Chatting with Michael W_ Rogers Alaska

This is a conversation about Alaska and the unique experiences of living there. The speaker talks about the population growth, the changes in different communities, and their personal experiences in Alaska, including encounters with polar bears and participating in traditional activities like whale hunting. They also mention the radio and TV industry in Alaska and their involvement in it. Thank you for watching! Well, well, well, welcome back oil runners! This is round two. We are going actually into Alaska talk. So if you want to ask questions about Alaska, please do. This is a new place to ask questions. I'm going to have more people, different people on about talking about Alaska. Living in the 907, it's different from the lower 48. So different stories and all kinds of good stuff. And one day we'll have the natives come on as well and teach the language and whatever their culture is. So it's coming along. But today we've got Michael W. Rogers. He is always a great friend and a great photographer. And so what you see behind me is actually his favorite train. But we're going to bring him in. And so we'll talk about the 907. He used to live here. So he's got some great, great stories as well. Hello, how are you? I'm good, how are you? You're going to talk about Alaska, huh? Uh-huh. 31 years. Yeah. So sorry. We do have electricity here. Just saying. You know. Oh, they ask about electricity? They don't ask about the igloo? Oh, no. I got the igloo, too. Like, that was one of my favorites. My favorite was the electricity, though, while talking on the phone with the person at the college asking me, do you have electricity in Alaska? You do have an igloo. It's on the park's highway. Just before you get to Cantwell. It's there. That's where I used to sleep. And when I'd drive between Anchorage and Fairbanks, that place used to be a happy little place. And then it just went. But I would always park there, sleep, take a nap. I wasn't doing photography back then. So, like, you have to understand. Let's see. When I was there. Okay. When I was there, total population of the state was 400,000. If my guess is correct, you should be up to 600,000. And the total population when I lived in Anchorage was under 100,000. And you should have 400,000, which I find that totally, like, okay, where are you putting that? You can't go. The only other place you're going is southeast. And I was there when maybe there was, like, seven houses on the hillside. So, that's a whole new community. Right. Let's see. Gerwood used to be this one little shack where now the convenience store and turn into Alieska is. You know how you come down? Okay. You would turn left to go up to Alieska, right? Uh-huh. Well, back in 1974, that wasn't there. It was just a shack. It used to be a gas station, but it was an abandoned gas station. And that was it. But it's still a gas station. Yeah, but I'm just, okay. I recently came to Alieska. Yeah, it was just an abandoned gas station back in the day. And now you got, I think it was 7-Eleven or somebody there now, and then you turn left. It's like this whole new Community. community thing. And so, I recently came to Anchorage. I did 15 years in Anchorage, 16 in Fairbanks. And between what I did, between radio and television, the military, I've been from one interstate to the other. So, I did the high school prom in Barrow for five years. That's when I ran into my first polar bear incident. So, you ran into a polar bear in Barrow. Now, what was that like? I was DJing the prom. Prom was over at midnight. The thing about, what I loved about Barrow was that, and the first time I went up, they flew all my equipment up. I flew on the plane. I was working at radio station KWFQD. Have you heard of that station? I know you have. It's near. KWFQD is the first radio station in Alaska. It came on in May of 1921. So, I'm at this, and they hired me to DJ the high school prom up in Barrow. And I fly up there, and the first thing, I'd never been to Barrow, but when I got there and I got off the plane, there was this place called Pepe's Pizza. Best pizza in the world, Pepe's Pizza. Everybody shows pictures of Barrow. Everybody shows pictures of Barrow, and they show these pictures because they want people to see, the Arctic Ocean. I'm going like, where's Pepe's Pizza? You're missing it. Wait, Pepe's. That's the one with the lady that had the sombrero. I took care of her before she died. Yeah, I couldn't figure out what the name of that place was. It was Pepe's. Yeah, I was there when she passed away, like at my job, and that's the expenditure, and oh my gosh, she was the greatest lady. She was talking about that. Pepe's was... The North Slope Borough. Okay, there are no counties in Alaska. They're boroughs. Okay, so the North Slope Borough funds all the money to the high school. I take my equipment, and they put me on the air at their local radio station. Nice. No, no, no, I'm telling you, people have their perceptions until you get to see it. You go to Barrow High School, their whole radio, broadcasting, TV program puts a lot of people to shame. Really? They are state of the art. I was told so. Yeah, they got a TV studio that would, let's see, 1970, okay, this was in the 90s, okay. They had stuff up there that put anchor stations to shame when it came to equipment and all of that stuff. So I go to the prom. The prom is over with at midnight. I'm packing up, but I left my equipment at the school because the trucks had to pick it up and put it back on the plane, and it was May. It was still cold, but it was May, and my hotel was right down the street from the school. It was a pretty lengthy walk, but at the time, I'm like, okay, I'll just walk back to the hotel. And I got maybe 15 minutes in, and I looked to my right, and there was a sow polar bear with her cub, and she saw me, and I saw her, and here we go, and the road was icy, and I'm wearing sneakers. So she outruns me by two legs. So here's the thing about Beryl. Everybody has an armed weapon. Most residents in their home, everybody has an armed weapon. Because at any given point in time, a polar bear will come ran through your house and take you out or find whatever. People are cooking, so they're smelling the food, right? And the polar bears are not going to the trash can. That's smart. They're just like, I'm not going to the trash can. I'm going in that house. Yeah, they're not stupid animals, that's for sure. That was my first incident with critters, and the second time, oh, the second time, no, the fifth time, my fifth time flying up there, the family who put me up, after the prom was over with, I had to get up at 5.30, 6 o'clock in the morning. Put me on a snow machine and took me out to the edge of the ice pack to watch them catch a bowhead whale. A bowhead? Wow. Oh, you, oh, oh. Whale captains are it. They could be mayor. They are, it's the ultimate to be a whale captain. Wow. Okay, so the first thing they told me, because we took the snow machine and stopped, so we had to walk the rest of the way, and the first thing the guy told me, he said, if you make any noise and scare that whale, they will shoot you. As a heart attack. As a heart attack. As a heart attack. Well, okay, it's really hard to explain, it's hard to explain this now, with the generation that's here. Yeah. Because they take a little bit more time trying to comprehend why people are doing what they're doing. Right. You've seen the blanket toss at Ferrandi at all these events, right? Yeah, Jack, I was about to ask you, have you seen that in person when they actually did that? Oh, let me tell you, the blanket toss, people think the blanket toss is this thing where you're showing people who you are. The blanket toss, the purpose of the blanket toss, they're out on the ice pack, and it's flat. They're looking for whales. There's only one way they can see the whales, to send a boat out there to get them. The owner will hide here. That's the only way you're going to see it. They put me on the blanket toss. What, you got to do the blanket toss? Oh, I got to do the blanket toss. I did the blanket toss at the Big Dipper Arena in Fairbanks, and I also did the blanket toss in Barrow. Because, okay, when I went up there, I was the radio guy, I was the TV guy, so I'm like the celebrity, okay? And I'm black. That helped a little bit. You just don't see too many black weather guys and radio guys in Barrow trying to get a bullhead whale. So I'm like, okay, I'll take this. Right. And on top of that, isn't the whale hunting for the native versus you can't hunt? Yeah, that's a whole big deal. Okay. So they tossed me up, and believe it or not, as scared as I were, I had some kind of, they tossed me four times. And I didn't think I could go as high as I did. When I went up there, oh, my God. Well, I guess time one was just to get it all out of your systems, like, well, because I was so scared. The only reason why I saw the whale, because he blew out of his, he came up to the surface to get air, so he blew out of his top. Right. Okay. Now, that's fun part number one. Fun part number two is when they get them and they bring them in. Now you got to party. Because now the whole town, they ring the bell. They bring the whale in, and they're cutting that puppy up. And you're watching them cut that meat. To my right, there's about 30 polar bears just sitting off, waiting for you to get done. Lovely. And when you're done, here they come. They're like, oh, fresh meat. I didn't