I had someone reply to my Nenana video and he was also here in the 1980s and said how much things have changed. There are still quite a few bars down by the docks, but in the entire 7 months I've been here during the rain and the snow, my umbrella was the only one I ever saw 🤣 the other tenants in the motel all tease me saying things like I drove past some guy with an umbrella and I knew it was you haha it's still the same how you described the snow and then getting a little warmer and then turning into chunks of ice, I usually walk once a week on the ice about five blocks to the post office and every time I saw one or two people fall in the street in December through February. My favorite pizza place in town is the stampmill, I'm not sure if that was there in the 1980s though but it's really really good.

So true about the sun, I think I mentioned in a previous video on the ugly days it can be really ugly but on the pretty days it is gorgeous when the sun is shining.

Thanks, I've heard a lot of good about Cordova. If I was staying in Valdez I would definitely do what you're saying, but I'm heading to another part of Alaska now. I will get the Cordova one day though 👍

I asked my neighbor who's a long time resident of Valdez and he said after the Exxon oil spill, Sea hawk seafood sued the city of Valdez later in 2001 claiming the amount of money they received in compensation in the 1980s was too low. In 2010 they win bankrupt and the property was taken over by Silver Bay seafood.... Sounds like you had a blast when you were there, I love hearing stories from people like you back in the days in Alaska.

Thanks a lot 😊 that must have been incredible yet sad visiting Valdez right after the tsunami. That's a memory that's never going to go away and you're lucky to have it. That makes me jealous lol

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- But you pay the price. I am an old man. You are not! haha.

Haha time goes by fast, I'm getting there lol

I have an odd sense of humor, I never thought about it but you're right it can be droll humor.

Thank you, appreciate it.

I guess alaskans and tourists have a love-hate relationship. They know that they need the tourists for the town to make money and the local businesses to survive, but they hate losing their home to swarms of gawking people every summer. But since it's only 3 months of tourists for the most part, it could be much worse haha

Oh, I bet that was a lot of fun! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊

Thanks... One of my future plans is to visit some of those places in Canada in the future. I look forward to doing this.

Thank you 😊

Definitely a place to visit one time 👍

I think you're probably 110% correct about how Americans and others living in the Netherlands feel about the rain, and also about real Winters haha .... You're also extremely accurate talking about we are all in the same boat. I think that's the way it is in most of the Alaskan communities that are smaller as well as any of the villages and communities around the world that are remote, people have to stick together.... I feel like whether it's the darkness in the winter or the cold, it's all in your mind. If you go outside and talk to people about how cold it is, you feel cold. If you go outside and just say it is what it is, the cold doesn't bother you. It's all a mind game in my opinion, you just have to accept it for what it is and you wind up not even thinking about it. The darkness is tough I think for people who drive to work and then come back home because you're leaving in the dark and you're coming back home in the dark, and the little daylight in the winter you're inside a building. But if you have a job that keeps you outdoors or if you work from home, then you get to enjoy the light a little bit more. There's actually very little sun in the winter time in Valdez, maybe two or three days every 10 days get sunny for a couple of hours, the other days are mostly overcast or snowing, and low clouds and lots of clouds. I mentioned in a previous video ugly days are really ugly in Valdez, but when the sun shines the pretty days are incredibly beautiful.

I hope you enjoyed it and have a nice weekend.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it 😊

Thanks for watching and hope you enjoyed 😊

Thank you. It's really a nice place, great people and just minutes from the Thompson pass.

Thanks, I tried to be as accurate as I could be 😊

Thanks, glad you liked it.

It is, yeah 😊

I would say anyone who comes to Alaska should try there because not only is it a really neat little town but it's also a bit more mild than the rest of Alaska. And arrive between September and November so that you find a room. I'm going to make a video in a month or two talking about stuff like this for those who want to try out Alaska.

