Franzone Family Blog

The Trip Up

Well, the trip up to Fairbanks, Alaska was… looooooong! I met up with the other programmer in training in Atlanta so I at least had some good geek company while hopping different flights. I even met some people in one flight that lived in Alaska and they had some good suggestions and offered some rather, ummm, interesting conversation. Apparently the retail store chains of the world are spying on us and attempting to usurp our human rights…. ok.

In the stops in Anchorage and Fairbanks the planes didn’t actually pull up to the terminal. They just got close and then lowered down the portable stairs. We had to walk to and from the plane outside. It wasn’t a large distance but it was first taste of the cold weather. All in all I thought, that’s not so bad. The air was pretty dry compared with Florida and it wasn’t cutting me through to the bone. We met up with our contact in Fairbanks at 1:55 AM (yes, it was extremely nice of him to come pick us up at that hour) and had our rental vehicle warmed and ready to go. My colleague had driven in the snow before so I let him have the honors.

It’s my beautiful bride’s birthday today, so I would like to wish her a Happy Birthday!

I remember one time when Aubrey and I were dating during our days at Pensacola Junior College. We had gone to a recital at the school and she rode with me. It was time for me to take her home which was over the I-10 bridge East to Milton. We were talking about this and that and I said somewhat jokingly, “Hey, let’s just run off to Tallahassee!” She said, “OK, let’s do it.” So we drove right past the exit to Avalon Blvd in Milton and headed East. Of course both of us had enough combined common sense to know that this would not be a good idea. We only rode as far as Crestview and then turned back. It was kind of exciting though to think about being young and impetuous and running off on an adventure together.

Well, baby we did finally make it to Tallahassee! And beyond. Life with you has been the greatest adventure I could ever have hoped for and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Happy Birthday, baby. I love you.

For this installation of Countdown To Alaska I thought I’d share some interesting facts about the state.

• State Capital: Juneau (map)
• Largest City: Anchorage (map)
• State Population: 670,053 (2006)
• Population Density: 1.1/sq mi (The least densely populated state)
• Land Area: 663,267 sq mi
• Median Household Income: $57,071 USD
• Alaska is the largest state in the US in land area and is over twice as large as Texas
• Alaska has more coastline than all the other US states combined
• Alaska is the only state whose capital city is inaccessible by land (no roads connect Juneau to the rest of the state)
• The area that became Alaska was purchased from Russian interests on March 30, 1867. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.
• The name “Alaska” is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning “the mainland”, or more literally “the object towards which the action of the sea is directed”.

I have formally accepted a position with Rogers Software Development, Inc. based in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is a work from home position doing computer and/or web programming… pretty much what I usually do. The interesting thing here though is that I am required to be on location in Fairbanks, AK for one month to complete training and I suppose to get thoroughly integrated into the company. So, I will be gone for most of the month of January. This is of course a very exciting adventure as I have never been to Alaska, but I will definitely be missing my family while away.

Anyway, I wanted to start a post series leading up to my departure. In these posts I’ll be sharing different things I have discovered in researching my destination. For this initial installation I bring you the ArcticCam. This is a webcam located in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner building in Fairbanks, Alaska and it overlooks downtown Fairbanks, the Chena River and the Cushman Street Bridge. My wife actually found this site, so many thanks to her. Now that I know I am going I check it daily just to see what it looks like and how cold it is there. My first reaction upon loading the cam was, “Wow, that just looks cold!”