Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

    I know that it's been a few weeks since I posted anything here, but I was off looking around America, or at least a small part of it. It's become increasingly evident that it's time for us to look for another place to light in our old age. The cost of taking the truck to Juneau to buy groceries has risen, as has the cost of a round trip ticket on the local airlines. Recently I ran out of my prescription meds, and the doctor won't refill them after this last time until I come in for a physical. I understand; he's just doing his job. The problem is that it's going to cost a bundle just to get to Juneau from here so that I can go see him. It would be nice to be able to hop in the car and drive to the doctors or vets or dentist office. It would be great to know that regardless of the weather, you'd still get your mail, and your bills won't be delinquent because the mail couldn't get through. Hoonah has a lot to offer, but i...

  Jan and I took a little trip down to the lower 48 last week. We were on the lookout for a new place to call home. The trip didn't start off all that great. After checking out the ferry schedule, and coordinating the with doctor's office to see that we could get appointments around the ferry, and making arrangements for a flight on Alaska airlines that would require the least amount of down time, I got a call from one of the attendants at the local Alaska Marine Highway office the day before we were to leave,  informing me that the ferry was broken down (again) and they weren't sure when it would be up and running again. Frankly, I wasn't shocked at the news, but I was really angry. I needed my car in Juneau when we returned from down south so we could run around to the doctors and shop at Costco and Fred Meyers and load up. The potential savings on groceries alone is enough to offset the almost $300.00 it cost to take the truck to Juneau round t...

The Payette River, Idaho Shoshone Falls, Idaho Falls Idaho Shoshone Falls/ Snake River Momma  Jan at Shoshone Falls    I thought I would spend a little time in the next few posts speaking about our trip. Obviously it means much more to me and Jan than to anyone else, so I won't go on and on, but we don't make it out of Alaska too often so when we do get a chance to go it's a kind of big deal. We left Juneau and flew to Seattle and on to Boise Idaho where we rented a car. I wasn't about to rent a car in Seattle- way too busy for me. When we got to Boise we waited for our luggage which never came. Hey... I just remembered that Alaska airlines has a policy that if you have to wait more than twenty minutes for your luggage they'll give you a twenty dollar credit or refund or some such thing. What the hell? Where's my refund? Those sapsuckers owe me forty dollars- twenty for Jan and twenty for me. It's not the first time they'v...