We (my friend Jim and I) left Alamo about 2:30. It’s
about 90 minutes to the El Paso airport,
which is smaller than I expected. Check in was mostly done by internet already
and I slid through security easily. But then I noticed the flight to Phoenix
was delayed. Ooops, please no glitches
right now, I prayed. The connection at Phoenix was tight, under an hour. So I worried—and waited. Finally the plane arrived and it seemed boarding took
forever but at last we were off.
I always enjoy looking out—but there were too many clouds to
track where we were, although they were pretty. It was sunset when we landed at
Phoenix. Again everyone moves at snail’s pace but I was finally out and
running. A couple from Las Cruces also heading to Anchorage went by me, old
hands at this.They live in Las Cruces but have grandkids here. We'd landed in the B21 gate and were to leave from A26—about
as far as it could be. I was thankful I had taken Jim’s advice and checked my
larger bag. I ran on the moving sidewalks, recalling how my brother Alex and I had done this years
back on the way to Kentucky for our mom’s funeral. As then, they had closed the
door to the jetway but let me and another woman board. Whew. That was too close
but my prayer was answered.
It was pretty dark then but we followed the last strip of
light west and north. I spotted as slim crescent of moon, crimson, probably from
the smoke of many west coast fires, as it sank toward the distant horizon. I
have never seen a crescent moon so red.
It was beautiful, though eerie. I sat beside an old gentleman who bad a Chihuahua in a carrier that would not fit under the seat so that was stowed overhead and he held the dog the whole way. Thankfully it was a very well behaved little dog.
I don't think I have ever been so far north—the sky stayed
bright and even more so as we got closer to Anchorage. There it was deep dusk,
like maybe five in the morning or eight thirty at home. The airport is big and
busy—bigger than El Paso it seemed though no Sky Harbor, O’Hare or DFW of
course. I got off and went down to retrieve
my suitcase and stepped out into the cool night, into an area crowded with
trucks and SUVs since the evening’s last flights must have arrived en masse all
at the same time! Pretty soon my hostess arrived in a big Dodge diesel dually
and we were off to Wasilla.
Anchorage, I leaned from a resident, has about 375,000 residents, half the state’s population and
there you could be anywhere. It was a bit too dark, and too many trees along
the road to see the mountains I had heard of but that will keep. Too dark for
an arrival selfie, too, but that is okay.
I am here, on time and all of my stuff with me. The travel gods were
good to me!
I got to bed about 4:00 am my home time so a good 22 hours
up and going. Today I will rest and recover and tomorrow I will start to get busy!
Later:
The site here is lovely, a bit out of town and on a small lake. There are lakes all over here! I've seen a bit of the town now, which is much more spread out than I had visualized but I will have the use of a car here most of the time. So far the only dog is the resident Chocolate Lab, a big baby, but got a small doggie fix to hold me for now. Nice big house but three teens bopping around. I can deal with that LOL. I did take a few pix this morning but have yet to download. That's next on my agenda. Selfie and scenery coming up soon. But the big thing is I am here!!!
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