Thanks. I'm sure quite a bit has changed in those 20 years haha there is a very nice hospital right in the center of town. It's not a huge building but it's pretty big. If you break a leg or don't have severe health issues, they can work on you there. They actually have about 20 patients living in the hospital who need to be taken care of on a daily basis, some of them have been there for a few years. But if you have something serious like a stroke or your arm gets cut off, they would fly you with the helicopter to Anchorage. But it's a much nicer hospital that was capable of doing much more than I had thought before I arrived there. Btw even if you're in Anchorage or Fairbanks, you would be flown to Washington State for most major surgeries.

Exactly. It's definitely not for everybody but at the same time those who enjoy it and get to live in it are really lucky.

Thanks. Kodiak would be really nice. The only reason that's not for me is the cost if I want to go to the mainland more often.

Thanks 😊

Willow was a nice town and fairly conveniently located. Make sure you visit before you buy land and look at the land closely (I assume you know this already but some people buy the land before they get here and they wind up getting swampland lol).

Haha I can't disagree with that. But there's always a but... Valdez is like Hawaii compared to where I will be spending the winter of 2024 😉

Thank you 😊

I guess no matter where one lives, there's always someone who lives in a smaller town.....Petersburg is really pretty. Although it only has about 900 less residents than Valdez, you're on an island so that's a whole different story haha

Thanks 😊

Thank you 😊

Thank you 😊

It's a cool little town. I won't be here much longer but I'm looking forward to the next town I try out.

That's true about the streets, I never looked at it that way...... Commercial fishing and construction it's definitely very important to Valdez, I think about 2,000 workers come there from May until September. They spend money on hotels and groceries. The reason I consider it a town that survives on tourism is because thousands of tourists arrive on boats and cars everyday, and also many of them stay in campgrounds or get back on the boat, a lot of the cruises put up their customers in the hotels there, and those tourists spend money. I think the town can survive without the fisherman, today it can survive without the tourists..... You probably know already but the Coast Guard is still active in Valdez.

It's definitely worth a visit, and with Thompson pass only minutes away whether you snowboard or ski or go hiking it has everything for you. They'll take you up in a helicopter to the top of the mountain so you can ski down. Or you can take a ferry over to Whittier or Anchorage if you wanted.

I'm sure you had a fun trip driving through Alaska. If you were in Safeway in Valdez we might have even walked past each other haha

Don't feel too bad for me. This was probably the most fun winter I've ever had since I've been 7 years old haha

That's the spirit,@@Life_Is_A_Highway-! Proud of you :)

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks 😊

Lol the snow is better than the ice also.

Yeah, the chance of an earthquake forcing the town to move again is probably more likely than a tsunami destroying the town..... I'm actually preparing to move to another part of Alaska but correct me if I'm wrong he's in Safeway owned by Carrs grocery store now (or is Carrs owned by Safeway)? ... Haha now I'm going to go and get an ice pick lol what part of Alaska are you in? I'm pretty much set on where I'm going this summer/winter, although I'm a bit torn between healy and Willow Creek. I thought they were both really interesting.

I was supposed to be heading to Fairbanks for 4 or 5 months before I settle in another small remote town for the second half of this year, was really looking forward to it but the place I was renting pulled out of the contract just weeks before I was supposed to get there (they made some excuses but in truth they realized they would make more money off of tourists than a long-term tenant). But my backup plan is Anchorage so I will be heading there unfortunately instead for a few months. I expect I will be about 2 hours away from Fairbanks though when I settle in after July in the new community, so I'll visit Fairbanks after July quite often..... I can understand your wife in a way, as you know since you lived here you do give up a few conveniences (although not as many in the big cities here) and what most people are used to. And it is true I've spoken to a few people who watched KZfaq videos where it glamorized living in Alaska and traveling all the time and how everything is great and wonderful etc, and quite a few of those people spend all their money cuz it's not as easy as KZfaqrs make get seem, and they are heading back home. And all of them also mentioned they came to Alaska a bit naive after watching KZfaq videos thinking they're going to have all this free time because apparently everyone in Alaska does and what wound up happening is they were working even more than they were from where they came from because they were trying to leave the same lifestyle they were back in Oregon or California, and that's just not going to work out. I do plan on making videos about those kind of things once I get settled after the summer.... But I hope at least you can convince your wife to come back and visit Alaska, maybe take a road trip for a couple of weeks.

