AlasCruis Afterthought
Couple 3 final thoughts about Our Recent Odyssey North.
Hearing “I’ve had the Time of My Life” sung by two of the lounge singiest of lounge singers on our last night on the cruise? The cheesiest thing I have ever encountered.
No complaints here.
Been thinking about the Scagway mentality. Scagway, AK, has about 1,000 year-round residents. During cruise ship season (Mayish-Octoberish), the town can double or triple that.
Food comes in on a barge every Monday. It’s a snooze/lose situation. Sarah, our tour bus driver explained in her first week in town, she waited until Friday to go shopping and went home with ramen and okra.
One interesting factoid I learned on the tour was that the Scagway River’s light green color is from the river being mostly glacier right off; which has lots of crushed rock where the color comes from. Lovely color but salmon can’t breathe in such water. No salmon means no bear. (Families to the south in Sitka can take out 90 salmon per person per day.)
Health care is..there. Anything the nurse practitioner can’t handle means flying out on the weekly run or a VERY expensive helicopter ride. (There was a slight difference between what we heard from our Sitka and Skagway tour drivers.)
As mentioned earlier, the No Deliveries Allowed rule is simply a very heavy handed way of dealing with very problem. Heavy handed yes, but they’re not wrong. And the women on the bus at least understood the reason for the law. And many expressed the idea that a month without any family duties while being catered to might not be the worst thing in the world.
The town’s isolation also means a “Someday, I’m gonna be my own 9-1-1.” attitude is the wisest. If I don’t do a good job hunting, fishing, gardening, getting firewood, and grocery shopping, my family will go without. Pretty sure most, if not all, are really good at hunting and fishing. Also pretty sure nobody there would call them hobbies.
I think most Americans; especially of the dude kind, think of themselves as potential Scaggers. I could and should chuck all these suburban amenities and go live on my own. Live off the land.
That was certainly my Mom’s thinking when she packed up four boys and moved to the country (Twisp, WA) in the late 70s.
And she hadn’t a clue what to expect. We were not prepared. I got my own Junior Edition version of Scagway Life at an early age. And have since taken The Softer Road More Traveled.
Right now, my biggest concern is that this afternoon’s Safeway delivery won’t substitute honey crisps with cosmic crisps. Pretty much the antithesis my friends to the Far North.
And yet.
And yet, there’s this tiny yet indestructible part of me that thinks I could. I should. Probably the reason each one of my fall apple and potatoe “crop” will end up costing me about $10 per unit. A gentleman farmer, seeing over a productive estate, I am not.
I respect those northern folks. They don’t let “But what if..?” get in the way of living. A type of bravery.
Another type of bravery? Walking passed the cruise ship house band: C-Sharps playing “Pretty Woman” and deciding, “I MUST Dance!”and doing so on stage right up front.
No, Dear Reader, it wasn’t me but instead Wendi! She followed her bliss.
Guess you could say Wendi had the time of her life.
End Seen
And in answer to the question so many of you have been asking,
Wendi-17 fashion compliments
Brian-3 Thank yous.
Wendi was looking into that machine to get this.
Achievement Unlocked🎉🎉🎉