Friday, May 15, 2009

by land, by sea... or by dog sled



Before I can go on with this post with a good attitude I have got to get something off my chest. I just had a run in with the cafeteria nazi and he has left me in a seriously sour mood (or totally pissed off if I can really be honest).
So, first of all, I eat three meals a day out of a cafeteria, I will leave my complaints to myself because I know I was fully aware when I signed up. When you go into the cafeteria there is a big hand washing station with about, oh I don't know, thirty signs that say "Wash your hands before entering the cafeteria". I get that, germs, lots of people, fair. However, the water that comes out of the spout is about 45 degrees below (no, I am not exaggerating and yes, I know its weird that it can be that cold and not actually turn into ice) and after washing my hands the first 10 meals here I couldnt help but think that nothing was cleaner about my hands after putting them in arctic water, and the only thing accomplished was that I couldn't feel them for another 5 or 10 minutes.

Solution? The bathroom, right next door to the cafeteria has perfectly warm water. So what do I do? I go into the bathroom, wash my hands, and then come out to get my food. This evening I did as I explained and entered the cafeteria, grabbed my tray, and headed down to get a healthy helping of yesterdays pork.

Enter, little man with chefs hat and obnoxious accent:
"Um, excuse me."
I keep on walking toward that pork.
"EXCUSE ME."
I hear him, but I don't want to hear about washing my freaking hands.
"MISS EXCUSE ME YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS!"
I turn and very calmly state, "Look, I washed my hands in the bathroom."
I hold them up, "See, still wet."
"It does not matter, you must wash your hands or you can't eat."
"I'm sorry but the water is so..."
"YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS."
"But..."
"NO WASHING HANDS, NO FOOD."

Not that the pork was all that enticing but seriously? I just stare at him for a second, hands in the air, wet spots on my shirt, normal body temperature about to meet its plunging fate, waiting for it to register to him how ridiculous he sounds.
"YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS WHEN ENTERING THE CAFETERIA, YOU SEE THE SIGN?"
No, actually missed that, thanks for pointing it out.
Now that everyone in the vicinity is staring and Danny is energetically piling pork and beans onto his plate while heartily laughing at me, I give in. I'm not ok with it though. I went through my whole meal, not feeling my hands and plotting how I can get little cafeteria-power-trip-guy back... I think from now on I'll just fake the washing, haha jokes on him.

Wow, felt good to get out, now I can move on.

So anyway, in the last 5 days Danny and I have gone in and around Denali National Park on foot, in a van, on a bus (driving and riding), on a train, in a boat, in a small airplane, and on a dog sled. The scenery hasnt gotten old yet! Mt. McKinley (tallest mountain in North America, highest vertical rise in the world) poked its head out of the clouds while we were on the train and we poked our head through the clouds on a plane to get a glimpse of the summit and even saw about 10 climbers attempting to reach the top.

Here are pictures of each transportation adventure except a bus... funny enough its the only thing I didn't take a picture of this week.

Van - Exciting, I know




Foot - Me checking out some moose tracks and us hiking around near where we live




Dog Sled - Huskies! Ohhh, look at the puppy!



Boat - Jet Boat "Safari" Tour... though we didnt see any lions or zebras



Train!



Plane - Mt. McKinley



We spent a night at the McKinley lodge about 2 hours south of us and then we took the train all day to Fairbanks (normally about 2 hrs north of us) and spent the night there. Upon leaving Fairbanks Danny's bus internally combusted (shocking, eh?) or whatever you might call it and dumped all its transmission fluid on the ground, that proved to be quite a hold up and not all that good for the bus, surprisingly enough.

Today was take-off for driving buses with real passengers in them as the first train transporting guests arrived. Danny had a good start but I'll let him tell you about that. I didn't drive but I gave the little speal to the guests and am officially winning the race to more tips, any additional help would be appreciated.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Betsy Hoerman... its got a nice little ring to it




So, the wedding happened, I'm a married woman now. I have to say that it was everything I could have ever dreamed of and more. Absolute downpour the whole day and the sky cleared for the hour and a half pictures were scheduled, my bridesmaids were gorgeous, desserts were scrumptious, my nephews pulled faces in all the pictures so they are bound to be cute, once we bailed and arrived at the Hilton we were upgraded to the two story pent house suite, oh yea, and Danny was pretty cool too. Then we were whisked away to the magical land of Denali National Park.

Today is our one week anniversary and we have already put in 50 hours of work since we got here! Its not all bad though, they made us drive a bus full of employees through the breathtaking interior of Alaska, we had to go on an ATV tour yesterday, tomorrow we have to go in a plane around the summit of Mt. McKinley, and Monday night we have no choice but to go on the big dome train about 4 hrs south to the Mt. McKinley lodge for an overnighter and ride the next day into Fairbanks and back. Pretty tough honeymoon so far.







We stay about 10 minutes north of the park in a town called Healy. We live in an old hotel/army barrack type place made out of wooden panel and tin with a hoppin' bar downstairs, plenty of interesting people to keep us laughing and a full size bed. There is a cool rec room with pool and ping pong and a library of romance novels that have kept many other Alaskans warm through the cold nights. We haven't really had any of our own time to go exploring but tomorrow is our first day off so we can go check it all out.

Its strange though, all the planning for the wedding and it was over so fast and now it feels like it was so long ago. I have not even had a 5 minute conversation with anyone but Danny to re-hash the whole thing and give it proper analysis. I have no idea how it went for anyone else. Maybe its better that way, it can just remain this perfect little moment in time. Sitting with Danny for a few minutes before we went in to be married had to of been the highlight of the day. We had a few mushy things to say to each other but mostly we sat there giggling and trying to be reverent even though I just wanted to jump up and down and release some of my excitement. Excitement to be marrying Danny, excitement to see all the people in the other room, excitement to start a new chapter in my life. I was so glad that I was there with Danny and that life has brought us, in a round about way, together. Not a bad twist to things.