Back in the Bush

I made it back safe and sound last weekend, even though the traveling was a bit stressful! I brought back a pistol, just for safety out in the wilderness, especially when I go camping. I’ve never traveled with a firearm before so I was a little nervous about it. Somehow the time on my ticket was wrong, but I didn’t know that until my mom dropped me and my sister Audrey off at the airport. We were looking for the Alaska Airlines ticket counter, and the dude was like, “you have to go out the double doors, take a left and take the first set of escalators then go in those doors and take a right...” So we set off looking for it, and when we finally got there the counter was yelling out for any last Alaska Air passengers. I ran up to the counter and he said “You have about 2 seconds to make it!” Then he saw that I had a firearm, which held the process up even more... I had to sign a paper, then take the firearm down to a TSA guy to have him search it. So Audrey and I were sprinting all through DFW trying to get everything taken care of. It was pretty intense! Then we sprinted back through the crowd of people so I could go through security, all the time hoping the plane hadn’t left yet. I was telling people I needed to hurry! They were about to leave me! So fortunately they were understanding and let me cut in line. Typically people are not very friendly in airports. Anyway, it was a good thing I was flying first class because I could go through the shorter line. 

So I shoved my bags through the machine and did the security thing, slipped my shoes back on and took off running looking for my gate. When I got there, there were only a few people left to board so I had barely made it. I was of course worried the whole time I had missed it. I was traveling with my good friends and colleagues from Louisiana that teach in Newtok, and when I walked on the plane, the look on Paula’s face was priceless. She was my $99 companion ticket so I worried what would happen if I wasn’t there. Anyway, I had left Audrey at the security checkpoint, and said if I’m not back in 30 minutes I’ve made it. So she went to tell Mom to drive around to the right terminal. Meanwhile, I didn’t have a phone to call them with, so while I was telling the whole ordeal to my friends, the lady in front of me let me borrow her phone to let my mom and sister know I made it. So all was good. 

We spent a couple of nights in Anchorage, loading up one last time on anything we needed. I heard the weather was bad in Newtok, and there hadn’t been any flights for a few days, so since we started school Monday, I wanted to change my midday flight to the morning one to give me more chances of catching a bush plane out. So I changed that flight, made the bumpy ride into Bethel, and began the long wait at the bush plane airport, with crazy drunken people! We were calling people in Newtok trying to find out how the weather was. In the morning, the weather was good, but the runway wasn’t suitable for planes to land. So they went up to scrape the ice off the runway, and you might know... the machine got stuck in the snow. So it took a couple of hours to get it out - they were asking the village men to come help, and thankfully they did. So by the time they got it out of the snow, the wind had picked up to 50 mph. So more waiting! Around 4:30, when it gets dark, the bush people told us our flight was cancelled and we’d have to try again tomorrow.

So the four of us split a hotel room and did some shopping for groceries. On Sundays they only have one midday flight, so we were anxiously waiting, and finally we made it out. Phew. I was so glad to be home!