Sleeping in Daylight
We will be traveling from AZ to AK in June and July and I need some advise. My wife can sleep anytime anywhere but I'm proned to waking up as soon as the sky lightens up. What can I do to help me get ...
Forum Discussion
I find that just closing my eyes makes it dark inside, try it. One of the few advantages of getting older, that I have found is no one minds me taking a nap after lunch, in my recliner. It is bright daylight in the living room but that sure doesn't stop me from sleeping nor anyone else I know.
Trackrig is so correct in that Alaska and northern Canada operate on a 24 hour system in the summer time, so much to get done before the next winter arrives. To me, even though I worked most of the years I lived in rural Alaska, the time of day often had little effect on activities. I still remember, being out on Tangle Lakes in my kayak, by myself, fly rod in hand trying to fool a grayling into grabbing my fishing fly at 3AM. So still, very few bugs out and about on the water, few other people out, wildlife doing their thing and not paying much attention to a guy on the lake. Then when I would get tired, I would go back to the RV and sleep for a few hours, then get up and go do something else.
Once time when I was living in Galena, 300 miles west of Fairbanks, I had planned to fly into Fairbanks the next day, it was in the summer time. About 10PM it hit me, "why am I waiting till tommorrow to go into see the bright lights?" So I grabbed my travel bag and headed over to the airport to fire up my airplane. Just a beautiful flight into town, for the 3 hour flight. Wasn't a bump in the air to be found, just calm. Arrived in Fairbanks about 3AM and called the airport control tower for landing clearance, from out aways from the airport. The tower operator asked me if I would mind helping them tune their radio system by giving them several long counts, over my aircraft radio, which I did. They recognized my aircraft call sign, as a semi local, as I was into there often. Then they asked if I was in any hurry, which of course I wasn't. So they asked me to do seveal low fly bys down the main runway, without landing, we tested out the VASI (visual approach slope indicator) system at the end of the runway and a few other things. So by this time it was getting close to 4AM, the sun was getting brighter, etc. Landed, grabbed the car, I often kept at the airport in the summer and went into town for breakfast, then saw the people I went into town to see. Rented a room at the old Nordale Hotel downtown (it has since burned) caught a few hours sleep and back out to the airport. It was probably close to 9PM when I lifted off the runway and started making a climbing right turn to head west. Soon, off the left wing tip was the panaramic view of Mount McKinley and the surrounding mountains, ahead of me, the Tanana River flowing to meet up with the mighty Yukon River, just above Tanana. So about midnight I contacted the Galena tower and landed, got the plane parked and tied down and headed to the house. Was in bed by 2AM, give or take, for a few hours sleep before starting another day.
Remember, this is the trip of a lifetime, break out, do somethings differently to create some memories. So that later in life, you can look at your spouse and comment, "remember that hike we took in Alaska in the middle of the night?" These are the things you tell your friends when you get home, not "we put covers over our windows and went to bed every night at 10PM, just like we do here in Badwater, Texas." LOL :)
Trackrig is so correct in that Alaska and northern Canada operate on a 24 hour system in the summer time, so much to get done before the next winter arrives. To me, even though I worked most of the years I lived in rural Alaska, the time of day often had little effect on activities. I still remember, being out on Tangle Lakes in my kayak, by myself, fly rod in hand trying to fool a grayling into grabbing my fishing fly at 3AM. So still, very few bugs out and about on the water, few other people out, wildlife doing their thing and not paying much attention to a guy on the lake. Then when I would get tired, I would go back to the RV and sleep for a few hours, then get up and go do something else.
Once time when I was living in Galena, 300 miles west of Fairbanks, I had planned to fly into Fairbanks the next day, it was in the summer time. About 10PM it hit me, "why am I waiting till tommorrow to go into see the bright lights?" So I grabbed my travel bag and headed over to the airport to fire up my airplane. Just a beautiful flight into town, for the 3 hour flight. Wasn't a bump in the air to be found, just calm. Arrived in Fairbanks about 3AM and called the airport control tower for landing clearance, from out aways from the airport. The tower operator asked me if I would mind helping them tune their radio system by giving them several long counts, over my aircraft radio, which I did. They recognized my aircraft call sign, as a semi local, as I was into there often. Then they asked if I was in any hurry, which of course I wasn't. So they asked me to do seveal low fly bys down the main runway, without landing, we tested out the VASI (visual approach slope indicator) system at the end of the runway and a few other things. So by this time it was getting close to 4AM, the sun was getting brighter, etc. Landed, grabbed the car, I often kept at the airport in the summer and went into town for breakfast, then saw the people I went into town to see. Rented a room at the old Nordale Hotel downtown (it has since burned) caught a few hours sleep and back out to the airport. It was probably close to 9PM when I lifted off the runway and started making a climbing right turn to head west. Soon, off the left wing tip was the panaramic view of Mount McKinley and the surrounding mountains, ahead of me, the Tanana River flowing to meet up with the mighty Yukon River, just above Tanana. So about midnight I contacted the Galena tower and landed, got the plane parked and tied down and headed to the house. Was in bed by 2AM, give or take, for a few hours sleep before starting another day.
Remember, this is the trip of a lifetime, break out, do somethings differently to create some memories. So that later in life, you can look at your spouse and comment, "remember that hike we took in Alaska in the middle of the night?" These are the things you tell your friends when you get home, not "we put covers over our windows and went to bed every night at 10PM, just like we do here in Badwater, Texas." LOL :)
