Jim Hall watched his wife and daughters trade teasing insults with each other.

&uot;And I’m going to be in the car with them for 14 days straight,&uot; said the manager of St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge with a smile.

That two-week trip will take the Halls – Jim, wife Elaine and daughters Dayna and Kit, as well as three dogs and two cats – to their new home on the Kenai peninsula in southeastern Alaska.

&uot;I’m moving my family 4,698 miles on a 14-day drive to a place I’ve never been,&uot; Jim said.

Jim, who has always wanted to live in Alaska, will be deputy project director of the 2.1 million acre Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

&uot;The job was advertised, and my boss knew I wanted to go to Alaska,&uot; Jim said. &uot;This was actually the second time I applied for the job.

&uot;I felt I would be doing myself a disservice not to apply.&uot;

In a way, Jim, a Georgia native, is fulfilling a childhood dream. When he was 4 years old, his parents considered moving to Alaska to homestead.

&uot;I wanted them to go really bad,&uot; said Jim, whose favorite authors growing up were Ernest Hemingway and Jack London. &uot;Georgia just wasn’t the frontier anymore.&uot;

But not everyone in the family shares the enthusiasm for the trip. Sixteen-year-old Dayna, who doesn’t want to leave her friends behind in Natchez, isn’t quite prepared for the move.

&uot;Those three like the country,&uot; said Dayna, nodding to her parents and sister. &uot;I’m a city girl.&uot;

The move will also be a change of pace for Jim’s work.

At St. Catherine Creek, he has been overseeing the restoration of 100,000&160;acres of hardwood trees. Kenai Wildlife Refuge is different, Jim said.

&uot;It’s been interesting restoring bottomland hardwood, and now I’m going to a place that’s wilderness and has never been touched,&uot; Jim said.

Jim may also be contending with different problems than he encountered in Natchez.

One of the more memorable questions from his interview was this: &uot;You get a call at home that a grizzly bear has killed a visitor in the park. What do you do?&uot;

Hall’s answer was simple: &uot;Take care of it.&uot;

The Halls leave Natchez Aug. 12. St. Catherine Creek Assistant Manager Maury Bedford will take over as interim manager of the refuge, Hall said.