From Winnemucca, NV

When we left Salt Lake City this morning, we soon got out onto the Salt Flats.  They are flat and salty.  It looks like you could walk off the side of the road and fill up your salt shaker.  🙂

We spent most of the day in the mountains.  There are a number of different mountain ranges in eastern Utah and western Nevada.  Then we crossed a low lying scrub brush area that reminded me of eastern Oregon although the surrounding mountains were much higher snow-topped mountains.  I hadn’t accounted for us crossing a time line into Pacific time and gaining another hour.  If I had I might have planned for us to drive all the way to Reno.  We arrived in Winnemucca a little after 3:00.  At least we managed to get our laundry done.

The most interesting part of today, though, wasn’t the scenery or anything we did.  While we were rolling down the highway around mid-day, Mark’s phone rang so he handed it to me to answer.  It was Rose, a woman who had interviewed us by phone about a week ago, and to whom we had sent a resume.  She wants us to come and work for her next summer in Tok, Alaska!

We had sent our resume out to jobs all through the west and this is the first to offer us a job.  We said yes and she’s going to send us an agreement letter.  This is the best time to take a job in Alaska because we will be spending the winter in Lynden, WA which is close to the border of British Columbia, Canada.  When would we be in a better position to go to Alaska?  The job starts in mid-May and I believe it ends in mid-September.  It’s an RV park where I’ll probably be working in the office and Mark will be working outdoors.  Mark and I were beginning to wonder if we were becoming jaded about Workamping, but this offer got us excited!

Tok, AK is close to the border of the Yukon and is called the Gateway to Alaska.  The nearest city is Fairbanks which is three and a half hours away.  Valdez is five hours away.  I suspect Rose didn’t have very many applicants to choose from, but I’m glad she chose us.  For one thing, I think she will train me in whatever campground reservation system she uses.  I have been wanting to get that training because so many of the jobs we’ve seen ask for familiarity with a campground reservation system.  Most of the others won’t train.  (I tried asking at a campground in Fernley, WA, right near Lynden, and the woman turned me down.)  I’m betting that Rose will be happy to train me because she hasn’t had too many applicants.  This will be a good career move for me.  Mark is happy to be doing anything other than working in Activities!  Also, the job will end at a good time for getting a winter gig.  I’ve seen jobs posted for pumpkin and Christmas tree sales, and jobs for Arizona where the snowbirds go in the winter, all of which we’ve had to pass up because of the commitments we have through the end of this year.  That’s why we have a lag from January through mid-May.  Next year things should work out better for us job-wise.

What I’m hoping to do during our lag-time in Lynden is try to get Mark and I signed up for temp work.  I’ve been checking out temp agencies in Bellingham while Mark has been planning our route to Tok.  This job offer in Tok has inspired us again!

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