After a late flight from Fairbanks I barely made my connection, but all is well and I have arrived in King Salmon (see map) where I will be spending a couple of days observing delivery of an Introduction to Mining course that happens to be the same course we are developing for distance delivery at CDE.

I am staying at SAVEC, the training center where the class will be held. SAVEC’s Director gave me a ride from the airport and showed me around a bit. So far it looks like just me and a few restless students alternating their time between watching old Star Trek episodes and going outside to smoke. The instructor was supposed to be on my flight in but didn’t make it in time so I guess he’ll be on the morning flight…

Speaking of which, I’ve never flown in a plane with less room to sit. I’ve flown in a lot of small planes– the smallest having just two seats behind the pilot’s own– but never have I actually had to pull my legs up so that my knees are near my chin! There were 15 seats altogether (I strapped my messenger bag with computer into one), none of them designed to seat people over 5-9″ or so. I’m used to my Buddha Belly taking up too much space, but I’ve never had the privilege of feeling like a tall person at my “lofty” 6-foot zero!