Dillingham

11-182005 3:45 pm

This weekend is a trip to Dillingham, Alaska. Dillingham is on Bristol
Bay in Alaska, just the north side of the Aleutian Islands. It's a big
fishing community.

I am most excited about trees. I never knew growing up that there was a
TREELINE. At a certain latitude, the tundra takes over and trees don't
grow in abundance. I have not seen real trees or a forest of any kind
since moving to Nome. Dillingham is below this treeline. There are
evergreens and deciduous trees. I have missed them. I miss seeing the
snow upon the leafless trees and I miss the towering evergreens of
Washington state. These aren't anywhere near as tall here but they are
nice to look at.

We left early this morning, not even going to school today. We met up
at 9 am at Bering Air for a 9:45 charter flight. We are sharing a
19-seater with Kotzebue varsity. They flew in from Kotzebue with 10
players and we are filling up the plane with 9 to fly straight to
Dillingham.

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. Our car came in
today! Our 2005 Ford Escape is here! We had it barge from Seattle to
Anchorage and then it was actually flown into Nome from there. We got
the call this morning and we were able to drop Amy off to pick up the
car before we got to Bering Air. She was so excited. Now she gets to
drive her own car instead of taking the cabs. We have been bumming
plenty of car rides off of the Callahans. She gets to ride in style to
her interview at the bank today.

NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG. So we flew out at about 10:00
am. I have always been falling asleep in these planes as soon as we get
pretty high. It's neat seeing Nome from the sky as we veer south. It
was pretty clear today for a long way. But then we got near Dillingham.
As we were coming in for a landing, I don't think I'd ever felt that
odd. We were sloshing around up there as if we were on the ocean. I
could see the runway finally and it didn't stay straight in the line of
sight. It seemed to slosh back and forth with the wind. One gust of
wind made this little alarm go off in the cockpit. At landing, you
could just feel that icy runway underneath as the plane slid slightly.
The pilot asked me later, "Kinda rough coming in, did anybody get sick
back there?" Luckily, no one became ill. Then he added, "We didn't even
know the runway was all ice until the 727 that landed there just before
us radioed in and told us that it was pretty bad." Comforting words.

We're here now, all in one piece thanks to some Hail Marys I kept
repeating. We got to the school and then went out for lunch because
they didn't plan it for us here. We ate at a place called The Muddy
Rudder. I had clam strips, fries and a Diet Coke (it was actually
delivered to me in a can, a Western Family--generic brand--diet cola).
Good stuff.

Now we are waiting to play. Our first game tonight is at 6:30 versus
New Stuyahok. Tomorrow we play Kotzebue (we did manage to get a game
against our dreaded division rival while we're here) at 10:30 am,
Bethel (to exact some vengeance) at 4:30 pm, and then we are part of
the marquee matchup for Dillingham's senior night against them at 7:30
pm.