Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Road Trip 2010 Presentaion Progressing

Terry and I continue to put together our presentation on our Alaskan Road Trip for our Audubon group. I've tentatively named the PowerPoint slide show: North! To Alaska by Road or There and back again . Seemed pretty catchy and nerdy to me.

Still have 629 photos to illustrate our talk so we'll have to pare things down but, having looked at it several times, I can't quite decide what should go but can think of all sorts of things that should be added--like maps. *sigh*

I did draw up some large maps to put on a presentation easel so folks can get an idea of the distances we covered, place locations relative to one another and the immense portion of the state of Alaska to which you absolutely can not drive. There's a reason there are so many privately owned small aircraft capable of landing just about anywhere within the state's borders.

There's only a few "problems" with putting this presentation together:
1- I realize how many photo opportunities I missed
2- We have come to realize how many places we didn't get to because of flood and fire (Top of the World Highway got flooded out so we missed Dawson in the Yukon and Highway 37--the Cassier Highway--was closed to us due to forest fires so we missed Stewart and the whole of northwest BC)
3- There are places accessible only via air or water that we would like to visit (Nome, Ketchican, Juneau, Petersburg, Kodiak, etc.)
4- There are many places we would go back to in a minute to spend a week or two instead of a day or two
5- Heck, we just want to go back


But then I read from Rev. Paul that it's a nippy minus 10 to minus 20 at Casa del Pablo in Anchorage and realize it's much, much colder in Fairbanks. One might say that sort of reportage puts a chill on the old travel plans. Cassie might have the right idea as she and Pat have headed from northernmost Idaho back to Arizona for a bit of sunshine.

Speaking of sunshine...The days are growing a wee bit longer now that we are a month past the Winter solstice, but it still tips way too much in favor of the dark side it the dark-to-light scale of things. Perhaps that's another reason I am doomed to be nothing more than a crass cheechako. (Anchorage today: Sunrise: 9:52 am Sunset: 4:29 pm. Just a little over 6 hours of sunlight. *shudder* I liked it much better when we had closer to 20 hours in July.)

2 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

If it helps, consider these:

a) AccuHunch was wrong, and it's only -5 this morning. Feels positively tropical. :)

b) The skies have been clear and sunny, so there's usable light almost 90 minutes before sunrise & for over an hour after sunset. Add 2.5 hours to the "daylight" estimate, and it looks a lot better.

c) Summer's coming, and the 22 hours of daylight in June will be here before you know it.

joated said...

So tell me again why you and the wife (and Sam) have booked a trip to Hawaii for October already?

Is it like looking at a Burpee's Catalog in January/February?