Tis the season

Been kinda slacking on the blog updates lately. Im sure all two of you were in deep suspense waiting for my next update. Soo here it is.

Went skiing at Alyeska Saturday. It was pretty sweet. conditions were stil early season, but they got 40" of snow yesterday so I'm sure they are greatly improved. My legs were dead at the end of the day. On the drive home we saw a mini avalanche. That was pretty sweet.

Works been going well. Still no fieldwork yet though. Saturday was thr company christmas party. It was a good time. i also got a bonus check and an REI gift card. Which is way more than I was expecting since I haven't been there long. I've been playing hockey on Thursdays with co-workers thats been fun. I used my Tei gift card to get some skate skis, so hopefully I can start exploring Anchorages world class nordic ski trails soon.

Last Thursday I went to a Nelly concert in Anchorage. It was quite a disappointment. I bought my tickets a couple weeks ahead of time and then the last couple days before the concert there wasn't enough tickets sold so Nelly paid for a free ticket for every ticket you bought. Desperation eh? That shows you how irrelevant he's become to be giving away tickets to a show in Anchorage Alaska (a town that doesn't get many big name concert events to begin with) The concert was supposed to start at 8pm. So we got there at quarter to 8 and went to the "drinking room" they had set up in the arena. After a few drinks we decided to head back over to the stage because we thought for sure Nelly would be taking the stage any minute. Boy were we wrong. It was another hour and a half before he came out. By the time he did there were enough irate people that they were actually leaving the concert in masses. Nelly performed like 8 or 9 songs and then the concert ended. What a waSte of money. I guess I know why he isn't #1 anymore...

A rant about these Occupy protests

I havent really followed this closely because I have a lot of shit going on in my life but I from what my limited research (ignorance?) tells me its basically a bunch of hippies, hipsters, whatever gathering to protest corporate wealth and greed. Uh. Wakeup you fucking assholes, the whole point of a corporation is to make money. Sorry you're living in a one bedrom bedbug infested apartment in Brooklyn with 7 other people. Maybe if you actually got a fucking job and gave up your lame dream to be a musician or actor/actress you could someday make it into the one percenters. Seriously I don't think any person who actually works for a living gives a shit about the stupid movement. Its not going to change anything about the way corporations work. The only thing you're doing is stinking up the area you are occupying with the smell of BO, pot, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Seriously. Get a job like everyone else and accept the fact that lifes not fair.

All moved in

So we got about a foot of snow here over the weekend. Pretty sweet. Its really weird though because they just don't plow the roads. Like all the snow just gets compacted down into a really slippery layer of snice (snow-ice). I've asked people what the deal with plowing is and they're always like oh yea they come but it takes a while. There must be two snowplows for the entire city. Everyone just deals woth it though, in New Jersey i'm quite certain it would be a state of emergency, cars would be flipping over and crashing into buildings (seriously); and chris christie would be telling people to get the hell off the beach.

Anyways that leads into my next story which is moving my shit into my new apartment today. I reserved a uhaul cargo van for 4 pm for 4 hours. Te uhaul store closes at 7 pm, so I had 3 hours to get over to my friends garage, pack my stuff, get to my apartment, unload and return the van. I asked the girl if I could leave my jeep there and she said yes just move by 6am. So then I asked if I could return truck aftet hours, she said no. Great. Now I really have to get this done in 3 hours or Ill be screwed. So i pull out of the lot and obvi the tires are spinning like crazy on the UNPLOWED roads and the f-ing van fishtales when I finnaly got out of the lot. After that every time I tried to accelerate the back wheels started sliding into the next lane over...good thing I got the damage waiver.....i get to my friends house and go to back the van into the driveway and the POS gets stuck in the snow. And of course like 2 cars decided to turn down the street at that exact moment. So I'm trying to get unstuck and the people are just sitting intheir cars watching. Uh hi dont mind me, the asshole from NJ who tries to do a 3 point turn with a cargo van in a foot of snow. Anyways i got instuck ad deove down to the culdesac to turn around. As I'm driving down the slight hill into the culdesac I realize its all incompacted snow and as im driving into it im thinking ohhh fudgeeee. Stuck again. i got unstuck from the culdesac and had to basically idle up the hill to get back to my friends house. So let me try this whole backing in thing from the other direction. Oh sure enough. Stuck again. At this point Im gettin really irritated with this stupid van and of course more cars are waiting to get down the street. Two people actually got out and pushed for me which was nice. So i hurridly packed up the van and headed towards my apt. I plled in to back into my carport and sure enough the shitty van got stuck again. So I pulled forward and at this point thought I dont give a shit if i smash itto the concrete pillar, cuz i got the damage waiver. So i gunned it and turned the wheel fast and amazingly ended up right where I wanted to e. now i dont know about all of you ( the three people who actually read this blog) but I hate moving. Soo much. When im unloading a car I always try to carry as much stuff as possible so i can make the least amount of trips. But anytime I drop something or get snagged on something it raises my irritation level. And it seemed to be happening every single trip inside. Plus in trying to beat the clock so i cant take a break. I finished unloading the van at 620 and was thinking. Ok sweet. I can make it back by 7. So i put it in drive pull out of the cArport and boom. $&""?! Stuck again! Im like sweaty and irritated and hungry at this point. So i find a snow shovel. Dig out the tires gun it back in reverse the gun it forward and try to turn out of the alley and boom. Stuck again. I was literally ready to set the van on fire at that point. Then this guy leans out his window and says hey dude you wat me to tow you out. I was like yes! So he gets his jeep and is like anyolaceto hook this strap up? And im thinking who gives a shit? Damage waiver! So we got the van unstuck again. and now i had to go up the big ass hill. First attempt no good, had to back it down. Second attemot gunned it. Gt like 80% up and started sliding backwards with a car behind me. He got out of the way fast and i turned down an alley and floored it up the less steep hill, fishtail around the corner and ahh im back to a main street. i made it back to uhaul with 5 min to spare. I said to the girl working there that that cargo van is worthless in the snow. She told me it had studded tires. Which i find hard to believe. But then as the guy who checked in the van was trying to park it, it got stuck. Ahh vindication.