have to hunt for it. Now see here's the thing. Everybody tries to do these cheesy things about man and beast, man and beast, how they're supposed to coexist. Yeah. Be able to live together. No problem in bed. No problem. Hey, they just got the, all right, we'll just wait on them. We'll just sit right here. We're going to wait. You're going to be done, and we're going to clean up. You don't have to worry about cutting, we'll clean it up for you. Right, the puppy. The welfare bears have barrels on them. The bears are all solid white. By the time they get done, they're all red. They're like, well, we won't eat you. You already know, we get fed by you, so we're not going to eat the hands that feed us. Yeah, barrels in the, I had a chance to work up there. I had a chance to work up there, and I had a chance to drive a bus for $31 an hour, and I was going to stay up there during the summer. I even thought about it again. In fact, when I come home this summer, I thought about going up there and just spend the whole summer. And, I mean, I'll do photography, but I'm not, I'm just going to drive a bus and put the money away and come back. Back then, it was $31 an hour. I don't know what they're paying them now. What kind of bus? The tour bus? No, you can drive a tour bus. You can drive a school bus. Any form of transportation, you've got the community of Barrow, and you've got Wainwright to go between the two. So, that was it. You can drive a tour bus, but I'm not a fan. Now, I'm a former truck driver, and if there's one thing that I won't do, I won't drive a vehicle with precious cargo. I won't drive a vehicle with precious cargo. That's the term that is used for driving people. Like, you'll never see me drive a school bus. You'll never see me drive a tour bus. I won't drive precious cargo. I'll drive freight. I'll haul dirt. I'll do anything else. I've had a CBL for a long time, but the one thing that I won't do is drive precious cargo. Would you do the ice road truckers? No. No. That's for real men. The ice road truckers? Where is the ice road truckers out here? Like, what roads do they take? The Dalton Highway. The haul road. It's 414 miles from Fairbanks to Frito Bay. 414 miles on the interstate in about an eight-hour drive. Eight, nine-hour drive. Not the haul road. It is the most, it is the only road, I drove it many times in a car. It's the road where you really think about your life. There's only one stop, there's only one stop you can get fuel. That's up at Coleslip. Coleslip's basically a truck stop. But the men and women who drive the haul road, I just say that's for real men. That's for real people. Right. Right. There are people who have died, who've had lives and jobs with that for so many years, and the money is great. The weather conditions are beyond horrific. The best spot, there's so many good spots. For a photographer, as you're approaching Attigan Pass, that is so beautiful in the fall. The name of the place is called Chandelier. And you go through the pass, and then you come out on the other side, and it is flat all the way to Frito Bay. Or as one guy said to me, my first trip to Frito, in fact, my first trip to Fairbanks, we had to go to Frito. Fairbanks was fogged in. So we landed at Frito. And it's daytime. And I get off the plane, and I look south to all that flat. And the pipeline is right there, you can't miss it. Right. So I asked this guy, how far is this? He goes, let me stop you right there. I could have you start walking. Today is Tuesday. I could have you start walking. And by the time it gets to next Tuesday, I can still see you walking. Like, oh, are you sure I didn't just sit there? Yeah, Alaska is really unique. From a serious side for truck driving, because when the pipeline was built, the haul road was the road that you resupply. It used to be in the old days, you had to wait for a ship to come up in the summertime to resupply everything up there. Okay. So they built the haul road, which was a dirt road. And all the supplies, everything, equipment is going up there. See, the pipeline was built in the 70s. They started pushing oil in 76. So the pipelines, there's still oil in Frito Bay, they're pumping out of the ground. Right. Yeah. Okay. So you had to supply, resupply those people. That in itself takes a different kind of person. And yes, at one time it was all men, but females have driven it. Okay. Don't fall in love with ice road truckers. That's a whole different scenario than what's really going on. I got, I was in Idaho driving truck and was asked would I audition for ice road truckers and I said no. And they said why? I said, I'm not driving a haul road. I don't care how safe, I'm not driving it. That, that's a job that takes a real experienced driver to do over a certain amount of time. Right. Okay. Okay. But in Alaska is different. Alaska is different. So, the only bad thing I hate about the haul road now is that they paved it. It's not as fun and bumpy anymore. Well, it's meant to be, it's meant to be dirt. That really helps you out. That helps you out in the wintertime. Oh yeah. But, okay, so I don't, I don't sound, I don't sound so. You got people riding bicycles up the haul road. I'm like, really, you got guts. Let me tell you. Okay, you really got some guts. Every, every critter in the world, plus polar bears. And you want to ride a bicycle? Okay, go right ahead. Have fun. Alaska, and the generations have changed. So, what I know about Alaska, what I tell you about Alaska started in 1973. The real stories go further behind 73. The first, you like the Iditarod, right? Absolutely, yeah. The first Iditarod started in 1973. I was there. Let's stay on that topic. Yeah, well, see, the Iditarod, you know the story and the history. My first thing was, and see, Alaskans, okay, the number one sport for Alaskans, it's just worse in Fairbanks than in Anchorage. But the number one sport for Alaskans is having an argument. Yeah, that's the truth. It's true. And it is not racial. It's not prejudice. They just love to argue. It's worse in Fairbanks than it is in Anchorage. They just love to argue. That is the number one sport. So, here you are starting the first Iditarod in 1973. The story centers around Nenana, which is 75 miles south of Fairbanks. And the story is it taken serum from Nenana to Nome, am I correct? Correct. So, where does the Iditarod start? Anchorage. Excuse me, wait a minute. You're doing it wrong. I never thought about it that way. Yeah, you're doing it wrong, right? But you would think that, you know, maybe the Iditarod, I'm new to Alaska, so maybe my thought would be, like, because of all the Nenana, my thought would be that we were more of a nation. I'm going to give you bits and pieces from what I know. But I was there when the first Iditarod started. But the true feeling of the Iditarod, the race, the history, the reason why you do it is not in Anchorage, I'm sorry. It's in Fairbanks. I do. Okay. Now, one year, they did the race from Fairbanks, right on the Geno River. That's where they started the race. They went down to the Tanana River. They went down the Tanana River going through Nenana. And they went straight west. But the whole feeling of the race from Fairbanks was enormous. It was, as much as you'd love it, you would have gotten more out of it from there than Anchorage. Really? Yes. Wow. Yes. Yeah. If the only sporting event were the competitors, yes, they are competitors. But until you've driven a sled dog team, you can't imagine. Yeah. The power that's behind. Yeah, because I rode on the sled when they had the rides and everything. Yeah, what's the worst thing about it? All of that. It was just absolutely amazing. Minus the poop that would come out. Well, here's the thing. The thing about it, it was quiet, wasn't it? The only thing you heard was the dogs. Yeah. That's it. You want to talk about serenity? Yeah. You want to talk about serenity? Exactly. So whether you win the race or finish it, you're a winner no matter what. Right. You go 11 miles with dogs and then your competitors, these are not stupid people. The competitors have to help each other out. Yeah. The villages that you come in to take a break, it's a whole other world. There's a couple in Beale, Idaho. I gave them a picture of Alaska and their son came to me and said, how did you know that my folks like Alaska? I go, I didn't. He says, my folks for the last 15 years volunteer to support and help in the Iditarod. They would pick a village to go to and that was, he says, that was their vacation. At that time they did it for 15 years. And do the... It was phenomenal. And here you are taking pictures of something that's so iconic, such a tradition, that's got to be enormous to sit there and watch these people on 4th Avenue, go 1,100 miles. Back then they would take them 11, 12, 13 days. Now they do it in nine. They figured it out. Dallas Stevie kind of figured that one out. Oh, Mr. Stevie. My two favorite pushers, Allie Zirkle, she's from Two Rivers. Allie used to listen to me on the radio and then she would watch me on TV and Martin Boozer. Martin and I did a promotion at Sears in Wasilla and I brought my kids and he's got his kids and we just had a lot of fun. Yeah, so I have a deep respect for the people who do the Iditarod. My only opinion, and be careful when you give an opinion in Alaska because you're going to start an argument. They should do it out of Fairbanks. They should do it out of Fairbanks. But then nobody would know. That's the thing. It's too far away