A warm western update

After arriving last week, the first order of business was a fishing trip in Ilwaco, WA, at the mouth of the Columbia river. As Ricardo and I drove down we encountered schizophrenic weather. We’d have torrential rains for a short while, and then it would be clear and sunny 5 minutes later. The weather continued switching personalities during our entire drive there.

Due to the inclement weather and resulting 11-14 foot waves, we weren’t able to go into the ocean fishing and had to instead fish in the mouth of the river. We caught three decent silver salmon but we were both disappointed by not being able to fish in the ocean. We could see the breakers crashing just out past the mouth where we were fishing but they were too much for any of the chartered fishing craft to deal with.

We also fished from Ricardo’s boat in Mukilteo for two days, catching two minnows (about 10″) and one decent (9 lbs) silver. On Sunday, I visited with Ryan Merrick and we went out sailing on his father’s boat. It’s been a long time since I’ve just sat around and waited for the wind to blow. It’s quite tranquil and eventually the wind did pick up, affording us a fine bit of sailing.

I continue to be amazed how fleeting time can be. I had aspirations of visiting Rich (brother-in-law) and Mitzi & Bill (mother and step-father in-law) but I can’t imagine where that could fit into the next two days. Being mobility challenged does not help. The clerk that took my drivers license when selling me my fishing license didn’t give it back. I failed to notice until we got back to Mukilteo. It’s being mailed to me but in the mean time, I have to impose on others to get around.

As usual, it’s sunny and warm in Seattle.

Travel status

It’s been 3 years since I’ve flown out of Traverse City. Today, that aged memory was refreshed, and I once more remember, in vivid detail, why I so often choose to fly out of Grand Rapids instead. It’s really nothing against T.C., but rather because most flights out of T.C. connect in Chicago. Chicago often has weather delays, and once they get behind, it only gets worse.

Upon arrival at Cherry Capital airport, I learned my flight was delayed 15 minutes. I checked in, pulled out the book (The Pelopennesian Wars) I had brought along for just such an occasion and started reading. We got word that O’Hare was completely halted until further notice. The delay grew from 15 minutes to an hour, then two, and we finally left for Chicago at 4:30.

I had since re-booked on a later flight out of ORD which was scheduled for a 4:50 boarding and 5:10 departure. I arrived in ORD at 4:45, checked the gate status for my flight (gate C23, on-time), and then hauled tail across two concourses to get to my plane which would be fully boarded by the time I arrived at the gate.

Upon arrival, I learned my flight was delayed 1 hour 25 minutes. Sigh. So, I decided to call ahead and inform Ricardo & Paulette of my new flight info. I pulled out my trusty calling card and tried to place a call. I was greeted by a, “Sorry, you do not have enough minutes left….” message. This was not a problem I had only to call the 800 number on the back and recharge it.

I called and learned a new and useful fact, calling cards expire. Mine in particular (AT&T @ $0.035/min) expires after two years. I can still use the remaining minutes, but I can no longer recharge the card. This is terribly unfortunate, as I had long since memorized the card number.

My next logical step was to use coins in a payphone, so I traded a $10 bill for some change and tried placing my call when I learned something else new. Some payphones are “local only”. That means that if you happen to be standing in front of one of these phones with quarters in hand, you cannot use this phone to place a long distance call. How irritating. I finally resorted to calling an operator who shared that revelation to me.

Since I had already tried several phones, I asked the operator how I should proceed. His helpful response was, “try a different phone”. I asked how to identify a local versus long distance capable phone. He replied that I would need to read the instructions on the phone and see if it had long distance instructions. I replied that the phone I was currently using did in fact have long distance dialing instructions. After this I didn’t bother pushing the matter, as it wasn’t likely to be fruitful.

After trying a few more phones with similar results, I finally resorted to asking a kind person to allow me place a call with his cell phone.

More IP phone problems

This evening our IP phone service went AWOL again. Apparently Packet 8 had a database issue where they lost a cluster of accounts. Ours was one of them so when we tried making a call, it didn’t work. Fortunately, we have three other phone lines in the house with which to call them.

They fixed the problem in about 10 minutes and are giving me a $4 credit for the inconvenience. I’m not as happy as if it hadn’t happened, but twice now I’ve called with a problem and I get a support person very quickly. They resolve issues very quickly as well. I am quite satisfied with their technical support thus far.

Phone issues

Well, my land line (775-0119) is currently in a state of disrepair. It works, I can call out just fine, but nobody can call me via it. If you dial that number, you’ll get a nice message stating that the number is not in service. Lovely.

So much for the promise of LNP (Local Number Portability) being easy. This is, of course, what happens when two phone companies have to work together. My previous phone company (Sage Telecom) is losing my business as I’ve have dropped them in favor of my new IP phone service, with the option of getting my old number placed on my new phone.

It all works great in theory. You keep your old phone, and your new one arrives. That happened a few weeks back. The new phone service get’s hooked up with a temporary number while the LNP process begins. Some weeks later (today), the new phone company gets the number from the old one and calls get routed to your new phone. Well, that routing is currently FUBAR.

This will be a wonderful thing, when it’s all sorted out. In the mean time, you can call us via our IP phone number (231-577-4113). It’s a local Cadillac exchange so it dials just like any other 775, 779, or 876 number.