I'll be in Anchorage in 1 week as I'm using it as a base camp while I look for a place to rent in the interior to try out my next town/community. I'll probably put out a video in about 1 month with my opinion on Anchorage and if you happen to come back and watch it, remind me it's you and let me know if you think I was accurate 👍

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- That would be awesome. Subscribed to your channel now. Thank you 😊🙏 Hello from Thailand 🇹🇭 btw 🤗

Thanks 😉 what brought you to Anchorage from Thailand?

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- My parents; dad in the US Air Force (stationed at Elmendorf AFB), mom in AAFES n my brother in the US national guard. I used to work at Teds Stevens Anchorage International Airport. 😁

@@AlaskaAli ah, cool. I was just an Anchorage for one day previously and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have many good things to say about it 🤣 but I shall see..

There's definitely a lot of places worse than Valdez. In fact I would recommend anyone coming to Alaska to spend one winter in Valdez because it's pretty fun.... I'm sure though even though you may not have enjoyed Saint Paul Island, you probably still don't regret doing it?

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- I must admit I did have lots of fun and make a lot a money while working in Saint Paul Island, we were working 16 hours every day no days off for almost 4 months straight during the crab season every winter the coldest months in Alaska, there's always a beginning and for everything in life so because of family situations I stopped going to Alaska back in 2015.

Even the construction workers here and the dock workers are working crazy amount of hours but like you said they also get really good money and some of them come back every season, and some of them just had enough or like you family kept them from coming back. But it's good that you enjoyed it because some of the people here don't really like it.

Thank you 😊

Thanks 😊 it's funny for an outsider to see but it's also understandable who wants to carry around an umbrella everyday with them.

On the Thompson pass right outside of Valdez is well known for a lot of great snowmobiling and skiing, so maybe you could live on the other side of the pass to be close to that. But if you like winter and snow then you will definitely enjoy it here 👍

Thank you, appreciate it 😊

Thanks. A few of my friends have said I couldn't survive in Alaska but what I found that really quickly is it's all a mind game. I'm not a tough person but the cold weather is only cold if you let it get to your head, the darkness is only too much if you think about it, and the boredom only arrives if you don't keep yourself busy. Just like I told my friends I'm sure you could survive up here, if you just accept the cold and the remoteness and the darkness in the winter as part of life, and the wildlife and things you can do here outweigh what you don't like, you'd be fine 👍

I love hearing that, rockin it old school haha

Lol before I read the end of your sentence I was going to say I think Valdez in my opinion is a good place for people just coming to Alaska to move to because the winters are much more mild than in other parts of Alaska. Even if they only stay there for 6 months or 10 months, it's a comfortable first winter for them. But I personally could not see living in valdese permanently, only because there's not places in every direction that you can get to, I want to say it's a bit more out of the way than places like even nelchina or ferry. But that's just my opinion or the way I look at Alaska, which is definitely different than people who have been here their whole lives.... I'm heading towards the interior right after the summer, but I still want to visit a few more places before I decide what town or community I'm going to settle down in. I wish I could try a bunch of them but I visited about 50 towns in communities so far and I have Willow Creek, Healy, salcha, as three of my top five. I'll know the answer to which one it will be probably in July.... So if you come back and read this message how do you like living in gakona, and what's the good and the bad in that area?

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- I was born in Glennallen, raised in Gakona. Lived in ANC, Seward, Moose Pass, Sitka, Cordova, Homer, etc. Now i just spend my summers in AK. Snowbird. So I can't really answer that question. I do like the coastal communities better than the interior. But for the rain. Warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, and generally less mosquitos. Spent a lot more time around Valdez when the Chenega was still running to Cordova though. I think you need to spend a winter in the interior before you decide, if you haven't yet.

I said this in a previous comment, but this was the most fun winter I've had since I've been a little kid. It really was enjoyable there.