though. You know, it's, yeah, duh. Okay, I get it. I get it. And see, Fairbanks now, Fairbanks has two seasons for tourists. One's in winter and the other one's in summer. Yep, the one winter thing is the Iditarod and then we're like just all like cozied up in our houses. The winter thing is them seeing the Northern Lights. That's what people come up to see. Really? Yep. Started with the, Japan Airlines started that. Yeah, we have the Northern Lights. Okay, don't quote me, but somewhere in the tradition for the Japanese culture, before you get married you're supposed to go and see the Northern Lights. That's what I heard. Huh. Okay. That probably explains a lot. So, the Japanese were coming to Fairbanks in the wintertime, going to Chena Hot Springs Resort. And it just blew up. It just blew up. Japan Airlines landed in Fairbanks. Huh. Now, the things I'm telling you is from what I know, but I can't quote the actual, duh, but Fairbanks has two tourist seasons. The Northern Lights are more prominent there than Anchorage, but Anchorage does pretty good when they get the lights. I have yet to see them in, I want to go see them at Point Warren, though. That would make a good spot for them. Right now, this period right now that started Christmas, you got a really good solar activity, because they're popping. That is the world's greatest psychedelic light show, and you get to watch it for free. I know, right? But it's too cold for me to go outside, so I'm not trying to do all that right now. You can't explain it to people. If things in Alaska you can't explain to people, they have to go see it. I know, especially with the colors of the skyline, like one side being dark and then the next side being all pink and blue and purple at the same time or whatever, and then it just switches. Or just like over top of the mountains. Good morning to one little spot, like the rest is dark. My second magazine cover in my photography career was at Denali, Mount McKinley. So people would say, well, you're a photographer up there, you're going to take pictures of moose and bison. I said, no. Why? I said, no. Everybody else takes pictures of moose, bear, bald eagle. I want an orca. I want an orca. I want a humpback. I got a humpback friend in Resurrection Bay. His name is George Humpy Whale. I still have to meet him. And then I have a trio of female orcas. I call them the Supremes. Diana, Mary, and Flo. Why do I call them that? Because a lot of people think that orcas come from up south in the summertime to feed on salmon. No. No, they don't. They live there. They live there all year round. You've got over 20 pods. You have over 20 pods of orcas living in Alaska. They never leave. Those three are transient whales. They feed on other mammals. These are the whales that will go after a humpback. These are the whales that will go after a seal in a heartbeat. The residents will go after salmon because salmon is a plentiful. The transients. They're called transients. They travel in no more than three, six. This transient pod, three females, I just find it odd that there's no male with them. But when I got them. Yeah. So when I come home, and if I could just keep you on the boat, I'll just find me a rope and tie your butt up so you won't fall in. Yeah. That's the only way I'll get off the boat. I'm definitely not afraid. We're going to go on major marine tours. Okay. I'll do it. It's an adventure. Yeah. There's a pod with a male. Now, I studied. I found information to study about the pods. So I know the names of all the pods. And there's a pod with a male. His name is Eldorado. He used to have a male named Elvis. Yeah. But Eldorado, yeah, he's still there. Saw a picture of him last year. He's still there. I haven't heard much about him lately. Yeah. He's about 21, 22 feet, six foot, seven foot dorsal, straight up. I know I've seen orcas at Beluga Point when I first got up here. And I've seen them. I've seen orcas at Beluga Point when I first got up here. I've seen the humpback. And they're just pretty cool. Right at the rock where you took a picture of me. Beluga, they were rolling by that rock. They were that close. So. There's only one reason why they're there. Yeah. You're trying to escape the orcas. No, I had the orcas. The orcas came through. But the humpback, I've seen them in different days. Yeah. I thought that was the first time I saw them. Beluga's smart enough to go as far north of turning an arm to where you go and get stuck. That's for sure. You remember the orca that got stuck? Yep. Yeah. Yep. Actually, I wish I had a car at that point. Beluga? Probably. So. Definitely. There's a lot of things Alaska-wise from when I was there up to now. And it's amazing because Fairbanks is the real Alaska. Or as people say it is. And there's a reason why they say that. And if you go up there and take the Riverboat Discovery, which is the number two tourist attraction in the interior, you'll find out why everything came to be the way it was. Okay. Everybody came to Alaska for gold. Okay. So you had gold in Nome. You had gold in Fairbanks. Captain Cook, for some reason, got lost. He decided to go up turning an arm. And was like, Not bad. Not bad. So that's when you have Anchorage. And Anchorage itself, it was less than 100,000 people when I was there in the 70s. More now. Oh, you have 400,000. I just want to know where you're putting them all. On top of each other? Look, it wasn't this bad the first time around that I came through. And yeah, now it's all everybody's on top of each other and the buildings after buildings after buildings. I hate buildings. It's ruining the whole sightseeing over here. Well, the big buildings. When I was there, the Captain Cook Hotel, the Hilton. I met President Gerald Ford at the Hilton. I didn't meet him. I was just there when he came through. So I met Gladys Knight there. She was doing a movie called Pipe Dreams in 1974. I met John Denver. The person that I met was a guy named John Denver. The person that I met who is no longer with us, I met her at Woolworths. I don't know if you remember Woolworths being there. I did not have a Woolworths. There was a Woolworths there. And I met her. She was downstairs. I saw her. I just happened to be coming up the escalator to the top. And I finally walked up to her. I said, excuse me, are you Olivia Newton-John? And she goes, yes. Please don't say anything. I said, no problem. I met her. She didn't want to be known. I just happened to go like, that's Olivia Newton-John. 1978, I saw the movie Saturday Night Fever at the 4th Avenue. Which is no longer there. I did a high school prom from West Anchorage High School at the 4th Avenue Theater. Yeah. And they all liked, they loved oldies. I did that whole prom to 50s music, 50s and 60s. Wow. Yeah. My, my best, my best DJ work and event was in Talkeetna. And I went up to Talkeetna High School. I drove up there most of the time. Are you kidding me? Of course there is. Where is the rest of Talkeetna? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Where is the rest of Talkeetna? Okay. I don't believe you asked me this question. How long have you lived in Alaska? I've been in Alaska a while. I've only been to the part where you just, where you can go to the water. Like, and it was only five minutes. I was like, where the heck is the whole city? I was like, you know. No, no, no, no, no. You take, oh God almighty. You take the Park Highway. Talkeetna is two and a half hours from Anchorage. Okay. You take the Park Highway going north. Okay. Most people driving to Fairbanks always stop at the Sunshine Truck Stop off the Park Highway before they take off and go past the valley and all that, right? Okay. Talkeetna High School is before that. And see, I was shocked because I know the town. You would think the high school was in the town. The high school was not in the town. It's opposite. Instead of you taking a right, you turned left. That makes no sense. It does. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. So I go into the school and I'm playing music for kids. Okay. Now this was in the 70s. No, this was in, what year was this? Oh, it was in the 90s. So I got to Talkeetna High School and the greatest time I ever had in my life as a DJ having fun with kids and their parents and the teachers was at that school. Because I played Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis and I never stopped from that point on. Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire. Yes, yes. And the kids, the teachers, the parents, the chef, we had a party. I was there. I was there. We had a party. I went full, in fact, one guy goes, are you going to play a slow song that people can dance to? And I'm like, no. I wore them out. I wore them out. I wore them out. I did, I went to Delta Junction. People think Delta Junction which is southeast of Fairbanks that takes you on the Alcan Highway. I did a 24-hour graduation party. I played for 24 hours straight. And my reward was they gave me a hotel room and they gave me, they had four hot tubs out front and when I was done, the first place I went to was I jumped in the hot tub and I fell asleep. I know that's great. So, yeah, but Talkeetna is the other place if you're our photographer, okay, from Willow to Denali View is the best spot to view Denali. Yep. Okay, now, as you're coming in, I agree with that. Okay, now as you're coming into Willow on a clear day, just before you hit town, and the reason why I know this is because there's a spot where the Alaska State Trooper gets people for speeding. You're supposed to slow down and they don't slow down. Okay, and I got stopped there twice. Okay, but the best view of Denali is from Willow and then Talkeetna, but not off the park's highway. You have to go, there is a, I want to say a park, there's a, there's a place where everybody goes there and you get this clear, both of my images of Denali, one was in Talkeetna, the other one was in, off the park's highway. Once you get to Denali View, it's over, you're done. All right. But the best view, like, okay, Talkeetna Air Service does a bang up job of flying you around that mountain. It's costly, but you go on one of their planes, I used to go, the one time that I went on Mount McKinley was when I was doing television in Fairbanks. The Army always trains up there. There's a spot, I think it's at the 14,000 foot, there's a planes fly up there and then they train up there on the mountain. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. So, Denali in itself is 30% of residents who come to Alaska thinking they're going to see Denali, never see it. That's true. That is the ghost mountain. It is. The reason why it's so big is 20,237 feet high. Because I have a degree in meteorology. In general meteorology, most storms usually average at an altitude of 18,000 feet. And Denali is 20,000 feet. That's crazy. Yes. The best view of Denali, in the 30 years that I lived there, I flew a Delta Airline flight to Anchorage. That's Fairbanks at six in the morning. This is in the summertime, so it's already morning, early morning. It's daylight, right? Well, some pilots will coordinate with Anchorage Air Traffic and Control Center that they'll do a one-time fly around the summit of Denali. They do a one-time go around the circle and just head straight south to Anchorage. They're like this. So imagine you're on a delta like this going around the mountain. Okay. Right. The mountain is 20,000 feet. We drop down to 23,000 feet. And it was funny because we were turning this way and there are people on the summit waving at us. There's people on this wave waving at us. Yeah. Those are nice rides. It's a helicopter ride. I like the helicopter ride. I think I like the helicopter ride. The helicopter ride is great. The only thing now that's different the only thing now what hasn't changed is people's reception of Alaska. So you get these weird things these weird questions and I got them all in Fairbanks. So I'm downtown in Fairbanks and the weirdest question the weirdest question I got was from a tourist who goes like she walked to the because I have my TV camera and I'm dressed to do my TV thing. So she walks up to me and she goes, excuse me can you tell me the official language of Alaska? Oh yeah. This is currency. What currency do we use out here? Yeah. We're American dollars. The U.S. dollar. And after a while you have to understand that there are people who have no clue what this place and every Yeah. What's different from Anchorage versus everybody else since I've been there all the characters are gone. Anchorage is a town of characters from when I was there. Okay. Every other place has characters. Talkeetna's got a bunch of them. Homer's got a bunch of them. Keen-Eyes Old Datna has got a bunch of them. Anchorage is just a city. Right. That's bunched up with a lot of people. Yep. Go out in the mountains and separate and come back. I got a lot of tips built up. Right. You find some interesting people who travel like the most interesting people that I ever met who visited Alaska or on the Alaska River. That train behind you. Yeah. The best believe it or not even though it's 12 hours long but Anchorage to Fairbanks on the train is a heck of one. Anchorage to Seward is a beautiful trip. It's a beautiful trip. Even when it's cloudy even when it's cloudy and rainy I will say that Anchorage to Seward no matter what kind of day it is because you got Turnagin Arm and then you go through Turnagin Pass and then you go through these all of a sudden you're in a space where you don't recognize anything so you come out and start heading towards Seward and the first thing I look for the first thing I look for as I'm coming out either when I'm driving or taking the train I'm looking for bald eagles on top of the telephone poles especially in the summertime. Right. It's like a parade. It's like the bald eagles going into Seward is like, hey, how are you? It's like you got a welcoming committee. Right. Exactly. Susan says it's the best. You know Susan Nelson. Yeah. And all my years Seward is my second home. I made a name for myself jumping into Resurrection Bay in January for the Polar Bear Festival. I did it 10 years and yes I jumped into the water and that was Seward has always been my second home. Always will be. So. I love Seward. Let me get that one in the winter. It's challenging. It's challenging. Oh let me get this one in. If you go to Seward and you're looking for a place to stay and a good place to eat go to the Breeze Inn. Thank you. I got to get that in. Okay. Well you heard it here folks. The Breeze Inn is where it's at. Breeze Inn. That's it. But you know it's there's a young lady who's on Instagram and she's from Homer and she does these things about Alaska and she just tickles the ever living daylights out of me because she pretends that she's an Alaska tourist asking herself questions about Alaska. Everything was fine until she said do you get paid for living in Alaska? And she stood there like this and she went I'm out. I'm done. I'm out. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. I bust out laughing. I'm done because that's exactly what I would have done. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. So out. Yeah. Yeah. It's so funny the way she did that. I wonder what happened to her. You see her still on Facebook or on the I haven't seen her in a while. I don't know. She came to Vegas. I sent a message like welcome to Vegas. We don't know each other. I just I just watch her and follow her. The only person that I knew in Homer was Tom Bodette. Do you know who Tom Bodette is? He did a radio commercial. He did a TV and radio commercial for what is known as Motel 6. And his famous line is We'll leave the light on for you. Does that ring a bell? Yeah. So now I know. Yeah. Tom Bodette was a voice of the PBS program Over the Road. And he did his whole thing out of Homer. Wow. That's pretty cool. Another famous personality who I knew who used to listen to all these people listen to me on the radio when they were kids. Okay. She is from she is from Homer. She's a singer. She left Alaska to become a singer. She Oh you're talking about Jewel? Yep. Yep. Yeah. She knows she knows she knows my daughter. And I can when she left Alaska to do this singing thing she lived in her she lived in her van in San Diego for a while. When I moved to Vegas when I first came to Vegas I lived in my car for almost two years. So I'm just I'm just going like yeah well Jewel lived in her van. The thing I liked about Jewel if you would watch her on stage live she puts on a kick-ass show that band she's got is just she puts on a kick that band is she'll tear it up. She'll tear it up. Yeah. There are very few studio musicians that can put on a live show and tear it up. She's she's she's she's she did that. Absolutely. So and there are more people from Alaska who are making a name for themselves. When I was up there everybody was trying to make a name for themselves. Well hold on Susan says Michael W. Rogers you haven't lost it. It's like KFQD. Susan and I have known each other for about 40 years. My book my book was because of her. Her son her son who listened to me on KFQD when he was a little boy. Now he's a big executive at one of the companies there flew me to Anchorage to do family photos. Uh-huh. She says he needs to go back on the air. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's something special between the relationship with Susan and her son because everything happened with him. Everything happened with him. So he flies me home and I get home early. I get there on a Wednesday. We're not going to shoot until Saturday. So I got all this free time. I said okay I'll just get a car and drive to Fairbanks. I'm driving to Fairbanks. It was the last day of the Alaska Railroad going up to Fairbanks. This was in September. I'm following this train and all of a sudden it hit me it's the Fall Foliage the lease attorney. So all of a sudden it started out as a as a trip just to go back to Fairbanks produce my very first photo book which is on Amazon if you want to buy it. It's called From Where I Sit. The Alaska Fall Yeah. The Alaska Fall Foliage Tour. That's how that started. It was her son who flew me to it was her son that flew me to Alaska and I was flying into Fairbanks. I hadn't been home like in six years. He flies me to Alaska. We fly past Denali descending into Fairbanks. I was so I couldn't get off the plane fast enough to get a car to drive back down to take a picture of that mountain. If it wasn't for her son my picture of Denali on the cover of Alaska magazine would have never ever happened. Because I took that Oh yeah. We had so much fun. We shot we did our family photos in Eagle River. But I'm saying here's the thing I took that picture of Denali and put it on Alaska magazine's Facebook page not knowing anything. I'd say eh eh That was in April of 2014. They called me in June and wanted to make that picture the cover of the magazine and they paid me for it. And that was the day I decided to