No longer tourists

We’re not really sure how to function today.  We got to bed early last night, were able to sleep in this morning, and haven’t spent the entire day in a truck!  Such luxuries!  We took care of details today.  Of course, one of the first things we had to do was get a hunting/fishing license.  We also changed the license plates on the truck today, so I guess we are officially no longer tourists.  It’s exciting, but also sad.  We are looking forward to all that is ahead, but will miss what we leave behind also.  This crazy cat lady is without her kitty for the next month!  I may require the help of a support group to make it. (As I type this I am eyeing the cat in the neighboring apartment window wondering if they would call the cops if I knocked on the door and asked to pet it.)

There will definitely be a few things to get used to here.  While the sun sets around 11:30, it never gets dark at night right now so I’m thinking I may see blackout curtains in our future.  Gone also is the pork breakfast sausage from home, replaced by reindeer sausage.  The sound of small planes taking off and landing is a constant in Soldotna and will be an hourly part of life in Nanwalek as well.  The definition of “rural” is also completely different.  Soldotna is a town of 4,000 people yet has a lot more businesses than Poplar Bluff.  Doniphan would be considered a good sized town and those who live in the boonies would be considered townies here.  I’m definitely feeling some irony there!

In Alaska!

We have finally made it to Soldotna, Alaska.  While not our final destination, the school district and National Guard recruiting office are here so we’ll be here a couple days to take care of details before heading to Homer to load up the barge.  After flat tires, detours around flooding, more road construction than I’ve seen in my life combined, a couple horrible hotel and restaurant experiences, and a truck refusing to start we are almost finished!

Inconveniences aside, the trip has gone very well.  If those are the worst of our complaints I will call myself very fortunate.    We’ve crossed the continental divide and the Yukon river (I have Johnny Horton running through my head), been questioned by immigration services, played leapfrog with cars from Google Maps, survived lakes of death and roads on the sides of mountains, and seen beautiful wildlife and amazing scenery.  Words cannot describe the beauty we have seen on this trip.  I will be posting pictures soon, but they will never do justice to the amazing scenery we’ve passed along the way.  It has been a privilege to get to experience this trip.

The road itself has been an experience.  While in Watson Lake we stopped by the Sign Forest which started when a worker building the road put up a sign for his home town.  The other workers added their own and people today are still adding signs as they travel through.  There are also “rock messages” along the roadside.  A swim team in 1990 wrote words along the road with rocks as they were traveling through and people have been adding their own ever since.  While most roads reflect the culture and history of the surrounding area, the Alcan is its own living organism creating its own history and culture. 

Critters Everywhere!

I daresay we’re getting tired.  A member of the party who shall remain nameless got confused in the night about where the beds were located and began to climb into the wrong one. Then, when the alarm went off this morning we all raised up and, when Kathy hit the snooze button, four heads laid back down in unison.  I suppose four days of driving from morning until night will do that to a person.  We are so thankful Ron and Kathy came with us to help drive or we would be well beyond exhaustion.

We finally left the rain behind us and the scenery is much more interesting.  Gone are the flat canola fields replaced with aspen and pine covered mountains with breathtaking valleys and rivers.  I found myself feeling as a child seeing something wonderful and amazing for the first time.  Those of you who know how I(Misty typing tonight) feel about driving alongside water will find much humor in the pictures of the lake we drove by.  It is named Muncho Lake and I’m relatively certain that is a native term for “Lake of Death that Never Ends”.  Those of you who know Mike will not be surprised to hear he enjoyed my feelings of impending doom and enjoyed describing it to me in great detail when I had my eyes closed.

We also left behind civilization today.  We will forever be grateful to our new principal for recommending we buy the book, Milepost.  It follows the Alaska/Canadian highway and access highways quite literally mile by mile.  It lists listing every little detail along the road.  It makes planning very easy because we know exactly how many miles we have until the next fuel opportunity, bathroom break, and it even describes road conditions including construction and any dangers to look out for (curvy roads, mountain side roads, common animal crossing locations, etc)  A definite must have!

We also got to add brown bear, grizzly bear, big horn sheep, and bison to our list of critters we’ve seen.  Thus another long, but good day.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Today I thought of Charlie Brown standing on the pitcher's mound in a downpour while pleading with his team members not to leave because the rain would clear up soon.  The rain never cleared up for Charlie Brown and it never cleared up for us either.  We haven't had a chance to check the weather, but the lovely lady who checked us in our hotel said it wasn't supposed to quit raining until next Wednesday and that there is flooding and evacuations everywhere.  Yuck!  Hopefully it won't interfere with our travel plans because Canadian border patrol gave us until the 11th to get out of the country. The rain doesn't seem to interfere with the animals too terribly much as we've seen moose, elk, mule deer, antelope, and prairie dogs along the way.  We're still waiting to see a bear, but I won't be terribly disappointed if I don't see one until I've had an opportunity to buy a case of bear spray.

