Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

   Jan and I and our daughter Autumn had planned on going on a road trip up to Fairbanks last weekend, but as things would go, it snowed on Friday. It was the second time it snowed in a week, which was a surprise to me, and I suppose to a lot of other folks. It's my understanding that it usually doesn't snow this early here. Go figure. In any event, we cancelled the trip to Fairbanks, which really disappointed me. However on Sunday, Autumn suggested that we take a shorter road trip to Glennallen, still about 175 miles away. We left late Monday morning and it was obvious that there had been two snow storms by the amount of the white stuff covering the surrounding mountains. Fortunately the roads were clear and most of the snow was confined to the mountains and the high passes the road goes through. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and you couldn't have ordered a more perfect day for traveling. I always like to see new things, and it's even better when traveling by car...

 I just got back from fishing down in Southeast on Saturday. I stopped in down in Ketchikan to visit my son Ben and his family and had a delightful time. The first day was sunny and beautiful and we got to see some great sites. The second day was horrible, windy and rainy, but it didn't stop us from going out. We dropped in to Creek Street where renown artist Ray Troll has a shop, the Soho Coho. I bought a couple of shirts and some cards that I'll probably do a post on at a later date.  When I left Ketchikan on Saturday the weather was getting nicer and made for some pleasant flying, although I had to make three stops before we got to Anchorage, so the flight lasted about seven hours. It was not my favorite thing to do, but it sure beats what this fellow had to face. I was in Hoonah and had just left the boat when I heard a helicopter flying overhead. It sounded like it was flying kind of low, so I looked up and was startled to see an airplane dangling from a cable under the h...