Tourists

After dogs the biggest part of my job is keeping tourists happy. I make my money off tourists, they are what pays for everything. I never for a second forget that they are the reason why I can be here and living the way that I do.

The town I live in is a cruise ship port. People are all on vacation and they come off their cruise and then go into town and do their shopping thing/ other excursions. You can see the buses full for the tours going by to try gold panning or go to some sort of salmon bake. They go in and out of shops and there are shows that actors dress up in period costume for. After all this town was a bit of a rough place during the gold rush and people enjoy attempting to go back to that time period.

I have been on a cruise before, granted it was to Western Caribbean, but still they are all pretty much the same. In every port there are a series of excursions that you can do and there is usually a town that you can go shopping in. The towns have pretty much the same stores. I'll let you in on a little secret: when you're doing the cruise stops keep in mind that a lot of the shops are all owned by the same people in every port. So a company will have a shop in port #1, #2, #3... they will also have multiple shops in the same town attracting a different audience. The tourists come off the ship... walk around... and then get back on. There are thousands of tourists on each ship.

Now one would hope that if you were paying for an excursion you would be interested in the tour offered. Boy was I wrong! In an ideal world, yes this is what happens, but in the real world some people just look at the price tag and say 'well it's the most expensive it must be good.' and so that is how more people than I imagined get up to Dog Camp and are not actually be interested in dogs. Many people are, but then you have some who are more interested in the snowmobiles. It's very sad for the mushers when they would rather sit on the snowmobile and take pictures rather than pet a dog who is dying for attention. They also are the same people at the end of the tour who are not interested in puppies. I wonder if they have a soul....

Most tourists are nice but then every now and again you get the one or two that just don't get it. They treat you like you're less-than they don't accept 'no' as an answer. They pick on my sunglasses tan and don't listen when I tell them things. Yes I realize they are on vacation but when I say 'It's time to go towards the helicopter site' I don't actually mean 'please take 15 more pictures of puppies and take your gloves off, take pictures of you jumping with a dog team in the background, and go to the bathroom.' Funny how it seems that when I close the box full of puppies people seem to think that RIGHT THEN is the time to take more pictures... even though I've warned them it's going to be closed soon. Tourists do love their picture taking. Another thing they love is to ask the same questions 'When are you getting out of school?' 'Do you live here?' 'Do you have another shot of us?'

I take their action shot while they are sled, and it's moving. As I'm sure you can imagine this becomes quite challenging 'Everyone smile and wave! Now look at me! 3..2..1!' most of the time it turns out just fine. Then there are times when someones hand is in someones face. I will retake the photo if this is the case. However I will not take the photo if your own hand is in front of your face. I counted you down, I warned you, and then your musher told you too. Not my fault. Also the people who will keep their camera in front of their face I will not retake their picture, they will have some amazing video of me taking their picture and telling them to look at me. Then they ask why I have a picture with either their hand or a camera in their face. Tourists will often times take so many pictures that they do what we call the 'virtual tour' which means that they never taken their camera away from their face and just look around... with their eyes. They are constantly looking through the lens of their camera, rather than with their own eyes. You'd rather watch the tour instead of experience it.

Hundreds of tourists come and go and I've yet to have an unhappy tourist. The ones that stick out in my mind are the ones that do something incredibly stupid like ask 'so do you ever get cold up here?' or 'Do you helicopter the dogs in every day and out every night?' my personal favorite 'is this really your career?' or 'so what is your goal in life really?' Well it sure as f*ck isn't to take your picture lady, get back on the helicopter.

At the end of the day we all share our stories, after all we do need to vent about our day. But like I said we all keep in mind that without tourists our job wouldn't happen. With that said we all wake up again and paint on our happy faces to greet the next batch of tourists.

Puppies!

 Part of my job is handing out puppies to tourists. Yes that's right, I'm a professional puppy-hander-outer. There are currently two litters of puppies that have been born on the glacier. One has 8 puppies and is about one month old. The pictures in this post are of those puppies. They're just starting to crawl out of their house, explore their world and play with each other. They are by far the highlight of any tourists time on the glacier. We have a saying here at dog camp which is "if you don't like puppies you don't have a soul". This is of course not true, I'm sure there are very nice people in the world who don't like puppies... and still have their souls.... I've yet to meet one of these people but like I said I'm sure they are living among us. 

