Pipe Dream: An Alaskan Adventure

Debbie was a young woman working in a stifling office job in suburban Detroit who dreamed of faraway places and longed for excitement. After a summer road trip through the West and the Canadian Rockies, she ended up in Fairbanks, Alaska at the advent of a modern day “black gold” rush and one of the biggest construction projects on earth, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Living in an unheated miner’s shack with no running water was a far cry from the opulence of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In Alaska, Debbie experienced wild frontier life and ended up on the ultimate adventure: working as a laborer on the Pipeline, an experience that would change her forever. We can never be sure where the road will lead after that first turn is taken away from home. This is the tale of one woman’s quest for independence and the serendipitous adventures that follow. How many people have served a drink to a stranger only to end up with amazing grandchildren as a “tip” for their efforts?