Mud and Rain

Hi Everyone,

I assume about 3 of you are still reading my blog. So to catch you all up on what’s been going on… hum… I’ve been sitting around the chow hall drinking coffee; playing cards with all the teenagers who think I’m a cooler, older version of themselves and that I’m about 20-years-old; nursing a 3-week cold that’s developed into a dual ear infection; trying to find a new camera since mine committed suicide and refuses to close the lens or turn on anymore; and avoiding my birthday by not telling anyone at camp because who really wants to be sung to in front of strangers and eat a half-stale cake?

That’s about it. Most of the time we plan to go shooting, but then the stupid sky opens up and cries. Seriously, is summer in Nome really this wet or are the Nomites this year getting screwed out of their 3 months of sunshine? If so, that would really suck for them – 9 months of darkness and up to -60F to have 3 months of 30F and rain. And people live here willingly. I keep coming to town and I hardly ever see the same people twice. For a town of 2300, there sure are a lot of under 30-year-olds that pop up. Most of them were born here and choose not to leave. Maybe since this is what they’ve always known, they figure it’s safe to stay and not explore the rest of the world.

I met a young lady that was born here, went to College in Las Vegas for 4 years, and still came back to Nome to work fulltime. It must be something in the water, why else would you come back once you’ve escaped. We stopped by one of the tents scattered along the beach on the way back to Camp the other evening and chatted with an ex-camper who still comes to Nome to prospect ever year. He says he pays $200 a year to camp on the beach and that it’s peaceful.

Not sure living with a sand floor, using wet wood to heat your stove, and having the tundra as a toilet counts as peaceful, but him and about 30 other guys, they seem to think it’s heaven. He even convinced his wife to come up and stay in the tent. Most women I know are all for vacationing on a beach, but I don’t think that the cold, wet, and gloomy beach of Nome is what they had in mind.

Then again, I willingly came up here, but someone paid my way and I get to make a documentary on the crazy people that chose to pay to come to a wooden campsite in the middle of nowhere. I often wonder if some random person were to fly over Nome and down the coastline, when they’d come upon the camp, would they mutter, “who the hell lives out here?” or “hum, I’d like to stay there?” It’s a remote and strange sight to someone who doesn’t have a clue what GPA is.

One of the only adventures I went on lately was yesterday when the guys and I ATVed out to Creosos camp, about 12 miles on the ATv, but along a heavily mudded dirt road. 2 months ago the road was just dusty, but the lovely 18-day stretch of rain has created potholes and mud puddles that sallow ATVs. Everyone is always saying how so and so had to tow them out and I was a little worried about going on the journey because my boys like to drive really fast and I always feel the need to keep up with them so they don’t think that I’m “just a girl” and suck at ATVing – which I kind of do. Maybe I just have a self-preservation gene that kicks in and say, “slow the F**k down, that’s a 3 foot drop,” where as the boys see the same drop and go, “Weeeeeeee!!!!” as the skid all over the place.

Anyhow, driving through the mud turned out to be awesome. I didn’t get stuck and I got covered in mud from the back splashes of driving head first into numerous bogs. It was awesome. I was even tailgating a bit. I feel a lot more confident in driving along a crappy road now and I love being covered in slim, as long as I’m wearing my waterproof clothes.

That’s about all that I’ve done. I now in a coffee shot typing this blog after transversing the soft, ATV eating sand and petting rain. My goggles kept fogging up making it really hard to see, but taking them off just allowed the rain to pelted me and therefore squint. It was kind of a catch 22, but I made it, I’m now dry, enjoying a great cup of coffee and when I finish this blog in 2 sentences, I’m headed to the movie theater inside the Subway to watch Kungfu Panda 2 and eat dinner. Thanks for reading and have a great day!!!