Day Three, Part Two: Stand By to Stand By

July 15: Day three and loving it!

Resolute Bay

My flight has been postponed until late this afternoon, so I grabbed my computer.

Just spent a while talking to a construction guy from a company called Matrix. He and his crew are up here building a tent city for the Canadian military. Over a hundred 10-foot by 20-foot tents are up and "almost" ready. Saturday or Sunday morning, a troop transport plane will be deliver 500 people (instantly tripling the population!). These people will be training in the Resolute area for the next two months. Then Matrix will come back in and take down the tents. Their training will be in full swing when we return. Hoping to get pics then.

Yesterday, I drove past several buildings in severe need of repair, the remains of a previous military installation. I would love to hear the story behind that!

You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned the weather. Well, there is nothing really exciting to report. Yesterday, it was very windy, so I needed a flannel jacket. Today, there's no wind, and I'm just in a long-sleeved shirt. I'm guessing mid-50's. The temperature on any given day usually only varies five to ten degrees between noon and midnight. I personally was too tired last night to care that the sun was still up at midnight.

Joy, the cook at our hotel, lives here for three months at a time, then returns home to Southern Alberta, Canada for a month. She has been doing this at various "camp hotels" for nearly 20 years. The kitchen is open 24/7 for guests to get snacks. Unfortunately, due to economic hard times in the town of Resolute (we are a mile or more outside of town) teenagers from town have recently been coming and raiding her kitchen after everyone is asleep. The town has some nice new buildings, including a new indoor skating rink, but most of the homes are old. It's a totally different way of life and culture, so comparisons to what I'm used to are not appropriate.

All around the hotel are what look like random buildings and tanks (pics later). They house government stations and groups that support research and adventure groups. I'm going to look into what they all do! So I'm off to investigate. This time this is really good bye for some days.