So, the adventure has begun.
But so far the road has been a little bumpy.
There exsists three ways to exit the city of Skagway and reach Seattle (where our flight-venture would begin) 1) Drive out the Alaskan Highway, over the pass, through Canada and down to Washington 2) Take off from the mile long landing strip on a good ol', six-seater, bush plane and fly down the canal to Juneau and catch a direct flight from there to seattle, or 3) Depart by sea and take a 6 hour Ferry boat to Juneau and catch the flight. Because it was late fall, and the reliability of the first two options depended greatly on weather conditions, our group (the appointed female chaperone--Jacqueline, Erica, Mr. Fielding, and me) opted for choice 3, which scheduled us to depart at 6 p.m. today.
I had to stay after school to finish a 'Beowulf’ final for English class, while Erica was rushing wildly around the high school, in and out of the English room, gathering homework, arguing with teachers, and just generally preparing for the journey we were about to undertake. By 4 p.m. (our school lets out at 2:30) my hand was sore and cramped. Words, thoughts, answers came to my mind and fleeted away again before I had a chance to fully write them down. As time ticked by, I became overwhelmingly anxious and flustered-- so I decided to SKIP the end of my English final in order to make photocopies of my other school text books, which I needed to make up homework while in the RMI. Haha…yea…that can’t ever happen again during my high school career. Mr. Fielding, my dedicated coach and teacher, was...unimpressed...to say the least. Anyway, at 5 p.m., an hour and a half after my test-fiasco, Mr. Fielding, Jacqueline, Erica, and I boarded the ferry and officially departed Skagway, tackling the first 100 of the 6,000 miles between Alaska and the RMI. The six hours it took to traverse those 100 miles by boat were painfully long and plagued by mild sea-sickness.
Luckily, we were able to entertain ourselves with a card game which Jacqueline taught Erica and me, entitled “The Food Chain Game”. Of course it was the Park Ranger who introduced us to the game which is designed to teach players 'the circle of life' and ecosystem structure. I have to say, it was quite an experience to sit in the quieted cafeteria of a ship cursing, laughing, and shouting things such as “My shrew wants to eat your preying-insect!” over a card game in which the desired card was ‘Fungi’.
I saw my Grandma on the ferry as well, and had dinner with her. Both of us, worn travelers, were abnormally anxious about the journey ahead. I was on my way to a foreign nation for what may very well become the adventure of a lifetime; she was on her way to see my Grandpa who had been medivacced from Skagway only days before and was now hospitalized in Juneau. I believe that she, my mom, and I have a lot in common.
When we arrived in Juneau, Forest (another amazing coach…but kind of crazy) and Alex picked us up from the ferry terminal. So day 1 of adventuring is complete, and it’s about 2:15 am. I guess I should go to sleep and get at least 3 hours of sleep before the flight tomorrow.
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