First few days in Sand Point, AK

After I spent about 20 minutes in Cold Bay, AK I then bared the plane and came to Sand Point. The planes still fly by sight so the sky has to be fairly clear for the planes to land. After I got off the plane I met my new boss David and his wife Ina. David then board the plane to head out of town for a week to a training. Ina showed me around town. Sand Point is beautiful! It is surrounded by other islands and the Alaska Peninsula so there is something to look at besides just open water. Sand Point has one paved road that starts at the airport and circles around and stops about halfway through town. There are several other roads to branch off the main road. I live off of one of these. Word has it that at one point it was paved. Sadly it currently is not and is mostly potholes. Which makes an interesting drive as you swerve to miss them. It's kind of like car slalom. They have recently built a new harbor that they are hoping will bring bigger ships into port. We have three restaurants that are opened most of the year and then another one that opens during the summer. The Harbor Cafe is similar to a, well, cafe! It overlooks the harbor and has a beautiful view. The Aleutian Chinese Restaurant is open most of the year and is actually pretty good. For a reasonable price one can find a filling meal at the Trident Seafood Company galley. Every Monday night they serve either a steak or prime rib all you can eat dinner will all the fixing for only $11. Finally there is Bozo's which is similar to the cafe but is only open in the summer. We have a good sized grocery store that is VERY expensive (more on that later), a hardware store and then Toys Plus, which is a toy store, small grocery and where you can get the cheapest cigarettes in town. And that sums up the town of Sand Point, AK.

History lesson delayed

I really wanted to provide everyone with a solid history of this area. However, we all know how reliable the internet can be. So that end I have decided to get some books from our local, all be it small, library and find the information that way. Once the research has been completed I will educate all of you about this area.

Penair

There is one company that files to Sand Point Alaska and that is Penair... and they can charge however much they want. Part of what I will be doing in Sand Point is working with client's who have substance abuse problems. I was wondering how do people get all those drugs to Sand Point. I mean I know they have a harbor but still. Well my question was answered. You don't have to go through security when you fly Penair. That's right... no TSA to frisk you. They also let me keep Dayla with me until just before I had to board the flight. You just sit in the big waiting room and they call your flight. Interestingly enough one of the people I saw earlier that week was also at the post office during the whole tampon fiasco. Anyway I had to stop over in Cold Bay before I headed into Sand Point.

Anchorage

A lot of people have asked what Anchorage is like. Frankly it is just like every other American city. I guess to the people who live there the prices are really expensive but I found them similar to prices in Cody, maybe a little more expensive. I'll be honest though, I didn't get to do much exploring. I was very busy while in Anchorage. I had to go to several days of training and tours of facilities. I also had to buy supplies. Yup, that's right, supplies. The people I had talked to in Sand Point STRONGLY urged me to buy food before I head out. One person even said "leave the clothes and bring the food". So on my "off" time I was shopping for food. This was far more complicated that I expected. I usually shop for about 1 week at a time. Although my mother will disagree because I frequently have expired food in my pantry. Not anymore!!!! At one point I panicked. It was Monday, I was leaving on Friday and I had bought nothing. So what does a person in panic mode do... she buys everything she sees. Not so bright. I ended up taking about half of it back. (the people at Costco were not very pleased with me).

There are only two way to get your purchases to the bush... mail or freighter. There are two ways to accomplish the shipping. You do it yourself or you do what is called a bush order. You go to Costco, Walmart or Fred Meyer and you buy your stuff, pay them a fee and they package and send your things. I did this with the stuff I bought at Walmart (as it was A LOT of stuff) but not for the Costco and Fred Meyer stuff. I chose to mail this stuff myself seeing as I had NO idea how to do the freighter part. The post office in Anchorage is open until midnight so you can bring your packages there. The post office has subsidized mail for bush communities in Alaska. You can ship a 70 pound package for about $20 but only if you do it in state. Problem was I didn't have a scale. So I packed up boxes and took them to the post office hoping they would be 70 pound. Nope not even close. My lightest one was 85 pound.

