Moving to FT. Greely / Delta Junction and have questions (Anchorage: rentals, hotels)

[josahua]

Anybody that can help, I would appreciate. I am possibly moving to Ft. Greely and living in Delta Junction. I am trying to get all the details worked out. Here are a few....

Does Delta Junction have a kennel for dogs?

How difficult is it to transport a dog to Alaska and how would you recommend?

Are dogs safe in this Area? (Bears, wolves, etc.)

Does Cingular wireless work in the Ft. Greely / Delta Junction area? I can't get a straight answer from cingular...

What would you recommend for living accomidations for 5-6 months?

How are the roads? Is it easy to travel to Fairbanks?

Thank you again...

Josh

[PhilP]

I was offered a position at Ft. Greely. I'm thinking about flying over there to see it myself. I loved Anchorage, but Delta Junction? I'll keep you posted if I go. Good luck.

[shusto]

I'm not sure if Delta Junction has a dog kennel. If you are driving up you can bring the dog with you in your car. Just go to the vet and get a health certificate. Otherwise you can fly them up. Alaska airlines does it a lot.it is kind of expensive. They charge you by the size of the dog crate. Dogs are pretty safe in Delta. I do have a friend who had two dogs that got killed there, but their killers were the neighbors dogs, so I guess it is like every where. If you watch your dogs and don't let them run, they and the wildlife should be just fine. Cell phones work in town, but I couldn't tell you which companies do and don't. I don't know where a person would stay. I would think if you could find a place the rent would be high. Maybe you could call a realtor there and ask. It is a small town and the people mostly work together. They have a news paper, maybe you could advertise for a place in advance. My friends who live there have complained that a lot of 'cults' have been moving in the last few years so you might want to remember that if you seek a room mate situation. Delta is 2-3 hours from Fairbanks as I remember and the roads are good. But the weather can get bad and they can ice over quick. Also there are some "hills". But the road crews do a real good job and that is usually a fairly good drive. And the wind can really blow there. good luck, sorry I couldn't be more specific.

[kitkatjmu]

Hi Joshua, I worked at Ft Greely as a contractor from June 2005-December 2005 so I will try to help you out if I can. I don't know anything about the dog situation, so I can't help with that. Cell phone service was tricky! Nextel which is what we had for work, certainly DID NOT WORK. On base several of the companies worked, I had alltel, and it worked ok on base. Cellular 1 is who is up there in that area, but that didn't even work too well in some places. And it also depends on where you end up living. We rented a house about 10 miles off of base and we got NO cell service inside of our house. My boyfriend bought a booster and that got us a little bit of service.

Where are you moving from? Delta Junction is VERY SMALL. I lived in Virginia most of my life, about 8 miles from Washington DC. All I can say is CULTURE SHOCK!!! The scenery is beautiful, MOOSE everyday!!! One grocery store in Delta. A few places to eat. The Diner, Poorboy's, during the summer the Drive Inn, and a Pizza restaurant. Nearest fast food, movie theatre, anything like that is Fairbanks. I will say that I am glad I got to experience alaska, but I was ready to go after 6 months, especially when the temperatures were in the -30degrees range!!!

Fairbanks to Ft Greely...it's about 90 miles, in perfect weather and road conditions, you can do it around an hour and a half. During the summer, the roads are usually fine. During the winter, which can start as early as SEPTEMBER!, the roads can get a little more difficult! We were surprised at how they don't really plow the snow up there, they just sort of pack it down and throw rocks on top for traction. We had a 4 wheel drive diesel truck, and we never had any problems driving, although there were times we just knew that we weren't going to try to drive to Fairbanks bc of the weather. Also chances that you will get a cracked windshield are HIGH!

If you do go up there, I highly recommend buying a MILEPOST. It is a book that will tell you about every inch of the roads in alaska. It is really helpful. You can get it at walmart or lots of other stores around there.

