The Last Frontier

That's Alaska's nickname. It also says that on all the licence plates, which brings two things to mind;

a.) How cruel is it for the prisoners who make the licence plates to have a constant reminder of how wide open and outlaw this place is? and
b.) Are licence plates the only place where State Motto's make appearances? Don't State Seals usualy opt for some random Latin phrase?

Well, whatever. I spent a good portion of the morning walking around the area of my hotel, and frankly, it looks like Monument Boulevard or maybe Hegenberger in Oakland, just with a bunch of snow. Hotels, resteraunts, tire stores, a Wal-Mart, various fast food...nothing very "frontier-y". Walking itself is kind of interesting. I've got Cowboy Boots, and while they are comfortable and warm, traction is not their strong suit. I keep my hands out of my pockets for balance and just in case I go down, and walk mainly on my heels, as the bottom of the boot is pretty slick. The other obstical is that even though they "plow" the roads and some sidewalks, sometimes it's hard to find where exactly the sidewalk is in the plowed snow. As a result, you end up walking right next to traffic, and you hope you don't slip into the lane, and you hope nobody loses control of their vehical anywhere near you!

I spent a lot of time out and about today, taking in a movie, eating in a Sports Bar while watching football. I'm rooming with Mike, and his focus up here seems to revolve around certain substances...which seems to require brief Microwaving(?), so the room smell overwhelmingly like said substance, and Mike spends a lot of time watching T.V., really loud, and then yelling over it. It's kind of harsh to double us up in weather like this!

The whole daylight thing is facsinating! Where we live, the Sun comes up in the East, makes it's way across the sky, and sets in the West. It's been overcast here, but it seems that at this time of the year, the Sun comes up, lingers briefly, and then just goes back where it came from. I haven't been able to detect a path. Kind of neat. Occasionally, the clouds part, and the view of the local mountain range is beautiful. I just stand with my face to the Sun, soaking up all I can!

I didn't understand why people even lived here, but I was talking to a guy at the club, and he was talking about how much he loved the cold! It never occured to me that there are such people! Cold loving people! He talked about his five year old daughter visiting him from her home on Oahu, and how she liked to play outside without her jacket, and his "That's my girl" pride. It really does take all types.

Everybody up here seems to hunt and fish, which is reflected in the stock at the Wal-Mart. I've never seen so many Fishing poles. I enjoyed looking around at the things I didn't know exsisted, like "Ice Fishing Rigs" and "Predator Calls". There's a DVD on the art of calling Bears! It says something like "They'll come running, ready to EAT!" Isn't that something you'd want to avoid? I would.

Everywhere you go there's taxidermed animals and fur stores. Pretty "Anti-California". After all, fur pretty much fueled the existance of this whole State!

I guess it's not very hard to find the Last Frontier after all, if you just look around a little.