Logbook: Nuiqsut to Wasilla, entry 5, final: Jim

As always upon my return Jimmy went nuts with joy and relief to see me. I got a couple of frames off and then my iPhone went dead. I sat down at my computer for a few minutes. Jimmy was all over me, jumping onto my lap, climbing onto my shoulders, standing on my head, meowing both in happy greeting and scolding. I joined Margie and went to bed without finishing the logbook. It was 2:00 AM, I was tired and I figured it could wait until I got some sleep.

In Anchorage, the airport temperature had been -4F, downtown Wasilla -10 and -17 in our driveway. We got the fire stoked but the heat never really warmed up our bedroom. Jimmy got cold and so tapped on my head with a paw. I let him under the covers. After I fell asleep he decided he was warm and so slipped out and got on top of the covers. Pretty soon, he got cold again. He tapped me on the head again and woke me up. I let him back under. And so it went, all through the night until finally I got up.

Still, by my standards I slept pretty good.

Logbook: Nuiqsut to Wasilla, entry 3: picked up by wife

I didn't take pictures on the flight down because my battery was nearly dead. Three percent. We landed in Anchorage half-an-hour early, so I gave Margie a call to let her know. Now I had one percent charge. I have yet to buy a car charger for my iPhone 5s. I did not think the one percent would hold to Wasilla, but I took no pictures in Anchorage or anyplace in between but hoped somehow the charge would last until we reached Wasilla. I feared that it would take more battery power to turn the camera off and then back on, so I left it on. In Wasilla, I had to stop at a red light so I pulled out my iPhone and it still read 1 percent. I snapped this single frame. There was one more picture I had to get to make the logbook compete. Would the charge hold? 

Logbook: Nuiqsut to Wasilla, entry 3: A nearly empty jet

The jet out of Barrow was nearly empty. Ten people boarded. Among them was Alice Glenn @alyalyalice along with a young man who I had never seen before. I was not going to let a fellow Instagrammer go uninstagrammed. Alice introduced me to her boyfriend Alan from Florida. Not only had this been his first trip to Barrow but on this day he had taken his first snowmachine ride. He had enjoyed Barrow, Alan said. The snowmachine ride was great. Florida is even farther away in distance and climate than Mobile, Alabama, but Alan received his introduction to the Arctic from his beautiful girlfriend - and that made all the difference. 

Logbook: Nuiqsut to Wasilla, entry 3: smile from an old familiar face

As I climb the stairs to board Alaska Airlines and depart Barrow, a woman comes down the stairs. Lest there be any confusion, the smile referenced in the title is the one on the jet's vertical stabilizer.

Logbook: Nuiqsut to Wasilla, entry 2: Barrow - a surprise greeting from a man with a 29 day-old beard and his dad

The distance between Era Aviation in Barrow where I would land and Alaska Airlines were I would soon depart again is very short, but still I was a little concerned about the transition. I left Nuiqsut with much more than I had arrived with, including an ice chest full of frozen maktak and frozen bowhead meat, frozen Qaaqtaq and other Native foods, plus a polished blade of baleen Edward had given me. It was going to be a bear to try and drag it all, my two original pieces of luggage, my camera gear and computer over the icy road from one air service to the other.

Right after I stepped inside the Era Aviation terminal from the airport side, Roy Ahmaogak and his dad Savik stepped in from the parking lot side. They knew I was landing and would need help getting my gear from Era to Alaska Airlines and so came to give it to me. Roy's beard was now 29 days old. November has been the month set aside to grow beards to raise awareness and funds to fight colon cancer, so that's what Roy has been doing. Come December 1, he plans to shave it off. I plan to keep mine. Their help was greatly appreciated.