It actually is a good place for retirees because a lot of the places there are desperate for workers. If someone wants to work a couple of hours in Safeway year-round or if they just want to work a few months a year and take one of the diner jobs for extra money, Valdez would be ideal.

Valdez definitely has mild winter temperatures compared to most other parts of Alaska. Anchorage is going to get down to about -10 or -15 in the winter and Fairbanks in the minus 30s - 40(same with the interior part near Denali all the way across down to the Thompson pass). I guess spring and summer is going to be much more different than Arkansas haha today when I left Valdez coming to Anchorage it was in the 30's and when I arrived in Anchorage at about 10:00 a.m. it was 38 and the high will be about 48 today. And then most times in the summer in most parts it's in the 70s during the day and in the 60s at night....

Haha that saying definitely still holds true... I really hate saying things like this because I don't mean to speak poorly of anyone, and I'm not near perfect myself, and the people were really really nice, but I'm guessing the alcohol and drug addictions in Alaska play a big part in the depression and other mental health issues.

Nice, are you guys originally from here or did you move from the lower States? How do you like it there?

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- Grew up in California but Alaska was always calling. Spent time in all 50 states and most of Canada before deciding to set up roots in Ninilchik.

Lol I love the radio shack that has a giant sign on the top that says "we sell guns".... Even the thrift store makes good money in Valdez.

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- Is it still a Radio Shack store because I was under the impression that they went under a few years back.

Lol yeah, those vampires kind of ruin things 🤣

Everybody's definition of remote is different. If you mean remote like in Valdez, you wouldn't need a car. But if you mean remote like in parts of the interior of Alaska, a car would be necessary. If you mean remote like on an island or in a place only reachable by plane or boat, you be pretty far from any medical centers....But if you're just going to be inside most of the time I wouldn't recommend coming to Alaska, especially if you're older. You would be better off moving to a remote town in the lower States because it's cheaper, safer, and you don't have to deal with the ice and snow when you're 70 years old, and the only benefits you will get out of living in Alaska at any age will be if you're interested in wildlife, outdoor activities like hiking or camping or fishing etc, and you also have to really enjoy winters because that's part of everyone's life here for most of the year.

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- Well I absolutely LOVE outdoors and nature - but on a calm level. I love huge green trees. I would love to hike. But I would need more sunshine in my year. I also have been thinking of living waay in the northwest woods of Montana. That would be fabulous. Get some acreage. I do love remote as in very remote. I have some time to think about it. Even considered moving abroad. I am happy you are happy living there. It does indeed look so beautiful. Blessings.

It is very nice here, I'll say that much. It's definitely worth giving up conveniences to live in some of the small remote towns.... You should also check out Northern Minnesota, there's some really pretty fairly remote places up there. Although Montana would also be really nice.... If you look back at some of my videos you will see 30 or 40 small towns that I visited in Alaska, one thing to consider here is there's a video titled Ester, Alaska for example. I think it was roughly 8 miles outside of Fairbanks, there's nothing out there and it feels as remote as some of the places that are really remote. That's also something you can consider. I mean there's a lot of options I'm pretty sure in every state for you. If you have a chance to visit a few of them before selecting one so that you can compare them would be great. I wish you the best in whatever you decide at that time 👍

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- Well thank you, kindly. I will check out some of your videos. I just found you this afternoon and loved this video! Yes, I will travel to different places to see if I love them before deciding. Going to Priest Lake, Idaho next year as that is at the top of my list. Taking my Dad on a fishing trip as fishing is his first love. Great lodge cabins up there and we can rent a boat. I am so looking forward. Lots of great little areas you pointed out in Alaska. Blessings.

Sounds like you'll have a lot of fun in Idaho. I'm trying to convince my dad to visit me here but he said nope lol he's 82 so it's not easy for him to make longer trips, it's a shame I wish I could show him some of Alaska. I started making these videos in particular for my parents and friends who can't visit. This one caught on a little bit so after 8 months this is my first semi-success haha okay enjoy your trip and if you're ever in Alaska send me a message I might be close by 😉

That's cool that I'm getting so many comments from people who used to work in Valdez back in the seventies and eighties... It seems like that's something that hasn't changed, the summer workers are still making really good money and working a lot of overtime. Most of them are from the lower States but there's even people from other parts of Alaska who come here just for the work during the summer.