be a professional photographer because in September of that same year I moved to Vegas. Everything centered around her son and that family. That's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. So now Susan you're going to have to come on and we're going to have to talk about all of that together. She's got more. She's got more. She knows more than I do. But my whole Alaska thing centered around that family. And it was funny because he William says this every time. All of a sudden out of nowhere he'll call me and says it's time for you to come home. This would be the first trip in Alaska coming home in May or whenever I'm coming home in the summer. This is the first one I'm deciding to come home. He just called me and said it's time for you to come home. That's it. Let's go. So and by the way for people wanting to go to Alaska the summer tour season starts in May ends in September. Delta Airlines is now flying a 757 direct from Salt Lake City to Fairbanks starting this year. It used to be most people used to grab the flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul. That was a seven day a week flight. Now Delta is adding you can still take the regular flights if you want to hop around all over the place but if you're if Delta and Salt Lake City is a hub so and from Salt Lake City direct to Fairbanks that's seven hours. But it's so much better than flying to Seattle getting off the plane getting back on the plane and then flying. That Seattle trip is horrible. Yeah. Yeah. So and the thing about Alaska now even though people fly up there the best way to see Alaska is on the love boat. Take a cruise. You get to see more of it. And you end up in Seward. And then you have your choice to take the train from Seward to Anchorage. And or you can there was one trend where people were flying up they were taking the cruise back because you're doing so much in Alaska that if you take a cruise you can actually sit back and relax before you because most people are exhausted. There's a lot to see and there's a lot to do. Okay. So we still we live here we still don't get it done. True. Like Fairbanks has this influx of people from New Zealand and Australia. They come up in the month of May. Okay. You want to talk about a trip? These people coming from Australia and New Zealand they'll go to Fairbanks they'll go and do their Alaska thing fly to L.A. do an L.A. thing do an L.A. thing then fly back to Sydney. Yep. Stop at Honolulu get a cup of coffee keep on going. That's just in the month of May. Fairbanks gets packed with people from Australia. Huh. I should be a tour guide. I should be a tour guide. Absolutely. I have a job for you then. Well good. If you can get me a vehicle I'll take the summer off from Las Vegas. And I'll be I did Okay. There was a gentleman from he was from New Zealand and I picked him I was driving taxi in 2014 so I picked him up at the train station and he didn't want to follow the traditional get on the bus and we're going to take you to this place and then this place and then this place he says how long have you lived in Alaska? I said 31 years. He says can you give me a tour of this place better than the touring company? I go yeah. He says good I'll ride with you. And he paid me. Right. He paid me this enormous amount of money. Right. So I started from one end of town took him down to Santa Claus House North Pole and then every place I took him I described the history he said that was the best tour he says you need to be a tour guide. Yeah. And I said well I said I like I like to talk I talk a lot and I see things and I like to share the place that I live. So like I took him to I took him to the pipeline I took him up the hall road I took him as far as the I took him up the Steve's Highway and then I took him to one of the places where okay the Yukon Quest there's a checkpoint for the I took him to Central and I showed him the spot that you can actually because people Solstice the sun never goes down but if you're below the Arctic Circle it'll go down. There's a spot that you can see the sun never go down it's up at Eagle Summit and if you stand there on Solstice you'll watch the sun come down but it won't go behind the mountains. And I got that picture in my in my portfolio. That's pretty cool. Now I've seen and I have a picture of the sun and the moon in the same picture. Yeah, Alaska's famous for that. Okay, another thing about Alaska if you are a photographer you Alaska's big enough that you don't have to shoot the same thing everybody's shooting. This is what makes me so mad. I, you know there's only so many ways you can take a picture of Denali. This is awesome. Okay, or even or the world famous Anchorage, Alaska picture everybody has to go to Earthquake Park. Earthquake Park. I don't even want to take pictures there. The one picture I took I took a picture there Okay, fine. I did it. Okay. There's so many sections around Anchorage that you can take a view of the city. And everybody goes to Earthquake Park. And I'm going, you've got to be kidding me. Okay, you've got to be kidding me. This plane right here. That's Point Warrens. Yeah, who taught you that? Yeah. Definitely not you. But that is the first one when you were seeing we have a system guys that he tells me when the planes are coming in and I just capture him like right I just go in two seconds and for wait for the plane like what the two minutes that he's there. He's in Las Vegas. And yeah, I caught that one. Click, click, click. All right, I'm going home. But yeah, no, that's Point Warrens. I had my radar following him. He just crossed he came down turn to get armed but he's landing to the south. Most planes that land in Anchorage land to the east. That particular day he landed. So he circles all the way around. I'm going like, okay, he's turning around. And she's going like, and she goes, you can see this? I go, yeah, I'm looking at my radar. I'm looking right dead at him. Right. He's coming in. I said, go get him. Go get him. Yeah, this was I was this was the one where I called you right after work. And I was near I was passing by by the train tracks right near the airport. And I was like, oh, I want to get an Alaska plane. Just, you know, just because random thing. I was right near that place and called you to see if there was any planes coming in real quick. And if there wasn't I wasn't going to go. But yeah. Yeah. Then he's like, oh, hold on. Hold on. Bam. I got it in actually on time because I drove by that, you know, to that place right as soon as I parked right into the parking lot. Looked behind me. He was on the phone and I clicked and then, bam. We clicked and that was it. I was watching the plane on my computer and I said, OK, here he is. OK, because your normal route coming into Anchorage, you'll descend and you'll come down trying to get armed and hang on. Right turn, right turn. Right turn. This guy took the wide angle. And it's I will say this about Anchorage because I got my pilot's license there. I used to think Las Vegas was a really pretty city at night. And the two best cities at night that I've seen is Cincinnati, Ohio and Anchorage, Alaska. We used to call it the Pilots called it the Christmas tree because it looks like a Christmas tree. Cincinnati is between the two, Cincinnati is like, oh, my God. When you're looking at the Ohio River and you're looking at the skyline of the city. Well, when you when you descend coming into Anchorage and you're coming down trying to get armed and you look out the right side of the airplane, it's the most beautiful view that you ever, ever want to see. And now because it's the Okay. The hillside has got to be rocking now compared to when I was there. Yeah. There was no lights in 73. Nobody lives on the hillside. So I can imagine what Anchorage looks like now in 2025 with everybody who moves up on the hill. Yeah. Anchorage is a beautiful Fairbanks is a beautiful city also at night because it's pitch black dark until you see this patch of lights. And if you're flying from Seattle, you're flying north up to Whitehorse and then you're going to hang a left and you're following the Tanana River all the way down to Fairbanks. And when you start your descent, it's pitch black dark. The first thing you'll see I take that back. You'll start to see things from Isles and Air Force Base but when you see the city of Fairbanks at night, it's a beautiful view. It's like there's this great big patch of dark and then you see the city and you come in. So the I don't know what you'll get out of this podcast versus the travel channel all that. You kind of gave me an idea. I wish I could find some company to sponsor me. I'll show you. Let me tell you something. By the time you get done with me, you'll know nothing about Alaska because I'll show it to you. I'll show it to you in a heartbeat. That's the only way you would ever get me back to doing TV. I don't miss it. No, I had two people today. Fox 5 and somebody else. They're doing They were doing something and they saw me and said, Hey, you want to give us a soundbite? And I go, uh-uh. I'm done. I'm done. So, by the way, I did television in Alaska for a lot of years and my job was to lie to people every night at 6 and 10. Yes, I did the weather. So, I lied to you every night. Yes. In Alaska, you don't even know what the heck is going to happen. In five minutes, it could be snow, rain, sleet, hail, and sun in the same way as you're walking. Right now, I know it's 35 degrees below zero in Fairbanks at this hour. Thank