Thirty Three Thousand Feet

One especially beautuful trip home last winter. Take a deep breath before you enlarge the photo.

 

 

As I write this tonight I am heading south over the Alaska Range at 33,000 feet listening to Anjani Thomas on the headphones on my way home from my two-week hitch in Kuparuk, Alaska (North Slope oil field).

As I look out my window I see an unending expanse of frigid snow-covered mountains. The whiteness of the mountains blends with the clouds and the two meld together as one. The Sun is setting low on the right side of the aircraft as we fly due south and the entire western sky is a fiery red. I wish you could see this. It is truly breathtaking.

The mountains beneath are among the most remote in the country. There are thousands of square miles of mostly unexplored valleys and rivers. Only the caribou and bear and wolves and musk ox and fox inhabit this frontier. And that is not by accident. The winters in these mountains are brutal. Honestly I don’t know how the wildlife survives in the cold that often dips down to minus forty degrees, or below.

It’s a one-and-a-half hour flight to Anchorage in the Boeing 737 and most folks aboard have settled in. Many sleep, others read. Some are enjoying a beverage to reward themselves for their two or three or four week hitch. All are thinking of home by now. Their kids, their wife or husband, the family dog they’ve missed petting. Some will layover in Anchorage and catch a flight out later tonight headed for Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, or beyond. Others, like me, will catch a commuter flight to other towns in south-central. And still others will be minutes from their homes when we arrive in Anchorage.

Most everyone is tired from working 7-12s or more for at least two weeks. But it’s a good tired. It’s a feeling that we’ve done our part and our alternates can handle it now for a while.

At this moment Anjani is singing “Angel By My Side” and the tears are gently trickling down my cheeks. I’m sure the lady in the seat next to me must think I’m deranged. That’s okay, I don’t mind when God touches so gently. I don’t cry on planes very often but the cabin is growing darker now and I’m not making a scene. The lady just settled back and closed her eyes. She must have decided I wasn’t going berserk.

Music is one of the great gifts from God. Few other things can influence how we feel or what we think the way music does. That’s one of the reasons I love to write my songs. My hope is that others will feel what I was feeling at that moment. But I digress…

The sky is growing dark now and soon the stars above the plane will become visible. I think the moon has been full this week so it should be really pretty as we leave the Alaska Range behind, pass by Mt. McKinley and Mt. Foraker on the right side of the plane, and head on in to Anchorage.

Sometimes I wouldn’t trade this particular flight for anything. I wish you could be here flying over my Alaska to see this right now. Oops, there’s Mt. McKinley and Mt. Foraker just to the southwest. McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America and at over 20,000 feet it is stunning.

The pilot just throttled back and we’ll be on the ground “in town” in twenty minutes. I’m almost home.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you guys!

Reviews

[Emily B]

Dale! I just read it again like it was the first time ever. You touched my heart again. You took me there with you. I reached to brush away those well-earned tears. I'm sure of it.

Loveliness and more. Especially the way we love our home turf.

[Deborah Leah Krempa]

When my son was alive he always talked about wanting to live in Alaska. Your writing's make it sound so beautiful. I just don't know about getting use to that kind of cold weather though, brr... Thank you for sharing such a wonderful writing. Debileah

[Emily B]

I would love to see your Alaska. It sounds breath-taking. I couldn't stay long though, there's no place like my Kentucky.

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I feel as if I just have seen it too. Thank you so much. I enjoyed your writing. I particularly liked the scene you painted in my mind of the wildlife in the mountains. Best wishes, Bethlynne.

[Carole]

Very descriptive. It sounds breath taking. The picture alone is like something out of a magazine. This piece is very educational. I hope to get to see this piece of God's creation before He comes back. If not, having you share about it and looking at your pictures is at least a birds eye view. As always, thanks for the trip A. K. I think you could be a tour guide.