I don't like planes, I don't know plane names. But thanks, I learned something. I'm still never getting in one 🤣

@Life_Is_A_Highway- no problem sir. 😊

Well said 👍

There is a hospital in the center of town, but if you have anything major like a stroke or you cut your hand off, they would fly you to Anchorage). There's a police station also but there's no point in committing any serious crime there as it takes too long to get out of town over the Thompson pass. Shoplifting by certain individuals and domestic disputes would be the crimes they have to deal with.

Thanks. I agree with you I wish I could get a better camera right away, unfortunately I'm tight on money due moving two times in 6 weeks and now about to move again and then moved for a fourth time three or four months later and needing to find a reliable car soon. But after I get settled down in the summer I do plan on buying a better camera.

I was disappointed with Whittier, I made a video a few months ago on it and what bothered me there. But it would definitely be a nice experience. I'm going to go back to Whittier this summer to visit... I've never been to Bethel but I will get there one day. What I would really recommend is drive through Alaska for 5 to 7 days, you can easily visit 50 communities, and you might find some places you didn't hear about and like them. This happened to me and it was fun... Just make sure you have a backup plan for a second and third community you want to stay in in case you can't find anything where you want to stay because some of the places have limited housing.

🤣 I almost felt like a criminal when I took mine out.

Thanks, I really enjoy answering questions and you've got really good questions and good points. But I'll try my best to make sense out of my answers..... I drove cross country for 60 days in 1997 and saw some really cool places, one of my favorites was Truth or consequences in New Mexico. I'm originally from New Jersey but I lived in Austria from 1991 until 2023, so I'm used to not being close to home already. Before I came here I was considering living in northern Minnesota as well as Northern Wisconsin. But probably one of the bigger attractions for me living in Alaska was that even though you may be able to boondock in certain places in certain States, I liked in Alaska you can pretty much boondock anywhere anytime. I also chose Alaska because it's so large I can stay home but it would still take me over 10 years to see everything here. I also liked the slower pace of lifestyle here simply because things are further away, and even though I would get that in a small Northern Minnesota town, if I want to go anywhere outside of town I'm going to have to drive through a lot of traffic and a lot of big cities and I like in Alaska that 98% of it is very little traffic and small remote towns so you have a much more peaceful journey and you don't have to go through big cities or lots of cars just to get to someplace else. What I also realizes that every single state has beautiful mountains and awesome places to visit, but I like Alaska because no matter where you are in the entire state you get a lot more of all of the good things. What I mean by that is no matter where you go or drive you're going to see mountains and glaciers, no matter where you go you're going to see wildlife, unlike in most States you only see those things in certain parts of the state I'd like that in Alaska everything is everywhere, you can't escape any of it. I don't know if that makes any sense. It's not that I think Alaska is better than anywhere else, I think it depends on what you want, but Alaska suites my desires much better than other states. It is a really difficult question to answer because it's always hard to tell what somebody else is thinking, and it's often hard to describe what exactly you're feeling. But I just see that Alaska has more of what I want in life and other places do 😊 I don't know if you've seen on KZfaq people say Alaska is different but it's hard to explain? Now I know what people mean and I do plan on making a future video talking about why exactly Alaska is different in my opinion. I hope I at least made some sense out of what I said.

Different reasons, mostly because of really bad snow storms (the Thompson pass gets over 800 inches of snow) and avalanches that block the roads. Occasionally a car accident.

To answer why the town is there, in 1897 gold prospectors believed the copper River and the Valdez glaciers were the entry to the interior gold fields. But the settlement of Valdez back then was because of fur trading, salmon canning and gold and copper mining..... The answer to what is the purpose of the town today, it's the terminus of the trans-alaska pipeline. And it's also the United States farthest Northern ice free port....

