Find Your Way Back

Two years ago, my husband and I made our first excursion to Alaska. He had heard Clark Howard talk about cheap tickets to Anchorage as he was driving back from one of his weeks out in Southern Georgia. If I hadn't mentioned it before, he is an archeologist and spends at least 40 of the 52 weeks out in the field. He called me on his cell phone, I got on line, and the next thing I knew, we had tickets to Anchorage. This was in February, and the tickets were for August.

Two years later, we decided to do a similar trip, this time taking my Mom (If you have been a loyal reader, you know my Dad died in November, 05) and we thought she would enjoy the trip. In March, this time, I got a little voice in my head that said go check travelocity for tickets--and amazingly enough, they were on sale. Tickets from Atlanta to Anchorage, for just over 300/person.

I spent several weeks trying to figure out a schedule that would get the most in with the availability of places in Homer, Seward, Denali, and Anchorage. Things get booked up early in the year, so there was no time to waste. Schedules made, it was just a mater of waiting and waiting and waiting until August.

I should have been forewarned when my friend in Sitka had complained of how cold and wet summer had been. So we made it to Anchorage with no problems other than leaving my cell phone in the terminal in Chicago. We found a hotel while on the plane waiting to take off to Anchorage, and the next day picked up our rental car and drove to Homer. It was the first of many rainy days.

We stopped in Soldatna for fishing licenses and food, and arrived in Homer just in time to check into our digs for the next four days. We lucked into finding a two bedroom cabin with a full kitchen so we had all the comforts of home, including a dog who seemed to magically appear every time we cooked.

So, here were my impressions of Homer after two years.

There is now only one gas station--used to be three.
Groceries that used to be 20% higher than Atlanta were now 50% higher.
The oil craziness has had a major role in decimating Homer. Yet, somehow, Homer continues to be the salvation for those that need it the most.

In the major drug store, I asked the clerk how she ended up in Homer.(One of those questions I always like to ask). She told me that it was a long story, but God brought her to Homer, and it had been a miracle. This was a common story I had heard two years prior.

What is it about a place like Homer--way the "hell" out of anywhere that draws people in and helps them that have lost their way find it again? Sometimes I feel jealous that they have found their "home", when I still seem to be searching for mine.

This trip, I did feel a little more like a "local". I found the other couple of grocery stores other than Safeway, and went to both of them. The U-Store It was amazing, from garam masala to french butter, from dried cherries to fishing gear. You could be English, Irish, French, German, as well as Russian, Asian, and Mexican) Everyone was represented in that store. (I applaud you)

The bottom line was things have changed. I don't see the same spirit of oneness that I saw two years ago, and may be it was the weather, but maybe it is a statement of how our government can change things, not always for the better---but for the rich, the fancy--those that can afford it, leaving the rest of us behind to wishful think and hope.