They civilize freedom
Till no one is free
no one except by coincidence me
~ Paint Your Wagon
It’s hard to believe how fast this season has gone – I mean wasn’t it only yesterday that I got here?
With September so nearly upon us, Alaska is well…closing down. Soon we will turn the great state over to locals, moose and wolves and the chill of winter. Not for the first time a part of me is tempted to stay here, to see what it’s like after the tourist shops and the endless jewlery stores have packed up and followed us south for the winter. On more than one occasion Amras and I have joked about missing the ship – though really such things are not meant to be joked about.
Every week we come back from now on there will be more empty store fronts, more vacant windows. By the time we leave it really will feel like just us and the timber wolves.
That’s far from a bad thing really, Alaska becomes wonderfully peaceful when all the people have disappeared from it, you start to get a sense of what it must have been like before we somewhat invaded…
I read a travelouge once that said that when cruise ships first started calling here the locals used to be able to walk right on, no security, no nothing…and the ships themselves were lifeboats compared to us. Overnight all that changed, and in came the mega-ships (a classification for which my employer does not qualify and I hope we never will) and then came 9/11 and in came “authorized visitors only”.
I’ll miss Alaska this season; more so than usual. It’s given me a lot, it very nearly took a lot from me – but that’s another story altogether – and I’ve learned never again to question what might be waiting for me at the bottom of a glacier. But really, this Alaska season has been more about cupcakes, pool tables and pinball machines…
I never did win at pinball…but there are still a few calls left to change that.