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- thank you, now that you mention it, I do connect the name of the town with the pipeline

You probably know also but it's where the big Exxon oil spill was in the 1980s.... And it's also the town that was hit by the famous devastating earthquake in 1964.

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- yes, the Exxon Valdez

Now you made me hungry lol

New Jersey(Bound Brook and Bridgewater), Virginia(Chesterfield, Midlothian, Richmond), Connecticut(Shelton), New York(Rochester and Albany), Massachusetts(Boston), Austria(kapfenberg, graz, Vienna, foehnsdorf and spittal an der drau). ,

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- Wow!! You have lived in a lot of different states and another country. Did your type of work move you around? Are there any places in Alaska where you go to hear live music?

My parents moved us around a lot due to their work. Once I left home I guess moving around was in my blood and I enjoyed it, so I never really stopped. I have fun getting to know new towns and the way the people are there.... In 2008 I read that Elton John had a concert here and in 1989 Metallica had a concert here, so I guess that's your answer, I suppose the cost of making such a long trip for so few people is only done occasionally. There are a lot of festivals here in most of the towns where live music is played by mostly Alaskan musicians but people from the lower States also come here and play sometimes at these festivals.

Nobody is actually stuck with no chance to get out. One of my neighbors hasn't left the town in over 10 years. My other neighbor drives to Anchorage three or four times a month.... You can drive over the Thompson pass, a bus will also take you out of town two days per week (the bus does not run I believe for 2-3 months every winter), you can fly out (although that is a pain because at least 50% of the time the flights get canceled due to fog), or you could take a 6 hour ferry to Anchorage...... I was told the longest that the pass was closed in recent memory was for 13 days, typically it doesn't close more than two or three days at a time, often just for half a day. If it's more than 10 days then food would just be delivered via the ferry to Safeway.

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- thanks for sharing this. Social life is good too? With lots of things to do in the house, time would fly by

Social life here is what you make of it. If you go to the community center when they have events usually once per week and get to know the locals, you'd have a very active social life. If you don't do that, you'll spend most of your time alone.... People have said many of the locals don't like to become friends with people who move there because so many people move there and then leave a short time later, but I didn't find that to be true. As a newcomer you definitely have to put some effort into becoming active in the community on your own and not waiting for someone to drag you into it.

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- you live in a beautiful place. Thanks again for sharing all this. Greetings from Guadalajara, here for one of my many work assignments. Hoping to visit Alaska one day

Have fun in Guadalajara, and hope you get here one day 😊

Thank you. Yeah, it's definitely hard all over at the moment to make a living. There's quite a few people who struggle to make a living in Valdez and they are mostly the ones who come to Alaska with the misconception that they can do what everybody in the KZfaq videos do like traveling around and living off the land and it's all nice and easy. I would say you don't need a lot of money to start off in Alaska but you definitely need to bring a car and some money to get started. There are quite a few job opportunities in Valdez but because of the cost of living and food, you would just be able to get by. The reason I would say bring a car is because cars cost more here than they do in the lower States as well as you may not want to stay in Valdez so it's good to have a way to get out if you want to move somewhere else. But I would actually suggest moving to a more populated area in Alaska if you don't have at least 10K and a car to get started in Valdez. You could manage with less if you're really good at managing your budget, but just like everywhere else it wouldn't be easy. I'm going to make a video in the future about job opportunities in Alaska because there are a lot but they're not high paying jobs.

If you have enough money to buy a piece of land in Valdez, it won't be any different than the rest of Alaska. You'll just have to change your ways if you want to grow certain foods because the season is so much shorter than other places. And most of your harvesting is going to be done by hunting. Plenty of people homestead in Alaska but not as many as KZfaq gives you the impression because it's not easy, most of them don't tell you they also buy groceries on the side, and others only homestead for the easiest part of the season and not through the winter. I wouldn't suggest living in Valdez if you want to live off the grid or homestead because not only are prices for land very high there but also there is not much available land for sale there. You'd be better off homesteading on the other side of the Thompson pass, or even going to the interior to do that stuff.

