Traveling in Bush Alaska during the winter months is a nightmare! People who act like their 4 hour delay in the Lower 48 is a huge inconvenience have NO IDEA what the true meaning of delay and hassle is. Let me paint a picture for you.
Going Home for Christmas 2018
In retrospect, it's a miracle I made my flight out my village. Planes had been flying all day with great weather. Our flight was about 90 minutes late, which is pretty much considered on time for out here. While we were waiting in the truck at the airstrip, I commented about how small the plane looked coming in. There were 7 teachers booked on this flight out, but quickly realized they sent a plane with enough room for 5. The assistant principal stayed behind and luckily the co-pilot seat was empty for a 6th person. Mind you, we have 2 small pets on this flight as well. The pilot informs us that NONE of our luggage can fly because the plane is too small. You are allowed two 50 pound bags, but nothing was leaving with us. As he's trying to call Bethel to figure out that situation, they inform him that if he doesn't get in the air NOW, we are not leaving tonight because weather was coming in fast. When the bush pilot gets jumpy, I start to cry. It's one of my stress reactions. We managed to get out of Bethel with no further incident beyond bathrooms not working in the regional airport, so I have an 8 hour layover in Anchorage to think about all the things I am now realizing I don't have for vacation (medicine, glasses, underwear, etc.).
I should also mention that Alaska Air bumped me out of First Class because they overbooked pets in that cabin. I had to argue at each of my layovers to get out of the middle seat I'd been moved to. In Houston, my plane was delayed. I'm already crying and tired, only to find out when they call us to board that the plane isn't coming tonight. United was booking us hotels. I'm basically nonverbal with how hard I'm crying at this point and find out the hotel they booked doesn't accept pets. I also have no luggage to change, brush my teeth, shower...anything. The next morning, my plane is delayed another two hours. There was not enough Starbucks to boost my mood.
Side Note: GCI, who provides phone services in the Bush, uses T Mobile networks in the Lower 48. Guess who has NO SERVICE in my region? That's right, T Mobile. After two days of arguing with GCI, they got me connected through AT&T, but I could only make calls. No data, so no texting etc.
Going Home for Spring Semester 2019
I thought, surely, that I'd used up every ounce of bad luck on the trip from Alaska to Louisiana. I was wrong. Cocoa threw up in her cage before we even left Monroe, on the flight that was delayed by 90 minutes to start. At each of my layovers of 2+ hours, the layover disappeared and left me literally running from gate to gate for boarding. In Seattle, they have terminal construction. They de-planed us outside, put us on a super crowded shuttle, and took us to the other end of where I needed to be. I finally got to Anchorage and had an overnight layover. I'm now a PRO at sleeping comfortably on airport floors.
I boarded my flight about an hour late to start back to the village. About 20 minutes before we should have landed, they inform us that we are being diverted to Dillingham. The bathrooms are not functioning because of frozen pipes. We re-board the plane after it refuels only to find out they are turning us around back to Anchorage. Cue the crying again. I managed to get on the Alaska Air flight out that night so I'm now clocking 24 hours at the Anchorage airport. I was lucky, because all Ravn flights were being diverted and canceled and the next available tickets weren't for another WEEK.
I make it to Bethel finally to meet my roommate. Saturday we are scheduled to fly in the morning. We take an $8 per person taxi to the airport. Flight on weather hold. Three hours later, flight canceled. We get put on standby for the afternoon flight which also gets canceled. We have now sat in the Bethel airport, without working restrooms, for around 8 hours. We take another taxi at $8 per person back to the hotel and spend $25 each on dinner. We go back Sunday morning, same morning hold/cancel pattern. We wait for the afternoon flight which also ended up getting canceled (but earlier). We spent another 6 hours sitting in the airport, $16 each on a taxi, and $25 on dinner. Monday morning is another $8 taxi. The flight is on weather hold for hours. They finally decide they are going to get planes going. At this point, we heard a group of teachers on the other air service got out but got turned around because of icing wings. We boarded and went to Chevak first. It was SO WINDY, I was still scared we would get turned back to Bethel.
The landing in Hooper Bay was the single scariest moment of my life. We were approaching the runway sideways because of crosswinds and just barely corrected before the land. As we went to touch down, the wind picked us up again, which made us actually touch down much farther than the pilot intended. The runway was pure ice. We started spinning and weren't stopping. The plane finally screeched to a stop at the very end of the runway with a wheel going off the side. All I could think was how cold the Bering Sea would be when we ended up there! When the pilot tried to turn us back to de-plane, the plane started spinning in circles again. We finally made it off the plane with the pilot telling us there were probably some stains in his pants after that landing! We thought we were finally safe, only to have the door to the CanAm fly open on the ride back. I've never been so happy to see my Bush apartment in my life! It took hours for me to stop shaking, even after a shower and doing laundry.
RTI Conference in Late January 2019
I was looking forward to the best conference in the state this past weekend. Flights in and out of the village were canceled Thursday. And again on Friday. Guess who never made it to Anchorage for the conference?
Summary
We got the first planes in or out of the village in 8 days today, with the exception of one freight plane that came Friday. Goods for the store came on that plane that had expiration dates from before Christmas. That stuff had been sitting in Anchorage/Bethel for long enough for it to have expired over a month ago! Today stuff came in that it currently half off because it's about to expire as well. I'm supposed to attend the ASTE technology conference in a couple of weeks. We shall see how that goes.
I'm learning to just accept that I have no control of my comings and goings right now. It is, what it is!
