Fun Is Fun

If you are over 50 you probably remember the Flexible Flyer sled.  It was awesome.  It was shaped almost like a rocket with a wooden platform on top of two long blades.  It had a wooden bar in the front that could be moved from side to side for steering.  You could sit on it and steer with your feet or my favorite, lay down and steer with your hands.  Of course doing it laying down meant you were careening face first down the hill.  There were no brakes.  It was thrilling, fun, sometimes dangerous.  My childhood friends and I went sledding every chance we got.  It was particularly fun at night.  The town where I grew up had loads of hills to choose from.

About a month ago as my friend and I were driving around Homer taking care of endless errands, I suddenly had a wild idea---------we needed to go sled riding.  We had the snow.  We had the hills.  All we needed was a sled.

Let me digress here.  Downtown Homer  has the usual things you'll find everywhere like a post office and numerous banks.  There is one main grocery store, two discount/seconds type grocery stores,  a few boutiques and hair salons, and a building supply store.  Also there is an abundance of art/gift shops and restaurants, most of which are closed in the winter. 

Then there is Ulmers.  When you drive into the parking lot of Ulmers you see an "L" shaped building like a strip mall.  There are labels all the way across it  announcing Hallmark Cards,  Rental Center, Pharmacy, True Value Hardware, Sewing Center.   The first time we stopped there we thought, "Oh, here are half a dozen more stores".   Wrong!  Like an old fashioned general store, all that's advertised outside is in one space inside.  They sell everything but food in there.  You go to Ulmers for everything from snow shoes to greeting cards to baking dishes and oh, so much more-----like, say, sleds.

So we wheeled into Ulmers and each bought a sled.  Of course they didn't have any Flexible Flyers.  Now days all you can find is over-priced plastic slabs, saucers or boats.  We each bought a "boat".  A week or so later we organized a sledding day at my cabin.  We live on a hill and the driveway looked to be just right for sledding---gently sloping and just long enough for geriatric fun!

And fun we had!  There were six of us, all over 50, some well over!  We laughed, screamed,  raced, crashed, spun, and just plumb wore ourselves out.  It was great.  For one person in our group, this was the first time she had ever in her life been sledding.  As you might imagine,  the hardest thing about this activity for us of advanced age was getting in and out of the sled!  Naturally the hill became very fast as we went up and down, and steering was an issue in our "boats".  One man went off the end of the driveway, down an embankment, and into the weeds before stopping.  It seemed quite a long time before we saw his head pop up far past the supposed stopping point.  He was fine, thankfully.  We all were.  In fact we were very fine, thank you.

A week or two later, we did it again.  This time another over 50 friend joined us.  It wasn't until we were sipping cocoa in the cabin afterwards that we learned this had been her first time sledding as well!  She loved it.  See, you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Fun is fun, no matter the age!

The Locals Know

It's 6:00 PM Nov. 1.  The temperature is 28 degrees, and the ground is coated with fresh snow.  Winter has arrived!  Our local friends told us that we would get snow by Halloween.  Sure enough, it snowed the day before, the day of, and the day after.   We're not exactly snowed-in yet.  There's only an inch or two out there.  But it's definitely not melting.  I have broken out the long johns, sweatshirts, and sweaters.  And that's just to stay warm inside our cabin!

We happen to live on a rather steep hill.  Funny thing, it seemed somehow steeper today with snow on it.  It's a very disconcerting feeling to keep pressing the brakes on a car and nothing happens!  Thank heaven for four-wheel drive.  Our turn off is half way down the hill, and I had no idea whether or not I would be able to make the turn.  To complicate matters, our neighbor was turning out of the lane I needed to turn into.  Well, I made it but also learned a lesson.  Local people here know what they're talking about!  We had been repeatedly warned about this hill and how we would need studded tires.  I kept thinking well, we'll see.  We're used to driving in snow.  Our car now has studded tires on it!

