Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

    Shortly after Jan and I moved to Wasilla, my daughter Autumn suggested we take a small road trip north to Talkeetna. Actually I think she wanted to go much further north, but as enticing as it sounded, I find that I get tired after a few hours of driving, also I frequently have to pee, so a two hour trip can stretch out to three or more hours by the time I've made multiple stops, so we opted to go to Talkeetna. It's off the Parks Highway, which if you stay on it will eventually take you to Fairbanks. Anyway, we went as far as Talkeetna. It's definitely a tourist town  with a lot of character. When we were there the tourist season was over, not that there was much of one this year. If the government doesn't knock off all the oppressive regulations, there won't be a small business left in America, which may be part of the plan, I don't know for sure. Anyway, we were there at what would normally be the end of the tourist season, so most of the shops were shut d

     As I mentioned in my last post, I've got a picture of our new home. It's just the one photo, but it gives you an idea of what the place looks like. It's got a heated garage which is really nice. I've never had a garage before in my life, so I'm getting spoiled already. I've never had to pay property tax in my life before either, which is something I could do without, but since Jan and are considered "elderly" we get a break on our tax bill next year. This year we'll still pay through the nose though. Oh well. As you can see, I've got a rather long driveway, and we got some snow, which means a lot to shovel, but since I haven't done much other physical labor, keeping the driveway shoveled will provide me a little exercise. It will either make me stronger or kill me. I've included a picture of our good friend Marti Lee. This was taken back in Hoonah before we left. As you can see, there is a glow around her, which is not unexpected.

    It's been a long haul, but we've finally gotten the internet set up, so I can fill you in a little bit about the relocation to our new home. I don't have any pictures of it just yet, but perhaps on the next post, I'll get some. Anyway, as you might expect the move from Hoonah to Wasilla wasn't as smooth as we had hoped it would be. I imagine that it doesn't matter who you are, moving is going to involve the unexpected as well as the unwanted and the unpleasant. I have to say, it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. While Jan and I were both in agreement that it was time to move on, nothing could really prepare us for what was ahead. Initially we had planned on moving to Lewiston Idaho. We'd been down there three times looking around. It was entirely different than Southeast Alaska. It's very dry; I think they get 12-16 inches of rain a year. It's wheat growing country. Not much in the way of big trees and certainly no large bodie