June 30th, 2006
Nome, AK
Images wil have to wait because it is too damned slow a connection!
There is no place like Nome, they say. Currently I am in Nome, 160 miles from Siberia (I do love saying that!). Half of me feels like Nome was left behind in the commercial revolution and the half of me is suprised by some of the unexpected modernization here.
It is cold. it is 43 degrees here unofficially - or at least that's what the radio station says. When I arrived, it was overcast and raining.
Nome is a tiny tiny town. There are 3 gas stations (with reasonable prices given the remoteness) two grocery stores, ZERO sit down coffee shops, 1 mexican restaurant, 1 sushi restaurant and a few chinese and pizza joints. Saloons vastly out weight any other establishment, inhabiting just about every other building in the 1/4 mile downtown strip. Nome has no large stores that I can see, and their airport is a single room. It should also be noted that Nome sits atop a treeless tundra. That's right - no trees!
However, there is wireless throughout the city! And mostly WEP protected wireless at that! I drove around trying to steal internet, and eventually found a spot where I had 1 bar of unpassword protected wireless. Ain't life a dream! (Note: 4 full bars of wireless connectivity was about as fast as 1 from back home)
I immediately picked up my rental vehicle upon landing. - it was a 95 pickup - for a thrifty 75$ / day. Luckily they are only charging me for 1 day. The car was torn up inside and filthy in and out. But- the seat was big enough to sleep in relatively comfortably tonight. However, the locks were broken, and the driver side door doesn't close properly and there are no turning signals.
About 1 hour after driving the car, the Check Engine light went on, and about 5 minutes later, I realized there was no wiper fluid. I went back to the car rental place, and they didn't care to fix either of the above listed maladies. They granted permission upon my request, to leave the car and hitch a ride back if it stranded me in the middle of nowhere. A rental car mechanic shop with no wiper fluid!? Nutty!
The town seems to be mostly natives. There is no place, other then the bars, to really go and sit and work on my laptop and perhaps meet a local or two.
Today I drove the first of the three roads out of town. I took the eastern road out, hugging the violently choppy Bering Sea. It was raining, but the truck handled well over the ground dirt road.
The drive was boring. Small run down shacks appeared here and there - summer outposts for local fisherman. There was a pub in the middle of nowhere, about 20 miles into this road.
I turned around at Solomon, when the road got bumpier, and the views continued on as they were, which bored me by then. Solomon contains remnants, stuck in the tundra, of rusted out engines abandoned in 1907. Fascinating (not really).
I am having a hard time killing time here, as there is no where to really go - I can't really leave my truck, as I am umfortable leaving all my things in a truck that doesn't lock - though the mechanic swears he leaves his keys in his ignition all the time.
Tomorrow I will head down Teller Road, 72 miles one way - ending in Teller, a subsistence Eskimo Village with a population of 247. There is rumour that I am likely to see reindeer along the way. Would I even know what one looks like? I hope I see Musk Oxen and bears too.
By the end of the night I was more then ready to leave nome. I drove 60 miles RT down more muddy slippery dirt roads to kill time - which worked (the killing time I mean). Finally, bedtime came. I find when I haven't slept on a trip - it is super hard to make the days pass.
Nome, AK
Images wil have to wait because it is too damned slow a connection!
There is no place like Nome, they say. Currently I am in Nome, 160 miles from Siberia (I do love saying that!). Half of me feels like Nome was left behind in the commercial revolution and the half of me is suprised by some of the unexpected modernization here.
It is cold. it is 43 degrees here unofficially - or at least that's what the radio station says. When I arrived, it was overcast and raining.
Nome is a tiny tiny town. There are 3 gas stations (with reasonable prices given the remoteness) two grocery stores, ZERO sit down coffee shops, 1 mexican restaurant, 1 sushi restaurant and a few chinese and pizza joints. Saloons vastly out weight any other establishment, inhabiting just about every other building in the 1/4 mile downtown strip. Nome has no large stores that I can see, and their airport is a single room. It should also be noted that Nome sits atop a treeless tundra. That's right - no trees!
However, there is wireless throughout the city! And mostly WEP protected wireless at that! I drove around trying to steal internet, and eventually found a spot where I had 1 bar of unpassword protected wireless. Ain't life a dream! (Note: 4 full bars of wireless connectivity was about as fast as 1 from back home)
I immediately picked up my rental vehicle upon landing. - it was a 95 pickup - for a thrifty 75$ / day. Luckily they are only charging me for 1 day. The car was torn up inside and filthy in and out. But- the seat was big enough to sleep in relatively comfortably tonight. However, the locks were broken, and the driver side door doesn't close properly and there are no turning signals.
About 1 hour after driving the car, the Check Engine light went on, and about 5 minutes later, I realized there was no wiper fluid. I went back to the car rental place, and they didn't care to fix either of the above listed maladies. They granted permission upon my request, to leave the car and hitch a ride back if it stranded me in the middle of nowhere. A rental car mechanic shop with no wiper fluid!? Nutty!
The town seems to be mostly natives. There is no place, other then the bars, to really go and sit and work on my laptop and perhaps meet a local or two.
Today I drove the first of the three roads out of town. I took the eastern road out, hugging the violently choppy Bering Sea. It was raining, but the truck handled well over the ground dirt road.
The drive was boring. Small run down shacks appeared here and there - summer outposts for local fisherman. There was a pub in the middle of nowhere, about 20 miles into this road.
I turned around at Solomon, when the road got bumpier, and the views continued on as they were, which bored me by then. Solomon contains remnants, stuck in the tundra, of rusted out engines abandoned in 1907. Fascinating (not really).
I am having a hard time killing time here, as there is no where to really go - I can't really leave my truck, as I am umfortable leaving all my things in a truck that doesn't lock - though the mechanic swears he leaves his keys in his ignition all the time.
Tomorrow I will head down Teller Road, 72 miles one way - ending in Teller, a subsistence Eskimo Village with a population of 247. There is rumour that I am likely to see reindeer along the way. Would I even know what one looks like? I hope I see Musk Oxen and bears too.
By the end of the night I was more then ready to leave nome. I drove 60 miles RT down more muddy slippery dirt roads to kill time - which worked (the killing time I mean). Finally, bedtime came. I find when I haven't slept on a trip - it is super hard to make the days pass.
posted by Samantha Farbman at 1:51 PM
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