Right now, just a few days before daylight savings time ends, the sun rises here about 9:20.  The thing is, the dawn is very short.  It's pitch black until 8:30.  One has no idea of the time when waking up.  The sun sets about 6:10 and goes out with amazing but quick glory.  This evening was no exception.  I kept running in and out the door to take pictures of the various stages of  gorgeousness.  See below and multiply by ten because cameras can't begin to capture the colors or sense of magnificence.

It feels like winter set in very quickly.  Another story locals told us was that when we look at a certain mountain peak across the bay and see an outline of a panda bear, snow would fall on this side of the bay quickly thereafter.  We watched and watched and saw nothing looking like a panda.  It kept snowing on that side of the bay, not ours.  Well, guess what?  Today we saw the panda.  It snowed here most of the day!  Don't know if the panda was there yesterday because the bay and mountains on the other side were shrouded in cloud most of the day. 

But my guess is that we would have seen it if the clouds had lifted.  The locals know!

Cheechako or Sourdough

Recently while traveling to Anchorage and back on an absolutely idyllic weekend, Nelson and I were comparing cheechakos with sourdoughs.  These terms are somewhat unique to Alaska.  A cheechako is someone new to Alaska, a greenhorn, a tenderfoot.  A sourdough is someone who's been here for a long time.  We have friends in both categories, but we, of course, are cheechakos.  It's usually easy to tell the difference.  Following is a list of tell-tale signs that someone is a true Alaskan, a sourdough.

True Alaskans--Sourdoughs:

* have at least two big dogs and take them everywhere
* eat fish and game almost exclusively
* have at least two pair of Xtra-Tuff boots and hip waders
* wear the Xtra-Tuff boots to church, concerts, weddings, etc.
* wear shorts, tank tops, flip flops, shirt sleeves when temperatures are in the 40's
* buy their under ware at a hardware store
* have beards (men, that is)
* have everyday flannels and dress flannels
* bait their own fish hooks (we're talking women too, here)
* clean their own fish and game (even women)
* shoot their own game (women too)
* smoke-----fish and game, that is
* can fillet a 25lb halibut in 60 seconds
* can repair anything mechanical or electrical without a manual (men and women)
* go outdoors in rain, sleet, snow, ice, wind, blizzard, etc
* do not drink decaf coffee
* do not become vegetarians
* have 12 foot fences around their gardens to keep moose out
* know when fall is going to arrive by looking at the fireweed plants
* know the 764 fishing rules and exceptions
* live in a small space that they built themselves which may or may not have an indoor bathroom
* not afraid of hard work
* drive 4-wheel vehicles
* own or have access to a WWII 6x6 to drive through muskeg (far north peat bog)
* pick up hitch hikers
* have amazing stories to tell about homesteading
* are fiercely patriotic
* were baptized in a creek with 40 degree water
* have a generous, accepting, friendly spirit
* love the Lord and the land

So while I'm still gaping at moose in wonder, my sourdough friends are tracking them down to shoot and fill their larder for the winter.  I don't own Xtra-tuffs yet, but I do have hip waders!  I don't wear shorts in 40 degree weather, and I don't drink caffeinated coffee after noon.  My progress from cheechako to sourdough is slow.  I'm thinking it could take years and years!  Hmmm, should I make this a goal?
Believe me, it's tempting!




Pictures of "sourdough" housing:

Monsoons

The monsoons are here!  The weather in Alaska changes rather quickly-----or so we thought in the summer.  Now it's fall, and rain has set in.  We've been experiencing several days of wall-to-wall sunshine followed by many more days of rain.  The ratio of rain to sun has been about 5 to 2.  This is completely unscientific, of course, but so it seems to me. Very often it will rain most of the day then stop during the late afternoon and evening, serving up a gorgeous sunset.  Next day, more of the same.

