The trip north--re-posted intact from other blog

We (my friend Jim and I) left Alamo about 2:30. It’s about  90 minutes to the El Paso airport, which is smaller than I expected. Check in was mostly done by internet already and I slid through security easily. But then I noticed the flight to Phoenix was delayed.  Ooops, please no glitches right now, I prayed. The connection at Phoenix was tight, under an hour. So I worried—and waited. Finally the plane arrived and it seemed boarding took forever but at last we were off.

I always enjoy looking out—but there were too many clouds to track where we were, although they were pretty. It was sunset when we landed at Phoenix. Again everyone moves at snail’s pace but I was finally out and running. A couple from Las Cruces also heading to Anchorage went by me, old hands at this.They live in Las Cruces but have grandkids here. We'd landed in the B21 gate and were to leave from A26—about as far as it could be. I was thankful I had taken Jim’s advice and checked my larger bag. I ran on the moving sidewalks, recalling  how my brother Alex and I had done this years back on the way to Kentucky for our mom’s funeral. As then, they had closed the door to the jetway but let me and another woman board. Whew. That was too close but my prayer was answered.

It was pretty dark then but we followed the last strip of light west and north. I spotted as slim crescent of moon, crimson, probably from the smoke of many west coast fires, as it sank toward the distant horizon. I have never seen a crescent moon so red.  It was beautiful, though eerie. I sat beside an old gentleman who had a Chihuahua in a carrier that would not fit under the seat so that was stowed overhead and he held the dog the whole way. Thankfully it was a very well behaved little dog.

I don't  think I have ever been so far north—the sky stayed bright and even more so as we got closer to Anchorage. There it was deep dusk, like maybe five in the morning or eight thirty at home. The airport is big and busy—bigger than El Paso it seemed though no Sky Harbor, O’Hare or DFW of course.  I got off and went down to retrieve my suitcase and stepped out into the cool night, into an area crowded with trucks and SUVs since the evening’s last flights must have arrived en masse all at the same time! Pretty soon my hostess arrived in a big Dodge diesel dually and  we were off to Wasilla.

Anchorage, I leaned from a resident, has about 375,000  residents, half the state’s population and there you could be anywhere. It was a bit too dark, and too many trees along the road to see the mountains I had heard of but that will keep. Too dark for an arrival selfie, too, but that is okay.  I am here, on time and all of my stuff with me. The travel gods were good to me!

I got to bed about 4:00 am my home time so a good 22 hours up and going. Today I will rest and recover and tomorrow I  will start to get busy!

Later:

The site here is lovely, a bit out of town and on a small lake. There are lakes all over here! I've seen a bit of the town now, which is much more spread out than I had visualized but I will have the use of a car here most of the time.  So far the only dog is the resident Chocolate Lab, a big baby, but got a small doggie fix to hold me for now. Nice big house but three teens bopping around. I can deal with that LOL. I did take a few pix this morning but have yet to download. That's next on my agenda. Selfie and scenery coming up soon. But the big thing is I am here!!!