Adventures at the Airport

So, if you've been wondering because of the lack of blog posts what I've been doing... Well, for one, its summer. :) Alaskan summers are so short, we have to jam pack them full. And the past month or so, I've been somewhat of a workaholic. At the beginning of the summer, I quit my job of 10+ years to work temporarily at the local Literacy Council. I know some think that's crazy for me to quit a good job that has been more than good to me for a temp position. But I prayed hard about it and felt it was a good switch. It gave me an opportunity to teach ESL, which is a field I'm kinda studying for and thinking about doing overseas. 

I still had my job at the airport, but wasn't on the regular schedule. The first part of the summer, I only worked a night or two a week; some weeks not at all. It was nice to relax at home and spend time outside in the sun! :) But the past 3-4 weeks, I've been scheduled more and subbed even more. The past two weeks, I think I've worked about 60+ hours - which is a lot for me! That's in addition to taking an online summer class, teaching Sunday School and mentoring/teaching a couple people. 

Not complaining here, its all my own choice. I do enjoy working, though some days when I'm falling asleep on my feet, I tell myself "you're crazy!" But I work hard here, so I can take months off later and travel. :) So, its worth it. 

And even when I'm working I have crazy adventures. One Saturday morning in July I was working the early, early morning shift. (my body definitely doesn't like getting out of bed at 330am). I had gone downstairs at the airport to say goodbye to one of my students who was headed to India to visit family for month. I noticed two guys sleeping on a bench and thought they were firefighters heading home. As I was leaving, they were gathering their belongings. I stopped and said hi and found out they were actually Danish backpackers. They had arrived at 2am and were sleeping until they could go to their hostel. After talking for a bit, I offered them a ride to their accommodations, as I was in between planes. 

A couple days later I was able to help them out again, by giving them a ride from the East Ramp to the West Ramp of our airport. They were getting ready to fly out on a small bush plane to the Brooks Range to backpack and float the Noatak River. Their plans were to go for 7 weeks!! Actually they are still out in the Bush. I always enjoy meeting people from other countries; now, I have a connection in Denmark - one more place to visit one day. 

The Danish Backpackers

The other thing at the airport, you never know what airplanes you might see. :) One evening, we were waiting for our commercial flight, when an older plane landed and pulled into our ramp area. We waved at them to move over to the next gate area. The plane was marked with Russian words and flag, but the tail # was American. But then we overheard it was coming in from Canada. Such an odd mix. I think they were coming in for something to do with the a memorial of the Soviet-American Land Lease from WWII. But who knows.... just interesting all the different aircraft that land at our airport. 

the "Soviet" plane

We've had beautiful weather most of the summer. Lots of sunshine and warm/hot days. I enjoy working the sunny days outside on the ramp. One week in July it was rainy off and on all week. I went to work for just 2 1/2 hours - when I arrived, the sun was shining, but black clouds were off in the distance. When I left later in the afternoon, the sun was again shining. But the time in between..... well not so much. I was wearing my hoodie, because it was a little chilly. Under the sun, it was getting warmer though, so I debated taking my sweatshirt off. Decided against it.... and then it started sprinkling. Then raining. Then hailing. Then pouring buckets of rain!! We were huddled underneath the plane waiting for the passengers to finish boarding, so we could push back. We were more than soaked to the skin, I'm pretty sure I could have wrung a gallon of water out of my clothes. My boss told me I looked like a drowned rat. Yeah, it was that bad. And I had to be back about an hour later to work again. So, went to my friend's house nearby to borrow their dryer. 

drowned rat

But then there are the beautiful summery/fall days with blue skies and big fluffy clouds! 

from the Ramp of our airport

Stormy Night

I have this crazy friend who it seems almost every time I am around him, I do something dangerous. Not on purpose, it just happens! :) Yesterday, I drove down to Ft. Worth/Dallas for church. Sunday morning I was in Irving to go to church where a missionary family to Mexico was visiting. I wanted to meet them face to face. It was good to finally see them. I spent the afternoon in Dallas at a mall; did a little bit of shopping and then watched my home church's service online. (yay for livestream!)