you. You're listening to two people with their versions of Alaska. Everybody else has their own version. I've been from one end of the state to the other. I've seen a lot of things happening. There's a lot of reasons why things happen the way they happen, and if you want to know the story, I was there for most of it. The Permanent Fund story was the one that got me. Fairbanks still today is the city where the people that you meet are your friends for life. Yeah. That's true. That has been since the 30s and the 40s. But it's interesting to see the questions that you have about Alaska, you're supposed to ask those questions because you don't know about them. Right. We're here to answer them for you. Yeah. But sometimes you get us Alaskans, and if you start asking them igloo questions or if they pay you to live here questions or all that other stuff, every now and then you'll catch us, and it's like sometimes don't be surprised if somebody goes, I'm done. I'm done. We don't mean it in a mean way, but it's like one of our greatest joys is to joke around about it because it is something that's just like, really? You know, but we don't, we still love you. That's why we want to educate you about the Alaska, the proper way. The best kept secret for travel in the United States other than Alaska is the state of Nevada. Outside of Reno and Las Vegas. Now, that I'll tell you. Now, I have a love for the desert, but it's not Las Vegas and it's not Reno, but there is life outside of these two cities. I think the thing that gets me, because I got caught up in it. It took, I did 31 years of research and I got caught up in it. It took, I did 31 years in Alaska. It took me two years to transition to the lower 48. Took me two years. I've been in Vegas for 10 years and I didn't know how caught up I got into it until I saw my granddaughter in Spokane, Washington. The first thing I said when I got off the plane was, oh my God, there's another world outside of Las Vegas. Oh my God, there are real people here. They got houses. They got trees. It's like there's real people. And they're chill. And they're chill. And it's a real town. And it's like, oh my God, I got so wrapped up in Las Vegas. I was like, we got to stop this. I got to travel. I got to travel. So when I come home, I just got to figure out the month I'm coming home, but when I come home, oh yeah, Seward, here we come. Yep. Oh, I'm ready. I'm taking my surgery date, March 28th for the Sodor. I should be ready to go back out for the summer. I am not leaving the summer untouched. That's not going to happen this year. And finally, the mosquitoes are bad. Let's get this out right now. Let's get it out. All right. The mosquitoes are nothing in Anchorage. They are a pain in the butt. Outside of Anchorage, in Fairbanks, the further north you go, the worse it gets. Now, there's people that will tell you how to avoid that situation. If you go above the Arctic Circle, in the summertime, you are not going to avoid that situation. But what could help? Take a cigar. Take a couple of cigars. Mosquitoes do not like cigar smoke. There. That's a good idea. Susan, I had the bread made. Susan is in a nurturing mode now because she knows I'm coming. So, garlic. See, there it is. Every time. She does things in a nurturing mode when I'm coming. She'll do that. And she'll get this, like, be careful driving, da-da-da-da. You know, she does that. But she's real sneaky about it. So, there you go. She's in a nurturing mode now. She's in a nurturing. So, anything else on this broadcast that we took off? If everybody gets to this whole thing, I'd be surprised. Anybody got any questions? Oh, absolutely. I mean, anybody got some questions about Alaska? We're going to have Native Americans, or the Natives on as well, and teaching, and all types of people who come on that live in Alaska, have lived in Alaska. This is the Alaska portion of the broadcast. She closed her mouth out loud. Yep. She's going to tell you one time when I was on TV doing a Jerry Lewis telethon, and I was eating this banana. She's going to tell you that. I can feel it coming. Here it comes. Hold on. Wait, wait, bro. She didn't have to tell you. You just said it. So, go ahead. No, she's going to tell you. She's going to tell you. That banana story is going to come up. How I made my name in TV was me eating a banana on a Jerry Lewis telethon back in the early 90s. That's how I got Jerry's. Oh, you were still eating a banana when you were doing that? No, I was interviewing somebody. I was interviewing somebody, and she had this banana thing, and I got the microphone in one hand. And everybody just thought that was so crazy. It was just so funny. If anybody wants to dial in, this is your chance to ask us a question about Alaska. The one funny story that I get with people in Fairbanks, and I can always tell they are, I can always tell when somebody's from the state of Georgia, and they come to Fairbanks. There's only one question that they'll ask. They'll get to Fairbanks, and they'll come up to me, and the first thing they say is, I didn't know there were any black people up here. And they were all from the state of Georgia. They always say that. Every time. I was in Safeway in North Pole, Alaska. The guy goes, excuse me, you live here? Yeah, and I went, oh, he's from Georgia. Watch this. I didn't know any black people lived here. The first thing I said, yeah, I said, you're from Georgia. Right off the bat. But, you know, I think you want my trips. When I'm by myself on the trips, I take you out on the adventures as well on the phone. In your car? I annoy the crap out of you. In your car? I, if I had to, if I had to, if I had funds, I would take Calcutta Air Service and fly around Denali. They know stuff. I just want to I, I want to shoot the west side of the mountain. Looking east. All the pictures that I got was shooting from the east looking west from the park's highway. But, Calcutta Air Service, them folks, they'll fly you around that whole thing and you'll see something totally different that you've never seen before. Because all the tourist pictures are showing you Denali from the east looking west. And I, I know some people that had gotten engaged, they did that whole microphone and asked him to get married and some people got married on the plane going around the McKinley or Denali mountain. I wonder if they're still doing that stuff. If you go to Valleys, Stan Stevens Charter, I don't know if he's still in business, I think he still is, but Stan Stevens Charter will take you down Prince William Sound and he will take you to the spot where the Exxon Valdez ran aground. Yeah. Okay. Now what's interesting, what's interesting about that is when you physically go out there and see the spot where the tanker ran ground and the first thing you're going to say is, how in the world did he get from here to here? And you're going to see it. You're going to be blown away. You're going to be blown away. One of those very careful answers. No, Stan took, I was doing radio in Fairbanks and we went on Stan's Charter to Valdez. He has an island that you spend the night and we got on the boat. Stan says, I'm going to take you to the spot where the Exxon Valdez ran aground and there's a marker where the boat actually ran aground. Bly Reef. Okay. So he took us to Bly Reef and I just went. It's huge. It's huge. You're going to sit there and go like, how in the, for you to take a tanker from Valdez to get to the Gulf of Alaska and you got to go between these two islands, Hitchinbrook, when you go past Hitchinbrook and Montague Island, it's three and a half hours. Right. There's no short trips. Okay. If you are in Seward and you take a trip with Major Marine Tours or Kenosha Newark Tours and you're leaving Seward going down Resurrection Bay to the mouth of the Gulf of Alaska, it's about three hours. It's a hump. And that's where you see the humpbacks and the orcas in that spot there. Okay. If you Alaska may look like you would think like, oh, that's not that far. Yeah. It's three hours. Okay. If you go to Whittier, you've been to Whittier, you get to see all the glaciers named, you get to see all the glaciers that are named after colleges. Is that what they're named after? I never knew that. They are named after colleges. