766: The Cure, Part 1
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 12:08 am
I'm incredibly excited for this Alaskan adventure! The first part has definitely met my expectations. I didn't know what to think at the beginning when Wooton was being silly, but once we met Mr. Pagaran and the adventures started rolling, I was happy.
Notes:Taq wrote:I haven't listened to Adventures in Odyssey (or visited this board) in a long, long time.
The main reason I joined is to listen to the new episode to be released about Carry the Cure and Alaska! I've been an Alaskan resident for a couple years now and may personally get in touch with Carry the Cure this season. I first heard about the ministry when my mom met the founder at a church in Maryland. Then, the founder of Carry the Cure was a guest speaker at my church in Alaska last year, but I missed him due to being out of town.
- Serum Run – I actually did not know about this!
- I've watched part of the Iditarod Ceremonial Start for the past two years. The Ceremonial Start is when the teams prance around the city the day before starting the race at another location. You can stand on the sidelines and cheer. Many kids stick their hands out, and the mushers slap their hands as they pass.
- Mount McKinley vs. Denali - It's true, everyone calls North America's highest peak "Denali." I've been to Denali National Park twice (took a bus tour deep into the park where saw I bears and other wildlife and of course gorgeous scenery) and once even saw the mountain up close from a tiny plane.
- I'm excited for the return of Jeff Lewis! I'm intrigued as they fly into the storm.
- I recognized all of the villages listed as part of the Iditarod trail like Nikolai and McGrath.
- "There’s no place like Nome." I've heard this before. I'm actually going to Nome for a week in April for work!
- Wooton mentioned the Muskox Farm and the Reindeer Farm. I haven't been to the Muskox Farm, but I went to the Reindeer Farm last summer. You can hand feed them; it's really messy but worth it for the experience.
- The higher rates of suicide, depression, etc. is true.
- How much darkness and light you get depends on where you live. In Anchorage, daylight cycles between ~5 hours (December) and ~20 hours (June). If you live in a northern village like Barrow, there are complete days of light and darkness.
- In the documentary, I've been to the Iditarod Headquarters as well as an Iditarod dog kennel.
- In the documentary, the girl was from Trapper Creek, which is tiny. Most of the state's population lives in Anchorage (the "big" city of ~300,000), and a lot are scattered throughout tiny villages, many only accessible by boat or snow machine. (They're not called snowmobiles here.) It's true that a lot of people fish and hunt (since being here, I've dipnetted once--put a big net into the Kenai River and waited for salmon to swim into the net as they're headed upstream-- as well as shot pistols and rifles for the first time.) Yeah, the kuspuks is a traditional blouse. In terms of building your own house, I'd say that is more common for villages vs. the city.
