The Alcan

Yesterday I got to drive down to the Alcan. Such a beautiful drive, tainted only slightly by the running commentary of "this is where this one car tumbled seven times then burst into flames (apparently the guy lived. Lucky him.)" or "this corner takes out a lot of people, notice how far the trees are from the road". My personal favorite had to be "Oh, I call these motorcycle traps. Guess why."

Once we got to the American customs, we went behind the scenes (there's actually a little community back there, playground and all) to fix up the ambulance stationed there as well as resupply it. I learned several nifty uses for the 'outdated' MAST chaps. Basically they are inflatable pants which used to be commonly used for shock victims. Applying pressure to the lower body would raise blood pressure in the torso. Now they apparently see more use with abdominal internal bleeding, and other things where you need to apply pressure to the wound, but it would be difficult to do it manually.

After that we drove up to Northway. Now, I don't really understand the point of Northway. The airstrip was recently rebuilt, a multimillion dollar project, and now it is used as the air customs strip for small planes entering Alaska from Canada. But there is nothing there. You can't refuel, you can't get a snack... So basically, instead of just flying into the Tok airport and going through customs there, where you have all the utilities that you need, now you have to make two stops. Anyways, there's an ambulance kept at Northway, because it is close to several (or just one?) Native villages. Apparently one of the elders who died a few years back lived to 118. Granted, he didn't have any official birth records, but they matched his age up with major events (gold rushes and things like that). Pretty darned impressive, especially considering the trends among the younger Natives. Which makes me wonder how long the Native villages will last. They are losing elders faster than they (can) replace them.

On a different note, the EMT class hasn't started yet (*grumble*), but the EMT chief did loan me one of the textbooks, so I can start reading through that. He was surprised when I asked for it. Apparently reading and reading comprehension levels just aren't on my level up here. I won't deny that hands on experience is the best way to learn something (repetition, repetition, repetition), but I have always been able to learn things well enough to apply them just from reading about them. I think it's because of my vivid imagination. Reading about it is tantamount to doing it in my mind's eye.

And on a completely different note, it would seem that my hair is perfect for small hands to use for balance. Go figure.