Home Sweet Home

My family has a serious hereditary condition. I think it can all be traced back to some serious gypsy roots somewhere or another (did they even have Cherokee, Irish, or Scottish gypsies???). We LOVE to travel. All of us. Keep us in one place for too long and we start to get kind of...fidgety.

This time last year we were prepping for our HUGE trip to Alaska, which you can read about earlier on my blog if you missed it. Those of you who are waiting for the rest. Um...don't give up. One day. Maybe.

This year we're just prepping for summer. Which is so far a blank slate desperately (in my mind) needing travel plans.

I LOVE being home. I was that kid who didn't like to spend the night at other people's houses (sorry Rachael!) because I wanted to be at mine. But for some reason the older I get the more I'm starting to be high maintenance about this travel thing.

I think my solution is camping trips. Three. Four. I'm still planning and convincing hubby that we WANT to go anywhere this summer.

What do you do for fun in the summer if you don't work as much then? Who all likes to camp? What fun projects do you do at your house when you get time off work?

Off to eat some mint chocolate chip icecream. Which is completely unrelated to this topic. But in case you wondered...

Day 9

Day 9 Lions and Tigers and GRIZZLIES, Oh my!

Today we started out in Tok and everything was wonderful because we are IN ALASKA. My mom said she could see better today. Obviously it’s because we’re in Alaska. I slept fabulously last night—better than I have this whole trip. Why? Because we’re in Alaska!

We. Are. In. Alaska.

I love everything about this place. I love the way the trees are such a vibrant dark green, the way the rain falls like a mist. We stopped at a creek earlier, in case the salmon were spawning even thought it’s a little early, so that John could see them. But alas, no salmon. It’s okay, though, because he got to see the creek and how clear the water is as it rushes over smooth river rocks.

Today, I saw something I’ve never seen before. We were all looking out the window (well, minus Josh who was napping and my mom who missed it) and we saw this mass of blondish/brown. After a second it finally registered in our brains that it was a grizzley! Nine years. Nine years I lived in Alaska and I NEVER saw a grizzly. I told John he must be a good luck charm because he’s seen almost every animal you could hope to see up here. The grizzly saw us and then whirled around and ran back into the woods. He was enormous and I was excited to see him, but I hope I never see one any closer than we were.

The drive today was only 328 miles, but it took all day because we took our time a little more than we did other days. We stopped for lunch in the booming metropolis of Glennallen and ate at the Caribou Inn. It was yummy! My dad got fried halibut (just like the night before…he’s into variety) and John and I got reindeer sausage. My mom got soup, which was good too, just not as unique to Alaska.

After lunch we drove and drove until we finally got into south central Alaska. I love the whole state (see gushing in paragraphs above), but south central is home. I know my home is currently in Georgia, and I do love the south too. But this is one of the places that I feel at home and comfortable instantly, even if I haven’t been back in a while—in this case, nine years.

The road followed the sides of the mountains and while it offered incredible views of the steely blue rivers rushing by below, it also provided some lets-hold-our-breath-and-hope-we-make-it moments, since the RV is big and the road was a little on the small side.

We got to Anchorage in time for dinner (food is a big theme of our vacations) and picked Alison and Chad up from the airport late, late, late.

And then the real vacation began.

Day 8

Day 8

We spent the night in Rancheria, Yukon Territory last night. Good news—I didn’t get eaten by any bears. We hit the road early and were hoping to hit the Alaska border by bedtime. Initially I had thought we might need to stop at Kluane Lake, since you can’t make as much milage on the Alaska Highway, but we thought we’d push it and see where we could go.

Just as we were about to leave the campground, I noticed that the camper sounded funny so my dad and John jumped out to check stuff under the hood. Turns out we needed more oil. Personally I was a little surprised that we hadn’t taken care of that before we left—until my mom pointed out to me that we’d driven almost four thousand miles since Georgia.

Once we left Rancheria we got to show John some glimpses of the ‘real’ Alaska Highway. A lot of the highway has been paved and some areas have even been ‘citified’ with things light streetlights. Not so with the road after Kluane Lake.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Kluane Lake was BEAUTIFUL. John has declared it his favorite lake. Personally, I would never be unfaithful to Mucho Lake that way, but it was impressive. First, the size of it is pretty unbelievable. We read something in the Milepost about how quickly storms can whip up on the lake. You can set out in a boat when it’s perfectly clear and get in the middle and face a vicious storm. John found an island in the middle of the lake and according him, that’s where he’s building his house. Note that I said his house. I’m not sure he’s willing to share his lake with anyone.

Just when we had started to get the teensiest bit disappointed that John was just going to have to believe our stories about how bad the Alcan used to be, we started to near the border. On a positive note, if anyone’s curious to what pergatory is like—I know now.

This road was BAD. And I mean, really bad. It doesn’t even deserve to be called a road, much less a highway. We were flying over bumps, tilting to the side at uneven sections of the road and slamming into potholes. And all that was when we knew the bad sections were coming and could slow down.

