Journey to Alaska

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Well… here it is, I am finally on the Alaska State Ferry, Malaspina, making the journey “North to the Future.” We left Bellingham last night and soon all the lights along the coast disappeared. We have left the confines of society and we are truly at the mercy of the elements of the wilderness, but hey! at least they remembered to bring movies to play in the movie theatre aboard! It is unusual in this day and age to be in such a remote place, hundreds of miles away from anything remotely civilized. I will take 40 hours to pass through Canada and reach our first stop, Ketchikan, AK. Ketchikan is where they proposed to built just one of the “Bridges to Nowhere.” I am traveling to Alaska to start a new job, but first I have to sit on the ferry for 1000 miles and then drive another 800 miles. It has given me a chance to reflect on a different era.

Close to seventy years ago, my grandmother, Vivian, and her Aunt Emma made the journey through these waters in the middle of World War II. They traveled by steamer ship with the windows blacked out so the Japanese wouldn’t see them. For a generation that didn’t travel too far from home, it must have been an exhilarating time for them to be traveling to the “Last Frontier” where the road that I am going to drive was being built but at the time it was just a rough jeep track hewn out of the rough wilderness. I could just see grandma and her aunt dressed to the nines in dresses, heels and fur coats whereas the dress code has relaxed considerably and I plan to wear the same clothes everyday. Still there are certain elements of life that still bind us together no matter how much time has passed. Grandma was about my age, 23, heading north during uncertain times, for her it was World War II and for me it is the Iraq War and the financial crisis. Furthermore, some things never change like why is that guy snoring so loudly?! I am sure that she had a stateroom but I’ve decided to forgo that luxury and camp out on the deck like a gypsy.

The two groups of people on board here can be characterized as military moving to Anchorage or an Elderhostel group and of course me. There is another girl about my age and she is driving to Anchorage so I have a feeling that we will be best friends at the end of this trip. I guess that it is a survival tactic of sorts.

So far the Elderhostel people got really excited and I thought they had seen something amazing, but it turns out that it was a cabin perched on a craggy cliff. At least cabins don’t move when you are trying to look for them. We have also seen a lot of kelp. I hope that my enthusiam for these sights is not killing you or anything.

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