Well I am ending my first trip to Fort Greely, Alaska. What beautiful country and empty. It was amazing how little traffic there was. Definitely a different experience.
Which I should have guessed when I picked up my rental car. Boeing has a contract with Avis, which is Avis all over the world, in Alaska they have Avis, I know; it’s on the sign in white letters on a red background. So I walk up to the counter to pick up my rental car, and being a frequent renter, I am expecting to get a pretty nice car. So the agent takes my credit card and then says “do you travel a lot to Alaska?”
Okay I can deal with this, she is just being friendly, probably wants to give me a little travel advice. So I say “Well yes starting with this trip I plan to come up every month”
She says ” oh would you like to join our frequent renter program? After 5 rentals you get a free day”
I’m thinking she can’t see that I am an elite member obviously. ” Why no thank you, I am already a member of Avis”
She then says “Oh we’re not part of Avis” Huh? What?
It turns out that someone in Alaska has a Franchise or something, but they aren’t really Avis. So out goes my elite status, no upgrade for me, so instead I get my keys and walk out to my nice not so shiny Subaru Forester. They told me there was a scratch on the front hood somewhere, there was so much dirt I couldn’t see it. So I throw my stuff into the car and take off.
The drive is great, lots of cool scenery and no traffic. So after driving south for 90 minutes I pull in at the base and get my housing and as I turn to head back to the car, I meet one of my managers who had stopped by to see if I had made it. Since I had he decided to give me the 25 cent tour. So he shows me around the base, it takes 10 minutes. Obviously not a big base. He then shows me where Missile Assembly Building is located and the view was incredible, there are no trees any where, just a few buildings so you have an almost unobstructed view of the mountains, it was fantastic, beautiful, awe inspiring, and against base regulations to take a picture. So in this instance it sucks to be anyone that isn’t here seeing it for themselves.
The only other thing that was interesting, was the nighttime, or the lack there of. With it being summer, I knew it stayed lighter longer, just not this lighter and not this longer. As I type this it’s 10:25 PM on June 6th.
All in All not a bad first time. Look forward to coming back. As I leave here are a few shots I took.
central coast sunset using HTC 8X
Ghent at night looking at the Marriott Hotel using a Canon Rebel xsi.
Central Coast Senior 