A Normal saturday in Interior Alaska- I guess?!

I guess today was a normal day for Fort Greely and Delta Junction. I'm not sure since I don't have a lot to draw from yet, but it seemed pretty normal to me.

I awoke at about 9 am, I knew it was late because the sun was coming through the crack in the window shade. Normally, I get up earlier but I was watching a show on fishing down around Kodiak Island and these two brothers looked like they were having a blast catching fish. I ended up staying up way past my bed time. I really didn't have anything special this morning to do but kill some time until the DMV opened so I could finally get my AK driver's license and start my year long wait to become a resident which is a good deal because the hunting prices go way down for Dall Sheep, Mountain Goat, Caribou, Moose and Bison (if you draw a tag). Plus it opens up a lot of federally managed areas for fishing and hunting only open to residents. Then of course there is the Permanent Fund Dividend. This is the money that comes from oil leases and the reason Alaska has almost no taxes, income, property or sales. The PFD last year was $1281 for every man woman and child. For a household of say 5, that's a bit over $6K in a check that comes in October, right before winter, which pays for a lot of heating fuel in AK and probably keeps the heating oil people in business and a lot of families from freezing to death, literally.

I needed to kill some time before the DMV opened and decided to give the DFAC a day off. I headed into town and rolled into the Hard Wok Cafe. Yep, that is not a typo. It's a little 4 table shack, owned and operated by a little old chinese lady. I ordered General Tsos, an eggroll and green tea. She whipped my lunch up in probably 5 minutes. It was actually pretty darn good and very spicy, I had to ask for some ice water. I sat there and picked at my General's and read my DMV handbook. I failed the test twice before and wanted to be sure to pass this time. I kept fouling up the penalty questions of which there were a few. if you spit on the sidewalk the mandatory jail sentence is..... How the hell am I supposed to remember that and what does it have to do with being a good driver?!! After lunch I shot over the the DMV and yes indeed i passed. however, I forgot to bring proof of physical residence. I brought my mailing but nothing along the lines of a lease or mortgage or bill of sale of a home, well, because I don't have any of those things. I'm on a contract in a hotel more or less. So it would take another trip to the DMV to get my license. This was turning into an ordeal.

I headed back onto post to check up on the set-up on the Arctic Luau. The Luau is a get together for the kids in the morning and adults at night. food, games, costumes, contests. Just a fun way to kill a few hours. I popped in and check up on the kiddies. They all seemed to be having a blast, so I headed to my office and typed up a letter showing my residency and had Richard sign it since he works for MWR. Pretty darn official. Anyway, the DMV accepted it, and now I'm official. Yippee.

After I got done at the DMV, i decided to see what the stores had on the shelves. There are a couple of gas stations, an IGA, and a couple specialty restaurants. I popped into half a dozen to see what was what. Afterwards I drove around neighborhoods or what would be considered neighborhoods around Delta. I am looking at one area that is centrall located that has a 1500 sq ft cabin for sale on three and a half acres. It's in a hilly area back in the trees, very pretty.

This is a shot of the road heading into the neighborhood. You go down this road, take a right then head a couple hundred yards back and take another right. There are probably 20 or so houses back in the area but each sits on 3 to 5 acres of land and the trees are so thick and the houses set back you only see the few that are right on the road. This shot is looking back north towards Fairbanks.

As I headed on to post around sunset, I saw these two digging in the snow and munching on some leftover grass. I like how they kneel on their front legs to get down to the grass. I shot some pictures from behind the truck and decided to get closer, I didn't have the telephoto on the camera. I stepped out into the open and the moose on the right stood up and stared straight at me, the closer I got the more upright it stood and the further back its ears started to go. I decided not to get any closer so these shots are the best I could muster this evening.

'Go ahead buddy take another step, I dare you!'

Here's the proof that I passed the stupid test. I'm official. I almost failed the eye exam though, my right eye is borderline at 20/40 corrected. Nothing ever comes into sharp focus on that side, especially when you backlight them like the vision tests at the DMV do. Stupid asthigmatism. I'm going to get an eye transplant one of these damn days. I'll probably go with a nice steel blue eye just to freak people out, one blue one hazel. I also had a bit of hat head I guess from the stocking cap because my haircut looks very Forrest Gump in my pic. Maybe it will convince the Alaska State Troopers to be lenient with me when I eventually get pulled over.