Please note that this is not a complaint.  The rain is usually soft and pleasant and makes a wonderful, comforting sound on our metal roof.  Yes, there's mud everywhere, especially considering only a few roads are paved!  A crucial part of every Alaskan's wardrobe is a pair of rubber boots coming half-way up the calf.  It's very messy here.  But we're all in the mess together and so somehow, it doesn't seem as bad.  It's the norm.  It's also the norm to remove shoes when entering a home.

Rain on this side of the bay with temperatures from the high 30's to the mid 50's means that a lot of times it's snowing at higher elevations on the other side of the bay!  Now that's exciting!  Those of you who know me know I love snow.  And now more snow is evident across the bay.  It was so amazing on a recent sunny day to see the clouds lift, exposing white peaks!

And then there's one more thing.  Rain means clouds.  Yes, the mountains are majestic, the water beautiful, the animals exciting, but the clouds here are completely amazing.  I love watching them.  I find myself constantly trying to capture what they look like with photos.  I've probably taken a hundred, but pictures don't do them justice.  I've talked about this many times, but I'm continually thrilled by them.  It's a worshipful experience looking at the sky here----truly.

With all that in mind I'm attaching some photos I've taken in the last week.  Many of them were taken right from our deck.  In a couple, the glaciers could be mistaken for clouds or vice versa.  Let me know what you think.

Halibut Fishing

Yesterday a very nice friend with a very nice boat took us halibut fishing.  We met on the dock at 6:30, and already dozens of boats, big and small, were putt-putting slowly out onto the bay. It was a spectacular day on the water.  Nelson had been out many times, but I had only been out once before and got sea sick; so I was sucking down Bonine.

We went all over the  part of Cook Inlet near the mouth of the Katchemak Bay and saw scores of otters sunbathing and playing, and of course the ever-present murres, gulls, and puffins.  It was really halibut that we wanted to see, however.  They were very elusive.  We would drop our lines with a nice big hunk of tasty herring skewered to the hook and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Nothing.  Then we would pull up our lines and motor to another spot in the Inlet to do the same thing with the same results. 

We repeated this scenario about 1/2 dozen times, allowing us to tour much of that part of the Inlet.  Then the boat's captain, Aaron, said that now we were going to take a "boat ride"!  So off we went, heading south.  The water was getting choppier since we were in the more open part of the Cook Inlet now. We bounced our way south for over an hour.  The scenery was incredible.

Finally, we stopped and dropped our lines once more.   For quite a while there was narry a nibble.  Then suddenly, Nels got a small halibut and within minutes, Aaron got a bite.  His rod dipped waaayy down.  He struggled to reel up and we at last saw a huge halibut fighting furiously at the end of his line.  This was a big one.  Aaron and Nels struggled for 20 minutes to bring it in the boat.  A fish this size needed to be killed before it was brought into the boat, otherwise it might injure someone.  When they got it into the boat it measured out to 55 inches long which weighs in at 82 lbs!  It was no where near the biggest but a lot bigger than any of us had had experience with before.  Very exciting! Aaron fileted it right then and there. Then it was time to head home.  It was late afternoon.  The tide was going out so we would have a long ride back to the dock.

And what a ride!  Aaron was thrilled with his catch and feeling euphoric; so we flew.  It was a cowboy ride for sure.  We sailed over those waves like a flat stone skipped by a well-skilled twelve year old.  The bay had white caps by this time and lots of boats were returning to dock so there was a lot of wake with the waves.  We seemed to hit them all!  The boat would slap and dip over and over.  Who needs Hershey Park?  This was better than any amusement ride and certainly longer!

What did I get?   Sick!  It happened again on our way to the last spot we tried.  I was laid low for a couple hours but was good enough to enjoy the wild ride home.  Will I go again?  Probably.  Loved that ride home!  Yipee-ky-yi-yo!!

Signs of Fall

I wish you could see the clouds today.  The sky looks like a group of three year olds were finger painting up there!  There are loads of bumpy clouds piled up looking like  popcorn overflowing from a big blue bowl.  I see elongated cloud tubes that look like my Dad's hand-rolled cigarettes in giant form.  Some are swirly clouds looking like someone just wiped their hands on a heavenly towel.  There are dashes and commas and apostrophes as though a young English student didn't quite know which punctuation to use so he used them all!  It's a riot of white against the bluest blue ever.  And I get to watch it against a back drop of dark peaks with flashes of snow clinging to the sides.