On a good note, the road eventually quit alternating between good sections and bad sections, which meant it was easier to be on guard. On a bad note—that meant the road was all bad.

In the middle of this desolate wilderness area with a road that would make the devil ask to go back to…*ahem* ‘Memphis’, it started to pour. REALLY pour. I didn’t even know it stormed in Canada! I had given up my weather checking obsession because I thought surely I wouldn’t have to worry about severe thunderstorms in the Yukon. But the dark blue, almost black, cloud in the distance started to make me wonder…

And then it started to rain. Or so we thought. After a minute we noticed it was exceptionally loud and bouncing off of the windshield almost like…hail. Sure enough, it was hailing! It only lasted for a few minutes, and we only saw a few flashes of lightning, but after we’d been driving for a while we saw hail piled up on the sides of the road. It looked almost like patches of snow, but I knew it was too warm for that. Turned out the hail must’ve bounced off the road and the landed in piles along side it.

At least now I know they do have bad storms in the Yukon too. You just don’t hear about it because no one’s there to see them.

After the storms let up a little we came to Beaver Creek, which is about twenty miles from the border. The Canadians have their customs office/border crossing here, so basically if you ever need to flee the US and not have the Canadians know you’re in their country for refuge, as long as you stay on that stretch of road, you’ll be safe. Take note fugitives. The sky had made it so dark outside by this point that I was just hoping we could all hold it together long enough to make it to the border.

The Port Alcan border is what a border station should look like. None of this four lane garbage like we saw when we came into Alberta. Nope, this was a teeny building with, as far as I could tell, one man working there. He welcomed us home and we kept driving the three miles that would take us to where we had semi-planned to stop.

The owner of the restaurant at said place told my mom when she walked in to do recon that the grill was off and we could have something fried or have a cold sandwich. Now, I know we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto (or the South, as the case may be) but in my day, people were a lot more welcoming in Alaska than this guy was. So since my dad and John and I didn’t really want to stop anyway, we left his rudeness behind and pushed for Tok. After all, can you really drive the highway through Tok and not eat at Fast Eddy’s?

Fast Eddy’s has apparently been a tradition with my parents for quite a long time. I remember when we moved up here in 2000 and stopped at Fast Eddy’s to eat dinner and my parents explained that we always stopped there. It must have stuck in my brain, because eating dinner there last night just seemed right. AND yummy. It’s a good thing we’re going hiking a lot on this trip or we’d weigh the camper down so much we might not make it back over the rough patches of Canadian highway.

The Canadians seriously need to consider highway maintenance in the Yukon.

Eh?

It was the best of times...it was the worst of times...

Alaska Blog

Day 1 (Written on Day 2—be thankful for the perspective a decent night’s sleep has given)

Whoever Dickens was writing about (that was Dickens, right? I’m slightly Dickens illiterate, which I blame on my college professors, who taught me no Dickens. Lots of Edith Wharton, though, and since I like her better, I’m fine with that—but I digress…lots) Let’s start over. Whoever Dickens was writing about had nothing on our first day of the Great Alaskan Adventure. There were highs…there were lows…But we made it though and we’re convinced it’s going to get easier as we get into a routine.

We left Forsyth at 5:13 in the morning. Note the fact that it is not an even number and you’ll know that we were a little later than we’d meant to be. Thirteen minutes (hmmm…a sign? Kidding…) late shouldn’t be a big deal, but I think it set the scene for day one.

The Georgia part of our drive was like the drive always is when you’re in your home state. You feel like you’ve been driving for hours, but in reality you’ve barely left. Which is part of the reason I took a nap in Georgia, in the bed in the back of the camper, which is apparently against the camper’s owner’s manual “rules”, but they’re really more like guidelines anyway, right?

Fast forward to Alabama. We saw some incredible tornado damage outside of Birmingham. I took a couple pictures, but the scenes I captured through the window really didn’t do it justice. It was just…incredible. Awesome, but not in a good way. We learned, or were reminded, really, that though we fondly refer to Alabama as “that trailer park west of Georgia”, it is a gorgeous state. At one point, desperate to express my feelings, I jotted down notes in my phone, since my computer was dead. “Alabama is pretty, especially when viewed through the panorama of a camper’s side window. And I feel like I’m on a train and I’m relaxed. The road noise I thought I would lose my sanity to this morning now serves as a comforting, even relaxing backdrop.”

Annnnd just for the record, Alabama has better roads than Mississippi. If you try to talk to me anytime in the next six months and I say “what?” eight times because I can’t hear you, blame the Mississippi road system. Forget all that pretty stuff about road noise being a “relaxing backdrop.” In Mississippi, it was just noise. They’re just patching up the patched spots at this point, as far as I can tell. If you live in Mississippi and have the chance to vote for better roads, specifically interstates? Please do it. I beg of you. Mississippi did have something going for it, though. Beautiful daisies all through the median and on the side of the road. They looked so carefree and happy. I adore daisies. They’re pretty much my favorite flower ever.

