A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....10-19, 20-05...North to Alaska!

Mama_Bear

[DollyCali]

I jsut have media player also.

[Mama_Bear]

Hi Dolly. I am still playing around in Alaska, finding interesting photos to post even though everyone else has moved on to TGIF. LOL

This is the harbor at Kodiak. Look at all those boats!!

I am pinging Alaska007 because he has lived there for three years.

This is a Russian church there - The Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church, the oldest Orthodox parish in Alaska.......

[Gucho]

Try this one --> "North To Alaska"

[scubachick]

This is awesome! It brought tears to my eyes! My husband, who is more succinct than I, thought it was great and says "Thank you and it was an honor to serve my country!"

[scubachick]

LOL!! As most of the freepers know, I'm usually a day late and a dollar short! This is the first chance I've had to sit down and freep, between my husband, baby and dog! However, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Scubachick, Mr. Scubachick, Babychick and Rover!

[LadyX]

Thank you both for your comments near the end of yesterday's thread.
It has indeed been a life filled with wonderful variety.
Since it is not likely anyone else will see this reply, I will speak openly.

"Home" was never a physical place, but wherever God led me for His purposes - and that was a "fur piece"..:)

On the East Coast, born and reared in Florida, piecing together my trips, I've covered the East Coast from the Florida Keys up into Canada (living in 5 states along that line - Florida, SC, NC, VA and Rochester, NY).
Lived twice in Ohio - in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Fairbanks, Alaska.

I've driven above the Arctic Circle from the latter; and in 1966 a single VERY long journey from Fairbanks, down the Alaska Highway and Western Canada; down the Rockies and across the South - on down back through Florida to Ft. Lauderdale, and then up to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

There were great trips from Ohio through the Smokey Mountains to visit in the South, and from the 2nd time there moved to Panama City, Florida in 1978.

We of course roamed the Blue Ridge Mountains often in our 20 years in North Carolina.
With 4 years in Winston-Salem and 16 in Greensboro, we had easy access to the mountains and to several beaches in NC and SC.

With no love for cities and hustle and bustle, we in (medical) retirement stepped back to "Easy Living" in SC 10 years ago - my mother's home state, with forebears going back to the 1600's.
Our daughter lives upstate, and our two sons are in Florida.

It is so gratifying to see how God was with me in every place, every situation, solved impossible situations for me, and always "corrected my course" when necessary..:)
He never gave us monetary 'excess,' but my life has been loaded with His Riches!

The most awesome part is He more than once sent The Holy Spirit to directly speak to me...I do not say that lightly.
It was what it was, and is the source of profound joy and a sense of deep and abiding peace.

May He guide your lives and bless you abundantly.

[scubachick]

This made me go through a box of kleenex! Thank you for posting this and my prayers are with this brave woman!

[scubachick]

I just had to reply to this! You and Grammy were HOT STUFF!!

[LadyX]

Amazing, isn't it that Nan and I, TOO, once were young..:))

Did you ever see the writeup I did (under the AKA of Maggie Malone - Billie's Sometime Reporter) of when we met Face to Face 2 years ago?
She and Jack were going to Asheville to visit her brother, and swung down to Spartanburg, SC on their way.
Bernie and I live in Barnwell, SC and zipped up to Spartanburg, and we spent 20 action-packed hours with them!

Here is where that thread is, to read through sometime when your hubby is not home:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/956433/posts

Speaking of that, is your husband a Reservist, or Active Duty?
If the latter, where will he be stationed next? Prayers for you both and that so beautiful baby..:))

Hugs,
Great Aunt Margaret ??!

[Issaquahking]

Wow! Great page MB! I just got done walking around a pond here in Mesquite, Nevada. All around the pond it was posted "No throwing stones in the Pond", "No fishing without a Nevada Fishing License","No Diving,No Swimming or Wading", all in TWO languages. Ready to go back home to Alaska...Home of THE FREE, even if does get cold!!!

In closing, let me leave you with a great poem from by Robert Service...


The Cremation of Sam McGee

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
    By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
    That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
    But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
    I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that he'd "sooner live in hell".

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursed cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being dead -- it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say:
"You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows -- O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May".
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared -- such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; . . . then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm --
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
    By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
    That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
    But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
    I cremated Sam McGee.

More here!

[Victoria Delsoul]

That's a great poem; thanks for posting it.

[JustAmy]

Hello there, Issaquahking!!

Nice to see you at the Finest. Thank you for posting The Cremation of Sam McGee. It is a great poem by Robert Service.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. It hasn't been very cold in Fresno; I doubt that the weather in Mesquite is much different than here, and the posted signs sound about the same. :)

[Mama_Bear]

Wow! Great page MB!

Thanks, Issaquahking. I enjoyed creating it.

So, Alaska is "home"? I didn't know that. Are you native Alaskan? Are your roots there?

It is a land of contrasts, harsh and rugged, and beautiful at the same time. This is one of my favorite photos that I found while researching Alaska.....

Wild Things Photography ~ John Hyde

Thanks for posting the Robert Service poem. It is a perfect addition to this Alaska tribute. :-)

[Issaquahking]

Yuppers, over 40 years "up" there, and saw a good part of it!....Currently enjoying the heat of Nevada!


There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.


Still "tryin out" this "lower 48" thing. Have to admit that the winters do have have a few positive points down here!

[Mama_Bear]

Have to admit that the winters do have have a few positive points down here!

I hear you! The parts of Alaska I have seen have been breathtaking, but I saw them in the (relative) warmth of July. I have no intention of ever seeing any part of Alaska in January. I'm a desert bear. LOL

[Mama_Bear]

BTW, I am a dessert bear too. Either works. LOL < /silly>