Alaska trip

Last Blog Entry - We are Home!!!!

Alaska. I thought I would love it. To be honest, I was afraid that I'd want to move there. The last two places I lived -- CA & CO -- were both places I visited first. Visited and stayed in California. Visited and moved to Colorado within six months. I was afraid I would fall in love with Alaska and not want to come home. But that did not happen.

Alaska is a beautiful place. And charming. The people are the friendliest I've encountered anywhere. They seem to have the public friendliness of Southerners without the aftertaste of phoniness or pretention. (I lived in the South for 10 years, so I feel like I can make this comparison honestly and without over-generalizing.)

There are a lot of benefits to living in Alaska:

It's off the beaten path -- even in the biggest city

Every resident gets a $300-1000 check each year from the "<a href="http://www.pfd.state.ak.us/">Permanent Fund</a>"

No State income tax or sales tax

Nature, nature, nature...

The drivers don't tailgate

Lots of snow

Real winters

But with all of that, Alaska doesn't stir my soul.

The lack of state taxes shows. The roads are full of potholes and there are no visible lines to separate lanes. There is absolutely no evidence of city planning anywhere. Buildings are run down. Architecture is boring. There is litter <i>everywhere</i> -- from Anchorage to Unalakleet -- and more appears each day as the snow melts.

Nature has its downsides, too. On the way out of Faribanks, we passed a stray dog on the road. Still wearing his collar, he looked like he'd been lost for quite some time. His ribs were showing and his right ear had been torn to shreds -- probably by some wild foe or a feral dog living in the woods. Not something you'd see in any of the tamer parts of the U.S.

Maybe it's not that Alaska has let me down. Maybe it's just that I am finally starting to feel at home in Colorado and I don't want to uproot myself again. At forty-two am I starting to grow up? Don't get me wrong, we had a <b>great</b> trip that was fun, educational, and entertaining. But maybe the grass is greenest in my own back yard.