Another amazing day in Alaska.  I have definitely found that trying to photograph scenes here is an exercise in frustration.  An artist would be hard-pressed to even begin to capture the majesty and beauty we see here daily.

We recently met an artist who came very close. Norman Lowell built a gallery to house his work about 20 miles from Homer.  At his gallery are displayed hundreds of his paintings and other works of art all about Alaska.  It knocks your socks off! In 1958 Norman and his wife homesteaded the land where the gallery is located.  They built a cabin, which is still standing, and raised five children there. They still live on the property in a house they built later. Gifted gardeners, they have a large greenhouse, huge vegetable garden and massive bouquets of flowers everywhere.  It is gorgeous and so interesting.

The Lowells actually host their gallery; so visiting it means you might be fortunate enough to meet and talk with them.  They are sweet, gracious people----courageous too!  I can't imagine what it was like to move to the wilds of Alaska all alone and have to build and develope land  single-handedly, and then raise 5 children there with no schools, no roads, no phones, no convenience stores.....  Oh, and by the way, build your own facilities, grow all your own food and then find the time and energy to paint outstanding pictures and market them.  But they did all that and more.  Their story is amazing and inspiring.

By the way, Norman told us that he wants to retire and sell the gallery.  He said this was a good time to buy one of his paintings.  Never mind they cost in the 5-6 figures!  Google his name and take a look.  If you have a hefty amount of spare money, you might want to consider an artistic investment.  Even if you don't, I encourage you to look at his work.  It's outstanding!

Believe it or not, we are beginning to see signs of fall coming on. Most of you reading this live in the "lower 48".  Signs of fall in your area like a chill in the evening, birds beginning to flock, back-to-school-ads, canning fruits and vegetables are probably becoming noticeable.

Signs of fall here are a little different. Our friends  are busy preserving food too but not fruits and veggies.  They are fishing, fishing, fishing to collect enough to dry, freeze and can for the winter.  There are colored leaves beginning to appear already.  A couple days ago a news report announced that two inches of snow fell on a river valley high in the mountains directly across the bay from our cabin.  And the most obvious sign to us is the changing light.  We now turn on our lights in the cabin more often.  The daylight/dark thing is changing very rapidly----5 minutes every day!  Right now the sun is setting around 10:00 and rising around 6.  Not only that, but the darkness is actually darker. An aurora lit up the Northern sky and was photographed near Anchorage recently. That takes darkness to see, along with colder conditions and sun spot activity.

The one big sign of fall I miss a lot is talk of football, particularly Penn State Football, of course.  I admit, it will be hard to wonder how Joe Pa is doing this year.  Fall is not going to seem right without watching and discussing each and every game.  Getting the information late will have to do, but nothing compares to watching the games first hand!  So far, this is my only complaint about Alaska.




 

Clouds, Mountains, and Light

It is as clear as squeaky clean glass outside today, except, of course, at the tops of the mountains.  Right at the peaks of the mountains is a line of puffy clouds looking like lace trim on the bodice of a dress.
The water is very calm.  In the very far distance---60 miles----I can see Mt. Augustine, Douglas, Iliamna, and Redoubt, all magnificent volcanoes.  There's a cruise ship docked on the spit, its big white body clearly visible from my 10-mile vantage point.  Every once in awhile I see the sun reflecting off a boat motoring in the bay as though sending signals with a mirror.  The temperature is a very pleasant 70.

It was clear like this a couple days ago too when we ferried across the  bay to Seldovia, a very small town that can only be reached  by plane or boat.  The water was amazing.  It was sparkling so much it would hurt your eyes without sunglasses.  We saw a sea lion, many otters, cormorants, murres, several kinds of ducks, loons, and puffins.  We had a delightful time wandering around the town taking pictures of interesting spots and reveling in the gorgeous weather.

