Why I'm not going to sleep on bush planes anymore

We got stuck in Bethel overnight coming back from Anchorage because of bad weather (it was actually a pleasant experience for once since I had people to stay with), and we got out this afternoon after almost four hours of waiting at the airport. As soon as we take off, I doze off. I can't normally sleep on planes or in cars, but for some reason the loud background nose and vibrations of the bush plans put me right to sleep.

Now, before we left had Bethel, the people at the aiport had put up a sign saying that there was a lost snowmachiner somewhere north of Eek who had been missing since last night. I had half thought at the time "Hey, I should keep an eye out, we're heading south and will pass right over Eek." But, like I said, bush planes put me to sleep, scary wind-induced bumps and all.

Anyway, after a while I awake and feel Liz (kindergarten teacher) tugging on the sleeve of the pilot, who is sitting next to me. She points down at the ground, and sure enough, there are two men and a snowmachine (snowmobile) next to a little shack that I think is usually used in the summer for fishing, but I didn't ask. The men had just shot off a flare and were waving their arms.

So anyway, we circled around, dropped down real low, and waved to them. They were waving their gas can... either they ran out of gas or it was just something bright colored to wave, I don't know which. The pilot called on the radio for them to send the State Troopers. We circled around again, tipped our wings back and forth at them, and continued on.

The whole thing made an otherwise routine (and extra slow, we had a 40 knot headwind the whole way, according to the pilot) trip a little more interesting. I couldn't fall back asleep afterwards.