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. When you look at Whittier and the 64 earthquake, the tsunami was the greatest in Whittier. So there was one building standing after the tsunami and it's still standing. Is that the military building? Is that what they were throwing out? That's it. Oh, okay. Okay. That's it. Okay. That's it. You take the glacier tour and you're looking at all these glaciers that are named after colleges in the United States. Every now and then you'll see some orcas in there. Every now and then, not a lot, but every now and then you'll see some orcas in there. You'll run into them. You won't see any humpbacks. I always look for them at the end of the road. If you go to Alaska and you're tired and you want to take a trip to Valdez, let's say you are in Anchorage, okay, and you want to take a trip to Valdez. Now, I'm going to get personal with this because just like people shooting Earthquake Park, the city, people have a tendency to shoot the city and the city. People have a tendency to shoot the same stupid shot of Mount Drum in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. All right. The beauty of driving to Valdez from Anchorage is that you have bypassed the Alaska Range. So basically, it's a very, very nice trip. As you're coming into Glenallen, you will see this big, huge mountain. That is Mount Drum. The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest park in the United States. It is bigger than Yellowstone. And for landscape photographers, it is a hoot. But if you really want to get some mileage out of this, now this is just a suggestion. And yes, because I've lived there, I've been both routes. If you are a landscape photographer, I would suggest that you leave Anchorage and go to Fairbanks and then go from Fairbanks to Valdez because it's going to take you right through the Alaska Range. You're on the back side of the Alaska Range. You have to go through the Range to come out on the other side. And when you come out on the other side, you will see the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. And the first thing you'll see is Mount Drum. When you... Right. When you pass Glen Allen, you're now going back into the same mountain range that's behind the city of Anchorage. That's the Chugach Mountains. The Chugach Mountains extend all the way to Valdez and then some. Okay? In my second book that I have not published yet for reasons that I'll just leave it be, as you approach Valdez, 30 miles in Valdez, you're going to go through what is known as Keystone Canyon. And if you are whether you are a professional photographer or you like taking pictures, there's nothing more breathtaking than to go through that canyon to watch the waterfall, which is nothing more than ice melt from the glaciers come down. Keystone Canyon. Okay? I'm not going to get into it because you can look it up on Google and you can see it. But Valdez, just that trip there in Keystone Canyon, it took me 10 years to shoot that. I just put it in my book. I haven't published a book yet, but it is something to see. And then the town of Valdez is a great place. Okay? My after living there for umpteen years, I always kept saying Valdez reminds me of a town on the Jersey Shore. But yeah, I can see that. Yeah. Yeah. But the thing about Valdez is that you look at Valdez in the summertime and you think like, okay, I wonder what winter is like. Don't ever ask that question. No, I don't want to. No. I was inside the airport and I was in that boat and yeah, I was like, oh, okay, this is kind of cool. My very first time in the jet and and whatnot. And then we flew down and then that's a whole bunch of eagles. I wish I was a photographer back then because that would have been my my whole eagle shot. They were right there in front of my face. Yeah, that's like Homer. Yeah. Let me Yeah, I thought that was cool. I better tell them about bald eagles because they're not what you think they are. They're not. Do you want me to tell them about the bald eagles? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, really, because they're a pain in the butt. They're a glorified scavenger. I'm sorry. That's what they are. I don't care if they're the bird of the United States. They are a pain in the butt. They're very narcissistic. Yes, they are. They have an issue. Of course, a bear's like you. Right? Yeah. Don't do it. Bald eagles, especially in Homer, they don't care. They don't care. They'll get in the middle of the road and they will dare you to make a move. If you have food, if you have food, they're not going to ask you for it. They're just going to walk up to you and take it. They don't care. They don't care. Yeah, they'll take your dog. They'll take your dog. They'll take your cat. They will. Yeah, I don't know why people love this bird, so they are the biggest pain. I think they're narcissistic. I really do. I think that's what they are. They just think they can do anything the way they want. The two nicest bald eagles are Ricky and Lucy. I have to tell you about Ricky and Lucy. Mine are at the house, too. They like. They're nice, too. Your eagles at the house. Your eagles at the house. That's because they live this big city life. We're in Anchorage. Yeah, we have a hoarder that's next door. If we get hungry, we'll just go to the dump. Well, look. I'm saying this nicely. We have a hoarder that's like right around the corner, like right near our house. Not near my house. And every single animal goes to that house. The moose, everything. They have a routine and everything. But no, the eagles, my eagles, they're cool. They love watching the kids and all that stuff. So Ricky and Lucy have competition. Ricky and Lucy, yeah. Ricky and Lucy I met in 2018 at the park in Seward. It's a male and female. Bald eagles mate for life. And they sit in this tree at the park. I don't know where their nest is, but they're always sitting in this tree. And every year they've been there. I think the nest is next door. Well, eagles make a huge, they make a condominium style nest. Right, right. I believe I've seen their nest on the Nash Road, like when you're coming right into town. Yeah, you're coming right into town. Yeah, I think theirs is on the Nash Road, near the auto. Yeah, just in front of the railroad tracks. Yep. Just in front of the railroad tracks on the left side of the road. Yeah. Yeah. You'll see a lot of bald eagles at home if you are a professional photographer. I keep saying professional because it's like, if you are a photographer and you like to take pictures and you're taking a trip from Anchorage, Alaska to Homer, buy SD cards. A lot of them. Because you're going to be stopping and starting at the right place. And starting. Add an extra battery. By the time you hit Anchorage to... So that... No, no, no, hold on a little bit. From Anchorage to a little bit before or a little bit after Beluga Point is when the battery goes halfway down and then the SD card. You're going to buy like four batteries and then just, you know... If you've never seen a volcano before, the volcano that you will see in its entirety is Redoubt Volcano. And... Yeah, that's the one that takes you to Beluga, isn't it? Yeah, that's when it blows. It always blows. It always blows. That mountain's got more stories than Redoubt. And when it blows, everything that's flying is gone to Fairbanks. Everything that's flying is gone to Fairbanks. They'll get to Anchorage where they won't take off when that ash gets down. No, no, no. They'll divert to Fairbanks in a heartbeat. And there's nothing more prettier than watching 30, 15 to 20 jumbos land at Fairbanks International Airport. I've never seen an airport as small as it is line them puppies up. It is like they do the best job of taking care of airplanes and you've got no space. Right. You've got none. Okay? So when you get to Homer... Homer's pretty cool. It's a different world. It really is. Have you... There's a boat out there. There's a boat out there that was a German boat. I'll have to show you a picture of it. I know nothing about... I... The new guy there. My trips to Homer were in my days when I was drinking and partying. So going... Going to Homer now as a professional, this will be a first trip. I haven't been to Homer in almost... Yeah, this will be 20, 25 years. I almost went when I was home in September with Susan. But no. I'm looking forward to Homer like no tomorrow because it's a distance out of Alaska that people do not talk about. No. All they do is show the pictures. But... Homer is a... Homer is a different world. It really is. I was... That's when I... That was my first deep sea fishing expedition where we had a friend that owns a boat. So I didn't do the excursions or whatever that they have but we... I did take pictures of them, wave to them on the thing, you know, and all that stuff. But we had our own little... I was with the camera. My beginner. My beginner days. The camera around my neck. I learned that. So put your camera around your neck when you're in these situations anywhere on the bridge and all that stuff so you don't lose it. But I'm in there with the fishing rod. Fishing for halibut. And the camera in my hand like this. And then going like this. And then click, click, click, click, click. You know, everywhere. And then the animal. The bird. And the bears. The fun thing about Homer is the orcas. The orca pods. And the reason why I say this is because they like to play with you. They like to... Okay. And orcas, if you're in a kayak or any small boat and you're in Resurrection Bay all by yourself, what they like to do is sneak up behind you and blow out their pods and blow out their pods and blow out their pods and sneak up behind you and blow out their blowhole and scare the heaven-lit daylights out of you. They love that. Wait. I've got to do a plug-in. I've got to do a plug-in. When you need a depend, just depend on depends, man. Alaska is very, very, very good with depends. If you need to run from a bear, where depends? If you need to be running from a whale, where depends? You never know. You just never know. Well, depend on depends. All right, go ahead. I'm done. You're fine. Orcas scare? No, the orcas don't scare people. They like to... They like to play with people. Now, sewer is a little bit different. Sewer is different. But the humpbacks love to breach. They won't breach for me. It makes me mad. But they'll breach for everybody else. Which I think is totally... See, when I take her, they'll probably breach for her. George wants me to take a figure and I will tell him, no, he's got to pay me. That's it. They'll breach for her. They'll breach for you. I'm talking about full breach. I'm not talking about this half house of water. No, they'll... And