Free Ride
// June 27th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // 2010: The Workplace
After 2 weeks in transit, my bike finally arrived in Coldfoot. It had been sitting in the Fairbanks office for the past few days due to limited space on the planes and vans that travel to Coldfoot daily. Yesterday was like Christmas. My hiking boots and boat shoes arrived from LL Bean, my mattress pad, and my bike, of course. After reading about my negative experience with my return or attempted return, an LL Bean customer representative promised to send me a $50 gift card. My shoes and boots were also sent next-day air. As expected, they made right on the situation.
When I got out of work at 4:30, I assembled my bike and went for my first ride on the Dalton. The paved portion south of Coldfoot extends 60 miles to the Arctic Circle. I rode for about an hour and the climbs were very difficult. It is definitely going to be a nice workout riding here. Not to mention, it is a really liberating experience riding through the mountains. Come August, the road north to Wiseman will be newly paved. It is a lot flatter and covers 22 miles. After the ride, a few coworkers, including myself, went to down to the river for a picnic. We had an excellent steak and some merlot. The weather could not have been better.
On Thursday and Friday, which are my days off, I started applying for my VISA to study in the UK in the fall. It is a lengthy process and will require a trip to Anchorage in two weeks to get my “biometrics,” an unnecessarily fancy word for fingerprints and a photo. Anchorage is over 10 hours away. I will likely need to hitchhike there. I have to try and make the trip within my 2 days off so that I don’t miss work. The alternative is flying or taking the train, both of which are very costly.
