“I’m here to check-in for the cabin.” I stand at the bar in a dim, run-down saloon a few yards off the Seward Highway, just outside of Anchorage, eyeing the bartender–a redhead in a Circle Jerks tshirt and sewing machine bobbin earrings. “Okay, it’s right out...
Back in August when I posted about the potential for catching COVID in Alaska, I never thought the situation would get dire. Clearly, I lack imagination. Seven days ago–just about the time Mr. Pretty and I were about to leave for Alaska–the state’s hospitals adopted crisis...
“Are you sure you should still be going to Alaska?” Those were the first words my mother said to me yesterday when I called her. She turned seventy this year and still lives in the rural hinterlands where I grew up. She’s fully vaccinated, but less than fifty percent of the...
Alaska, here we come. In seven months, anyway. It wasn’t intentional. I mean, sure, I’d been eyeballing post-Labor Day flight deals, thinking maaaaaaaaaybe. Maybe it’ll be safe to travel by then. Maybe we’ll be vaccinated by then. Maaaaybe. But I still held off from...
It seems weird to think that Mr. Pretty and I had just come back from Jamaica at this time last month, and now the entire world is shut down in response to a global pandemic. While I’m entering my fourth week of working remotely (I’m referring to my dining room as my satellite...
How do 24 innocent people get executed over accusations of witchcraft? Most (mostly women) were hanged, one guy was pressed to death, and several others died in jails under terrible conditions. The accused–like the guy who was pressed to death–were tortured into confession, and...
I have seen Friday the 13th and its various sequels (and a zillion other slasher films) more time than I can count–so I know how it goes: it’s always the naked girl in the shower at the isolated campground bathroom that gets killed. So it was with some trepidation–and not a...
I am a delicate flower. The idea of sleeping in a tent with a rock for a pillow, sharing bathroom facilities with strangers does not sound appealing to me. Like at all. Yet I occasionally feel bad for Mr. Pretty, who has been collected camping equipment for many years, all without an...
It’s a real weird time to be flying in and through the United States. About 53,000 TSA employees; 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and officers; and 22,790 air-traffic controllers aren’t being paid but expected to show up to work because of the #TrumpShutdown. Now, about...
If you grew up in the Philly area the Jersey shore is the vacation destination. Chances are that you either spent a summer working down the shore, or your family rented a house there regularly. I grew up farther away, so heading to New Jersey to a beach still seems like a treat (even though...