My plans are to visit smaller villages once I leave Unalakleet. Here's a map to help you understand my route from Nome to Unalakleet, Koyuk, Elim, Golovin and back to Nome.

In the morning I spoke to the students of the Unalakleet school. We made up a story and I drew some pictures. I asked the kids to pose for a photograph and everybody posed nicely.

Then I said, "Let's take a fun photo now. You can do whatever you want!" And this is how they posed.

After school I walked through town. "Nice day, eh?" an older man said to me. "Yes!" I said, but I thought it was cold. Two people went by on snow machines and waved. They jumped off and hurried into the general store. Now, it seemed, everybody was friendly. So I went in. It was a small grocery store and they sold food, boots, underwear and postcards. Three sodas and five postcards cost $6.45. "Thanks!" said the man behind the counter. Walking back to Marty's I passed many snow covered boats and lots of ice fishing houses that were on sleds. One had a painting on it that looked like a person peeking out of a window. I quickly roughed out a drawing of it, then finished it in the warmth of the apartment.

Back in the school, I sat in the library waiting for my plane flight to the next village. It is interesting- you do not book a flight and get a ticket like you do back East. No, you call the airline company and they tell you what time they think a plane will be coming through. Then you wait. And hope to get a call that announces, "Plane's ten minutes out." Then you rush up to the airstrip and meet the plane. In the meantime I talked to two of the bigger kids. They were on the wrestling team- 125lb. and 145lb. It is a challenge for teams to get together and compete out here in the villages. You can't just hop on a bus. Travel is either by sled or airplane. So the Unalakleet team had only three meets this year and then went right to the regionals. The Sopohmores liked the music of KORN, heavy metal and ska. "Not Rap," they insisted.

My plane was supposed to arrive around 3:30, but the call came at 2:20- "Plane's five minutes out!" A guy gave me a ride to the airstrip in a pickup truck. "Hurry," he said, "Steve's got the plane running. Go around the back of the plane, he's got the propeller running!" I rushed around the rear of the plane. "Going to Shaktoolik?" the pilot asked. "No, Koyuk," I said. "You sure?" he asked. "Yeah." He shrugged his shoulders. Hey, he had a barrel of pretzels, too. We were quickly airborne. Koyuk next. I hope.

The story I was in Alaska to create runs through Koyuk. The village was founded around 1842, though they know that early man was there 6,000-8,000 years ago. The people are Unalit and Malemuit Eskimo. Would they be friendly? No roads connect Koyuk to other villages. The economy is based on subsistence, living off the land. "I wouldn't go to Koyuk if I lost a bet," the guy in Nome said. I HOPE he was just kidding me. I thumbed through my sketchbook. Would my story come alive in Koyuk?