I headed over to the peanut farm for some hot wings and to watch the eagles blow the game with a totally unnecessary fake punt. Nice play calling andy. But the wings were really good and at least im all moved in. My hands are tired from typing o. This stupid phone so that all for now lids. Goodnight!

First week of work and I found an apartment

Haven't posted in a while. I finished my first week of work, it went well. A couple boring days but I got some real things to do now that should keep me busy for a while. Unfortunatley looks like I'll be doing mostly office work all winter Everyone in the office is really nice though. A lot happier than in NJ Haha. Its a lot different working for such a small company. For example one of the admin ladies forgot to release paychecks so nobody got paid on Friday like they were supposed to.
I went to a party last night one of my co-workers threw. It was fun, I got to meet some new people.

So I looked at an apartment the other day over by the airport It was like straight out of the 1970s. Yuck. I was sort of on the fence
bout where exactly I wanted to live, downtown or midtown or somewhere else. Downtown was appealing for the obvious fact that its near everything but the rent is a bit more. So the other day I saw an ad on craigslist for an apartment in Bootleggers cove, which is like a highly desirable spot downtown. There wasnt many
details Given, but it was at least 2-300$ cheaper than any other apt I could find downtown. I decided to check it out. So I went to look at it, its on the second floor of an 8-plex, its right next to the water, its a half mile from my office and the apartment was perfect! I immediatley knew I wanted it as soon as I walked inside. It even has a fireplace! So i filled out my rental app and the board or whatever aproved me and now after 6 months of drifting I have a place to call home! S. I get the keys tomorrow.

New job starts tomorrow!

Thats about all i have to say about that. It snowed today and I saw a moose. Its pretty sweet to be able to watch nfl football as soon as you wake up and then still have 4 hours til bed when the last game ends.

Made it to Anchorage!!

Obviously the roads werent plowed at all in the morning and it was totally dark still. We left our barnshed motel room and headed for anchorage. It was a long drive. When the sun finally came up there was some awesome views. Drove by a glacier. Got into Anchorage around 230 pm. Holy balls I never wanna sit in that jeep again. Whoever says driving across the country and or driving the Alcan hwy is an adventure is wrong Its an endurance test 11 days of driving 10 to 12 hours a day The last three days were some of the best scenery of the trip but I was so over being in the car I didn't even care what was out the window At least I got some sweet pictures If I ever move back east I will definitely be shipping my crap or throwing it all away.....Now its time to find a place to live...

Snowstorm. F%*#!

Ahh The old welcome-to-alaska-heres-a-snowstorm-how-do-you-like-that dick punch. Ate dinner at fast eddys in tok. I was determined to get to Anchorage tonight. Left town. Got about 20 miles away and it started snowing. Great. I figured it was just flurries and it would pass, but as we drove on it got heavier and deeper. Finally we got to some town with a motel. Obviously the cell phone internet didnt work here and they didnt know when it was supposed to stop snowing. So what else can you do besides get a room and try again in the morning...

