Bethel on final approach - summer view
Cabs everywhere, 24/7- see this article:
Everything, including tonight's dinner comes by first class air! (Actually, the planes are specially modified. First class becomes the cargo area, and passengers board and leave via the rear door (and rolling staircase..across the tarmac...in Alaska...fuck jetways, this is real flying!)
Fine dining in Bethel. This place served me the biggest deep fried mosquito I have ever seen clinging to a French Fry. Note the ubiquitous ravens on the roof. Fair warning. Nuff said.
Roger described Bethel to me as "skid row where all the bums have money." That orange mess under the red pipe is the house water tank. It is insulated...Bethel fashion. The red tank up on the scaffold is the heating oil for the house. Makes house fires very interesting, with each house strapped to its own ticking bomb.
This is Swanson's grocery store, where one can spend HUGE amounts of money on stuff. But one must traverse the mudway to get inside. This is the actual parking lot of one of the busiest businesses in Bethel - and yes, it looks like this every single day...unless it's finally dried up, which means it's about to be covered in snow.
Painting the town dumpsters is a local pasttime. Dumpsters are located on many streets, and residents all haul their garbage to the general vicinity, where gleeful abandonment reigns supreme. This picture mercifully does not show the severed moose head that languished near this particular dumpster for a couple of months before someone called it in. The Animal Control Officer was not best pleased about that assignment.
Watson's corner - the heart of downtown. The major intersection of Chief Eddie Hoffman State Highway and Third Ave. Those dishes are the lifeline for all communications in and out of Bethel. Internet, TV, HAARP fiddlings...all get collected in those dishes and transmitted across those lines you see all over the place. No underground cables in a town where even the sewer lines run above ground! And when a random caribou wanders across the line of sight..."Internet connection was lost. Please reconnect to the Internet to continue"...also works with sunspots, solar flares, dog sledders, you name it. Intermittent internet. Amazing concept.
Tundra beauty - fleeting - serendipity-almost cannot be believed when remembered during the blizzards that inevitably follow.
This is Bethel. Mud holes, water and sewer pipes lining the catwalks which allow people to walk above the tundra. These catwalks connect all the parts of town, and are far more convenient than walking the roads. But those water and sewer pipes everywhere...icy roads, cars sliding, pipes serving as barriers... let your imagination wander down that rabbit hole for just a moment.
And this is also Bethel. Most of the year- this is all snowburied. No reason to care, really...apparently!
Hell. Where my journey through the abuses of the Medical System began. If there is ever a good reason to nuke real estate - this place should be pretty high on the desired targets list.
This video goes on too long, but gives you a sense of what shopping in Bethel is like - look down the aisles in the long shots and see what else is being sold besides pasta sauce and raman.
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