The professional touring companies are
very good at planning ahead and assuring comfortable accomodations and entertainment for
their guests. Even when the entertainment is unexpected, they still manage to make the
most of a bad situation. Such was the case when
our bus caught on fire.
Yes, that's right. Our motor coach was spewing flame at 65 mph through the Anchorage
suburbs. Click the thumbnail for a larger photograph.
The
Alaska Sightseeing driver was very
professional. She pulled the bus over calmly, evacuated all the passengers quickly from
the bus, then extinguished the fire before it left the engine compartment. Less than an
hour later the touring company had a replacement bus to continue our journey
to catch a train into the interior. We made it on time and they picked up the tab for
lunch. Knowing what to do turned a potentially dangerous situation into one we can tell
stories about and laugh.
Here are a few of those curious little
tidbits of sometimes useful, sometimes useless information that struck me while
vacationing in Alaska. And before I forget, a special thanks to
Barbara aka The Purple Moose for
ordering the Chamber of Commerce weather for my visit. It couldn't have been better.
Do not walk on mud flats
— You will immediately notice the difference between glacial melt streams and
rivers and the freshwater flows. The glacial melt is murky, silty. The grinding of earth
and rock from the many millennium of carving creates a fine silt that fills the
waterways. At low tide this silt collects on flats, similar to sand bars, that get
sucked to the bottom at the next high tide. These mud flats appear inviting to walk on,
to explore what the tides have left behind. Do not be deceived. This innocent looking
mud is quite lethal. It will suck you in, and down, like quicksand, only worse. Once it
has you in its grip, it will not let go, like drying concrete. You simply drown at the
next high tide. Delightful. Barbara can tell you about the Turnagain Arm.
Glacier ice is cold, very cold
— During our cruise on the Prince William Sound, we visited many of the beautiful
and inspiring glaciers found among the fjords and hidden inlets. I was left with a
feeling of awe at the raw power and natural splendor of these enormous ice and snow
packs. As you approach a glacier slowly from a distance, you begin to feel the temperature
drop precipitously. In the space of just a mile the temp may decline as much as 20
degrees. At the humongously large glaciers, like Columbia (five miles wide, forty miles
long, enough to completely cover the entire city of Los Angeles), the cold in the air
also kicks up a wind that will chill you to the bone. Beautiful, powerful, awesome,
and cold.
Long days are fascinating
— This time of year, the days are nearly 20 hours long. The sun begins to set
about 10:30PM but it doesn't reach total darkness until past midnight. Conversely, the
dawn will begin about 4:00AM, but depending on the surrounding terrain, you may not
observe the sun rising until 5:30 or so. The extended daylight creates extremely interesting
light angles, views of scenes that simply aren't possible at latitudes further south.
It was like a siren song, enticing me to stay up late and get up early. I wonder if 20
hours of darkness in mid-winter makes you want to sleep the day away?
I hope you will return in the coming
days as I'll share more of my recollections from the wonderful visit to our nation's
49th state. It was a fantasy come true for me. I wish the same opportunity for you.
