Why are you moving to Alaska? (Fairbanks: credit, student loans, school)

[ShipOfFools42]

Originally Posted by Frostnip

The day and night sun actually gets to me more than the winter darkness does. It's kind of mania-inducing.

Yeah, I've always thought that would definitely bother me more. To have 24-hour daylight is hard to even imagine, honestly. But my friends who have lived up there say that it's great in the summer because everyone is out having fun all the time, non-stop. I have really good black-out curtains in my room even here, and those would do the trick for getting sleep, but it would be hard to actually get up and go get into bed with all that light shining into the house. Nuts, I tells ya, nuts.

Regarding the "seasonal" thing, I have always had a dream of living a life on the road for a period of time, not having a permanent address, just a vehicle and moving from place to place. Nomadic style, you know? The problem with it regarding Alaska, though, is that I would prefer to be in Alaska in the winter than in the summer, and that's not how the seasonal employment works. Oh, the tribulations of a lover of winter.

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by ShipOfFools42

Slush is fine with me too, if by slush you mean wet, watery, halfway melted snow that gets all over the roads. It's a nice challenge driving in that stuff (yeah, I know, I'm nuts).

By slush I mean very wet snow, or a mixture of snow and rain. It's heavy as heck and a pain to shovel. Pretty easy to drive in though. What's hard to drive (and walk) on is ice. Especially when it's covered with just a dusting of snow on top, or after it's been smoothed out by a good windstorm or a little melting. I believe coastal areas of Southcentral get more ice than the Interior as well, since we spend more time near freezing.

I like the long days in the summer, except you have to keep an eye on your watch to make sure you're not making too much noise too late, especially if you're doing projects in the yard that involve power tools. Making sure you get enough sleep is a challenge, too, just because you get wrapped up in doing something and don't realize what time it is. I did get kinda down about the darkness this winter, because it leaves so little time to play. That combined with the low snowpack here was a pretty big bummer, but we got some decent snow in early March when we were getting some light back and it was a blast.

[rf80412]

Originally Posted by tigre79

I did get kinda down about the darkness this winter, because it leaves so little time to play.

What do Alaskans do for fun when it's dark and below zero? I haven't gotten the impression that Alaska is known for a hot nightlife. I'm not a drinker or a dancer either, but I would be determined to make the most of being indoors.

[Rance]

Night skiing, snowmachines, popcorn and a movie, shootin northern lights, hanging out with the Mrs, and there is the occasional nightlife out on the town.

[rf80412]

Night skiing sounds cool. Is the moon or the aurora bright enough, or do they need to use stadium lights? Is there more danger from predators at night?

[tigre79]

We hang out with friends, watch movies, read books, cook, do indoor projects/crafts, that sort of thing. We snowmachine/ski/snowboard in the mountains here, which isn't really doable in the dark. I don't cross country ski yet, so I guess you could hit the trails in the dark. No lights, so it'd just be moonlight reflecting off the snow and maybe a headlamp. There are always bars, too. Not really nightclubs, just bars.

[Rance]

Alyeska has lights set up just for night skiing.

[cjs123]

Visited Alaska earlier this year and fell in love with the Fairbanks area. Really felt drawn to it in a way I haven't been drawn to a place in years. I am a very nocturnal person, and those night skies were mesmerizing. If I can take care of practicalities [selling home, finding employment] I'd like to give it a shot, along with exploring other parts of Alaska as well.

[sholomar]

the wilderness would be nice but not the cold. It's more then cold enough where I'm at, I wouldn't want it any colder... if anything I'm going warmer. There are some very rural warm areas in the US that are fairly isolated. Western South Dakota, western Nebraska, western kansas.. the whole breadbelt and especially the areas too arid for farming are quite isolated, and many are near some nice scenic mountainous areas. One such example would be Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

Being out around the rural towns in the summer in eastern South Dakota and being able to see 20 miles in the distance and not hear or see a single vehicle has it's own beauty as does trees and bluffs. And I like it warm... warm and windy actually.

population density map.. areas in Rural western Nebraska are not going to be tourist destinations, so traffic density away from the densely populated eastern parts of the US should be quite low. Even I-90 through southern MN is pretty barren most of the time. Iowa and Missouri are not bad either... I'd take Missouri because I enjoy severe weather. Wyoming and Montana are quite sparsely populated, just have to stay away from the California transplants.

http://www.census.gov/popest/gallery/maps/PopDensity_09.pdf (broken link)

[ShipOfFools42]

Originally Posted by tigre79

By slush I mean very wet snow, or a mixture of snow and rain. It's heavy as heck and a pain to shovel. Pretty easy to drive in though. What's hard to drive (and walk) on is ice. Especially when it's covered with just a dusting of snow on top, or after it's been smoothed out by a good windstorm or a little melting. I believe coastal areas of Southcentral get more ice than the Interior as well, since we spend more time near freezing.

Well, if there's anything I'm used to, it's "slush", then. That's is almost all of what we get in the winter, very wet snow, sometimes mixed with freezing rain, sticks to things instantly, very heavy to shovel you're right. Ice is the next-most common thing here. I drive on ice all the time, but rarely drive on snow. So that, I'm prepared for, at least somewhat. I drove on a lot of ice up in New England too. Honestly the worst things about ice are 1) scraping it off of stuff, like car windshields, and 2) slipping and falling on it. That's probably the worst of it actually, falling down. I've taken some hard spills because of black ice patches on sidewalks.