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I met Matt at about 9:30 and then we got on the road headed for Seward we
spent the first hour or so talking, I was interested in how Matt had come
to live in Alaska. He told me that he had a friend who had come here the
year before and that his friends stories prompted him to come up and try
living in Alaska. Matt had been living in Alaska for just over a year.
During the summer he lived in a tent in the backyard of some friends and
during the winter he had rented a cabin. He said that many people live
in Alaska seasonally because the winterers are very hard to endure. He
also told me that most smaller towns basically shut down for the most part once
the tourist season is over and people stay inside allot. The near total
darkness and extreme cold can really drive you nuts in a hurry, I asked
him what it was like moving in to the community, he said that when someone first arrives in a town from the lower 48 that
the locals are friendly enough and as winter comes on they offer lots of
advice in preparing for the winter. But that after you have been trough a
winter there seems to be a greater level of respect, not so much because
you had survived a winter here but more like there was now a common bond
of sorts because he too had endured the same thing they had. Matt went on
to tell me that wile the winter was hard there were times all the cold and
darkness was worth it, One night he had gone out side to get more wood for
the fire and as he was walking to the wood pile he looked up and just
froze. Above him the entire sky was the most amazing color of purple that
he had ever seen. He just started yelling to his friends inside and they
came rushing out to see what was wrong, They all just stood there in the
freezing cold watching the Aurora in awe. After a while Matt drifted off
to sleep as he had slept on the beach last night, I enjoyed a nice drive over to
Seward but I did notice that there was allot of traffic headed south. Once
we got to Seward Matt gave me the grand tour in about 15 minutes, showing
me the good places to eat an hang out. We said our goodbyes and parted
ways, I then started to look for a place to park
for the night but quickly discovered that all the camp grounds were full
and that there is no overnight parking allowed in the public lots and that
the Police were being very strict about that policy. It seems that Seward is
host to a Fourth of July race up and down a mountain right out side of
town and that people come from all over not just Alaska but the world to
compete and watch the race. Anyway Seward is way to crowed so I decided to drive up to
the Exit Glacier just out side of town and then head back towards Anchorage.
On my trip back north there was a solid line of RV's headed south, it
looked like rush hour somewhere on the east coast. |
