GEEK MEET 2001, THE ODYSSEY
By E.S. Polinsky
Subtitled: ‘From Valley to Valley and Back Again.’ We live in Wasilla, Alaska. It is located in the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Valley. This is the story of our journey from the far north face of the Silicon Valley (thank you, Jane) to San Dimas, CA, and return.
It was with two hours notice that OC-Sue and AlaskaJoe threw their back packs together and drove with all due haste to the Passenger Terminal at Elmendorf AFB. And now: mapping the trip (thank you Tony).
In other words we caught a military hop on Space A status aboard a C-130 along with about a dozen other people. Let me tell you why we had only two hours notice. One of Joe’s customers backed out on a deal for him to build a computer. He had previously tried to tell her it would be cheaper for her to buy one ready made. But she insisted that she wanted one that was upgradeable. At any rate after he had already ordered and received the components, she telephoned us on that fated Tuesday. She told us that she and her husband decided to buy a ready-made PC instead of having Joe assemble it.
So, Joe was aggravated. We were planning on leaving anyway as soon as the computer was built and delivered. I, therefore, called Elmendorf to see when was the next flight. It was that very Tuesday, almost right away.
How I love those military aircraft. They are practical, functional, and powerful. They represent to me our country’s technology and power. I am a retired E-8 and proud of the military’s main purpose which is to avert the danger before it arises.
We left Anchorage promptly (which is not always the case with Space A). And arrived at McCord AFB near Tacoma, WA. We had left our little auto in storage there, near the passenger terminal. Our very first stop was with Bak@cha, tulups4me, SnaPz86, Tiggerchicc, and kittenlover90 who live 12 miles from the terminal. We had been discussing Bak@cha going with us to Geek Meet 2001. We would have rented a larger car than our two-seater. Due to unfortunate circumstances it was impossible for him to go. However we did spend two nights there. I learned to play computer scrabble on NetwordZ. We left Thursday afternoon. Our next stop was Redding and JavaBeanz. We drove down scenic Rt. 101 through Oregon. We were wonderfully fortunate to find a motel with a nice clean room and bath for only $28.50. Will wonders never cease. It had a nice big microwave. In the morning when I found the microwave's grounded cord could not be plugged into the wall outlet, I went to the motel office. They said "oh, someone just left that one day and we never threw it out." So much for a hot home-cooked breakfast. Joe and I had a good laugh over it.
Friday morning we slept late and checked out at 10 a.m. for more Oregon vistas of ocean and dunes and humongous ancient trees. The best part of all was seeing elk. The first time we saw about ten, they were in a pasture with cows. They acted as though they were domestic animals. I wondered if they were just part of a farmer’s livestock. They were large, sleek, very graceful looking. None had antlers.
I had never seen elk. Later that day we saw a herd including many bucks with big antlers and does. They were in “Elk Meadow” at one of Oregon’s parks on Rt. 101. There were signs reminding people that these are wild animals and to be cautious. There were about six other cars parked on a side road looking at the herd. We drove over and got some fine pictures from our car window. The elk acted just like cows, not afraid or anything. They leisurely crossed the road in front of us. That is the way some caribou are here in Alaska, although our caribou seem a little more skittish. There are no caribou around Anchorage. Only moose. Moose are not herd animals. Our Alaskan moose are `huge creatures. They come into the town of Anchorage and into people’s yards. We have moose at our house too. In the winter mostly, they eat willow twigs. But they are very dangerous animals. A couple of years ago there were two separate incidents of moose threatening people. And one of the incidents resulted in a death. And I mean right in the city of Anchorage.
We drove Friday until we were so tired we had to stop. We slept in our little car at a rest stop along Rt. 299. We thought we were a few hours from Redding (but it was really only 35 miles). Saturday morning JavaBeanz directed us to a motel near him. It was bigger and more modern than the $28.50 one, but no more inviting at $20 more than our other overnight. There was no microwave at all there.
I told Joe I just wanted to sleep, even though it was early in the day. Joe went to JavaBeanz’ house and set up for the show Sunday. FeistyRed prepared a spaghetti feast at her house in Redding Saturday night. I was able to rouse myself enough to take nourishment. And what nourishment there was. If anyone wants to feed a crew some good cooking ask her advice. By the way, she has lovely, long, curly guess-what-color hair.
The gathering Saturday night at FeistyRed’s included: Feisty and two daughters, JavaBeanz with two sons WISH^2 and KyMan, our beloved BrandyLin plus handsome son SirPaul, DoctorWho, Rafkin, Whitwolf, Joe and me. Thank yous go to Rafkin who gave a lift to BrandyLin, SirPaul, and DoctorWho. JavaBeanz, you have restored my faith in humanity. You make me feel as though life is worth living. All because I can truthfully say that your house is more cluttered than ours (but not by much). I can raise my head again and walk proudly among a world of clutter killers.
JavaBeanz and FeistyRed went above and beyond the call in hosting our ‘on-the-road’ portion of Geek Meet 2001. After the show on Sunday we were able to keep away starvation by digging into another even bigger repast, chicken breast, roast beef, pasta salad par excelenta, macaroni and cheese like you’d never believe (locally referred to as macaroni and glue), fresh fruit salad, sodas, fresh baked brownies, and Irish Tipsy Cake. I think it had Yukon Jack in it, 100 Proof Canadian Liquor. Since we were driving, we had to pass on the cake.
We left Sunday afternoon and drove to Cog’s home in Modesto, CA. We rested up there for days, finally getting ready to leave about 11 a.m. Thursday. In case you don’t know Cog is Joe’s son-in-law. Cog does Joe’s WebPages and has his own graphic business. We had a great visit with Cog and Joe’s artistic, enchanting, and charming daughter, Shana.
