Life has been flowing on, and I have been living it. I took the winter of 2022/23 off of driving and instead I stayed on-site at Borealis Basecamp where I was RA for staff housing and helped get their on-site laundry running. That part was wild! The equipment arrived too big to fit in the room they planned to use, so the washer went there while the dryer was placed in the housekeeping room that was the equivalent of 2 blocks away. We would use sleds to haul wet linens uphill to the dryer. But it worked!

At the end of April 2023 I became roommates with my friend’s daughter. She wanted to get out on her own and her planned roommate bailed on her. It has worked out for both of us. Especially since I also decided to try to see more of Alaska and took a job down in Ketchikan. I drive 2.5 hour tours for cruise passengers to look for wildlife and see totem poles. Yes, I’m using present tense because I returned for this summer. I feel like I have found my niche.

Once upon a time I thought I was going to be a teacher. I have always loved learning things and sharing with others. But I realized that I don’t love bureaucracy. I don’t want to deal with the school system. Then I became a bus driver because it paid the bills.

Today I am a tour driver/guide. This is my second summer in Ketchikan, but it started with keeping my shuttle guests entertained on the 45 minute drive to Basecamp. I wanted to give them a sense of place and an idea of what to look for. Last winter I also worked for another company that does small group, week-long Northern Lights tours in the Fairbanks area. That solidified my sense that I’m in the right industry, and it has given me ideas.

This site as a blog has not worked the way I would like. Most of that is on me. I hate to promise anything in case I can’t make it happen, but I want to start sharing some of what I am learning in my adventures. I mostly have my mom in mind. She will probably never make it up here to visit me so I want to bring my adventures to her and people like her. I want to share the cool things that I learn and maybe encourage people to find a way to have their own adventures. That means I have to learn how to do things on my own website. I’m intimidated, but I’ve done hard things before. Let me stretch my knowledge and abilities and see what I can do.