Is It Colder In Texas Than Alaska This Week?

I learned this morning on Facebook, via Miss Julie, the Reigning Queen of Assumption, that apparently currently we are colder in Texas than those shivering in Alaska this week.

Somehow I find that a bit hard to believe.

Currently my outer world in Texas is being heated to ten degrees above freezing.

This morning when I woke up my temperature monitoring devices I had a confusing conflict. My phone told me it  was 40 degrees at my location. My online local news source also indicated it was 40 degrees.

However, my computer based temperature monitoring device was telling me it was 32 degrees, as in freezing. I clicked on that freezing information to see I'd set the temperature monitoring device to monitor the temperature in my old home zone of Mount Vernon. I switched the location to Fort Worth to find the temperature now matching my other temperature monitoring devices.

So, I find it hard to believe that Mount Vernon, located where it is, in the heart of what is known as the Western Washington Banana Belt, barely freezing, is colder than the far north, as in, in Alaska, where I suspect, in much of the state, the temperature is well below freezing.

On a temperature related note, I had myself a mighty fine time in the hot tub this morning, watching clouds flying by from the south. Great big masses of clouds in odd formations moving so fast the sky would temporarily clear and then cloud up again. It was hypnotic.

I am going to try and ride my bike again. I am assuming the door that gives me access to my bike is no longer frozen shut....

Alaska's Little Sister, Texas, Is Cute According To My New T-Shirt

I remembered to check my mailbox on my way back from getting birthday party supplies and found a package with the return address being one I recognized, that being Rosie the Rat Dog (and my sister's address) in Kent, Washington.

Are they already back from Alaska, I wondered to myself.

And then closer perusal of the package showed that the package had been mailed from Haines, Alaska.

Haines, Alaska is the last place we have heard anything from Rosie the Rat Dog and her entourage, that being via a blogging on Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! blog titled Hungry No More.

I opened the package from Alaska to find the amusing t-shirt you see above. I did not realize Alaska was that much bigger than the teeny state of Texas. I did realize Texas was cuter than Alaska.

Rosie The Rat Dog's Grizzly Bear & Sarah Palin Encounters In Alaska

Rosie the Rat Dog and her entourage have now made it to the Valdez zone of Alaska.

The latest entry on Rosie's Alaska! Blog has some really good pictures of grizzly bear encounters, like the one you are looking at here, in a blogging appropriately titled "Stay in your car."

The only place I've been where I had dozens of bear encounters, none of them grizzlies, was at Stehekin, on Lake Chelan, in Eastern Washington.

Rosie's pictures of all sorts of critters having a salmon feeding are something I don't recollect seeing before.

I also do not recollect ever seeing a picture of my sister paddling a kayak so close to a glacier before.

Does my sister not know that in summer glaciers break off humongous chunks of ice that are known as icebergs? And that it is likely a bit dangerous to get too close?

What with all the bears, moose, dodging icebergs and visiting Sarah Palin in Wasilla, I am appalled at all the dangerous situations to which Rosie the Rat Dog is leading her entourage.

Looks fun though.

In Alaska Rosie The Rat Dog Finds Humpbacks, Orcas, Otters & New Words

An Otter On Ice In The Gulf Of Alaska

The latest update of Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! Blog has the best scenery yet.

In a blogging inexplicably titled Tails, Fins and Eyes you take a boat ride out into the Gulf of Alaska where you'll see giant glaciers, humpback whales, sea lions, orcas and otters, among other things.

The nicknames of the humans who Rosie the Rat Dog looks after are Otter and Penguin, hence the Internet handle of otterpengu.

I've never had explained to me the reason for the Otter/Penguin nicknames, but I can guess that it might have something to do with a resemblance to those cute critters.

I am enjoying the written commentary on the Alaska! Blog. It is written in a very purple prose style, like what a pioneer woman might write whilst crossing America on the Oregon Trail back in the 1860s.

I particularly enjoy the imaginative spelling and new word inventions. I think my favorite new word may be "fastination."

I am not certain, but I think "fastination" means being fascinated by scenery one sees when traveling at a high rate of speed.  I may be wrong about this.

Rosie The Rat Dog At The North Pole With Ice Museum Appletinis

I am finding the Rosie the Rat Dog Alaska! Blog to be very educational.

For instance, I had no idea there was a McDonald's at the North Pole. I knew Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus lived at the North Pole, but I had no idea the town was candy cane themed, including the McDonald's.

I also had no idea the mosquitoes are really as big in Alaska as they have always been rumored to be. I saw photo documentation of the North Pole and Big Mosquitoes in Rosie's blogging titled I'm a Believer.

I do not know, for sure, what Rosie and Entourage are believing. Is it that Santa Claus is real? Or that the mosquitoes in Alaska are enormous?

I think it was after visiting Santa Claus at the North Pole that Rosie directed the RV towards Chena Hotsprings. Apparently the water in the Hotsprings was too hot for the girl's delicate constitutions, so they left the hot water and went to the Chena Hotsprings Ice Museum.

