August 2011 | The World According to Em

So I realize I haven't typed anything in a long time. I think that I've just hit that wall, the one that you just one day go, "hum, I really don't want to be doing this right now. I just want to be anywhere but here." (It more pertains to this job then the writing, but semi similar). John hit it the other day as we drove through five mud pits while a storm thundered at our heels to film the closing of an outer camp. He was so grumpy.

The last of the participants will be leaving camp tomorrow and that leaves a smattering of crew members to clean, put away and close down everything and anything for the winter. It seems so daunting right now after 7 weeks of harsh weather, long days and very little appreciation. Tempers are flaring, feelings hurt, stress points reached for my crew as well as the Camp's crew. You would think that being in a camp like setting doing what you love for months would be wonderful, but it wears you down and after a certain point, you just want out. You're body and mind are screaming for every little thing you've taken for granted, but have lived without these past months - TV, flush toilets, central heat, non wet shoes, a mattress, food other then something canned and able to survive decades in a tin can - you just want creature comforts...badly.

Right now, Beau, John, Chris and I are sitting at the Polar Cafe typing away on our computers, soaking up 56K Internet like it's the best thing in the world, maybe it is for all we know, just a small peace of normalcy to what our lives were before coming to the end of the world; the end of what we've lived with but didn't know we had until we didn't have it. I don't know, I sound so unappreciative and whining. I've traveled all over the world, visited 5 Continents, and never hit cultural shock, but I guess being still in America and not having what you know America has to offer, is a cultural shock.

I think that I'm in this Television Industry because I have this lovely vagabond nature and I have a constant need to do something different every few months or year. I'm like the main character in Chocolat, the east wind is calling my name and urging me forward. This Alaskan experience has been an amazing, exhilarating experience, but I feel a growing breeze at my back...an urge for a new adventure closing in on me.

The other day Chris, John and I drove 16 miles on a dusty and partly muddy road to town after shooting all day in the rain to eat a decent meal in town. When we arrived at restaurant Chris turns around and starts laughing. John and I had been driving behind him on the road and we could barely see as our goggles fogged up from the bandannas around our mouths and noses and the mud spattering on the lens. We looked at each other and our entire front halves were covered in a fine layer of mud, as well as our ATVs. It was hilarious, walking into the clean and cozy dinning hall and leaving dust tracks in our wake. Maybe not as funny to the waitresses, but it made the ride from hell amusing. The hot meal, sounds of people chatting on subjects other then gold prospecting, and the warmth of a heater alleviated rest of our foul moods and reset our minds to continuing the journey for rest of our 10 day stay in Nome, Alaska.

Hopefully I'm good to go these last few days because I really could do with a new subject matter for work or just more traveling away from Camp. Maybe just a good weeks sleep in a room with a heater, who knows. I apologize for the ranting and will leave you with lovely photos to look at as a prize for not wanting to kill me after reading this post.