Remote Living

My last post was written from the roads of California. I have since returned to Fairbanks and enjoyed a week of - 40 degrees. What a welcome! I promise I will dig out a few more pictures from our LA adventures. However this post will focus on access: access from a remote community like the one I live in. To be honest, Fairbanks is not really considered a remote city in Alaska. Remote means a tiny village that can only be accessed by plane. We have roads leading to Fairbanks. However this week I was reminded how far away from things we sometimes are. It all started when some guy got kicked out of the local bar James worked at on Friday night. This guy got so upset about being kicked out that he attacked the first car he saw outside. It was ours. He punched a big hole in the passenger side back window. You know, that sorta triangular one. With - 40 degrees out it was pretty important for us to replace the window as soon as possible. So I called a place in town that replaces car windows. They referred me to another place, that referred me to another place. No one had that specific window for that specific Subaru. So they all referred me to a place in Wasilla: 300 miles away. Wasilla Knik Wreck and Towing sure enough had a matching window, but they do not ship to Fairbanks. Only one company ships glass to Fairbanks from the Anchorage area, and their shipment would take a week and be expensive. Ordering a new window would be $ 700. So after much research it seemed that the cheapest and fastest option was for us to drive to Wasilla and pick up the window. 600 miles later. We successfully drove down and picked up the glass. However isn't it crazy that driving 600 miles was the cheapest and fastest solution? Conveniency is not why you live in Fairbanks, Alaska.
On the bright side the mountains were pretty and we caught a glimpse of several moose' ass on the highway.