Made it to Alaska!!

Yesterday we drove through some really awesome scenery and saw a ton of wildlife. Three Girzzly bears, caribou, Bison, and big horn sheep. Found a lake that was frozen enough to walk on. Was trying to make it to whitehorse last night but only got to Teslin due to heavy winds, broken spirits and the general scariness of driving the Alcan at night.

Got some Tim Hortons for breakfast and headed towards the border. The road had a fresh coating of snow most of the way which just adds to the challenge of driving a minimally maintained, frost heave full, narrow hilly windy road. As we crossed into Alaska and passed through the border I think so of the levity of this hit me. Ul until now it kinda just seemed like. Road trip. But seeing the sun going down over snow frosted birch and pines I thought to myself. "Holy crap I live here now!". About 45 miles to go until Tok. I'm fairly certain that we will make it to Anchorage late tonight. ..

Thats all for now.

I Don't wanna wait. For our lives to be over...

Drove through Dawson Creek today. Was hoping to get a picture with Katie Holmes but apparently its not the same town as the tv show. Drove over the Canadian Rockies this morning with a fresh coating of snow on the ground. It was pretty scenic. However it seems like every road in Canada is under construction and we had a couple lengthy delays....sucktown.

Tonight I saw the aurora for the first time ever!! It was awesome even though it wasn't that bright. I've got to say driving the Alcan at night with the aurora dancing in front of you is pretty amazing. We also saw about a dozen moose, 5 of which were roadkill.

Sidenote. Canada loves Boston Pixza. Every town we come to has one. so we decided to stop for lunch today. It was decent. The funny thing is, the only thing near the hotel were staying at tonight was Boston Pizza. I'm pretty sure I can say I've never eaten at the same restaurant chain twice in one day. Let alone the same restaurant chain on the same road 200 miles apart.

Ps-i finally figured out how to post pictres to blog via phone. Enjoy!

Holy crap when will this drive end!?

1713 miles to go and i've been driving for a week straight. Yesterday we drove and saw some actual wildlife! Saw some bald eagles, a bighorn sheep that was just chillin on the side of the road and an elk that we almost hit. We stopped at a gas station andgot pickle flavored doritoes And some canadian imitation cheetoes that tasted like mold. At least I have someone to split the drive time now. B well see how far we get today, maybe camping out in the cold tonight.

Cache Creek

Left rainy Seattle yesterday, picked up Johnnie Walker from the airport and headed north. Got to the Canadian Border and they tore apart my jeep and trailer because we might have been runnin huge amounts of meth into Canada, an apparently you'll go to jail for a long time if you try that. After getting lost in Vancouver we finally made it to my friends house. We took the subway to downtown vancouver to get pizza for dinner. Its a cool town. As we were walking down the street some guys in Canucks jerseys were coming the other way holding/drinking beers. I asked if Vancouver had open container laws. My friend said yes thry do. I guess if youre wearing a hockey jersey you are exempt from that rule. After some pizza and wine we headed back to my friend house I was exhausted.

Halfway There

Got kind of behind on posts.  So this one might be a little longer.  So when I left off last time I was going to sleep on a picnic table outside of Badlands.   It was really eerie there because it was so desolate.  It felt like a scene out of X-Files was about to take place any minute.  Because of this I didn't want to fully enclose myself in my mummy bag, because I wanted to be able to see if anything was out there.   I eventually fell asleep but was awoken by the sound of cats meowing, so I looked back over towards my Jeep and there was about 4 or 5 cats sitting there meowing.  I'm not much of a cat person to begin with but that was really creepy.  A short time later I heard coyotoes howling, and they sounded fairly close by.  At that point I decided I would go back and sleep in my Jeep.  Which is about as comfortable as sleeping in a wooden crate.  By the time 5 am came around I decided I would head into Badlands, because I wasn't going to get anymore sleep.  I got to the park just in time to catch the sunrise, which was amazing.  After a short look around I headed to Wall Drug for some breakfast.  It was still freezing cold.  Wall Drug is like the Great Plains South of the Border.  I did enjoy the 5 cent coffee though. 
As I drove on west I went by a lot of abandoned homesteads.  They always look cool, and I want to stop and explore them looking for cool antiques and whatnot, but then I remember that a few years ago during a pipeline survey I checked out a bunch of them and they have mostly been gutted on the inside.  I bet the walls of them have plenty of stories to tell.   I took a quick side trip into Deadwood, its a cool little mining town. 
I finally made it to Montana around 6 pm, and still had about three more hours to go until Livingston.  When I got to Livingston my friend Scott took me to the local watering hole, Murray Bar.  I got a sweet cowboy shirt there and some lemonade drinks. 
Friday morning was rough.  But I had a McDonalds breakfast and got on the way.  Seattle of bust, 702 miles.  Montana goes on forever.  I haven't seen much wildlife except for roadkill.  After hours and hours of driving in Montana I finally made it to Idaho, and that went by pretty fast....apparently they are different shapes, so that's why Idaho was so much faster.  I stopped for gas and and old man said You're a long way from home.  I told him I was on my way to my way to Alaska and he said good luck.  As I drove into Washington I was feeling failry tired.  I went by a few rest areas, and they all had "Free Coffee" signs.  When I finally stopped at one to get some free coffee, there was no free coffee, in fact there wasnt even an area where you could put coffee, unless it like came out of the soap dispensers in the bathroom, which it didnt.  Oh well. 
After a two hour traffic jam at Snoqualmie Pass I finally was on the home stretch to Seattle.  I made it to Jeff and Shellys around 11pm.  We watched some videos of Shelly wrecking her bike and had a few beers and went to bed. 
I can't believe I still have the same distance to drive again....

