TOK – don’t blink! You’ll miss it!

Yesterday I was minding my own business doing my job at work when Steve Hamilton, the general manager at the Baranof Hotel comes into the café and says, “Would you be available to go to Tok for a few days?” After questioning why on earth he would want to send me there, I found out that 1/3 of the Westmark (the company I work for) hotel staff has been stricken with the Norwalk Virus. It is a terrible virus that leaves you feeling really “crappy” to say the least. If you don’t know what it is or how you get it, look it up. It’s pretty gross. But it’s highly contagious and all of the staff has been quarantined. They had a couple of big tours groups coming in this weekend and couldn’t stand to be without a few extra hands. So a woman from the front desk at the Baranof and I were asked to come to Tok. We found out that they were for sure going to need us at about 11 am yesterday morning (June 4) and put us on the 12:55 flight to Anchorage.
Both of us had to run home as fast as we could pack as quickly as we could and book it to the airport. We boarded about 5 minutes after we arrived. We landed in Anchorage at about 2:30 with just enough time to grab a sandwich from a little shop and board the 38 minute flight to Fairbanks. Once we got to Fairbanks, we had to rent a car. We got a cute Blue Corolla and it is BRAND NEW. It only has 17,000 miles on it. We hoped in the car and about 3 hours later we arrived at our destination in Tok – it’s pronounced Toe – k. It is a TINY TINY town. It has one very small grocery store, a general store and 1 major gas station. You can’t see anyone’s house because they are all down little dirt lanes back into the thick of trees. All of the houses (all the ones that I have seen) are log homes. It’s a very cute town that would be an awesome place to have a summer house but it’s REALLY cold during the winter and hardly anyone stays here during the winter. They said that Tok has some of the most extreme weather in Alaska. The 3rd week of April this year was still below zero temperatures and now it’s 85 degrees today. Last year there was a high of 102 degrees.
We are staying at the motel where we are working so it’s nice to just roll out of bed 5 minutes before I have to be to work in the morning. I’m working in their dining area. I work breakfast lunch and dinner. All 3 meals is a mad rush of people all at the same time and then it’s dead for about an hour or two and then a mad rush of people and then it’s dead for about 4 hours and then a mad rush of people for dinner. So it gets kinda crazy for about an hour or so but it’s a lot of fun. I have always wondering what it would be like to work at an restaurant and I’m sort of finding out, it’s just even more different because this is such a tourist town. They also made me name tag while I’m here and they put on it that I’m from Juneau. It’s kind of weird to be known as the one from Juneau because I’ve never been able to claim it as where I’m from but to them I am. Things at this motel are much more laid back then at the Baranof. At the Baranof we have a very strict dress code – black slacks, black shoes, black socks and white button-up, collared shirts. Here we wear jeans with a button-up T that flashes the Westmark name and suspenders! Yup! You read right – I get to wear suspenders to work. Here’s a picture of my outfit just to prove it!

Our drive here was really cool. Fairbank is much different than the other parts of Alaska that I have seen. All of the other parts are very mountainous and lots of evergreen trees. Fairbanks is flat with lots of birch trees. As we drove closer to Tok I was reminded a lot of Cache Valley. We were driving on the flat part (the valley) and the towering mountains could be seen in the distance. It was a very pretty drive and we actually made great time because there is no one on the roads – you just have to watch out for lots of moose! We were able to see a mama moose and her calf hanging out in a big river. We had to cross the river so we got to get a great view of them and no one was coming behind us or in front of us so we stopped in the middle of a very narrow bridge to take pictures and to watch them for a minute. Here’s one of many great pictures that I got of them.
Meg, the woman I am traveling with, is known at our hotel as the front desk Nazi. She is very mean to everyone and doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She is also known as a slob, which I am far from and so I was quite worried about coming on this trip with her. But she actually has been a great travelling companion. She doesn’t have the best social skills but she is keeping her stuff fairly clean and everything has gone smooth so far. But she is not spontaneous at all so I’m really surprised that she even came on this trip. Coming up to Tok we had to drive through the North Pole, which is a suburb to Fairbanks so there is quite a bit of traffic. As I was driving I pass the sign for the North Pole and then Santa Claus Lane. So I told her that we were going to take this exit and go take picture of the Santa Claus Lane. She was kind of freaking out, “Oh, everyone is going to think we are so weird.” But I told her that I am probably never going to be back here in my life and I was going to do it and she didn’t really have a choice. So she agreed and she hesitantly pulled out her camera to take a picture of the Santa Claus Lane sign. I told her that I wanted a picture with me by it and she was so embarrassed – there was quite a bit of traffic and there were 4 or 5 cars stopped so that we could take a picture. She was too embarrassed to go get her picture taken but at least I got one! J The light poles were shaped and colored like candy canes and even McDonald’s was painted red and white. As we were pulling out of town, back on to the Alaskan Highway, we noticed a frontage type road and all of sudden a big house that had a big statue of Santa Claus. The Santa Claus House is right off of the road and we’re planning to stop on by on our way back to Fairbanks.
On a side note this is the furthest I have even been from my Sweetheart while we have been married. I miss him terribly and so wish that he could be here with me. I am kind of glad that he isn’t though because Tok is definitely a place I could see him falling in love with and wanting to stay. This trip and everything happened so suddenly it made me think of what it would be like to die and not be able to really say goodbye to your family or anyone that you love. I know that’s kind of horrible but it helped me to realize just how important it is to let my loved ones know how much I really do care for and love them so if I ever were to die suddenly, they would know how much they mean to me. Hopefully this very exciting adventure will be over soon so that I can get back to Brett. Meanwhile, give the people around you a hug today and tell them how much you love them and are thankful for all that they do for you. Tah-tah from Tok! Enjoy some picture of my journey!

Leaving Juneau

Somewhere between Juneau and Anchorage

Mountains just before Anchorage

Santa Claus Lane

Candy Cane Light Pole

A random sign on the side of the road in Tok in front of someone's house

Tok School (K-12th grade attends)

Our hotel/place of employment