I passed a promising korean place (have really been craving asian food and Becca told me about her trip to a Korean bbq place last friday. I'm convinced she's just reminding me of all the good food in nyc to make sure I come back. It's working.) and got a room at a motel so I could check into the real world for a minute and take care of misc. bills and whatnot. The girl at the front desk was absentmindedly doodling the name "Joey" over and over again. I made an offhand comment about it, and found out that it was her husband, soon to be deploying to Iraq for his second or third tour. I asked her to pass along my thanks, to which she responded with typically military family humility.
The next day, Friday, I was supposed to meet Travis, who works up in Fairbanks and lives in North Pole. He had a job to attend to, so I was on my own for the day. I stopped at the Korean place (Koreana in Fairbanks on South Cushman. Excellent Korean food. Had some dumplings and Bulgogi, and was loving life. After that, I went to the Salvation Army, to see if I could indulge one of my other habits - collecting records. They had the usual smattering of Mantovani and Streisand, but I picked up a few albums, most noteworthy being Roberta Flack. I asked them where else I might find some vinyl, and they told me in forboding terms about a pawn shop in town. They were not pleased with the operation (any aspect) but felt that they might have some selection.
When I walked into the pawn shop, I saw what caused the trepidation on the part of the SA people. A bit shady. I asked about records and was shown the customary haphazard collection of christmas albums and other crap. I looked through it for a bit and was on my way out when the guy said "We do have some more records downstairs if you want..."
"well sure, I'll take a look." He showed me a room full of random stuff, but most importantly piled with records. There were about 8,000 albums in boxes, some alphabetized, some not. I spent the next 3 hours going through the collection and picked out some extraordinary finds. Zeppelin, Clapton, Dylan, Duke Ellington, a pristine box set of the Concert for Bangladesh, most of Bowie's catalogue, and all in pristine, mostly unplayed condition. For a record lover it was pretty much a dream come true. I am still psyched about it, and have duly promised Becca to get rid of an equal number of albums when I get home.
I met Travis and his wife in his shop, and we chatted while he was finishing up. It turns out he works in a print shop, and works with machines that Becca's familiar with in her job. I put her on speaker and they bonded for a bit. We then went to Silver Gulch, a place in Fairbanks with some great beers and great food. Talked politics with Travis and his wife (we share a very similar outlook on the political landscape) and marvelled at his 6 year old (fully the smartest of us at the table) and his 2 week old (cutest at the table).
We went back to Travis' place, ogled his trucks (a 40, 2 60s, an 80, and a '41 Dodge Power Wagon that served in Norway in WW2. More politickin' and it was bedtime.
Saturday we woke up and hit a gunshow. There really is a groundswell of fear (I believe justified) that Obama is going to target gun ownership in all of its forms, and as such, the show was full of people looking for ammo and other items in short supply. I saw a few nice rifles which would have gone really well with my shotgun, but I remembered I don't have a job, and the trip through Canadian customs was interesting enough the first time. Then again, according to my theory, I would be better off with two guns than one....
I didn't get the chance to take many pictures, but I'll leave you with one of the pipeline and one of the cool machines Travis gets to work with.
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