Are there bad guys in the Badlands?

I sure hope not. Because I'm currently writing this from inside my sleeping bag on top of a Picnic table outside of the park. Its freaking cold and theres alot of stars out. Anyways. I woke up this morning had some cold deep dish pizza for breakfast and left Janestown Wi heading west. As I crossed the Mississippi River I noticed a riverboat casino, so I had to stop and check it out. After A few hands of blackjack I left with 100$ extra dollars in my pocket. For those of you who have a notion that drving across the country is this great trip, let me assure you its pretty boring. The first oh 1100 miles or so are pretty much all the same. I always think of good shit to put in here throughout the day then forget it. Tomorrow I will start keeping voicenotes. I was determined to meet my goal of making it to Badlands today. The sunset along I-90 in South Dakota was awesome tonigt. Sometime after that an owl flew out of the darkness and in front of my car-well an owl or a chupecabra, can't be certain which. I will have to set my alarm early so I can be off the picnic table before the Badlands tading post opens in the am. Its really quiet out here except for the occasional car passing on th highway or cattle moo in the distance. Tomorrows goal is livingston montana. I think. 1600 miles til Seattle. I'm going to try and sleep now but I'll probably be too creeped out about aliens and boogeymen. Til next time..

Day 2

Woke up this morning around 7:30, thinking "i probably didnt need that last labatt blue last night". After a bowl of life cereal some coffee and oj I was off on my way. Made it out of Pittsburgh without trying to attempt another u-turn in the street with the uhaul. Which i unsuccessfullly attemPted yesterday and ended up causing a traffic jam. Ohio was a pretty boring state to drive through, then Indiana wasn't much better. Luckily I had Some books on tape to keep me occupied. Side note- what is it about highway rest areas that makes you crave roy rogers fried chicken and hardees burgers? Seriously i wouldnt eat that shit if I was starving, but put me on a toll road and tempt me with that and ill want to stop every 40 miles.
I timed it perfectly so I could hit Chicago right between the hours of 4pm and 6 pm. What a pain in the ass that was. I Stopped for some deep dish pizza for dinner which was delicious and forged onward. Around 9:00 in Janesville Wisconsin I decided to call it a night and am currently hanging out in a dirtbag motel 6. Early start tomorrow. I wont set a goal since I came up 50 miles short today (chicago traffic). Hopefully I'll start getting into some cool scenery to tomorrow.

Day 1

Today I began the journey for the next chapter of my life. I left the only real job I've had since graduating from college to start an exciting new opportunity in Alaska. Oh yea I'm also moving 3,500 miles away from the family and friends I have known for the first 30 years of my life. I have to admit I'm a bit nervous, and sad to be moving so far away, but at the same time I'm really excited. I've always been someone who seeks adventure and new exciting experiences and this feels like the right thig for me. Anyways I left the Exton Pa this morning with my Jeep and a 4x8' Uhaul trailer on tow containing most of my positions (minus all my furniture). But who needs furniture when youre living in an igloo right?! It was a perfect fall day fpr my drive through Pennsylvania. As I drove past the Shippensburg exit I thought of a lot of good college memories, and also holy sh*t! Has it really been 11 years since I started college!! As I continued west I was thankful the jeep was holding up so well. I made it to Pittsburgh and stayed with a couple friends there. It was good to see them and catch up over some beers, fondue and scrabble. Tomorrow will be a long day I'm hoping to make it to Madison Wisconsin. That's all for now.