Lake Clark

So it has been a while, and for that I apologize. After this trip, the gaps will probably get much longer! We had our test on Thursday, then headed to Lake Clark on Friday morning. Well, we went to Anchorage to catch the flight to Lake Clark. Before going to Lake Clark, Dan Swenson, a letu alum, bought us Subway for lunch. Obviously he is doing well enough, if he is willing to buy 8 of us lunch. We headed to Merrill field, checked in to our flight and got on our way. It was an hour and a half flight in the 207. The Walshes were there to greet us when we arrived. They have run the Tenalian Bible Camp for the past 18 years, located there on Tenalian point. I ran across the runway to see Miranda, a really good friend from home. She and her brother have spent a few summers up there, so I was excited to see them. We settled in, and decided to head for the falls. The mosquitoes were EVERYWHERE! I acquired over 30 bites over the weekend. Luckily, I don’t react to them as bad as the ones in Texas. The falls were gorgeous. The water was crystal clear, and tasted amazing. I didn’t take any pictures, because everyone else was taking plenty of pictures. We headed up to the lake, where the source was. Overall, the hike was about 6 miles long, up and down a few hills, not too bad. After dinner, a few of us helped with dishes. I haven’t used one of those commercial dish washers since high school, working at Papas… It definitely brought back some memories. After dinner, I hopped in the plane Daniel (the oldest Walsh) was flying. We flew over the falls we hiked to earlier, and saw some wildlife. This included a bald eagle nest (2 of them in it) and two black bears. It was really cool to see them from a safe distance. When I headed toward bed, I discovered the house I was staying in was full of high school girls. They were having a party in the living room, so I joined them for a while. I met a girl named Angel, who immediately made me feel like her best friend. I really enjoyed connecting with her. I went to bed around 12:30, which was early compared to the rest of them.

After breakfast the next day, Mark, a Letu alum, and I helped put a new stainless drawer in the kitchen. Because I am the structures lab assistant, it apparently makes me a sheet metal guru. I discovered that stainless is a little tougher than aluminum, but it turned out really well. The guys decided to head up the mountain after lunch, and I thought it would be best to let them have time being boys. So I stayed back with Mr. and Mrs. Scroggins. It turned out a good idea to stay behind, but I will let you ask Owen about that…

The Scroggins and I headed for the obstacle course. Mr. Scroggins gave an incredible demonstration of the rope swing, complete with monkey noises. If you don’t know him, they are very common from him, especially if he gets to put a hole in your lab project.

That night, I sat out on the dock with a friend and we talked for a couple hours. It was a good chance to reflect. And I hung my feet in the freezing cold water, which reminded me of sitting at the beach at home!

The weekend wrapped up after church, and we headed back to anchorage. I said goodbye to Miranda and Micah, as well as Angel. The trip home wasn’t entirely eventful. After catching up on emails for the weekend, I called a friend. As I was walking and talking to her, I looked up and saw a moose. My heart stopped for a second as I wondered where her baby was. I saw him up on the hill on the other side, so I was safe. She walked away from me, but I backed up the trail just to be safe. That’s the events for the weekend!

nothing too exciting...

Nothing terribly exciting happened yesterday… I wasn’t feeling well, so it made the day sort of drag. We got the wheels all back on 200SD, and got a few more rivets in the tail of the tail we are working on. I was really tired, so I didn’t go out for any adventures last night… which is ok. I needed a little time to rest J It has been interesting having Lydia around, cause she is 15. She is really mature for her age, but still is a teenage American girl. It reminds me of how old I am… really weird feeling!! She and Sydney were busy talking about boys and stuff last night. I decided to go to bed a little earlier than normal.

I hate mondays...

Now that everyone has a good idea of what day to day life looks like around here, I will skip over the boring stuff and just share the fun stuff J

Yesterday during lunch, I was sitting there, minding my own business, and I look up to see a mother moose and her baby wandering down the path we walk every day. They walked around our cabin to the woods behind it. But she decided to stop and pose for Mr. Scroggins, who was taking opportunity for the photo op. I didn’t have my camera, so I didn’t get any shots. But that made for an exciting lunch.

