Chicken

Today was the day! Finally, and with much finality, I drove up to Chicken. I was warned and warned and made quite efficiently nervous by the women at the gift shop and by Bronk himself to be cautious and take my time. I slid very little. There were really very few icy sections of road. Most of it was nice looking paved road. Some of it was dirt, some of it was gravel.

Mostly, it was incredible. The views you see as you go down this road make you quickly forget you're only 80 miles - or less on the road - from the nearest real town. Mostly, it's nothing but many and many rolling hills. Covered at the base with a layer of pure white snow with hundreds of bare trees that barely had a branch on them, the rolling hills looked like nothing so much to me as so many porcupines lying together for warmth waiting for the late-coming spring. In the distance, at times, you would catch sights of one long hill with more evergreens in patches huddled together, while in other places bare white snow. That reminded my too- caffeinated brain of the Luck Dragon from Never Ending Story - if only he were a dalmatian. I imagined him waiting out the winter up here at the top of the world....

The entire land looked like it was hibernating, just waiting to come back to life. The presence of little sparrows everywhere and the occasional bird that looked like a baby duck but couldn't have been assured one that spring was on the way. These birds, from driving, truly to me looked like baby ducks, but baby ducks to hang around solo on the road or on the side of the road. I saw 8 on the way up, and only three of them were in a  group. And they didn't scare so easy. Didn't take to flight right away but rather seemed to prefer to waddle around. I have no clue what they were but I intend to ask.

Meanwhile, I have settled into the rooms Bronk has provided. The two rooms he is providing us with are small enough to need both. One is used for our bed, clothes, and general bedroom stuff. The other will be something of an "office" used as storage for the kitchen stuff we THOUGHT we'd need along with my craft stuff and our computers. I have the laptop in the bedroom (from which I am sending this) primarily for the music it provides. Since this was meant as a hotel room, mounted to the same wall as the door is on in front of the beds is a TV screen with a dvd player in it. It's a bit small for Chris, I'm sure, who has bad eyes, but I think it's cool.

Out my door, ten seconds to the right- down the wooden walkway/patio thing that rings the building - is the office. Both doors lock with the same key. Thirty seconds straight ahead of my door are the bathrooms/showers. I have made up a small shower bag out of a little bitty backpack style bag Chris gave me. Had I not left my shampoo and conditioner in Bronk's house they would be in the bag as well. It contains, also, tooth brushing stuff. Basically, other than hairbrush and deodorant, it holds the bathroom stuff. Thirty seconds to the right of my front door is the trailer we will be working.

It is literally a blue food trailer. No adornments, but none needed as there's a big sign saying "CAFE" above it. Right outside the order/pickup windows is a big covered patio where patio tables and chairs will be put for the guests. Beyond that, on the same wooden patio slab, is a building area where the buffet style crew meals will be put out, or it will be used as extra seating or in bad weather. I will have to clean up after guests who don't clean up after themselves, but largely I will not have to do any typical waitress-ing, which I am relieved about.

So that's our side of town! The town is, to my amusement, kind of segmented. The first section you come to belongs to a woman. She owns the whole "historic downtown" area. Bronk has the middle section, a little farther down. Up the hill, at the end, I'm told is another man's section. He owns everything up there. I find it amusing. While everything within each section is well within walking distance, each section is not truly within walking distance from the other section. Everything here is dirt road, so it's apparently always either muddy or dusty, with very little in between.

Welcome to Chicken, friend! :D