The little guys at camp are just cutting teeth and getting curious about things like earrings, necklaces and fur coats. They especially like to try to ruin these things. As of right now people have left with their expensive souvenirs in tack. I fear though that this may not be the case for long.

 Fun fact about me that you may not know. When I need a conversation changer I use the phrase "You want to know what I like? Puppies. Who else likes puppies?" Everyone knows it's a conversation changer, and people will point it out to me. But then people talk about the cute little puppies they've known. It actually surprises me how well that this trick works. Puppies just make life that much better.

Dogs

 I realized that I haven't really talked about dogs yet. Dogs are a very big part of my job. Everyday I get to play with dogs, comfort them, hold them, love them... it's great. You know when you walk in the door after being gone, even if it's only 5 minutes, and your dog is super excited to see you every time? Imagine that happening but with 40 dogs. At 6 am when we wake up and start scooping poop they all bark, wag their tails, run in circles and look at you with those excited eyes 'I love you! I'm so glad you're back!' Not a bad way to start your day.

 There are a couple of types of sled dogs. The one pictured above is a racing dog. They are a little smaller, about 50 pounds or so and they are bred to race. Another type is a large fluffy dogs. These dogs are bred for freight, pulling heavy gear over long distances rather than moving fast. Sort of the difference between a marathon runner and a football player, each strong and athletic in their own way.

Then of course, there are the puppies! There are currently 12 total on the glacier. 8 are 3 weeks old and 4 are about 10 days. The older puppies are just starting to look like dogs but they're still little butterballs. It's my job to hand them out to tourists. It's tough... but someone has to do it.

Small Town, Alaska vs. Small Town, Vermont

Now I've lived in some small towns in my life but nothing like small town, Alaska. And so in this post I would like to take the time to compare my small town in Vermont (aka Belmont... I challenge anyone who doesn't live near me to find it on a map without using the internet, it's almost as fun as where's waldo)

Belmont, Vermont is a sleepy little town filled with quirky, but lovable residents. There are really only two paved roads which go back to ether one or two routes. They meet in the middle where there is a 4-way stop sign. At the four corners there is a church (baptist), library, town green and a general store. The general store has a deli, sells pizza and burgers, a few tourist sweatshirts, and a limited variety of food. It also sells lots of beer. There is a the Odd Fellows Hall which is up the hill a little ways and lives on Star Lake, which is basically a pond. Belmont is the town that tourists hope to find on their scenic driving tour of Vermont. There are about 1,500 residents year round but in summer, fall and winter on weekends the town gets up to about 4,000 (on the high end). There is no cop, instead there is a constable who pulls people over every now and again to remind everyone that he does still exist and does still have authority. But really he's a nice guy and you have to work to get any sort of ticket. and frankly if you're in Belmont you're probably in no rush to get anywhere. There are town festivals such as Farm Days and Cider Days (my personal favorite) where people gather on the green or up at the lake for demonstrations of different things. Things locals like to do are: hunt, fish, smoke weed (after all they are from Vermont), drink beer, ski/ snowboard, snowmobile and generally have fun.

Comparing that description to the current town I sometimes 'live' in. Town has 700 residents and about 20 police employed. Town goes up to about 10,000 residents when a cruise ship or two is in port. There are four bars which mainly get their revenue from tourists wanting to drink something mildly cheaper than cruise ship booze. The four bars stay open at night for the seasonal employment crowd. They are a brewery, another bar which has a mystery raffle Thursday, another which has pin-up style porn on the walls and hosts a weekly dance night, and the last which closes at 5am and opens back up at 7am for breakfast. I've done extensive research already on all the watering holes in this town and have decided the last bar mentioned are where the true locals hang out. The town is mostly paved roads, about 20 blocks and is filled with jewelry stores and fur shops Most everything is based on the tourist industry. Unlike Belmont it is by no means a sleepy town. In fact it is quite lively (having only been here in the summer though I can see where this would not be the case in winter). Town here has a much younger feel, whereas Belmont has been around for a couple hundred years. This town began with the gold rush and has a reputation for being rowdy. There is a grocery store and a hardware store where locals buy pretty much whatever they need. If those two places don't have it, you don't need it. You better not anyhow because it would suck to ship it here.

Both places have their good qualities and both have their downfalls. Belmont I picture on a winters night on new years eve, where as this town I like in the summer for a brew and dancing. Hope you enjoyed a little tour of Small Town, Alaska.