So I am working in Chignik Bay at the moment. I do geotechnical drilling for anyone that does not know. If you don't know what that is and want to know, google it! We have some ok internet that I use once in a while. Anyway, just figured I would share some things I have learned so far in a manner similar to my Chevak blog. :)
-Penair is easily confused. When I check in for the 3:30 flight, I do not want all my stuff to be on the 11:00 flight.
-The afore mentioned point caused me to be unable to locate my checked bag. It turned up later (before I ahd left the airport) in the baggage claim area. Good thing I was worried about it and checked.
-Shipping complicates things even more. When I say I want my stuff shipped on the 3:30 flight with me, it does not mean to ship it on the 10:30 flight. Also, when shipping sends me back to the terminal and tells me to "just let them know over there you have some stuff going cargo", when I go talk to the people in the terminal, it is not comforting that everyone seems to have no idea what I am talking about. They suggested I go talk to cargo....
-Luckily, someone in Chignik Bay got all my stuff and the drillers kindly put it in my room for me. Sometimes people are awesome
-Anchorage is small. Alaska is even smaller. I ran into a guy I went to school with and some guy that works in the building across from me who recognized me because of my truck whome I did not know in the King Salmon Airport
-Energy drinks cost about the same as the do in Anchorage. Cheese is $10. A pound of hamburger is $3.
-Just because the sun is shining when you leave in the morning does not mean it still will be a few hours later.
-It takes approximately 10 minutes to become miserably soaked when it starts raining and you are not properly equipped with rain gear
-Everyone's mood gets worse when they are not properly equipped in rain gear and are soaked.
-Pants weigh about 10 pounds more when they are completely saturated
-When renting an ATV, it is good to specify you not only want it to run, but you want it to have brakes
-Using small trees to stop a brake-less ATV when you are going down a hill is sometimes a must. Better a tree than the other ATV.....
-Using trees to keep a brake-less ATV from rolling down a hill has been dubbed "the Chignik Bay parking brake"
-When trying to kick start an ATV, it works better when the kill switch is not engaged and the key is on. (hey, I ride two wheeled toys.... not 4)
-The semi-automatic shifting on an ATV is almost as dumb as the "optional" manual shifter on cars these days.... Just be automatic or manual. please
-The semi auto shifting does almost compensate for the ATV having no brakes. I can almost stop when I want to.
-When the sun comes out, I can almost pretend I am in Hawaii... with a really loud drill rig.
-I am scared of bears. And am really happy I have a .44
-I feel super badass when riding down a dirt, potholed road, with no rain gear on, in the pouring rain, on an ATV with no brakes.
-This place is gorgeous. Too bad it rains a lot too
-When you talk to airport ops and close a runway, that does not mean that planes will not land on it. Some piolets don't bother to check in with the tower before just landing whereever the hell they want. You would think that the giant orange drill rig in the middle of it would say "maybe you should check and see if this runway is open" before just landing on it.
-Just because airport ops says no flights are scheduled for the rest of the day does not mean there are in fact no more flights. I runied some guy's day because he didn't get to leave because the runway was closed when his plane was unofficially scheduled to come in....
I will probably post a few more of these as the project goes on :) Oh, and there will be a post of only pictures... to make up for all the posts of only words.
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