I have had some requests to post a blog all about the cool and different ways living off the road system, in the bush of Alaska can be!
I will start out with a few interesting facts about Alaska in general! =)
- The highest temperature recorded in Alaska was 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Fort Yukon in 1915. Yup, I was born to live here! Everyone who knows me, knows I hate the heat! =)
- While it is legal to shoot bears in Alaska, waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited!
- Of the 20 highest peaks in the United States, 17 are in Alaska, including the highest peak in North America (20,320 ft. above sea level), Mt. McKinley.
- Alaska’s largest lake, Lake Iliamna, is roughly the size of Connecticut. (Only about a 15 min flight from where we live)
- Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the United States combined (more than 34,000 miles). Alaska is also the only state to have coastlines on three different seas: the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Bering Sea.
- Alaska has the lowest population density in the nation at one person per square mile.
There are so many more cool facts, like a 13 year old designed Alaska's flag, they have grown a record cabbage weighing in at 94 pounds, or the fact there is about 5,000 earthquakes a year and 1,000 of those measure above 3.5 on the Richter scale! But now lets talk about living in Port Alsworth! =)
We live in a small town in South Eastern Alaska! Population is around 150-200 (ish) but in the summer it grows quite a bit, because of the Lodges, National Park, and Franklin Graham's "Operation Heal Our Patriots" and "Samaritans Purse"!
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| Welcome to Port Alsworth! |
It really is in the middle of no where! Usually in the lower 48, that term is used to described a place where Walmart is a 40 minute drive! But we live off the road system, meaning we have no roads connecting us to other towns or villages! To get anywhere, we have to fly in a small engine airplane!
-We have no grocery stores. So if you are missing an ingredient there's no running to the store to grab it!
-If we want to go shopping or buy groceries we have two options. 1) We fly to Anchorage ourselves and buy a cart load or two at Costco or 2) We send a list into town and pay someone to buy it all! Then we pay per pound for it to be flown out to us! Unfortunatly, it just too expensive to go in every month or two so we just pay someone to pick up our groceries! The longest I have stayed in Port Alsworth straight without flying out is 4.5 months and the longest we went without a food order was 2 months(Not counting ordering fresh produce) Thats my current record! =)
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| Here are some of the things we stock up on! =) No, that is not Hershey's Chocolate Milk, just boxed shelf milk! It's not too bad! =) |
-We have no gas stations...our fuel comes in a "big" plane.
-We have a cafe, The General Lodge, that is open on Saturday nights but its open a lot more in the summer! With how expensive things are here, a latte will set you back 6-7 dollars, but it is so nice to have a place to go for a little date night or special occasion!
-We have no stop lights or stop signs!
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| We have yield signs though! :) |
-Our boss, Glen Alsworth Sr. is also our Mayor! =)
-There is no hospital or clinic here! If anything major happens its is a 55 min flight to Anchorage! Not counting the time it takes to quickly plan it out and prepare a plane so its ready to go!
-We burn our garbage! Any glass or cans get flown into Anchorage!
-The home we rent used to be a cafe a long time ago and they made it into a house! The word "CAFE" is written in big letters on our tin roof!
-We have to cross two airstrips to get home.
-Mail comes three times a week at the most and everyone makes up their own home address!
-I have bells hanging on the outside door of our arctic entry(mud room) so we'll hear if we have any sneaky bears trying to enter! =) It happened once awhile ago, before we moved in! Knowing that, one day I thought a bear did make his way in...I was kind of scared for a minute until I looked in and saw a dog managed push the door open and it started to close behind him making him stuck! Haha!
-We have a marshy area behind our house and the moose like to hang out there in the mornings!
-Our house is feet away from many Lake Clark National Park trails!
-We don't do fire works on the 4th of July because it doesn't get dark enough...so we do them on New Years Eve instead!
-Because of Operation Heal Our Patriots, Franklin Graham often invites well known people to come welcome and encourage the wounded Vets! Greta, Duck Dynasty, Michael W. Smith, Sarah Palin, and so on!
Everywhere you live, you will have awesome perks and hard things! There have been some struggles while being here but also so much good! I can't think of a better place to spend our first year of marriage! Lots of great lessons learned and awesome quality time together!
God, of course, has been faithful, continually providing for our needs, and our constant peace! :)
