Heading North

Bridget dropped me off at the airport on her last day of school with students at 7:30am. My 11 flight to Utqiaġvik via Deadhorse isn’t until 11:50 but I’m not complaining. I arrive at 6:15pm so I guess I have a little bit of time while at the two airports to write a post. At least they have decent WiFi in Prudhoe but they don't have a Starbucks.

One of the initial tasks is replacing a router that was recalled by the manufacturer. I’m not sure of the details but was asked to set it up as soon as I arrive using the new terrestrial circuit for testing. The new Arctic Fiber/Quintillion hardware appears to be operational. No faster and not much cheaper but with a fraction of the latency, it’s a step in the right direction. For this trip, the heavier jackets,, hat and gloves were dug out again. Not that they were buried very deep, but it is still well below freezing on the north coast of Alaska.

It is already a couple of days past the beginning of 24-hour daylight. The large area of light blue is sun above the horizon. Darker shades of blue indicate when it's not dark but the sun is below the horizon. Unfortunately, the weather is for overcast skies for the next couple of days. So, no sun and cooler temperatures.

I was planning on including a picture of the GripStuds that I pulled from the rear tire of the Ural. They were in pretty poor condition and many had to be removed with locking pliers as the slots for the tool no longer existed. I wasn't going to get another season out of them though I'm hoping to get another summer out of the front and pusher tires.

For those of you thinking of traveling to that exotic destination known as Prudhoe Bay, here is the view from the front entryway of the only hotel/restaurant in town. Lots of mud, dirty snow and the nearest tree is a few hundred miles away. It's 29°F with 24-hours of brilliant sunshine (somewhere behind the clouds), and the only way to get to the beach is by purchasing a tour.