she'll look at me and go like, I got that picture. Yeah. You're welcome. Exit Glacier and Seward is a good place to go. There's certain places that things that you can see... Actually, yeah, this is a good hike. Yeah, you like to hike. Okay. Exit Glacier is a good hike. Oh, there's hills up there too. I guarantee you'll see a bear up there. She'll tell you about the bears. They're supposed to be nice. I don't believe her. Well, there's resident bears up there. I don't know. I know they had babies, so I don't know about the bear babies. She gets into this resident thing. I'm like... Well, they can stay every year. But... But the black bears stay on the ground more and then the brown bears are like on the top. So there's like... When I was there last, it was two brown bears and then three black bears. The brown bears... Bears like her, she'll walk up to them. They have conversations with them. And she thinks she's going to get me to go get her. And I'm not going nowhere near them. So that's it. I'm... When it comes to... You know, I could care less about a moose. They get on my nerves. I had one sit in front of my door one day when I was trying to go to work and radio at three o'clock in the morning and he wouldn't move. And when you walk into a moose, if you go shoo, they won't move. No, they won't. They can just bonk and you just bounce right back, man. I've been there, done that. Tell them not to come up to Alaska and treat moose like the bears in Yellowstone because it's not going to work out for you. It's not going to work out. You want to walk up to them and pet them on the nose? That ain't happening. I'm telling you. It's not happening. No. No. No. Tell them! No, don't go up to them. Yeah. I mean... I'm not Timothy Tiswell, but I do have a better... a better thing. I have pictures underneath the moose. You know, all kinds of good stuff, but... Now, if you want to go to Katmai, you better tell them about Katmai at Brooks Camp. Well, I haven't been there yet, but what I've been hearing is that that's a good place to... My occupational therapist, she went with her daughter and she actually... Mosquitoes are bad out there. Huh? Mosquitoes are bad out there. Is it? Yeah, I still want to go out there. That is one place I really do want to go. Of course you can. You don't have a conversation with the bears. They'll bother me, but they won't bother you. I'm really jealous of you because, you know, you go out there. You could probably just go out in the water while they're, you know, and they're like, Hi, how are you doing? Want to take my picture? Click, click, click. If I get out there, it's like, oh, we're going to mess with him. So, but... Right, I'm clicking, clicking. You have to apply for and get accepted to go to Katmai. Check your year. And you never know. It might take a couple of years. And if you get it, it's going to be a couple thousand dollars just to even get there. It's very costly. But it's worth it. It's worth it. Yeah. And one thing about the bears out there versus any other place, when you go to Katmai, they don't care about you. No. They don't. They don't like you. They'll ignore you. They'll just walk right by you and they don't care. They don't care. I would say that my occupational therapist, she went up there with her daughter and she set up her camera, right, on the pathway and everything. And the bear was a pretty good distance and then by the time she went and she looked into the thing, all she saw was brown fur right there. Like, just right there. She's like, what the... And she looked and she said, oh, okay. Okay. And he just walked right on by. Didn't care. You know. I guess there's a little lodge and stuff like that you could sleep in. Like, you know, you go to camp. But that's where Timothy did. Well, I'm going to say his name again. Don't be like him. But that's where he got... and his girlfriend. But yeah, no. Was he at the water? Was he at the... He went into the water. He went into the... Is Dad going? Yeah, because I remember the video was he was in a tent and he was talking about... It was morning time and everything and he ended up... He was like, well, today I'm going to go... I'm going to go touch the bears. You know, I'm going to go in the water and touch, you know, and play with the bears in the water. I'm like, are you... This is before I even thought about Alaska. I've seen this in Pennsylvania. And I was like, is he really that dumb? Okay. But then this fox came along. So he was, you know, taking photographs of the fox and letting the fox play around in his tent and all that stuff. And next thing you know, he's in the water with the bears. And somehow, I can't remember if it was that day or if it was, you know, just some time afterwards. I mean, he was touching the bears and all that stuff. But then a bear ate him. And then another bear ate his girlfriend. And then he was like, and then another bear ate his girlfriend. And she was kind of on her time of the month. And I always say, do not go hiking when it's on your time of the month. They smell, they smell that like sharks. And you are in predatory mode or, you know, you're in prey mode. They're predatory. So don't hike with me when you're, yeah, please don't. I'm just going to be real about that. But yeah, no, that's how he ended. And it actually was recorded on video that his, and they had to, they had to kill the bear, which was pretty sad. So. They shouldn't have killed the bear. No, but he had his taste of blood. So, I mean, they had to. He was pretty dangerous at that point, the human blood. But they recovered the watch out of the stomach. So I guess they gave that back to his parents. And some clothing pieces. From what I remember out of the, out of the story. And I was like, wow, that's pretty wild, man. See, now I'm going to go watch the video. I've never seen it, so I'm going to watch it now. Yeah, it's been years since I've seen it. But yeah, it was her first time in Alaska. Like, oh, wow. Okay. But McHugh Creek. Tell them. I think McHugh Creek is a fun, is a fun place to. No, it's not. It's really not. That's a death sentence. Some people will go up there. You know, right now, we're talking about McHugh Creek, and everybody has an opinion. I wrote it in my house. McHugh Creek is a good, a lot of things happen in McHugh Creek that involves crews and people. Yep. And if you, you know, the last big thing, was I living there? Yes, I was. No, I wasn't. Yes, I was. Was it about the couple? Yeah, the couple. The elderly lady. The old couple. Yeah. Yep. It's really hard to tell the story and not insert your, duh, but I think it was in April or May. It was very early on when the bears are waking up. That I did know. Yes, that's when you definitely know. July is okay. They're hungry. So there was a woman running on the trail, and she ran by, she was attacked by a grizz, who was feeding on a carcass. I think it was a moose carcass? Yes. Moose carcass. Yeah. She was attacked. The best way to say this, especially if not only Alaska, but in Yellowstone, there are places where there are wild animals. Don't go there. And although you think that they're wild animals, they're wild animals, okay? And there are certain things that wild animals do at certain times of the year. In Alaska, April is when they start to wake up. When they wake up, they're hungry. They've got babies to feed and everything. They've got babies to feed. Plus, they've got to deal with the males, because the males want to eat the babies. Right. And in August, you don't want to deal with any of the animals, either, because they want to have their babies. They don't want to have their babies. They don't want to have their babies, either, because they want to have good cohorts, good mates, and all that stuff. So, July is when they're happy, fat, and sassy. If you... It's really good to see these things in the wild, and you're not paying money to watch them in a zoo and locked up and stuff, but they're wild animals. As much as I love orcas, they are wild animals. Okay. You... Okay. Humpbacks are wild animals. Bald eagles is definitely a wild animal. And they can and will... Most of the time, they don't. But they can take you out. Yeah. They'll carry a human being. They carried a caribou, I've seen, right up in here. That's strong. It's really neat to see the animals, and we can talk about them in all different ways and make fun of them and all that stuff. But... And you will run into them when you don't want to or not. That's another thing about Alaska itself, is that you're doing this one thing, and all of a sudden, you get interrupted by nature. Yep. Yeah, like at the hospital, where the moose walks into the hospital. He's like, oh. Oh, okay. Or the grocery store, or you got the bear at Alyeska Hotel, just walking through. I'm done. You're done? Is this your... Are we done with this podcast? You got a lot of chopping up to do. You got a lot of chopping up to do. There ain't no chopping up in here. We chopped it up already. This is a great, great Alaska information. We're going to do more of these Alaska information and get more people into the Alaska stories. Take a cruise. Take a cruise. Yeah. That's the way to go. Come on up. You can book... Come on up. I think you can book passage on a cruise, and you make payments a year out and have it all paid off by the time you get on your cruise. My mother did that twice. She did it twice. She paid on it for a year, and that's it. Say goodbye. Bye. This is your cab. Bye. Bye. I'll see you guys later.