A Self-Help guide for arrivals to Nome, inspired by my parent’s trip yesterday:
- Recognize that you will get a tour of Alaska by air. Enjoy the flight over “God’s Country”, and when you get stuck in Kotzebue while waiting for the weather to clear, you may get to see the same land again. And again.
- Texts from landing strips are more helpful than the airline website – but don’t send them during flight, as it’s an FAA violation
- The more flights that DON’T make it to Nome, the better the pilots on the later flights. Seriously, these pilots are awesome, flying in in 1 mile visibility conditions, and managing to both land and take off in what would otherwise be impossible conditions.
- You may have your luggage “rebalanced” – aka, pulled from the plane in Kotzebue. Bring at least one, if not three, sets of clothing in your carry-on bags. Or you may have to share clothing with your contact in Nome.
- If you’re on the waiting-in-Nome end, here’s a quote to ponder while you wait: “Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at the airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends… If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.”
- Take a photo when the family or friends are reunited!