As for housing, that is tricky. The summer months are really crowded up there with workers. The motels aren't much, there are one or 2 "bunk houses". We rented a house from the Deckers, who own and run Hair Doctor and The Diamond Willow Inn (which is a bed and breakfast). When we left they were working on about 6 cabins they were building to rent out. They were REALLY nice, I wanted to get one but they weren't finished soon enough. They might have something available. BUT if you are going to be there in the colder months, know that you will need a heater on your vehicle and you have to plug it in, any living arrangements that might offer a GARAGE are FOR SURE the BEST option!!!!!!!!!!

Ok I wrote a book, let me know if I can help with anything else!

[gypsy star]

Hi Joshua.

You didn't say when you might be moving to Delta, so this may be too late to be of much help.

Cingular may cancel your service as they did mine because you are off their network in this area. There are several other carriers, such as Alaska Communications (ACS) which get great service here. You could try using your current service until they notify you of cancellation. It took Cingular a while to notify me that I was "in violation" of my contract and then they gave me a couple of months beyond that. In other words, you could possibly get away with such a short time up here.

We have several sled dogs and have had no problems, but I would not recommend leaving a small dog outdoors here.

The road to Fairbanks is quite good and a beautiful drive. it takes about an hour and a half in good weather. There is also a bus service daily to Fairbanks.

If you do happen to still need info, you could try subscribing to the DELTA WIND, the local newspaper, or checking it out online.

Best of luck.

[kelwood]

We had 2 small dogs (4 lbs) that we brought with us to Delta Junction. The Vets health certificate is fairly easy to get and not to expensive, I think I paid $50 for each one. I lost one of the dogs 2 years ago during the winter. She just vanished one day. The Owls were very active during that time, but to this day I don't know what really happened Just don't let your dogs run wild and they should be just fine. We never had bears or wolves on our property, just moose and they don't like to eat dogs

Ther were 2 dog kennels a couple years ago. I think both are still there.

I've made the Al-Can trip twice. Once in the summer and Once in February. The summer trip took 6 days with a few sight seeing stops and sleeping in the truck along the way. LOTS of road construction!! The winter trip took about 4 days and we stayed in hotels every night. The roads were great...frozen solid and no road construction. Be sure to check the weather forecast before striking out in the winter though! You should make this trip at least once in your lifetime just so you can proudly wear a T-shirt! Also, the dogs loved this trip.

I've had cellular one (terrible coverage unless you're right in the middle of town) and Verizon. Verizon coverage was fantastic. I even got a signal at the Clearwater Lodge. I worked on Base and almost all the people coming through complained that cell service was limited or non existent in the surrounding areas outside of town.

Expect to pay a lot for any place you rent. Summer is when rentals are in high demand. If you were to stay through winter you'd probably get a better rate from some landlords. Personally, we try and keep our rentals the same price all year. I'd rather have someone live there a long time than have it sit empty for 5 months. Also heating costs are high in the winter, I just can't see how it's possible for someone to pay outrageous rent prices and afford to heat their home!

[flittell]

Yes! There is one excellent kennel in the Delta Junction area. The owner's name is Eileen Mock, phone is 907-895-5353. I had to be out of town for class for a few days and she was wonderful. The kennels are clean, the dogs are well taken care of and each kennel has its separate run. One could not ask for a better person.

Fred Littell

[flittell]

Yes! There is one excellent kennel in the Delta Junction area. The owner's name is Eileen Mock, phone is 907-895-5353. I had to be out of town for class for a few days and she was wonderful. The kennels are clean, the dogs are well taken care of and each kennel has its separate run. One could not ask for a better person.

For Cellular service, I live 5 miles from the city limits, tried ACS - don't bother, as a past technical support subject matter expert for a different CDMA network, you will seldom get a truthful answer or solution from ACS, very poor service and empty apologies from their scripts that they read. I hate being read an apology over a script. A month ago I switched to AT&T and get pretty good coverage, actually better than ACS. The only caveat is that you must go to one of the AT&T stores in Fairbanks if you want to set up same day service. It's worth the drive.

Fred Littell

[flittell]

Yes! There is one excellent kennel in the Delta Junction area. The owner's name is Eileen Mock, phone is 907-895-5353. I had to be out of town for class for a few days and she was wonderful. The kennels are clean, the dogs are well taken care of and each kennel has its separate run. One could not ask for a better person.

Fred Littell