Nome Sweet Nome, volume 1

Finally made it to Nome this past summer.  Why?  Among other reasons, to put a check mark next to another one of my childhood dreams.  Funny how so many of them include Alaska...

Anyway, I've had a burning desire to go to Nome for a very long time.  Lots of reasons why.  So you can imagine the electricity I was feeling when the plane landed.  I was nearly overcome with joy:

I collected my bag from the tiny baggage claim and went to get a taxi.  It was then I realized I had forgotten to go online and find a place to sleep for the next three nights.  Oops.  I just hadn't had time, to be honest.  I was working so much...

Taxi driver: "So, where to?"

Me: "Good question!"

Taxi driver: just sort of looks at me

Me: "Take me to the Visitor's Center!"

So he did.  The kind and pretty young lady gave me a list and I found a room available at the Nome Nugget Inn.  It had a beautiful view.

 I settled in and went to get myself a vehicle.  Nome is remote, really fucking remote.  You can only access it by boat or plane.  But they have about 350 miles of dirt roads that go... nowhere really.  Nowhere and everywhere, all at the same time.

To an abandoned gold dredge:

 

All the way the fuck out to Teller:

And even to the Safety Roadhouse:

The jeep got pretty dusty:

The electricity that was with me when I landed remained long into the night.  I'm sure the brightness of the night sky helped things along in that department.  This was taken at 2:30 in the morning.

  It never got much darker than that.  Trust me.  I didn't do much sleeping while I was there.








Coming up next in volume 2 of Nome Sweet Nome: Why didn't she sleep?  What did she do?  What happened to her Qiviut nachaq?  The places she went, the people she met, all this and more in volume 2 of Nome Sweet Nome!
http://www.visitnomealaska.com/