@@Life_Is_A_Highway- Not for myself....just curious if a working person could hunt/fish enough to significantly help their annual grocery bills (Caribou, fish ect). Freezing meat doesn't look like much of a problem.

Oh sorry for misunderstanding. Yes you could absolutely have a job and in your free time hunt and fish for most of your food, it'll save you a lot of money. Many people do that here. One of my neighbors gets most of his food from fishing, he catches so much he gives plenty to his family members also.

Throughout the year; natives, few people like me from the lower States (I also met one Cuban and two Puerto Ricans who relocated there), a few people who were transferred from the Safeway in Juneau to the Safeway in Valdez, many people who were born there.... And only during the spring and Summer; the above Plus construction workers from the lower states and from other parts of Alaska + fisherman and people who work on the docks(the fisherman and dock workers arrived in late April and early May and they leave in September).

Alaska was the 49th state to join the US in 1959. Hawaii was the 50th state to join the US.

Ain't that the truth haha there are definitely a lot of pickup trucks on the streets here in Valdez, but I was actually surprised probably 30% of the vehicles are normal cars. I even see someone driving around an early 1980 sedan. I've only seen two people driving ATVs on the streets which surprised me, I thought I would see more of that.

There are hatcheries in valdez.... Farming is not popular in Alaska but there are farms here. And as land begins to thaw out due to climate change, farming may become more popular in the future, although it's still more difficult and expensive than in the lower States.

Most of the work the police have there are domestic disputes, some shoplifting. There's a small police station there, if you drive like an idiot you'll get a ticket just like anywhere else. I spoke to two of the cops there and they seemed cool.

I think the majority of people would agree with you. I left a very comfortable lifestyle in Austria (in case you didn't see my previous videos I lived in Austria the past 32 years) and if I had to choose between Valdez or Austria I would choose Valdez. I'm going to make a video in the future about that but the people who live here, regardless if they were born here or if they moved here, their attitudes/mentality is one of a kind. And if you're into wildlife, landscapes and love challenges, you just can't beat Alaska. But I think most importantly for myself being happy where I am is what is most important. There are a lot of unhappy and miserable people in this world, if they gave up a little to live in a place that would make them happy, instead of going around in circles every day doing the same old same old, I believe more people would be happy. The one thing I noticed when I visited my parents in Virginia before I came here was how the majority of people are just rushing around in circles day after day, doing unimportant things and only getting stress out of it. I like Alaska because it's also very laid back, do in part to everything being so far from everything else that there is no real possibility to rush here (outside of Anchorage and Fairbanks but even there they just go slower)... But like I said I think most people would agree with you in fact my closest friend in Virginia would like to come to Alaska but he doesn't want to give up the shopping malls and the conveniences. That's not an easy thing to do. He'd rather have Pizza Hut than wildlife and he'd rather have shopping malls than Forest and he'd rather have billboards than mountains. He'd rather spend his money on those things and on other things he doesn't need....If he's happy that's where he should stay. But I'd rather pay a little bit more not to be there.

They say a lot, they are often wrong ☃️ 52% men, 48% women... With that said though most people who come/move to Alaska are more independent and prefer not to be in relationships. But you can find a partner here as easy as you can anywhere else if one wanted to.

Most people would agree with you haha But sometimes in life we think something will be awful and it winds up being the opposite of what we thought. But only sometimes, most of the time our first thought was correct 🤣 I hope you at least enjoyed the video.

I have to admit there is more done than many people realize. The first thing the City offers is if you move there and you don't have much money or a job (just started a job), they will give you up to $1,000 to pay for most of your rent to help you get started... They also have a food bank and a couple of my neighbors go there and they're very happy with the amount of food they get... My other neighbor who is on Medicaid has to go to the hospital quite often because he had a bad leg injury 20 years ago and because he doesn't have money he does not have any medical bills to pay. Yes the totals do get added to his Medicaid account but it's been like that for 20 years he said and they never asked him for money and no he will never be able to pay them anything back... Nothing's going to be perfect anywhere but they all feel like they're treated fairly.