My Alaskan Adventure

For those of you that didn't know, I'm going to be working this summer as a Fisherman, in Alaska with Rick Mill. Rick Mill is a fisherman, who goes to one of our supporting churches in Alaska. He came over to see our family on two different occasions, about three and four years ago.

So this is my modified journal for you guys, to keep you all updated with my progress.

I'm sure that there are mistakes and problems in the writing, but I don't have the time to correct them. I am sorry, but that's the best that I can do for now. :)

I hope that you aren't too bored reading it. :P

I'm also sorry, that I can't post any pictures yet. :(



June 5th:
Well the first day of my trip, I was up until about 1:45 the night before, doing some packing and straightening up, but I was able to get it all done and have everything nice and pretty neat, so I knew that I wasn't leaving behind a big mess.
Mom, Aunt Rachael, and I left for the airport at around 7:20 A.M. The drive was pretty good, but it did get a little crowded there when we got near the airport. We got there on time though, we went it and got my bagged checked. That morning before we left and had checked in via the internet, and had printed out my boarding passes too. So it was really easy going, all I had to do was scan my boarding pass and then give my bag to the man who was checking the bags, and that was it. After that process the twins and I parted. I went on to continue through the airport routine, and they were going to "hit up" some of the Publixs that were nearby. After that I know not whither they whenist, but I, I alone went on, to brave the fierce and mighty terrors of the... "AirPort." Da da da dum...

Yeah, yeah, over-dramatizing much, I know. Well started walking to my gate, on the way I walked through security, and I didn't even beep. Which is strange, because normally I always beep. But I guess taking off just about everything: camera, wallet, phone, belt, watch, flashlight, and shoes; helps. Back at the house I had taken off my knife and leatherman, so that they wouldn't get confiscated, and I don't want them taken away from me because I like them. : )

I got to my gate and sat there for a while, well not a long while because right away I started to write my letter to BJ, requesting that I might work security. Somehow I don't think that it was very convincing. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained. I wasn't able to finish it there, which was a shame because at the Tampa airport they have free wireless internet, so if I had finished it there I could have sent it right away, but since I didn't I wasn't able to sent it until later that night

We boarded the aircraft. I had seat 24F, which was a window seat, I was happy enough with that, I can lean against the window when I want to sleep.

The flight went well, but when I came out my overall impression with American Airlines was that they were cheap. No meal was served, but you could buy some sandwiches or snacks, and they didn't supply headphones as standard, but you could buy a pair from them for $2, which isn't a lot but it's the thought of the matter. Every other airline that I've flone with supply headphones as standard, if they have some sort of entertainment.

Well anyway it was a good enough fligtht, what really surprised me was that I wasn't constantly yawning like I normally do. And I think that was a first for me, every time that I can remember flying I've had to yawn constantly. So anyway I thought that that was interesting.

Well anyway I landed in Dallas, and I had a 3:45 hour layover so I had to find something to do. Well I had a plan that I wanted to execute; it started with finding something to eat, so I looked around and I found two places that I liked, TGIF and McDonald's. It was a really had decision but I ended up going with McDonald's. I got a double quarter pounder with cheese meal, and it was tasty, yum, yum. The next step was to find a power outlet. So I scoured the walls looking for a power outlet, I found one, but kept looking because ideally I wanted one close to a seat, and I found one, looking across the way at a waiting area, I noticed a small something on the wall about a foot off the ground, and so I walked over a sure enough it was a power outlet. "Perfect", I though to myself. So I sat down and claimed my prize spot. Plugged my computer in and launched it up, I had downloaded a movie called "War games" a couple days ago. Well I'll tell you how I decided on that movie. On Tuesday Peter was watching a movie, and it seemed interesting, but I wasn't able to watch it because I had some packing to do and some other things to do, and it was called War Games. And since I wanted to see how it turned out and knowing that I had some extra time at Dallas I decided to download it, and watch it in the Airport. So, anyway I watched it, and I'm glad that I had downloaded it because it cut down my wait by a lot.

I got on my plane to Anchorage. Again I got the feeling that American Airlines was being cheap, because even though it was over a 6 hour flight a meal wasn't supplied, you had to buy something if you wanted to eat. I mean come on, it's a 6 and a half hour flight, from 3:45 p.m. to 7:25 p.m. (3 hour time difference between Dallas and Anchorage.) it's a long flight and prime time for dinner, I think that they should have supplied a meal, but that's my opinion. And you had to buy the headphones again, and they didn't even have LCD screens that folded down from the ceiling, they had the old analog style, and most of them were discolored. So anyway, it got me from point A to point B, but I wasn't impressed with what they had to offer.

I landed in Anchorage a little late, and they it took forever to get my bag. I waited about 40 minutes for my bag, they were being really slow. Not just my bag other people were waiting for their bags too. But while I was standing there Etta (Rick's wife) came up to me and asked if I was Tim, and I said "no" just to see what she would say. :P Ok, so I didn't really, I said yes, and so she pointed out the truck and then said she had to wait by it other wise they'd tow it away. And we didn't want that, so she went out a waited a just stayed there and waited. Waiting for my bag. It did eventually get there, but I was getting pretty worried that it wouldn't get there, but it did, finally.

When I got my bag, I hoped in the truck and we drove off to where we were staying. Rick just went out on a 72 hour opening, and he would be on the water until Sunday, so that's when we were planning on going down and meeting him.

