Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Abuse

Step 1: Buy a New Motorcycle with 1 mile on it.
Step 2: Load a bunch of stuff on the back, too much for it to feel stable is key.
Step 3: Ride across the continent, stop to take failed self portrait in Montana.
Step 4: Lose muffler in Yukon, arrive in Whitehorse deaf.Step 5: Use a one page map to go 3,500 miles, get lost once or twice.
Step 6: Ride in the rain, make grumpy face
Step 7: Ride the Haul Road north to Prudhoe bay, 250 miles between 'camps' where gas can be had, I only lost three bolts due to rough roads, I only fell off twice. Others had worse luck.

Step 8: Fall over, fall off, drop it, whatever. Thats what crash bars are for.
Step 9: Kick stands don't work in mud.
Step 10: Get stuck, really stuck. This is why you don't try to ford rivers on motorcycles.
Step 11: Dig
Step 12: Use a tow strap to pull it out of the hole you created. Recruit people passing by to help you pull it out of the hole.
Step 13: Use it to haul anything and everything. A Schwinn and a bb gun anyone?
Step 14: Put Motorcycle away for the winter with 12,000+ miles on it.

Well, down in Arizona, they said they'd like to have me on but here is not enough money to pay me. Why this couldn't have been brought to my attention before I flew in all the way from Alaska, is beyond me. The owner even had the audacity to say "I need a year commitment from you, but I can't afford to pay you for a few weeks" WHAT? So, anyway, its back to Colorado for a while. In other news, Raytheon, who told me my job in Antarctica was lost to budget cuts has called to say my contract is still on. I'll believe it when I have a ticket in hand. While spending the winter in colorado would be fine, I won't pass up the chance to spend some more time on the beach in McMurdo sound.

Well, as some of you know I've lost my job in Antarctica this year to budget cuts. Im leaving Alaska earlier than planned to take a job for the winter in Arizona. I still have to pass my interview so no telling what the immediate future holds, I'll keep you posted.

Whittier

I took a side trip to Whittier yesterday. After a morning flight up to 11,000 feet to take a French guy up to see the mountain I zipped down to Montana Creek to pick up Chuck in his 1958 Cessna 172. We went down to Anchorage to pick up a friend of his from New York to do some sight seeing.
We toured around prince william sound before dropping Chucks friend off at his ship in Whittier.

Can you see the landing strip? Its there, look close.
Here's what it looks like from the ground. We weren't sure about the length taking off so we used part of the access road for part of our take off, just to be sure. It ended up being fine. This is one of those one way in/ one way out type of places, theres a mountain behind me. So you take off over the ocean, and you land over the ocean. I dropped Chuck off at his place, stayed for dinner with him and his wife and blasted off back to Talkeetna.