He’s a traveling man…

Once again proving that I just can’t sit still, I’ll be flying west quite soon. It’s a mixed trip, primarily business but there will be some quality time spent fishing on Ricardo’s boat. 🙂

August 24
UAL 6879 TVC 1:50 PM – ORD 1:59 PM
UAL 305 ORD 3:05 PM – SEA 5:25 PM

September 01
UAL 350 SEA 6:35 AM – ORD 12:23 PM
UAL 5440 ORD 1:25 PM – TVC 3:26 PM

Internet Telephony

I’ve been wanting an IP phone for quite a while now, and keep checking with the providers of IP phones every now and again. Finally, packet8 got local service in northern Michigan so I just had to sign up. I got the phone in a couple weeks ago and so far, it’s been great.

It took 5 days for the terminal adapter to arrive, and less than 5 minutes to get it working. It works quite well, even better than my copper based “land line”. For $20/mo I get unlimited coast-to-coast long distance, dirt cheap international long distance ($0.02-$0.05), and I can use the phone anywhere I have high speed internet.

I’ve used it to make quite a few long distance calls and the people I call can’t tell the difference between it and my land line. I’d have probably chose Vonage based on their reputation but packet8 has the better coverage and less costly plan.

Greetings from Alaska

Yes, we are still alive. A few people wanted us to let them know that.

We have done much. We arrived on Friday the 18th. We spent Friday in Anchorage with Karen (Jen’s college friend) and enjoyed a fresh “wild caught” Red Salmon dinner which we purchased at Sam’s Club. If you don’t have time to catch it yourself, just stop by your local supermarket and pick up fresh Salmon (assuming it’s the right time of the year).

Saturday we picked up our rental car and headed towards Homer. We didn’t make it 15 minutes before spotting a Dall Sheep grazing on a bluff above Turnagain Arm.

Homer is a little fishing village at the end of the Kenai Peninsula known for its Halibut fishing. We drove “the spit”, found the Eagle Lady’s abode, and then headed back North to the Deep Creek campground. We had a fantastic campsite on the Sound where we watched 6 bald eagles (2 mating pairs, 2 juveniles) circle, fish, and steal fish from lesser birds.

Jen has some of her Dad’s “fish fever”. You should have heard her squeals of delight as hundreds of salmon danced in the water right in front of us. The salmon are in a feeding frenzy as they prepare to head up the spawning streams.

The next day we found an old fellow with some clamming gear and rented a couple buckets, shovels, and a clam gun. We tried the shovels a couple times and realized that would be a LOT of work to catch our limit (60 each) with shovels. So, then I gave the clam gun a try and after crushing a couple, got the hang of it and we extracted a few dozen razor clams.

We put our clams in a disposable cooler and then cruised on over to Seward to spend the night. After setting up campe, we spent a few hours cleaning clams. It’s an experience that everyone should have. Once. 🙂 I can only describe it by saying that Jen was no longer disappointed that we didn’t both collect our limit.

I fired up the trusty MSR Whisperlite (stove) and sauteed our clams in generous portions of melted butter and we ate a razor clam feast for dinner. They were excellent. Afterwards, we scraped up $2.00 worth of quarters so that we could use the showers to wash the clam fragrance from us and our clothes.

The next day we cruised up to Exit Glacier park. On the way in we had to wait for a black bear cub to stop playing in the road. We hiked up a hardy mountain trail a few thousand feet, above treeline, and finally into snowfields to a nice rock outcropping. From there we could see the Harding Ice Field (120+ square miles of ice) and a great views of Exit Glacier. Jen has now seen a glacier. I’ve seen dozens, and I agree with a comment we heard from another hiker: “once you’ve seen one glacier, you’ve seen them all”.

We had dinner at The Salmon Bake (just outside of Seward) and contrary to the slogan on their sign, the food was excellent. We spent the night at Bertha Creek campground, where we were formally introduced to Alaskan mosquitoes. Myths suggest that the size of the mosquitoes are “Alaskan” but that isn’t the case, they’re the same size as our mid-western mosquitoes. Where they really stand out is in their quantity, intensity, and ferocity.

We could not get into the car without a few getting in. We could not unzip the tent door without them getting in. We took absurd measures. We’d unzip the rain fly, rush inside, and zip it back up. Then unzip the tent, crawl inside, zip up, and then pause for a 3 minute shakedown. As the inevitable mosquito (or three) appeared, we’d squash it. Then we could resume “normal” tent life.

Before getting out of the tent, we’d put on at least two layers (long sleeved base layer + mid-weight) on our entire bodies and then headnets. The only exposed skin left was our hands which got deet. We were mosquito-proof but only comfortable when the temperature (or wind) made it comfortable to wear two (thin) layers.

The following day we mosied up to Whittier. There is nothing to see there. It’s just a community of 185 persons, surviving in an old military outpost. We cruised though and caught the ferry to Valdez and spent the rest of the day cruising across the sound. The captain took the ferry into the Columbia Bay, right up to the edge of the ice floe (as close to the glacier edge as a boat can get).

After arriving in Valdez, we cruised around down town for a few minutes and then headed out of town up to Thompson Pass and spent the night at the Blueberry Lake campground. The views getting to and from the campground were absolutely fantastic but it was here that we cemented our plans to send a bill to the Alaskan governer for feeding his mosquitos.

… to be continued.