I left the clouds behind when I crossed the coast over Alaska. This part of Alaska is a broad alluvial plain, green and relatively flat, with streams and rivers running from the mountains to the sea. Ahead was a small mountain range and after that Anchorage. The city sits at the end of a long bay, Cook Inlet. As I descended I had to be careful since right next door to the city airport is Elmendorf Air Base. It wouldn’t do to land at the wrong airport.
And don’t think that doesn’t happen. In a plane, a mile distance isn’t much at all, especially if you are concentrating on other things, like a lot of traffic in the air. You see the runway from ten miles out and you become fixated on that point. You never notice the runway is the wrong number. You are concentrating on hitting your spot. A couple years ago a commercial jet landed in the wrong city. Talk about red faces. How do you explain that to the passengers and the media? I requested flight following and asked for steering so that the ATC guy guided me in. If I landed in the wrong place, it would be his fault, not mine, although in truth the FAA always blames the pilot when their folks make a mistake.
After landing and getting the plane ready for the next day, I grabbed a taxi into town getting a room near a wildlife park. There was a bicycle rental right there. I rented a bike and followed a trail out of town. I was riding along not paying much attention when I rounded this little bend and almost ran smack into the side of a moose.
If you have never seen a moose, in the wild it isn’t anything like Bullwinkle. That damn overgrown deer looked like the side of a building. It was standing there looking at me and I couldn’t do a thing. One summer, my folks had loaded us kids in the station wagon and took us to our uncle’s farm. I had been in the pasture with the bull and he scared the bejeepers out if me back then. This moose was bigger.
I slowly started peddling again, back the way I had come, until I was back around the bend then I put on some speed. It wasn’t until later that I realized that moose was standing right next to the paved trail and there were bicycles and runners all over the place. He probably wondered why I had stopped and was curious. But damn, I could just see that sucker charging. I don’t know moose.
I turned in the bike and decided to do the tourist thing in the city. Art galleries were just fine, thank you very much. The pictures of moose were just fine. I didn’t need to run into the dirty smelly real things. I had dinner while the sun was still high in the air. It was still late afternoon, at least it felt that way, when I looked at my watch and discovered it was ten p.m.
Holy shit, ten and the sun was still way above the horizon. I had a long flight in the morning. I high-tailed it to my hotel and hit the rack setting the alarm for early.
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