Got up a bit earlier than normal today, around 8, as I have an 11 o’clock flight. Kodiak’s airport is pretty small, but still I felt like I should be prepared for a slow ticket counter agent. The airport is so small that they don’t have any TSA screening, or security at all for that matter. Because of this I would have to go through security in Anchorage (of course, I had to switch terminals anyway, so security would have been an issue anyway). Anyway, I finished up my packing and grabbed a quick breakfast. Andy had an early charter and Betsy and Renee were still asleep. So poop, I didn’t really get to say goodbye to any of my new friends.

As we still had a bit of time, Matt suggested a final but brief hike out on Miller Point, not that far from his house. So that’s what we did and it was pretty nice. During WWII there were some big guns at that location and they’ve since been turned into a small landmark/museum. Anyway, it was a nice quiet place and gave me one last cloudy look at the Kodiak coast and Fognak island.

The airport was indeed tiny and ran quite smoothly, so Matt and I just hung out waiting for the plane to arrive, reflecting on the highlights of my visit and discussing the various genres and classifications of electronic dance music. I flew on Era this time, rather than Alaska Air as I had for the trip in. Era is a small regional commuter service and I flew in a Dash 8. I dunno, there’s something about the sound that prop planes make that I just love, especially when they’re on the ground. Yeah yeah, I’m a sound geek.

Otherwise, the trip was goddamn boring. I had a 4 hour layover in Anchorage, so I called my parents (first/last time my cell phone ever worked on the trip, Kodiak must not have any GSM carriers) and started writing up these last few days for the blog. The flight to Las Vegas was uninspiring, absolute boredom was abated ever so briefly by watching The Inside Man. And I finally knocked out a bunch of pages in Kurzweil’s latest book. I only had about 15 minutes on the ground to use the facilities and grab a candy bar before I had to board the last leg.

On the last leg I turned out to be sitting next to fellow Anchorage departers who were on a similar journey as myself. Fellow Raleighans (Raleighites?) as well, the woman sitting next to me was a software engineer turned business analyst who really likes PHP (hates Java though, heheh, can’t win em all I s’pose). What a small world, so we spent some of the flight talking shop. What surprised me was how tired I felt considering how early it was for my body clock. I tried, without much success, to rest but ended up staring catatonically out the window at the early dawn I was so desperately awaiting as a cue of our arrival. Eventually it started to lighten, and I saw a fairly incredible Mars climb through the distant cloud layers out at the horizon.

I got home to some briefly aloof kitties, more interested in the smells of my baggage than my pet abandoning self. But once I crashed onto my bed I felt the familiar thuds of two fifteen pound blobs of fur landing on my mattress. I just ended a truly great adventure with old and new friends in an unfamiliar yet wonderful place. But now I was home.