One of the things I love about this place is how much and how fast the weather changes.  Yesterday it was cloudy and somewhat dreary all day.   This actually was good because Nels and Nevin, our friend from home, went river fishing for salmon and trout.  If it's clear when you fish, the fish are more likely to see you and avoid your tempting bait.  They are not dumb.  But lucky for us, it was not clear yesterday; so Nels and Nevin came home with numerous salmon and trout, almost their limit---a good catch for their first attempt at this kind of fishing.  We had a wonderful fresh salmon dinner last night.  From stream to table was only a few hours!

After dinner Kitty, Nevin's wife, and I played cards and watched the weather transform.  It was fascinating.  After every hand of Oh Pshaw we'd look up to see an entire new scene!  Little wispy puffs marching across the front of the mountains, huge blankets of clouds draped over the peaks and part-way down the sides, long cotton-like rolls laid out along the middle of the mountains, fog at the top with the feet of the mountains showing through, fog at the bottom with the peaks jutting through, and eventually, fog everywhere. The more shrouded the mountains became, the closer they looked until eventually we couldn't see them or the water at all.  All this in a couple hours!  It's quite a show and never boring.

The sun was still shining brightly when we all went to bed.  It's been just over a month since the solstice though, and we can already see a big difference in the amount of light at night.  The sun is setting earlier and dark is getting darker.  I'm actually looking forward to the seasons and the long stretches of darkness because it will be such a different experience for us.  I'm eager to see the stars, which I haven't seen since we left home, and the aurora especially.  So what I'm really saying is I'm eager to see points of light in the darkness.  There's a lesson there!

"You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game."
  Psalm 76:4                                                                                                              

Ready For The Day

On the beach around six A.M. the sun is bright, the water calm, the tide high. The birds are busy doing morning callisthenics. A large brown bird, perhaps a cormorant, streaks by as though on a mission, his long neck stretched out like the prow of a ship.  The gulls seem to prefer solo exercises, dipping and swooping alone.  The loons, on the other hand, are far more organized and group-oriented. One might even say, regimented.  Every few seconds there is a flash of white from a line of loons crossing the sky.  Their formations are like ribbons, some long, some short, all of them shimmering as they flap in concert with each other.  Usually they  travel south to north, in which case their white bellies are rhythmically punctuated by black wings flapping. This makes their flight look like a coded signal to those of us stuck on the ground.   When there is a line going north to south, the tilt of their bodies show mostly  black backs with just a hint of white underneath flicking on and off as their wings beat. 

It is not a time for feeding.  Even when the birds are drifting on the water, they don't seem to be that concerned about food.  Every so often a tail  flips up as an individual bird dives for a fish.  But generally, they are either flying or lounging.  It seems as though they're getting ready for the day.  There are no arguments or disagreements.  Eagles are noticeably absent.

Around the end of the spit a stream of boats is going out of the bay  toward open water for another day of fishing.  The boats almost seem eager as they progress quickly.  Nelson is on one of them.  I watch as his boat grows smaller and smaller until it disappears around the end of the island.  In about twelve hours, when the tide is high again, all those boats will reverse their path and come home, hopefully with a big catch.

At my feet is a large log still smoldering from a camp fire last night.  It's sending smoke signals that the breeze is from the southwest. I take a deep breath, whisper a thankful prayer, and head home.  It's going to be a beautiful day!

Learning New Things

 Have you ever seen an eagle's nest?  It is huge!  There's an active eagle's nest right in down town Homer, complete with two parents and a chick.  It's awesome and often traffic-stopping.  It's been fun to watch.  See, even eagles know that two parents is best!

