Where in the world...

....have I been? I just got back from three weeks on the beach. Denali had to send someone to Cape Hatteras National Seashore (in North Carolina) and my boss asked if I wanted to go. I'd never been, so I was happy to volunteer. Cape Hatteras needed extra help with some controversial beach closures to protect the nesting shorebirds. I worked all but one day in those three weeks. All 12 hour shifts, mostly noon to midnight. Working that shift, I got a lot of great pictures of sunsets. This is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest in the country. I had the most ridiculous medical call at the top of it. It was dispatched as an unknown medical problem. Another Ranger, a guy from the rescue squad, and I all charged up the stairs inside the stuffy, hot, lighthouse. We were met by the "patient" about halfway up. He'd choked on some water, but, unsurprisingly, was fully recovered. My eyes got big and my mouth snapped shut before I said something unprofessional as I panted and dripped sweat from every pore.

When I wasn't trotting up the lighthouse for fun, I was watching the beach closures and chatting with fishermen and women. People there are pretty ticked at all the beaches being closed, but I was surprised that only one person called me a rude name. I thought it would be a daily, if not hourly occurrence. I staked out some of the closures and ran around with borrowed night vision goggles (which was cool), but my prey was pretty sparse. I only found a couple people actually in the closures.

I had one day off while I was there. After 14 days, I decided to ask for a break. I went fishing and caught this little guy. It's a flounder. One of the guys I met there took me out on his boat. We had a great time fishing and clamming. We found 31 clams and made a nice Hatteras style chowder. I got a sunburn, as usually happens when I do anything outside. You may wonder how I managed that when you see me in that hat and long sleeved shirt. I foolishly didn't keep that shirt on the whole day. Swimming around after those cleverly hidden clams, I was in my swim suit and my poor back got scorched. But it was worth it; they were tasty clams.

By Independence day I was a little bored with watching the beach closures so I decided to get a drunk driver. How hard could it be? People are allowed to drive onto the beaches. They're allowed to drink (although there's a NC law against drinking spirituous liquor and fortified wines in public) on the beach. Do they finish their beer before they leave the beach? No. Do they drink responsibly so they won't drive away still buzzed? No. I could've gotten a drunk driver everyday if I'd wanted to. I would have, but I figured I should spend most of my time doing what they were paying me to do (watch the birds).

It was a nice case, the fellow I got. A bunch of charges. I think I'm the only temporary ranger to arrest anyone, but the bosses didn't mind. In fact, they seemed happy. One of the district rangers said if I ever get tired of Denali he'd love to see my application. He even offered to have me work at Cape Hatteras during my furlough. It's nice to have options like that and I'm glad I made a good impression. I think because they were happy with my work, they let me go up in the plane. Another Ranger went, he was counting cars on the beaches. I just tagged along to take pictures. Here's one.

My new home

I've gotten some great pictures from around here. This is from Memorial Day when we got about an inch and a half of snow.

Some wildlife.

My house, on Memorial Day when the snow started.

A more recent photo. Things are still brown, but the leaves are trying to come out!

Made it!

I know, it's been awhile since I posted. The move took forever (see Mama's blog if you want to read about the road trip and see some pictures). My computer and most of my household stuff is still in storage. Who knows when I'll see it again. So I won't be blogging a whole lot this summer. But I was happy to see that there have been a few visitors. I've got some great pictures of wildlife... this place is crawling with it. Wolves, grizzlies, caribou, moose, Dall sheep, lynx, and little rodents. And people to. The hordes have arrived. I'll try to get some neat pictures up later.

I got to Anchorage on May 4th. We had a week of training, 40 hours of shooting, wrestling around on mats (aka defensive tactics, or officer response tactics, whatever fad name it's going by now), shooting tasers (alas, not at each other, it's against policy to be tased as a part of training), some lecture, and taking our yearly physical test. Once that week was over, I finally made it to the park.

Since then I've gotten my patrol truck. It's huge. Even at my height I've got to hop into it. We had more training. We went to the range to shoot rubber batons and bean bag rounds at bear targets. One of the park biologists lectured us on all kinds of wildlife related stuff. They're doing some neat critter studies here. We also had a day of EMS stuff. Our park's physician sponsor was here to help with that. I really like her and I think she's the perfect Doc for our park.

This last week was filled with a search and rescue class. I got to practice skills that I haven't done in years like tracking and map and compass stuff. It was really nice to get all excited about this kind of stuff again. I used to volunteer with SAR groups. ESAR back in high school and WSAR when I went to college. I did some rescues at Acadia and Mt. Rainier, but those were years ago and didn't involve the search part. SAR planning and ops are fun to and the skills are ones that I'd love to develop.

I feel like a real Ranger again!

Farewell to Boston

The guys at work prepared a wonderful send off for me last night. I knew they were having pizza, but I was surprised with another Cookie Puss Carvel ice cream cake. It was nice that so many people were there and I was happy they'd gone to so much trouble for my last day.

I wasn't expecting a card. I definitely wasn't expecting a beautiful book of Boston sights that everyone had signed. I'll love it always. They were so sweet to do so much for me.

The guys I work with make it tough to leave. I won't miss much about Boston, but I'll really miss them.

The route?

View Larger Map

I'm trying to plan the drive to Alaska. I don't have any stops along the Alcan because I know it takes about five days (since we have to stop at Liard Hotsprings). We'll pick up Dad in Seattle and I won't have to worry after that. He'll do most of the driving.

The route I've chosen is approximately 5,820 miles. Mama and I are stopping in Buffalo to see Great-great Aunt Betty (and Niagara falls). We'll head to Minneapolis to pick up my trekking stuff from Nepal (one of my fellow hikers was kind enough to tote my bag back to the US for me so I didn't have to drag my hiking gear all around India or try to ship it back). We'll stay a full day in Regina, SK to visit my Dutch relatives. My cousin Iris used to work for the RCMP as a matron, back when there were matrons. She's in her 70's and I want to meet her while I have the chance. From Regina it's 549 miles to Banff. We've got to stop in Banff. In another 597 miles we'll be in Seattle. We'll hopefully have a good, solid day and a half to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Laura, The White Ranger, and my Aunt Pam (who's already emailed me to ask that I stop by).

Looking at the miles we have to cover, this isn't going to be a very relaxing road trip.

Pictures

I'm slowly putting the pictures online. So far I've got all the India pictures and roughly half of the ones from Nepal.

There are a lot. Sometimes I wonder what I was trying to photograph. I'm sure some of you will wonder the same thing. Just think, there'd be a whole bunch more if I hadn't been distracted with my film camera as well. These are just the pictures I took with my digital.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Adventurous.Lizard

I'm Back!

Yep, I've returned from Nepal and India. I had a great time and I've started a new blog. Go to my profiles page to get to it. Or just go http://sevendaysinindia.blogspot.com