Chasing the Adventure: Why Fairbanks

48 States and counting. After being to 46 states, one naturally starts counting down until all 50 are reached. Idaho was number 48. I don't remember which states were notched off the list before Idaho (Wyoming and South Dakota maybe). Two more to go. Alaska and North Dakota. I've thought about Alaska for a long time. The final frontier. Amazing landscapes. Abundant wildlife with excellent fishing. Frigid in the winter. Extended daylight in the summer. Alaska has to be more than "let me add another state to my list" destination. Alaska needs to be experienced. In the summer, of course. "Take a cruise to Alaska!" That is what we heard most often by people who have been. But, a good cruise costs money, and we are living on Social Security. Besides, we need to save our travel money to visit our kids and their kids. Drive. Hmmm. After moving to Washington from New Hampshire, I thought it would be a fairly close drive. After all, Washington is the most northwest state and closest to Alaska. Not such a close drive, folks. It's a 36 hour drive to get to the border of Alaska, never mind a city in Alaska. Driving is not the cheap way to go.

Terri signed me up for emails from Travel Alaska. At the bottom of one of the emails, was an advertisement for seasonal work. "Hmmm. I wonder what kind of work? It would certainly pay for the trip." The first job that caught my eye was train engineer. Long story short (after phone calls, applications submitted, and a zoom interview), Terri and I accepted the offer for employment, and we start working in Mid-May at Gold Dredge 8. The adventure begins.