Erik and I started on the wheels and brakes of 200SD, the little 150 on which we are performing an annual. Using a highly technical jack (3 guys lifting the wing) we pulled the tire off and inspected it. We had to replace the tire, due to significant weather cracking. I cleaned and repacked the bearings, and erik put new brake pads on.

My new roommate got here around 6, so we took her down to put her stuff away before dinner. Her name is Lydia. She is 15, from New York, and going to learn how to fly. After dinner, we all went for a hike. All the LeTourneau guys, me and the two girls (syd and Lydia) headed down to the river. The guys took part in the usual throwing rocks in the river, seeing how far they can throw, and that sort of thing. I enjoyed egging the guys egos on by saying things such as “Phil, Owen doesn’t think he can skip this rock. Can you?” It was awesome. Phil and Owen then decided to build a dam to get to a sandbar in the middle. It was altogether amusing to watch them pretend to be manlier than each other, throwing big rocks, etc.

Whle they were working on that, Syd and I were running around out on a sand bar, and I stumbled, causing me to halfway fall in. Only one leg got significantly wet, and the jacket that was in my hand. It ended up being nice for the trip home, because it was nice and cool while hauling up the hill.

Church time!

Today marks the first Sunday in Alaska. We went to a church called Glacier view Baptist Church. Figuring out where the church is isn’t hard: drive out highway 1, until you see the glacier on the right. Slow down, because the church is going to be on the left soon. It’s not every day that your church overlooks a glacier. I wasn’t highly impressed with the worship portion of the service, but coming from what I am used to, its hard to keep up with it. Overall, it was a nice church, much smaller than Lifepoint, but bigger than New Life.

After lunch, I got online to go shopping for a new cell phone, cause mine died on Saturday. I still have yet to decide on which one I want. Any suggestions?

We went to a small church in Chickaloon that evening. The organ sounded like something off an old Nintendo game. The service was really good, the pastor went through the book of Ephesians.

Around dinner time, it the temperature dropped as a storm started blowing in. Dwayne joined us for dinner, so we had a great time listening to his stories and talking about other airplane things with him. He told us about his property. They leave during the winter, cause it is too cold to keep water running. He flight instructs somewhere in the lower 48, after going to Kazakhstan for 2 months and Letourneau for about a month.

We went out for a walk after dinner, around 10pm, to enjoy some more of the great Alaskan sunshine. Syd needed to mail something, so we headed for the mail box, and then went romping through the forest. We discovered some fur in the trees. You know, like the type that is caught as the animal walks by… At first I thought it was moose, but then I realized it was up a lot higher than I could reach. We were thinking bear, because the tree bark was deeply scarred as well as the fur being up so high. We found out way back to the runway, and headed home.

I helped Sydney figure out the E6-B (flight computer) before bed. She was planning on flying at 5:30 the next morning, and do her first solo flight. We will be getting another roommate on Monday, so we are looking forward to her coming.

a weekend to catch up

Sorry you haven’t heard from me since Thursday. We had a test on Friday, so I thought it a better use of my time to study for said test than to write. Then on Saturday we went to Anchorage, so I didn’t get the chance to update then, either. So starting on Thursday…

The day started as usual. Breakfast at 7, devos at 7:30, then class starts when devos are over. About two hours into class, Mr. Scroggins announced we would be having a cognitive exercise the next day. So much for hiking to the cell tower… I thought as I considered necessary study time. We got through the day all right. Erik and I shot 10 rivets, and never felt more successful. Then Erik ditched me to go flying… the loser. Just kidding!! It just left me to wander around, trying to find something to do until he got back. The excitement of that evening involved some studying and mostly procrastination on the study.

Friday… the test went all right. It was short answer, which posed the challenge of interpreting the question, trying to figure out what the professor wants, and coming up with a cognitive way to state it.

