A Wanna be Articsid story

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I just got back from articsid's neck of the woods, no I didn't find him. Too bad though I'm sure it would have been alot more fun had I gotten in touch with him.

So heres the story
Those who know articsid (Troy) know he always has a good wildlife story to tell. Well here is my Alaska wildlife adventure without leaving the city.
The company that I work part time for now and days sends me to all the locations that the CG has buoy tender ships to do an electronics groom on them. Well just so happens we have 5 cutters up in Alaska and I get the luck of visiting 3 of them this year. I just returned home from there this past Friday and my story starts with landing in Anchorage at 3 am Alaska time.
Once we had our luggage and was off to the hotel for the remainder of the night, I was already on the look out for any suspecious critters. Well it didn't take long because inside the front door of the Hampton Inn was two brown bears. Ok so not the greatest start to a rather eventful trip it was nice to see that they aren't worried about PETA up there. We stay just one night there as it was a stopping point for the next flight out to Kodiak Island which left at 3 pm that day. After getting a little bit of sleep I was packed and ready to head out to Kodiak. This is where it starts to get interesting.
The shuttle from the hotel to the airport was already at the hotel when I came down and while waiting for my partener to arrive I got to talk to the shuttle bus driver. Here some quotes
Me: "Are you going to be leaving soon"
Driver: "I leave whenever I feel like it"
Me: with a shocked look "well ok, I am waiting on one more person and we will be ready to go"
Driver: "Whatever just let me know when your ready"
Me: "Ok" and I walked away for a few mins to check in online to my ERA flight.
When I came back I just stood there and listened to him kinda scared to say something that might be anywhere near offensive. But after a little while somewhere in the middle of his conversation with the desk clerk he asked me if this was my first time in Alaska and I said yeah. He then asked me where I was from and if I had ever seen a moose. I said from NC and that I saw plenty of them when I was stationed in Maine. He quickly responded then you haven't seen no moose until you have seen and Alaskian moose. He asked if I wanted to see one, sure I said then he told me to get in the van and off we went. Through one stop light and behind another hotel accross the street and there just on the other side of the parking lot was a nice bull with out his horns. You could tell because of the knots on his head where they were starting to grow back out. I have a pic but its not real good.
So after acting like a jerk to start with or thats what I thought, it just turned out he was a smart a$$ having fun. Once we got back to the Hampton Inn my partener still had not come down yet, and me and the driver started exchanging hunting stories. I stepped away to use the bathroom and when I came back he asked if I wanted some better pics of a moose. Of course, I said were are we going this time. He said not far, look out in the parking lot. There was Applebees and in the hotel/applebees parking lot was a moose. This is like downtown Anchorage, I will try to post at least one of the pics of this one up after I make this post.
WELCOME TO ALASKA
The rest of the trip was not as eventfull wildlife wise, although I got to see the most bald eagles on Kodiak Island at one time than I had in my entire life total. Add a few blacktail deer (Sitka Deer as they call them) and one rather large crab, and that was about it for live animals. Mounted animals included a 65lb king salmon, 4 different 1200lb Kodiak brown bears, 2 Polar bears, and various other critters.
I can't wait for my next trip, although it is only 1 week long and to Sitka, it is still Alaska and I still have to fly into Anchorage (the way my company flys me around).

So my story don't match some of Troy's stories but for me, it was one hellof an adventure.
 
This is the moose in applebees parking lot, it had already moved onto the curb in this pic. But I guess it was hungry and wanted to try out Applebees salads, well atleast the shrubs there.

DSC01239.jpg
 
PW,

Was it looking like THIS video?




[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794wEIbHlDc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794wEIbHlDc[/ame]
 
WOW....

That was cool. I bet it's a pain living there!

Idiot tourists!

Debbie
 
Yeah the locals take pictures of us as we travel through and tell stories about how those druck tourist try to navigate our normal (to the locals) road ways.
I would love to live up there, but only from about this time of year until about September.
Then come back here for winter.

Wildlife can be so funny sometimes like kids in a way, they just do what they do and you cant help but laugh.
 
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