We got to where we were staying, at around 9:00 p.m. The sun was still shining. It was Etta's Aunt and Uncle's house so we went through the introductions, and they got me a room and I dropped my stuff off. We had a desert type thing, and then I asked if they had any internet there that I could use to send an E-mail or something. And thankfully they did. It was a DSL line so I just unplugged the cable from their computer and plugged it in my computer. So I was able to send an E-mail back to Florida, which was good that I was able to do that, because I haven't had internet since I left that house the next morning. (As of Sunday the 8th.)

I took a shower and then took some pictures out my window. It was 11 p.m. and the sun still hadn't set.


June 6th:
I got up a couple minutes before 6 and was the last person up. We ate breakfast and then Etta and I left because we were going to her parent's place where we were going to hang out for the day. But first we stopped at the fish and game and I got my fishing license, $165 for an out of state resident, and $60 for an Alaskan resident. After that we contiuned on our way to Etta's parent's house. We made one more stop on the way though, we stopped to get some groceries for Etta's parents. Then we were back on the road for Etta's parent's house.

We got there just in time for lunch, we brought in the groceries and then sat down for lunch, Etta's parents had some other guys over who where helping Etta's dad bulid a barn or something, I forget; so we exchanged some witty conversation over lunch. They asked me questions about Poland and stuff, and I answered them.

Our plans for the day were disturbed when Etta got a call from Rick telling her that the fishing was really slow and he wanted to take the weekend off so she needed to come and pick him up. So then we drove all the way down to Whitter where Rick was fishing. So that was about a 3 hour drive. There is an interesting tunnel there right outside Whitter, it is a 2.5 mile one lane tunnel, so in order to allow two way traffic they have to take turns going through it. Ever hour on the hour they let traffic through to Whittier, and every hour on the half hour, they let traffic through going from Whittier. It's a pretty interesting tunnel, tall enough for people with big boats on trailers to go through, but only wide enough for one lane of traffic. It's a pretty big deal to time your trip just right so that you hit the tunnel at the right time.

Well anyway we got in there and picked up Rick and he wanted to drive back all the way to Ninilchik to his cabin to stay for the weekend. Weekend, meaning Saturday, because it was already well into the evening on Friday, and we were going to be coming back on Sunday. So we drove all the way back where we just came from and a little more. Through the tunnel and over the hills, we drove, late into the night, well not really late, we arrived on location, Rick's cabin, at about 9 p.m. and got ready for bed and hopped it.

Rick's cabin certainly isn't anything fancy, it has one big room and in the back it has a small back room where the shower is, there isn't any door between the too, so you just have to trust that no one will walk around the corner while you are showering. A curtain would make it feel a lot more private. And by the way, just because there is a shower does not mean that there is running water. There is running water, but you have to run and get it. It's a stream about a mile away. So there is a nice outhouse about 50 feet away from the house in the bush. Nice for keeping the smell out of the cabin, but not so nice for when you get up in the night and have to go.

June 7th:
Well, this was a long day.
We got up at 6 or so, and had breakfast of English muffins, oatmeal, and salmon. The oatmeal was eat-able (able to be eaten), the English muffins were excellent, and the salmon was, well... I couldn't really make up my mind, at first I thought that it was really good, but as the day progressed I kept tasting that salmon, and I couldn't decide. I didn't even have to burp to taste it, I was just going along and then I'd all of a sudden taste it. It was very strange. Evenutally I decided that I'd better like it because I was going to be getting a lot of it this summer.

Rick wanted to work on his boat, fix some things and stuff, so we left soon after breakfast, and went over to his boat in the dry dock. I grabbed a pair of coveralls and got busy changing the oil in the engines. Pump, pump, pump, out with the old oil. Walk, walk, walk, to the oil dump. Pour, pour, pour; pour the oil into the dump. All 12 gallons of it; 12 gallons is a lot of oil. It took a long time to pump all the oil out, and it got pretty hot down there under the deck with the engines where I was working. But it wasn't too bad, it was actually kind of fun.

After taking out the old oil I changed the oil filters for the engines, and when I was doing that, evidently the o-ring on one of the filters came out of place, so when it was screwed all the way in it didn't make a tight seal. I didn't realize that until later after Rick warmed up the engines and then when down to look at them afterwards. Because the gasket hadn't sealed, oil was spewed all over the engine room, and the thing about oil is that it doesn't evaporate like water does; if you spill a little oil, it'll still be there a week later, unlike water which would have dried up by then. So anyway, I had to clean it all up using the vacuum and paper towels. I vacuumed up the puddles , but had to wipe every thing else down with paper towels, so it took some time to do, and it got pretty stuffy down there, and I got tired from having to squat down all the time, because under the deck where the engines are, the ceiling is only about 4 feet high. I did finally get it all cleaned up though, and it wasn't quite as bad as it first appeared to be. Because of how the o-ring was pinched, it only sprayed in about a 90º arc, so instead of spraying all 4 sections, it only got 2 of them. Even so it took a long time because, I had to really scrub hard to get the oil out.

Rick went out and got some pizza for us for lunch; it was pretty good, they aren't as stingy with the toppings as they are in Poland. In Poland often times they put as few toppings as they can get away with.

After lunch we continued to work, doing a lot of various things, I drilled some holes, helped Rick with some wiring, we put in some depth finders, I swabbed the beck. :P At the end, Rick was running out of things for me to do, most of the stuff left were things that he needed to do himself.

We finished up at a little after midnight, and we didn't even have to use any lights to see, because the sun was still shining. It's still pretty strange to be, but I'm getting used to it.





I have more written on paper that I haven't transfered to the computer, and I am I behind because things are really busy and stuff, so that's why I'm not up to date with things.
Bare with me, I'll get to it eventually. :)

Fierce Fisherman,
Timothy