Finally, I made it! Now I feel like I can get on with my life. And I no longer have to say “Hi, my name is Jen and I live in a camper….in my boyfriend’s driveway.” Now, I live in a camper in a trailer court. I got my very own spot right on Lake Eyak and everything. It’s beautiful here. I wake up to the morning sun beaming in my windows and look out to see Queen’s Chair in the Heney Range I’m so happy to be back in Cordova, it feels like home.
This winter in Anchorage was good enough and all, I enjoyed having lots of time to write. However, I felt like I put things on hold. I found myself saying things like “I’ll have a job when I get back to Cordova. I’ll be able to hike more when I get back to Cordova. I’ll …(fill in the blank) when I get back to Cordova. I’ll move out of my boyfriend’s driveway when I get back to Cordova.” And, now I can finally stop nix that broken record because I’m back in Cordova!
This past week was pretty hectic, actually, more like the past 10 days. Actually, more like the past month. First, it was a mad rush to get things together to get to Florida. Once I got back from Florida, I hit the ground running after an 11 hour red eye flight. I put my fisherman’s endurance to use and put in 18 hours days, starting at 4 am. I rented out my condo for the summer, so I had to pack up things to bring to Cordova, pack up things to put in storage, pack up the rest for the garage sale, and clean the condo. I never even knew how much crap I had until I have to box it all up! Then it was time to clean the camper, vacuum up the 50 or so flies that sprung to life this spring, then pack up the camper. After that, time for provisions. A sweep or two through town buying all the things that, either I can’t get here in the ‘Dova or that are just cheaper in Anchorage. That entailed getting about 4 months worth of food, beer, and wine, plus new shoes, camper parts (potable anti-freeze, light bulbs, new pooh-pipe, etc) a new BBQ and pink duct tape. Two full days of shopping then we threw it all in the camper and headed to Whittier. The drive was uneventful (unless you were Hunter, my cat. He didn’t dig the truck ride so much) and only one piece of the camper flew off going 60 mph down the road. I couldn’t stop and could only hope I could either replace it in Cordova or it wasn’t important. We discovered later that it was the anti-sway bar, about a $150 item. Good news is I won’t need it here.
For the first time in my life, was early at the Whittier Tunnel, a 2.2 mile tunnel originally built for a train but since has been paved and open twice an hour for car traffic. Since we were early and I had plenty of time for dinner before the ferry for a Buffalo Burger at the Inn at Whittier and a beer. It was a great 12 hour ride across Prince William Sound, it was as flat as a mill-pond. We arrived Cordova on a beautiful blue bird day. It’s always nice to arrive in the sunshine, opposed to arriving in the normal weather, gale force winds and sideways rain. That always makes me wonder what I was thinking but arriving in sunshine make for no regrets.
We got the camper all set up and level with no problems. Ran around town doling out deposits for the all the utilities, met the neighbors (whom I already knew) and settled in. Grabbed Rockfish Taco’s at Baja Tacos and began the greetings and welcome backs. Actually, the greetings began in Whittier before I even got on the ferry, but they hit full swing at Baja Taco. It was there that I found out that I am mentioned in an article in the latest issue (May, 2011) of the magazine National Fisherman, page 18, http://www.nationalfisherman.com/. The article is called Winter’s chill can’t keep Fisher Poet fans away. There is a picture of me, quotes, and everything! I ran into about 5 people telling me they saw me in the magazine before I got my hands on one. I was beginning to worry if I could continue to show my face, not knowing what the article said!
That’s Cordova for you. It’s great to be in a place where everyone is so friendly and knows you, however you do need to budget that in your time. I was at the post office for 20 minutes before I even made it inside. And that’s is one of the reason’s I love it here so much.
That’s the haps here. Catch ya on the flip side. Until then, eat fish!
This winter in Anchorage was good enough and all, I enjoyed having lots of time to write. However, I felt like I put things on hold. I found myself saying things like “I’ll have a job when I get back to Cordova. I’ll be able to hike more when I get back to Cordova. I’ll …(fill in the blank) when I get back to Cordova. I’ll move out of my boyfriend’s driveway when I get back to Cordova.” And, now I can finally stop nix that broken record because I’m back in Cordova!
This past week was pretty hectic, actually, more like the past 10 days. Actually, more like the past month. First, it was a mad rush to get things together to get to Florida. Once I got back from Florida, I hit the ground running after an 11 hour red eye flight. I put my fisherman’s endurance to use and put in 18 hours days, starting at 4 am. I rented out my condo for the summer, so I had to pack up things to bring to Cordova, pack up things to put in storage, pack up the rest for the garage sale, and clean the condo. I never even knew how much crap I had until I have to box it all up! Then it was time to clean the camper, vacuum up the 50 or so flies that sprung to life this spring, then pack up the camper. After that, time for provisions. A sweep or two through town buying all the things that, either I can’t get here in the ‘Dova or that are just cheaper in Anchorage. That entailed getting about 4 months worth of food, beer, and wine, plus new shoes, camper parts (potable anti-freeze, light bulbs, new pooh-pipe, etc) a new BBQ and pink duct tape. Two full days of shopping then we threw it all in the camper and headed to Whittier. The drive was uneventful (unless you were Hunter, my cat. He didn’t dig the truck ride so much) and only one piece of the camper flew off going 60 mph down the road. I couldn’t stop and could only hope I could either replace it in Cordova or it wasn’t important. We discovered later that it was the anti-sway bar, about a $150 item. Good news is I won’t need it here.
For the first time in my life, was early at the Whittier Tunnel, a 2.2 mile tunnel originally built for a train but since has been paved and open twice an hour for car traffic. Since we were early and I had plenty of time for dinner before the ferry for a Buffalo Burger at the Inn at Whittier and a beer. It was a great 12 hour ride across Prince William Sound, it was as flat as a mill-pond. We arrived Cordova on a beautiful blue bird day. It’s always nice to arrive in the sunshine, opposed to arriving in the normal weather, gale force winds and sideways rain. That always makes me wonder what I was thinking but arriving in sunshine make for no regrets.
We got the camper all set up and level with no problems. Ran around town doling out deposits for the all the utilities, met the neighbors (whom I already knew) and settled in. Grabbed Rockfish Taco’s at Baja Tacos and began the greetings and welcome backs. Actually, the greetings began in Whittier before I even got on the ferry, but they hit full swing at Baja Taco. It was there that I found out that I am mentioned in an article in the latest issue (May, 2011) of the magazine National Fisherman, page 18, http://www.nationalfisherman.com/. The article is called Winter’s chill can’t keep Fisher Poet fans away. There is a picture of me, quotes, and everything! I ran into about 5 people telling me they saw me in the magazine before I got my hands on one. I was beginning to worry if I could continue to show my face, not knowing what the article said!
That’s Cordova for you. It’s great to be in a place where everyone is so friendly and knows you, however you do need to budget that in your time. I was at the post office for 20 minutes before I even made it inside. And that’s is one of the reason’s I love it here so much.
That’s the haps here. Catch ya on the flip side. Until then, eat fish!
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