The Journey

Six days and 4,700 miles later, the journey to Alaska is complete. My dad and I set out Thursday, July 29th around 7 A.M from Cochran, Georgia. The first day we drove until about 2 A.M to Hays, Kansas where we crashed for about 5-6 hours. The next day at lunchtime, we made a pit stop in Denver, Colorado so that my dad could get a new passport since his had unknowingly expired & we found out the afternoon before we left town! After leaving Denver, we drove up through the rest of Colorado and part of Wyoming. We stopped in Casper, Wyoming for the night. Just when we thought we were far enough away from home to not run into anyone we knew, we were in for a surprise! We ran into a family that used to live in my hometown in Georgia while we were eating at Olive Garden. Strange, considering we were in the middle of nowhere! Wyoming is a very beautiful place though-the scenery is gorgeous and made for a nice drive.

The next morning we covered the rest of Wyoming and on through Montana. The drive through Montana was not too bad, but we were glad to finally reach the border to Canada late that Saturday evening. We crossed over around 7 P.M into Alberta and continued driving until we hit Lethbridge, about an hour north of the border. On Sunday, we covered a lot of territory-- all the way to Fort Nelson, British Columbia. This town is about 250 miles into the famous “Alk-Can” Trail (Mile 0 is in Dawson Creek, BC). After leaving Fort Nelson Monday morning (my 24th birthday!), we decided to pull an all-day and all-nighter to finish the trip. We drove on through the night and hit Alaska around 7 A.M. It was a beautiful sunrise as you can see from the pictures. We stopped for breakfast at the “Grumpy Grizzly Café” in Tok, Alaska where we met some tourists from Georgia. Afterwards, we pressed on and reached Fairbanks around 12 P.M Tuesday afternoon.

We had eventually driven about 1500 miles on this famous highway which ended in Fairbanks. The “Alk-Can” was amazing—there were creeks, lakes, rivers, and mountains everywhere you looked. We crossed the Continental Divide through the Northern Rockies which was a tough drive and slowed us down a bit. The wildlife was also amazing. We drove by buffalo, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, and deer, only having to stop once for a minor traffic jam when the buffalo decided to cross the road.

We were exhausted when we hit Fairbanks at noon, nonetheless. When we arrived, our first stop was the school district, followed by Wal-Mart. After dealing with some housing complications, we set off from Fairbanks to my village of Minto. The drive (about 125 miles) along the Elliot Highway is quite beautiful. However, the roads are very windy along the mountainous region which will make for a difficult drive when the ice and snow hit. The first 70 miles of my drive is part of the route from Ice Road Truckers (the t.v show on the History Channel). It was about 7:30 P.M before we arrived in Minto and it was all we could do to get the sheets/blankets out of the FJ Cruiser before falling asleep. At this point, we had been up for about 36+ hours.

My dad and I spent 5 nights in Minto unpacking and settling in as well as enjoying the beautiful scenery. On Sunday, we headed into Fairbanks to run some more errands. Monday, I started in-service training with my school district and unfortunately, my dad had to fly back to Atlanta. I will stay in Fairbanks through Sunday before heading back to the village. The following Monday and Tuesday are teacher work-days and Wednesday, the 18th, school starts back for the kids.

Stay tuned for new pictures and blog!!

The Scoop on ALASKA

As many of you already know, I recently accepted a school counseling position in the state of Alaska. I will be working with the Yukon-Koyukuk School District (YKSD) based out of Fairbanks, Alaska. The school district serves 9 small village schools along the Yukon, Koyukuk, and Tanana River. Only 2 of the villages can be reached via road system. I will be serving as the counselor of these 2 schools along with 2 others. Although I will serve between 4 schools (all which are K-12), my total number of students will only be around 100.

I will be living and primarily working in Minto, Alaska. It's about 40 air miles from Fairbanks but because of the river flats, the drive is about 120 miles. About once a month, I will drive to Manley and fly to Hughes and Allakaket for work. That's right, I said fly!! Because only 2 of the villages can be reached via road system, travel to the other villages is by small airplane. I consider myself lucky (since my "home" will be on the road system) because I can drive into Fairbanks on the weekends. Others living in the villages that are not on the road system must fly in and out of the bush which can be quite costly. If you don't know, rural Alaska is called the Alaskan Bush. If you are not living in a town (which there are very few), you live in the Alaskan Bush so to speak.

The students attending YKSD schools are primarily Alaska Natives. There are a number of native tribes in Alaska but in this area, most students are Athabascan.

Our school district sent 23 certified employees to Vail, Colorado last week for a week-long educational conference (PEAK Institute). I really enjoyed this week and was thankful for the opportunity to get to attend. I met some really great people that I will get to work with this fall. On top of receiving 40 hours of professional development (which is critical for educators), we got to do some hiking, horseback riding, bbq'ing, etc. It was really interesting getting to meet people from all over the country that have been or will be working in Alaska. Everyone is so unique and has something great to contribute to the students in YKSD.

I plan to arrive in Minto on August 5th. After settling in for a few days, I will drive into Fairbanks for a week of in-service training August 9th-13th. The entire school district attends the training so I think this is going to be a really fun week for everyone. The following Monday and Tuesday are teacher work-days in which I will use to get ready for the first day of school Wednesday, August 18th. I'm looking forward to a great year!!

More to come as I prepare for my adventure to Alaska.....