Getting around Bethel

We've been spoiled for the past two weeks with beautiful weather. It's been mostly sunny, getting cooler but nothing too bad. However, today brought some very blustery rain. It hasn't stopped since this morning and we're now getting frost on the ground every morning. Brr! I skipped visiting the vegetable stand at Meyers Farm; perhaps it will clear up for their hours on Wednesday.

Apologies for the lack of pictures of us around town. Marshall has been at work and I don't see the need to drag the tripod around. But I promise action photos soon. I picked Marshall up from work last night and he got a shot of me driving up on the atv.

Speaking of, here is where we bought our new vehicle: Swanson's Polaris shop. Swanson's is one of the two big stores in town, and they have a separate building for snowmachines and atvs. Though the shop is privately owned. Not sure how it works, but the owner is super nice. Everyone here uses the term snowmachine as opposed to snowmobile. When in Rome . . .

You can also see a pretty good shot of what Bethel roads look like. Only about two roads in town are paved, one being the main highway - Chief Eddie Hoffman Hwy. Yes, we refer to it as the highway.

Our atv

The Tahoe will arrive next week on the barge. It will be nice for inclement weather or picking things up at the cargo airline. However, the atv is more useful in town and gets much better gas mileage. At about $6.75 per gallon, it wasn't as painful at the gas station:

Bethel is the transportation and economic hub of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region. We have an airport that connects to Anchorage and the nearby villages. And when I say nearby, I could be talking about a village hours away. It's nothing fancy but it does the job (most of the time). Unfortunately, cancelled and delayed flights are pretty common due to weather. There are also a number of smaller airline companies that fly all over the region and bring in cargo from Anchorage. Some of you watch Flying Wild Alaska, which chronicles the family that own Era Airlines. I haven't ordered from them yet, but they are in town.

Yeah, we don't even have a ramp. it is going to be very chilly in the winter getting off the plane!

Most people keep their boats in their yard, but you can park them in the slough. There is still plenty of river traffic right now. Fishing season is pretty much over, though a lot of people have been going up-river to hunt moose.

And there are lots of people who fly here. Marshall and are amazed at the conditions people fly in; similar weather in Florida would have been off-limits for us. This is H. Marker Lake, one of a few lakes in town. In the winter, people use it as a road and short-cut across town. And yes, quite a few residents park their planes at their house.

Taxis are one of the most popular ways to get around town. However that deserves its own post; taxis are ubiquitous here. :)