That evening, I headed over to north Dallas to see my wonderful friends the Cofers. They were at one of their supporting churches and I always love to go see them.... even though dangerous things happen! The service was wonderful; Mickey preached an excellent sermon about missions. We hung around a bit after church talking and then migrated to the door to leave.... this is where it gets good.... :) I had overheard someone say it was raining. Cool. I like rain. and then I opened the door to outside. Uh, that wasn't rain, it was a flood! it was raining buckets of water, the wind was whipping around, lightning was flashing, thunder roaring and water was running across the parking lot. Jaaz and I ran across the parking lot to my car. By the time we got in, we were literally soaked to the bone. I pulled up behind Mickey. We were going to a church member's house for supper. There was four cars following each other. Which I hate following people after dark. I was the last in the line and Mickey was in front of me. Off we go.... 

The two boys were with me, all cold and soaked. There was a tree down across one of the lanes at one point, which I had to swerve to miss. Mind you, its dark, except for the flashes of lightning, some of the streetlights were going on and off, the rain was hitting my car so hard I thought it was going to dent my car, my windshield wipers were going as fast as they could and I was still having a hard time seeing out the window. And I was scared of hydroplaning. And then Mickey's van stalls out twice, so we get farther and farther behind the lead vehicles. Now we don't really know where we are going. I call Trina.... Mickey answered. He had the phone, not Trina. Well that does us no good. Thankfully the guy who's house we were going to called Jonah's phone. yay, we're going to get directions! Ok, off we go again... I'm following Mickey.... left hand turn... oh no! we didn't turn far enough and we are in the turn lane for the oncoming traffic and there is a median between us and the lane we need to be in. Cars are coming... quick turn into a parking lot across oncoming traffic! Turned around again and 2nd try.... ok, made it into the right lane. yay! Made it safely to the people's house, dash out of the car and run up the sidewalk to the door... yep soaked again. whew. At least we had hot soup to meet us there. 

 By this time it was late and I didn't know where all the storm was or how long it would last. So ended up staying with the Cofers in their hotel room. One of these days, I am going to learn to keep an overnight bag in my car for emergencies. This morning, got up at 545 to drive back to school in time for classes. yep, I was a bit tired today. :) 

Even though it was a scary drive last night following Mickey, I'm glad I went. I love the Cofer family. They have truly become like family to me. Love them!  

Sigh of Relief

   I was so exhausted tired by the time I was settled into my seat for the flight from Fairbanks to Minneapolis, so I pretty much fell asleep right after taking off. Slept off and on for the next 4 hours. My brain was working much better after sleeping those hours. After waking up, I had a nice conversation with the lady sitting next to me. She had been in Alaska for a family vacation with her children and grandchildren. She was a really sweet old lady. At one point we were talking about airplanes and she told me that her father, who was born in 1892, had to go to a boarding school after his father died. Her dad as a young boy used to lean over a particular fence not far from his school and watch Wilbur and Orville Wright test fly their planes!

dark, stormy cloud near Minneapolis

   Well, about an hour outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul we hit some rough turbulence. They were having thunderstorms just outside of the city, which was causing our rough flight. It probably was the worst turbulence I've ever experienced on a large jet. Because we were in a holding pattern to land in Minneapolis and didn't have enough fuel to hang out in the sky waiting, they diverted us to Duluth, MN. The landing there was a little scary, first sigh of relief after landing there. It was gorgeous weather there, but of course we didn't get to actually enjoy it. We all sat on the plane for about an hour. Finally they cleared us for take off and to head to Minneapolis. Still rough skies near St. Paul, so more turbulence to endure. I took a picture of the sky outside the city. You can see the dark blanket cloud stretching to the west. Another sigh of relief after landing in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

flying over Minnesota

  I arrived in Denver Monday evening. Was picked up from the airport along with 2 others coming in for the wedding this weekend. They had come in from Mongolia, so they were pretty much exhausted from traveling.
  Tuesday Trina and I went car shopping for most of the afternoon. We found some possibilities, but everything nicer was a bit more than I had wanted to pay. Wednesday morning, Mickey, Jonah and I went to go look at another car. That was the one! It's nothing fancy, but good car. Its even one of my favorite colors. :) Shiny, dark forest green. So, we purchased it yesterday! A huge sigh of relief! Glad that's over.
  Several hours after buying the car, I headed down to Colorado Springs to see a friend at the Airforce Academy. It was a nice little drive (only one wrong turn). Major thunder and lightening storm down that way. I loved it! Thunder and lightening is one of my favorite things. Lance gave me a little tour of campus, it was evening by the time I got there, so most places we couldn't go into. But still got a feel for the place - it is a HUGE. After which we went to Olive Garden - yummy!!!
  Tomorrow starts the wedding preparations, so I'll be busy for the next couple days. Looking forward to it though. It will be fun with all the people we have here. Until then....