In Rosie's blogging titled The Thirsty Brrrr! the Ice Museum looked pretty cool. In more ways than one. The girls had to wear provided parkas to keep warm in the chilled to 20 degrees museum.

Apparently there is overnight lodging in the Ice Museum for only $600 per person. You are provided a caribou fur blanket. But there are no restroom facilities. I am almost 100% Rosie did not stay overnight in the Ice Museum.

The Ice Museum has a chilly bar where Appletinis are served in a carved from ice cocktail glass.

From the photo documentation it appears one drinks ones Appeltini bare handed. Seems like one would get cold.

In my current location, where the outer world is heated to 90 degrees an hour before noon, being in an Ice Museum having an icy Appletini sounds like a real good thing. Someone should open an Ice Museum in North Texas.

Rosie The Rat Dog Getting Dirty On Top Of The World

Rosie the Rat Dog and her Entourage have blogged again. This time in a blogging titled Color between black and white that I don't quite understand.

It may have something to do with the fact that they finally made it to a place where they could wash the dirt off their vehicles, that being a place called Tok, Alaska.

I have been a bit confused by the tales of treacherous roads, with me thinking the Alaska Highway is not supposed to be all that treacherous anymore.

Well.

Rosie directed her entourage off the Alaska Highway somewhere around Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. This eventually had them on a road called the Top of the World Highway. I believe this was still in Canada. A couple hours after getting past customs and back in the USA the road turned into something called the Taylor Highway, eventually ending in a town called Chicken.

I'm guessing the name of the town has something to do with most people being chicken to drive the highway to get there.

There are some gorgeous photos on Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! Blog. There was a moose encounter whilst kayaking. More bear encounters. And other encounters.

I'm starting to think a roadtrip to Alaska sounds fun.

Electronic Postcards From Alaska

Postcards are so last century.

I've decided Travel Blogs are the postcards of this century.

Til something better comes along.

Currently I am taking two virtual trips to Alaska, one on land, one on water.

The water trip began in late March, starting in Nanaimo, British Columbia, slowly floating north to Alaska, doing a lot of fishing and catching a lot of fish along the way. I've lost track of how many King Salmon have been caught.

I'll call the boatbound people "The Fishers" because that is sort of their name. I've not asked if it was okay if I shared their blog, so I won't. But I did swipe a cool picture from their latest blog post. That being a humongous moon rising above a snowy mountain. The Fishers currently have made it as far north as Sitka.

I saw The Fishers here in Fort Worth, back in September of 2010. They were passing through town towing a boat they'd bought south of Houston. The boat serves as a transit ship from the mother ship, that being this humongous yacht type vessel The Fishers had built for them at some boat building place down in the Los Angeles zone.


The Fishers having a smaller boat on their bigger boat is the water based equivalent of the Rosie the Rat Dog entourage towing a SUV behind their RV.

Rosie the Rat Dog and her entourage have now made it to Alaska. They successfully ferried across the Yukon River yesterday, entering Alaska.

My sister emailed me pictures, this morning, of the ferry crossing and the Welcome to Alaska sign, among others. But, these pictures have not been blogged yet. Apparently it may be a few days before they are back in an Internet enabled zone.

My sister's description of yesterday's leg of their journey is amusing....

Hey, we survived the ferry crossing today and last night's sunset was the most amazing one I have ever seen! It finally set after 12:45 this morning!  Today's drive was only  187 miles and it took ALL DAY!  The road was dirt and gravel, potholes and gravel, steep slopes and gravel and one grizzly bear!!!!  Not many guard rails along dropoffs, the sort of road that, as a kid, would have had me crying. Right now we are in Tok, Alaska, our phones now work and we may stay here two days to do laundry and to just sit still.

I believe that picture at the top is the sunset my sister is referencing.

My sister's reference to driving a road with steep dropoffs and that type thing causing her to cry as a kid is so true. Dropoffs and a lightning storm would send her into hysterics. I remember the worst steep dropoffs sister hysterics happened on our first trip to Yellowstone National Park. At that point in time Interstate 84 was under construction, that being a much improved road to take vehicles from the Columbia Valley up into the Blue Mountains of Oregon and the Umatilla National Forest, and beyond.

Before the freeway was built, part of the road up into the Blue Mountains, on the route to La Grande and beyond, was called Dead Man's Pass. That name alone was enough to make my sister nervous. The road itself twisted and turned, switchbacking to gain elevation. With very steep dropoffs.

Well, our car overheated. It was a new Chevy Impala and it was prone to overheating when called upon to pull a trailer up a steep hill. My dad had to pull off to the side of the road, right where the dropoff was steep. My brother and I were loving it. My sister not so much. I think it may have been my brother, or it may have been me, who said, we are slipping over the side.

This set my sister off into hysterics. My brother and I found this funny at the time. I vaguely remember we got in some sort of trouble for causing our sister to cry.

