaska. I was carrying a lot of stuff. The truth is - me packing is a lot like those scenes in the movies where the feds are coming and people are burning papers and shredding documents and stuffing things into briefcases and then finally they run out to a helicopter and take off in a hurry. Basically I start packing with the best of intentions and by the end I'm just throwing things in a bag and running out to a taxi which has been waiting with its motor running for 10 minutes.

So I found myself in Alaska with a giant backpack and sleeping bag, a bookbag, a duffel bag, and laptop. When I got off the plane I was happy to find that lots of other people were also sleeping in the airport. Although the nonstop easy listening jazz that we were treated to all night made it hard to do anything other than pretend to sleep. I set up near a group of young Israelis, and propped my travel alarm up on my bags so that I would be able to get a taxi "downtown" in enough time to meet my bus to Denali.

I got on the bus at 7am. We made a stop around 9:30am - halfway to Denali, and I called my new employers to see if they needed anything more from me before I went into the park. It was then that I found out the job had evaporated due to unforeseen circumstances. I made a few quick calls to other businesses in the Talkeetna area using the tourist brochures I had picked up in the Anchorage airport as my guide. No one was hiring. Then my cell phone service went. Here I was in Alaska, with way too much stuff to be practical on my way to a remote location with no job and very little money. There was nothing to do but ride the bus and look out at the trees and mountains and try to enjoy the journey.

Continued...

Pictures: Display in Anchorage Airport; View from the bus 1; View from the bus 2