After the test, we went through more regulations (oh boy!) before lunch and hangar time. I got thoroughly frustrated with my project, and we put about 8 more rivets in. Really, based on how small the piece is, we should have had it done in a day. No such luck, the little bugger.
I was thankful when it was dinner time. After dinner, we hiked up the hill to the north of us, the one with the cell phone tower on top. It was sprinkling, giving everything a drab gray coloring that reminds me so much of home. We didn't make it all the way up, but took a side trip to a clearing that overlooked the ranch, with a perfect view of the final approach course. Hal was landing in his 170, which was awesome to watch.

We decided not to go all the way to the top, namely because ice cream and brownies with hot fudge sauce were waiting for us. After ice cream, we hung out for a while, played some rummy, and eventually headed to bed.

I woke up Saturday morning to Sydney asking if I wanted to go to the airshow. I had seen a flyer about it, and really wanted to go. It's called Arctic Thunder, and the thunderbirds would be performing. I rolled over sleepily and asked what time it was, and when they were leaving. In my half conscious state, I managed to calculate a grand total of 20 minutes to get up the hill and meet the convoy heading to Anchorage. I guess I wont be straightening my hair this morning... I thought as I dragged myself out of bed and headed for the breakfast foods. I also called one of the guys to see if they were going to wake up and come. Eventually, they all decided to come, but it took much persuading. Seriously, who would want to skip out on going to an airshow??

When we got into Anchorage, we realized that about two thirds of the state's population had turned up for the event. Cars were lined up for the exit about 2 miles before it even turned off. Lucky for us, we had Hal driving the lead car. Hal is an 80 some-year-old former Navy guy who could talk his way through anything, and knew his way around the base. He dropped us off at the gate, found a great parking spot for the vans, and we headed in.

We had a blast being flight nerds all day. We took hundreds of pictures of all the different airplanes, talked to some of the people showing off the planes, and settled in to watch the performances. I had seen the blue angels about 6 weeks before, so it was absolutely thrilling to see the thunderbirds as well, and have a good basis of comparison. Although nothing beats the mountains in the background, I think the blue angels put on a better show. No matter though, I still got to see a bunch of airplanes going ridiculously fast. It was a great day.

Sorry for the length, maybe I should be a little more consistent about daily updates :p

pictures!

pictures here!!

I will try to put some into the blog, but if you want to see right now, there they are!

day 2

Things were slightly more normal today. Dwayne got in yesterday afternoon, so order was restored. As restored as it can be when Dwayne is in charge… We worked a little bit before class; then I tried my hardest to stay awake through lectures about regulations. We had macaroni for lunch, and I once again passed out after my meal. The afternoon started as usual, with me and Erik fighting the bulkhead. While we were working on it, John Gregory came in and asked if anyone wanted to fly. Erik volunteered me to take it, and head down to pick up parts from Palmer.

It has been almost 2 years since I have flown a single engine aircraft. And I have never flown something as small as a 150. And I only have about 40 hours in steam gauge aircraft. And to top it all off, the winds in Palmer were strong: 20 gusting 31, about 40 degrees off the runway. It was exciting times, for sure. The best part of it was looking at the mountains as we were flying. I have never flown in anything other than flat, flat, flat Texas. We landed back at the Ranch just in time for dinner.

After dinner, some of the guys wanted to wander down to the river. And by wander down to the river, I mean that we tumbled down 200-300 ft through thick brush, blazing our own trail. When we got down there, we found a trail, so we were able to follow that back up. The river is awesome. It runs off a glacier, so it is freezing cold. And because it is from a glacier, it is brownish gray, full of silt. We skipped rocks, threw rocks in the water, and otherwise just hung out down there for a while.

We eventually decided to head back. It was easier since we found a trail, but it was still a rough hike. We couldn’t stop, because the mosquitoes were right there, and would start feasting on a stationary human. Eventually we came out, and I was very thankful to come and sit down.

I will post pictures later, I am working on dumping them on to my computer right now.