A Photo Safari of Wasilla, Alaska – Home of Sarah Palin.

 

Time for a caption contest!  Anyone?

I’m finally home with high speed internet, and able to post the photos from my little trek through Wasilla and the Mat-Su Valley this weekend.  First a big hat-tip to my spouse who chauffeured me around Wasilla for two hours this afternoon and obeying dutifully every time I yelled “STOP!!”  I tried to capture the spirit of what makes the Valley unique, so I didn’t photograph Home Depot, or Walmart, or Lowe’s. 

There were some interesting signs of Palin around.  And I ran into a friend who was sporting a McCain – Palin t-shirt.  I said, “So you’re a fan?” and she said, “I LOVE Sarah!  She’s my hero.  I just need to get some duct tape to stick over the McCain part.”  A new and interesting perspective.  There are lots of them.

I have good friends and family who live in Wasilla and other parts of the Valley.  The Valley is quirky, occasionally scary, often funny, and sometimes just downright unexplainable.  Anyone from the area will recognize many, if not all of the places I photographed.  All the Wasilla photos were taken on main roads.  Click on the photo to get a caption.

I hope you enjoy your virtual Alaskan safari through the Valley, where Sarah Palin has lived and was raised since infancy.  This is her world folks, and her executive experience before she became Governor in 2006.  Buckle up.

Use the photos as you will but please credit https://mudflats.wordpress.com if you do.  Thanks.

Enjoy!

 

And Wasilla City Hall as seen on CNN.  Hat tip to the Ragin’ Cajun and Mad Skillz.

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Heading Home Through SarahLand.

 

Last week - prescient black cloud appears over Republican booth at the State Fair

I’ll be heading back home to Anchorage today, and passing through Wasilla…Alaska’s new most famous (or infamous) small town and home of Governor Sarah Palin.  I’ve got camera in hand and will post a “Valley Gallery” tonight.  I’ve already got some great shots, and I think you’ll enjoy the virtual tour.

Just talked to a Valley resident who works for the state and is a registered Independent.  I asked, “So, what do you think of our new Veep candidate?”  The answer (after chuckling and shaking his head) “What a way to commit suicide.”  He’d just gotten back from the Alaska State Fair.  That’s where Palin was when she got “the call” from John McCain asking her to be his running mate.  The first run of McCain/Palin T-shirts were already sold out.  But there were a few bumper stickers left….right next to the ones that say “Liberalism is a Curable Disease”.  Nothing like a little brotherly love in the Alaska Republican booth.

Breaking News: Palin Says Teen Daughter is Pregnant

The story has broken and we now know which version of “Babygate” is true.  Palin’s unwed 17-year old daughter is pregnant. 

Palin, who arrived in St. Paul today to accept the Republican nomination for vice president, sent out a joint statement with her husband, Todd.

“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned,” they said. “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates,” the Palin family statement concluded.

This confirms three very important things:

1. Trig is Palin’s baby, and the strange strange circumstances of his birth (delivering a speech in Texas while in labor, and taking the prolonged two-pronged commercial airline flight during a high-risk pregnancy without notifying the flight crew, then driving past two hospitals in Anchorage to deliver in a facility an hour drive away with no neonatal ICU) are apparently true.  Todd Palin’s reason for making those potentially life and death decisions about his wife and unborn son?  “You can’t have a fish-picker from Texas.” 
2. The fact that Palin had a 16-year old who got pregnant out of wedlock was presumably unknown by the McCain people.  After all, he only met her twice, and probably never met any of her children.  And it was obviously too much of a bother to vet the candidate and at the very least know in advance what kind of sensational and unwanted headlines might follow.  AND, Palin didn’t volunteer this information.
3. Our Republican Vice Presidential candidate is a person of questionable judgment. I don’t think there are many out there who would disagree with this statement at this point.

So, in the first three days, she’s lied about saying “Thanks but no thanks” on the bridge to nowhere, and withheld information from the campaign she’s supposedly trying to help, that could be devastating to McCain.  At the very least, it sure doesn’t help.  What’s next?

As I said before, this may be the tip of our Alaskan iceberg.  There are ‘gates’ a-plenty out there that are just waiting for some pretty basic investigation to reveal their secrets.