What a surprise Thursday morning, when our car will not start. Yikes, our dependable and snazzy '92 Geo Storm GSI was dead. L So we got a jump from the auto club and drove to Sears. We found there was a leak in our battery and it needed to be replaced. How strange, the battery was only six years old. We hadn’t even thought of the battery because it always worked fine. It started like a charm at McCord after sitting for five months. Wow, we sure were glad not to have been stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Sears Diehard is hard to beat.
Our next stop was Reseda, CA, with our friends Ole and Kathi. She was recovering from difficult back surgery and was looking good. They harbored us for the weekend in fine style. And grateful to them we were.
Again,
I cannot tell you all we did and saw Friday and Saturday in a few paragraphs.
For one thing, we met TonyLinguini's gorgeous daughter, Roberta and her
boyfriend Peter. I will not
try to say more. You will have to
imagine it, and plan to be with us next spring in Charlotte, NC.
We will let you know the date of Geek Meet 2002 with plenty of advance
notice for you to be able to fit it into your plans and save your hard-earned
do-re-me.
Tony
gave us our T-shirts Saturday, and a proud sight they are.
We had a bar-B-Q at TonyLinguini’s
house after the show. Joining
us during the show and Bar-B-Q on Sunday were Joe’s very dear friends Ole,
Kathi, and Ole’s brother Wills. We
met TonyLinguini’s foxy lady, Jamie. Peter
was bar-B-Q chef. Roberta and Jamie
did all the trimmings. Very classy, gourmet food it was, served in style beside the
pool. Gracious hospitality indeed it was, with nothing left undone.
It
was hard to pick out a highlight from everything we had done so far.
But if I were forced to, I would have said that the best part was the drawing
for the Linux router. We were
worried because one of the entries was from England.
What if he might win? Gosh,
how much would the shipping be? And,
as you now know, the winner was from Australia.
Hazafun, congratulations. Again
we thank TonyLinguini.
He took care of the shipping, Tony, you angel.
It cost him more to ship the router than it did for us to build
it.
Joe
and I were getting kind of shell-shocked by this time.
But we bravely started heading north early Monday afternoon.
Goodbye, Kathi and Ole, we thank you.
No
more scenic highways, thruways all the way.
Seems like we just drove until we were too tired to drive any more.
We spent another night at a rest stop.
We were right next to a car whose driver woke us up bright and early
“calling roark.”
Eventually
we got back to our Bak@cha, tulips4me, and
SnaPz86 pit stop.
I had a reviving game or two of scrabble.
I wanted Bak@cha to have a special
remembrance. I gave him my Geek
Meet 2001 T-shirt. Everything is
Better when it is shared. I told
him it had geek all over it. He
liked it a lot.
We
slept late and left the next day around 3 p.m. after scrabble, of course.
We decided instead of leaving our auto outside (that is what we
Alaskan’s call the lower 48) we would drive home up the Al-Can highway (the
infamous Alaskan-Canadian highway).
We
drove again until we could drive no more and slept in the car.
By that time we were well into British Columbia.
I get sort of mixed up with those beautiful Canadian provinces. The next night we found a nice place to stay for not too much
money. My goodness did we feel
rested in the morning. We were
raring to go again.
As
we drove up the Cassiar
Highway we saw black bear along the shoulder of the road. We
saw six of them at various times. Three
of them were very close to the road. They
looked up at us as we passed. We
could see their tan muzzles and shiny noses. However, they were too quick to be
caught on camera. We saw two
coyotes. And once we saw a bald
eagle along the side of the road. It
was on the ground as we approached and flew up and over ten feet and down again.
It was after prey of some sort. We
were driving rather fast and didn’t see it fly away.
Before the day ends we will have driven about 800 miles in 15 ½
hours.
We reached the Al-Can highway when we got to Watson Lake, Yukon, just over the British Columbia line. The Al-Can was not torn up too bad. There was not a lot of road construction. Only a few places were being demolished (and improved?). Eventually we were getting close to Alaska and were finally in Alaska. But we were tired again.
Glory be, we found a bed and breakfast hostel, with a happy hostess and a clean bed for a fairly low price. We paid only $48 instead of the going rate of $96 a night for two people. Our happy hostess told us we would be served a four-course breakfast!
This
is what our four courses consisted of: coffee, orange juice, pineapple chunks,
choice of hot or cold cereal, French toast, and blueberry muffins.
Not exactly our idea of a four-course breakfast.
But it was sure hearty. The
French toast was especially good. She
said she always wins at the State Fair with her French toast.
Before
reaching our friendly H&B (hostel and breakfast) we had driven through rain.
Earlier the rains had been so heavy there had been flooding.
We had seen many swollen rivers and streams.
We had seen flooded areas as well.
Another
interesting sight was when we drove past areas that consisted of acres of
blackened, broken trunks of spruce trees, the result of vast forest fires in
previous years. But destruction is
actually a step necessary for new life. The
fireweed was so thick in some areas and fully in bloom that it
looked like a lush fuscia
carpet. We tried to take
pictures, but they cannot capture the dimension and entirety of the scene.
Finally
home. Everything was in good
shape. By that time we had been
driving since Monday afternoon, and it was now Saturday about noon.
Altogether our return trip from LA was 3364 miles:
1167 miles from LA to the Canadian border, 1215 miles through British
Columbia, 575 miles in the Yukon, and 377 miles in Alaska.
Wow! We had only a few hours on Saturday to get ready for Sunday’s
show. And after the show I slept
nearly nonstop for a week. Don’t
know why I should have been so tired Joe did all the driving.
Life
is richer and fuller for me since our return from this odyssey.
And that, dear friends and family, is why I play Scrabble to this very
day.
There are more pictures (even a movie) from Geek Meet 2001 click here and then click again on AlaskaJoe's picture page.
Visits since August 13, 2001
