Alaska!

I am sitting in the Fairbanks airport, about to return from the great state of Alaska! For our two-week annual training, my Army Reserves unit ventured to Fort Wainwright to backfill for the 9th Army Band as its members went on block leave. For two weeks we spent our time rehearsing our various groups, doing Army training, and performing at several local venues, including a park, a live broadcast on NPR, and the state fair (twice). The NPR performance can be found here, however the link may only last a few days before it expires. No guarentee on the quality of the performance as I have yet to listen to it, and it was, shall we say... slightly eventful!

During the two weeks, we were extremely busy with our rehearsals, but to balance out our hard work, we had one completely free day. For my day off, I went with a few other band members to Denali National Park and enjoyed the scenic views along my hike, which was well worth the two hour drive. I even saw a moose! No pictures of that though.... yet. A lot of pictures will come later when I can get the files from people with cameras superior to mine.

Being the geek that I am, this kind of reminds me of the border to Mordor.

Maybe upriver to where Arwen crossed with Frodo?

Rohan!

Also, the weather in Alaska was surprisingly milder than I expected, with the exception of actually being too hot for the first couple of days. The length of each night expanded quite a bit even from one day to the next (I heard seven minutes each night), and the days were quite bright, especially in the first week. The two weeks ended with an afternoon of “mandatory fun” which pretty much consisted of food in a park. I did play some horseshoes and a card game (Egyptian Slap Monkey), but the really exciting part of the day was when a dragonfly landed on me to eat its captured yellowjacket. Thank goodness it did not sting me as it was being eaten alive. Pictures will come later after people send them to me.