Robin McLean

20,322 feet.

Or 20, 237 feet. Depending on who's counting.

Big. Tall, Grand. Hulk.

The Great One in Athabascan.

We drove right by it. Just over there.

Base-to-peak rise = 18,000 feet, the largest of any mountain entirely above sea level.

Made of granitic pluton.

Lifted by tectonic pressures.

What is granitic pluton anyway?

Named for a president no one remembers.

Mountains like this raise such questions.

Five glaciers slide down it's shoulders. Cold.

A low temp of -75.5 °F . Windchill of -118.1 °F  Read More 

Fatigue has set in.

A nap during Act I, Scene 4 in the park.

A nap on the drive home.

A nap on the way to adopt the cat.

A nap at the vets' during the 2 hour wait.

This has nothing to do with books.

The cat was stressed out -- puked after Shakespeare. Read More 

Thank you Fairbanks Arts Association for a rallying the troops last night to The Bear Gallery in Pioneer Park -- in one of the best towns in America.

It was great to be back, share Reptile House with so many old friends and new.

I'll miss you, will get the next book a home so I have an excuse to return.

It was just fun on a rainy Fairbanks summer night.

Next stops:

July 24, 2015. Reading at the SUTTON LIBRARY (my old home town), Sutton, Alaska, 5:00pm

July 24, 2015, PARTY AT TURKEY RED FIRESIDE BOOKS, Palmer Alaska. 6:30 pm. Contact Fireside Books for tickets. Read More 

Denali, where are you? After waiting months for a glimpse.

All 20,322 feet of you?

You hulk.

Don't be shy.

325 miles between Palmer and Gold Hill Road.

Cumulus? Cirrus? Nimbostratus?

Just over there.  Read More 

FAIRBANKS: Look! You can see Russia!

Sent a few post cards from North Pole to a lucky few.

Saw the brand new North Pole Library where Reptile House is a part of the collection. It lives in in 54 other libraries in the US. The North Pole Staff looked it up. Thank Margaret, Ingrid, Tina, et al.

Big Santa waved at us on the Richardson Highway. Santa's Village. Candy Cane Streetlamps.

It rained and rained but good after months of hot.

The Eskimo Indian Olympic Games were at the Carlson Center. Ate fry bread with powdered sugar during qualifying events: the ear pull and wresting matches. Read More 

Anchorage: day one.

Did not see a moose but I feel them.

Read with Frank Soos that rhymes with moose.

The day was warm, fat raindrops on occasion.

The dog with a cast.

The cat goes for walks.

The catalog has an X-rated section, found and retrieved from recycling.

It is an old home, the map etched in the brain

though the names are foggy, long lost friends.

The mountains.

What to say? Read More 

Jetblue:

Got slightly lost on the way to Sea-Tac.

The Security line was short.

Bagel at the G5.

Goodbye Lower 48 for a short time.

An Aisle seat.  Read More 

Seattle: a place of contrast and extremes.

Troughs and hills.

Rich and poor.

Meat and vegan.

Bus and Mercedes.

Tourist and local.

Glass and steel. Read More 

Seattle to Bainbridge Island.

Last day with Marshall and Carlyn.

Clearish skies, still no sign of Rainier

But what a skyline.

Farewell, Comrades.