And then Tennessee. Which we were only in for…I don’t know, an hour an a half? Yeah, go ahead. Look at a map. I’ll wait.

That’s right. There’s no possible way the brief drive through Memphis should take an hour and a half, right?

Tell you what. Since we’re supposed to be relaxing and I can feel my blood pressure elevating as we speak, let’s not talk about Memphis anymore. In fact, let’s not ever talk about Memphis again ever. (If you live in Memphis…I’m sorry. No, really, you have my sympathies).

Arkansas was the same old state we moved away from nine years ago. I’ve never loved the drive from Memphis (ah! It was an accident. Really, no more talk of that word.) to Little Rock and while I’d like to tell you that yesterday my resolution to savor my surroundings and enjoy the beauty of the individual states made me relish this drive…it didn’t. Still boring.

We got to drive into Conway! I cannot believe how much that town has grown in the last decade. The only bad thing I could see about the growth is that my favorite custard place, the place I look forward to from hundreds of miles out, is now a Mexican restaurant. That was the bad news. The good news was that by the time we got there, I was really too tired to care much, as was everyone else.

We only drove another hour out of Conway to Lake Dardanelle State Park. The lake was gorgeous and it was fun to be camping even though we’re on a cartrip. I’m trying to convince myself to enjoy the journey and not just the destination (although I’m SUPER excited about Alaska), so we’ll see how that goes.

Last night we had four adults and one baby (toddler, I guess) in one 24 foot camper. It doesn’t sound cramped until you realize that two of the adults were in the bed over the cab, one of the adults was sharing the bed in the back with a very sleepy, very grumpy baby who did not want to sleep in that awful, evil, terrible contraption known as the “pack and play.” And one adult on the floor in a pile of cushions. You couldn’t have walked from one end of the camper to the other if you’d wanted to. Well, I guess you could have but you would have stepped on my hubby, and honestly I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been a fan.

So today (day 2—more to come on that later) we’ve resolved to slow down a little on our pace, set reasonable expectations, like trying for 400 miles today instead of the 650+ from yesterday. We’re going to stop on occasion (food! Hurray!). And we’re going to enjoy the scenery.

Wish me luck on that last one. I’ve driven through Oklahoma and Kansas before…

T-7 Days

It's official. I am now counting down to Alaska. Hurray!!!!

Good news--my dad seems to be doing well! He's out of the hospital and is just getting his strength back after doing nothing for two weeks. He wants to go to Alaska, the doctor sees no reason not to, and so it appears the trip is ON. I'm incredibly grateful to God for healing my Daddy AND for making this trip happen still (as of right now--still one doctor's appointment to see about first). My dad is the important part, but the trip is the icing on the cake. Yummy icing, but just icing, nonetheless.

So, just to remind you, I'm planning to blog during the majority of this trip. So picture me, with three other adults and a baby, in a 24 foot RV, typing witty (haha, we'll see) anecdotes about the things we're seeing and doing.

And pictures. There will be lots, and lots of pictures.

So stay tuned for that. And be prepared for a relatively quiet week here as I focus on making lists about what I need to be doing to get ready (and maybe some getting ready too).

And THANK YOU for sticking with me despite my posting inconsistency. At the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses (I'm a teacher, I've heard a lot), we moved several months ago and the internet company STILL has not gotten out to our house. But it's the south. We move on southern time. So I'm trying to go with it.

Hope your summer is going well! Exciting plans, anyone? Feel free to share!

PS: You'll note that "coffee" is tagged as a label for this post. No, I have not mentioned coffee (um, until now), but I'm at Starbucks. So there you go. Anyone know if I've posted something and NOT tagged coffee???

Messy Houses and Adventures

Ever have one of those Saturdays where you wake up and feel so productive that you clean your entire house in, like, warp speed? No, for real. I've had them. Now if you've been to my house lately, you can tell by the baby food castle on the table (hubby went shopping and stacked up all his baby food purchases castle wall style), the Christmas tree that's still up, and the baby toys forming a new creative carpet on the living room floor that this has not happened to me lately. Nor did it happen this morning. This morning I wanted to DO something.

This is odd, because it's so my sister. SHE'S the one who wakes up on Saturday mornings and wants to drive somewhere, go hiking, or do something different. I love all those things too, but usually I'm too focused on productivity.

The bad news is, we kind of woke up too late and got going too late to be able to go anywhere "new". I'm holding out for a hike in a week or two, though. The good news is that I feel like I learned something. I don't HAVE to be productive every Saturday. Sometimes it's okay to just relax and do things I enjoy. Hm. How fun, right?

So this Saturday...dishes. And maybe laundry, because otherwise I'm not sure what the baby's wearing tomorrow. You don't think anyone will notice if I just leave yesterday's outfit on for a few days, right? No. Just kidding. Really.

But next Saturday? Or maybe next Monday when I have the day off from school? I'm planning an adventure. Until then, I'll just keep planning this Alaska trip. Did I mention yet that I used to live up there and have been hoping to go back every summer for the past eight years? Yeah, I'm excited.

What are your favorite Saturday adventures?