I should back up here and explain some of the things I purchased that needed to be shipped. I purchased at just Costco and Fred Meyer 50 pounds of bread flour, 30 pounds of sugar, 25 pounds of regular flour, 25 packages of Jello tapioca pudding, 10 cans of chicken, 8 84 count boxes of tampons, and 3 12 count packages of 32oz each cartons of shelf stable milk. (This is milk in a carton that can sit on your shelf for like 2 years and surprisingly enough actually tastes like real milk. I was truly shocked). So I was standing in line at the post office, on tax day, trying to mail these over weight packages. A very nice man helped me lift the very heavy containers (which are those big plastic bins. I now have like 10 of them and I have NO idea what I'm going to use them for!) up onto the tiny post office scale. Yup overweight... so I bought a box and the nice guy and I started to unload the bin. Which bin do you think it was that was overweight... yup you guessed right the one with the 8 boxes of tampon! At that moment I could have been mortified but instead I just thought... oh well I won't see these people again! I could hear the grumblings of the other people in line and the cursing my insanity for doing this on tax day. So I turned around and to the 20 people in line I said "I"m sorry everyone but I'm moving to the bush and I need to mail the stuff out". Immediately people started saying things like "do you have more thing to bring in?" "how can I help you" and "I have some extra tape if you need it". Yeah I like Alaska. People are really nice here.

In the end I shipped 10 bins and all arrived in mostly good shape. A box of milk (sounds weird to type) exploded and ruined my crasins (you know dried cranberrys). I was pretty bummed but that was it. I will always think of Anchorage as the place to get food. I'm sure it has many other great qualities and things to do and see. But to me it's just one big supermarket just waiting to take all of my money.

Getting to Seattle

So I said I would start with the beginning of the trip! I pulled out of Cody, WY about 10:23 am to head to Seattle. I made really good time and the trip was beautiful western Montana. Dayla did really well throughout the whole trip. I think she was really bored but at times she looked out the window at the scenery as it pasted by. I was so glad to finally be out of Montana. It was such a huge state! Idaho was a short drive as I only went through the top of the state. I made it into Washington in good time and decided to take a break for the night. I was getting tired and while I really wanted to make Seattle in one day, I decided it wasn't worth being exhausted when I got to Seattle. I'm glad I stopped as the drive through Washington was beautiful. I think I saw Mt. Reiner but I'm really not sure. But I did see some other really amazing mountains.

I made got the Motel 8 and they told me that I had to check out by noon the next day. This was no so great as I was not going to have my car by this point and would have no place to go with my 5 bags, dog crate and dog. So I called my friend LaChelle. Her parents live outside of Seattle in a town I can say but certainly can not spell. Anyway, LaChelle's mom Renee came to the rescue and I do mean RESCUE!!! She helped me get to Coastal Transportation, which is the only shipping company that directly ships to the Aleutian Islands. We got SO lost in downtown Seattle. At one point the lady from Coastal Transportation was giving me turn by turn instructions. This place was impossible to find. I was so thankful to find the place I almost cried. We then went through the process of boxing up the stuff in my car. The car was packed with stuff because I didn't know how long it was going to take for the rest of my belongings to get to Sand Point. Trust me when I say nothing else would have fit in the car. Then the guy from Coastal Transportation inspected the car, made sure it only had 1/4 a tank of gas (it's some shipping regulation) and then took possession of the car. At that point I did get a little misty eyed. The whole moving to Alaska thing became VERY real at that moment. I knew that I was moving but when you see your car being driven away you realize that you really are moving to a place you have never seen to work with people you have never met.

Renee then took me back to the hotel and then came back again the next day to pick me up. She took me to lunch (which I tried to pay for but she stole the check) and we walked Dayla around the park. We then went back to her house for about an hour so I could mend my jeans. At some point in all of the moving hoopla my jean pocket got caught on something a ripped a HUGE hole. So I sat in the sunshine and mended my pants (yes I was wearing other pants... no need to worry). Then we headed to the airport. I seriously have no idea how I would have managed to get everything into the airport plus Dayla without Renee's help. But everything went really smoothly and before I knew it Dayla was heading off and I was getting in line at security. Renee gave me a big hug and sent me on my way. I bored the plane and headed to Alaska!

First Blog

Hi Everyone!

I decided to break down and write a blog about my time here in Sand Point, Alaska. That way everyone can keep up with what I am doing, see pictures and stay in contact. Hopefully you will enjoy it and we can stay somewhat connected.

*tami