Near the summit of Deadman's Pass sits Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area, a state park, where we camped for the night after the ordeal of passing Deadman's Pass. At that point in time you could still see the wagon wheel ruts of the Oregon Trail.

Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! Blog is making me want to go on a roadtrip. Not to Alaska though.

I just remembered one more amusing thing in my sister's email that gives you an idea of what wimps Pacific Northwesterners are when it gets just a little bit warm...

Cloudy out right now after a day with the temps over 80 degree's. Right now we are in the motor home with the a/c running, as it is so hot out.

80 degrees? Right now at my location it is 96 with the humidity making it feel like 109.  I also have my a/c running. Whining about the temperature apparently is in my DNA.

Hiking The HOT Tandy Hills Thinking About Lunch At Camp 18 With Elsie Hotpepper

The outer world was heated to 91 degrees when I hit the hills today. The humidity was 51%, which had the Heat Index registering at 102. The predicted high for today is 98 with the Heat Index a HOT 110.

Summer does not arrive for over a week.

In the picture we are looking north towards Alaska on a trail located near the heart of the Tandy Hills.

Today I realized my sister, ex-wife and 3 dogs have been heading north to Alaska since last Wednesday and I have not heard from them.

My sister told me I would be being sent pictures that I was expected to blog. Others were told to be expecting to see pictures on the aforementioned blog, including my mom.

By now the Alaska bound caravan should be well north of the border, deep into British Columbia.

Speaking of other people up north.

I got a postcard today from Elsie Hotpepper, sent from her namesake town of Elsie, Oregon. I do not know if Elsie stopped in Elsie at the Camp 18 Restaurant and Logging Museum.

I do know Elsie Hotpepper is an aficionado of anything that has anything to do with logging.

Snowzilla in Alaska

For days I've been reading about this giant snowman---up in the only state bigger than Texas, known as Alaska---that's been dubbed "Snowzilla". Supposedly appearing overnight, with no one taking credit for rolling the balls to make the man.

Snowzilla has appeared the last 3 years in the Anchorage front yard of a junk dealer named Billy Powers. Billy claims to know nothing about Snowzilla. However he seems quite smitten with this year's mystery Snowman, asking a reporter if he'd "seen him." And telling the reporter that "he's handsome." He being the Snowman, not the reporter. Maybe the reporter is also handsome, I don't know, that wasn't part of the story.

Each year, when Snowzilla appears, he's bigger, and apparently, more handsome, than the year before. This year he has grown to being 25 feet tall.

Due to all the Alaskans wanting a personal look at Snowzilla, it creates a serious traffic jam.

This year the city said Snowzilla was a public nuisance and a safety hazard, due to being so big he could become an avalanche. A cease and desist order was issued and tacked to Power's door.

City officials said Snowzilla increased traffic to the point of being dangerous and that Snowzilla, itself, was unsafe. Due that avalanche danger, I suppose.

Anchorage's Mayor, Mark Begich, issued a statement saying the city stands behind its moves to take down Snowzilla, saying, "This property owner has repeatedly ignored city attempts to find ways to accommodate his desire to build a giant snowman without affecting the quiet, residential quality of the neighborhood. This is a neighborhood of small homes on small lots connected by small streets. It can't support the volume of traffic and revelers that are interested in Snowzilla."

The mayor's office claims that for 13 years Powers has been running an illegal junk and salvage operation from his home in violation of land use codes. And that he owes Anchorage more than $100,000 in fines and other charges.

Powers claims it is the city that is the problem, not him. That he's jumped through every goofy hoop they've sent him, that he's never been confrontational, that some of the city's charges are unfounded and just plain outrageous.

The city says it will take no further action against Powers. Til after Christmas.

Meanwhile, here at my location in Fort Worth, no snow, not freezing and no chance of a White Christmas tomorrow.

Sarah Palin Charged Victims For Rape Exam Kits

This morning I was talking to a New York Times reader about the Sarah Palin ongoing in-over-her-head meltdown. I was told that the New York Times had an article about Sarah Palin's town of Wasilla charging rape victims for the exam kit that police use to gather evidence.

I thought this was ridiculous. That it couldn't be true. But it was in the New York Times. That's not like some tabloid or the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The NY Times is a respected, by many, real newspaper.

Googling quickly provided proof that this bizarre story is true.

After Sarah Palin became mayor of Wasilla, Alaska she did some budget slashing. It was decided to pass the costs of rape exams off to the victims. The exam kits cost ranges from $500 to $1200.

Sarah Palin also believes that an abortion should not be allowed for a rape victim.

Meanwhile, this charging the victims for rape exam kits became such an embarrassment to the rest of Alaska that the state legislature passed a law to stop it.

I thought, Wasilla is a little itty bitty town, how many rapes can there be in that little town? Well, apparently quite a few. Alaska's sex assault rate is America's worst, 2 and 1/2 times the rate for the other 49 states.

The Huffington Post has a good article about this Sarah Palin embarrassment.