Despite the rain we made excellent time and I expect to be in bed asleep before 11:00.  We will be so rested tomorrow we won't know what to do with ourselves!  Tomorrow, however will be a long day followed by an even longer one Sunday so we'll enjoy the sleep while we can.  Soon we'll be stealing naps on the road to catch up on the sleep we'll have lost.

In other weather news, temperatures reached a balmy 55 degrees Fahrenheit.  I only know the measurement in Fahrenheit because the truck shows it, otherwise we'd just have to guess because they use Celsius here. We can definitely tell we're in a different country.  We are now very appreciative of the inner circle on the speedometer showing kilometers without which we'd be forced to make rough conversions in our head.  Back home we are used to seeing everything in 2 languages:  English and Spanish.  While everything here is also in two languages, they are English and French with French often being the first shown.

Border Crossing

Well, we have had are first serious casualty of the trip.  We were keeping my year's supply of chocolate in the truck to prevent it from melting, but it was probably better off in the trailer than under the seat in the truck.  Now instead of 3 bags of chocolate chips, I have three large chocolate chunks.  It's still chocolate and it's still edible, but the junior mints may now require a spoon.

Willie Nelson was singing the story of our lives this morning: "On the Road Again".  Things went very well at the Canadian border today, most likely due to a nasty storm rolling in.  Our paperwork was fine for the firearms and they had no interest in taking the time to go through the trailer - or even look at the itemized list for that matter.  I'm saying a "Thank You" to Jesus for sending that storm to help us along.  One of the agents at the border was also super nice and gave us help with travel plans.  We originally planned on staying overnight in Calgary but they have several activities going on and are quite busy.  Apparently the festivities are fantastic enough Prince William and his new bride are there to participate.  Thus border patrol recommended a smaller town just before Calgary and a nearly brand new yet inexpensive hotel.

This picture shows the dust blown up by the wind of the approaching storm that saved us time at the border!

All in all, a good day!

Delays, Delays

(for July 6th)

I ended yesterday’s entry with the lesson “A freshly washed windshield will not stay clean in corn country.”  We appreciated the truth to that statement much more this morning as we began loading our bags into the truck and saw could see the front of the newly detailed truck. 

We had a few more delays today.  We were lured from the interstate by a Cabela’s store early in the day (No one from Ripley County can go through South Dakota without stopping there).  It took a couple hours to regain our bearings and find our way back to the highway, but not before picking up a few items on the way.  Kathy found a fabulous deal in the bargain cave for an item we already intended to buy so those of you who know how much of a cheap-o Misty is know the excitement that caused. 

We assumed our day had peaked for interesting events when Misty nearly left the gas station without Ron, but we had yet another speed bump in our journey with a blow out on the trailer.  Thankfully we were prepared for the situation and changed the tire quickly so we could begin the search for a tire repair business.  The GPS is a great tool for this, but finding a place open at 6:30pm added a level of challenge to the task.  Fortunately Plains Tire in Gillette, Wyoming came to our rescue and are now our new favorite people.

Hopefully our bad luck is exhausted and our border crossing tomorrow will go smoothly.  If not, we may have to see if they accept bribes in the form of chocolate or toilet paper.

The Unexpected

Our  trip began with many unexpected detours, delays, and changes in direction.  It seems appropriate to begin a journey which is in itself an unexpected twist and turn in our life journey in such a manner.  Between flooded roads, construction, and what was quite possibly the world’s slowest service we are a few hours behind schedule.  While we may not get to sleep as early as we hoped the day has gone well.  We encountered no real problems and have enjoyed the day and are thankful for both.  We also finally received authorization to transport firearms through Canada and are hoping to encounter no problems there as well.

As we turned out the lights and shut the door to our home in Doniphan for the last time I found myself growing sentimental.  We are extremely excited about this new chapter in our lives and the adventures it holds, but there will be many things I will miss.  We will miss our family and friends, of course, but there are so many little details about Doniphan to miss as well.  Where else does deer season create an enthusiasm that borders on the occult or a small nation of cats living at Sonic to keep me entertained while I wait on my order?  I feel blessed to have been a part of such a place and am looking forward to what other blessings God has planned for us.

Lesson for the Day:  A freshly cleaned windshield will not stay clean in corn country!!