All you who live in central Pennsylvania are used to tractors.  They are essential to work on a farm and are used for lots of tasks.  But have you ever seen one used as a boat launch?  Yes, I'm serious----a boat launch!  There's a beach near here where dozens of boats go out to the bay daily.  The boats are launched with the help of big tractors.  It's like a valet service.  With the people on the boat and the boat on the trailer, the tractor hooks up to the trailer and drives onto the beach and into the surf.  The boat slides off the trailer into the water and takes off.  Meanwhile the tractor parks the trailer on the beach where it will be picked up later to reverse the process and bring the boat out of the water.  Slick, right?

So what happens if you have a good-sized pick up truck and decide to do the same thing yourself, sans the tractor?  Then you will probably find yourself sans a truck!  We saw such a situation  a few days ago.  It was quite a scary sight watching the water coming up higher and higher onto that truck.  It was completely stuck about 30ft out in the water.  Just happens the tide was coming in.  Did I mention that the tides are huge here?  Yep, there's 20-25 ft difference twice a day everyday, unless there's a storm.  Then the difference increases!

Fortunately, the tractor driver finally took pity on the truck owner and pulled the truck out of the water.  The tractor operator took over an hour to make the decision to do that though.  Apparently, there was a money dispute between the two men.  

Then there was the horse fiasco in our yard. Those of you who have a lot of "horse knowledge" will be able to picture this easily, I'm sure.  Instead of moose in our yard, we had two escaped horses last night.  Three people showed up to try to corral them.  After much yelling, chasing, shooing, and flapping, one horse was harnessed.

As one of the people was trying to saddle the harnessed horse, however, the other horse decided it was a great time to try making baby horses!  Off fell the saddle and the blanket. Then there was even more yelling, chasing, and shooing, but the flapping turned into wild, frantic flailing at the male horse, with a few curses sprinkled in.  This went on for more than a few minutes.  The male horse was very determined and quite obviously ready!

Finally one person started running through the brush toward home leading the female.  The male horse followed, still bouncing around trying to position himself.  The rest of the party was at the end of the parade.  I could only see flashes of the horses above the brush as they proceeded, but every so often an arm could be seen high in the air, flapping wildly.  Apparently the male horse was still being-----determined!

Now, would I have experienced all this in PA?  Most definitely not!  See how traveling teaches you new things?

This Is Not Pennsylvania!

It took five days, but finally, Friday night at 11, I turned on a light in the living room for the first time since we've been here!  Oh, I had used the lights in other parts of the house, but the living room has a wall of windows.  We never bother to pull the shades down; so there's enough light coming in until about 11 to do whatever you want to do, including reading.  Amazing, huh?  At least now I know I need to buy more powerful light bulbs!  Tomorrow is the solstice.  We intend to go out at 2 in the morning for a walk just to say we did it and to see what it's like outside at that hour.  We will not need flashlights.

There's a store here called Ulmer's.  It's like an old fashioned, expensive WalMart in that they carry a WIDE variety of stuff.  We have been there almost everyday.  It's not just the store of choice; it's the ONLY store you can find most of the dumb stuff you need to establish a household-----everything from wastebaskets to greeting cards to a clam digging auger-like thingy.  It's the place to go.  We're starting to establish relationships with the workers in there!

Then there's our post office.  But wait!  It's a combo deal, Folks!  You not only get a post office, but also a liquor store, a grocery/convenience store, a gas station, AND a bakery/restaurant!  What more could you need when you're in a hurry?  Between Ulmer's and our "post office", we're covered! Here are pictures of our post office/everything else.  Notice the signs and notice the clever drop box on the door inside the entryway.  Yes, that's the entryway!

I imagine I will be learning numerous new skills while we're here, but I already am committed to one-------making a great pizza crust.  To me pizza is the staff of life.  I get withdrawal after about two weeks.  We have found that the farther away from New York/New Jersey/ Pennsylvania you get, the lousier the pizza; so you can imagine what the pizza is like here.  To add to the problem is the price!  I have one word for it-----------YIKES!  So I tracked down some yeast (a dirty word to me in the world of baking), flour, a small package of pepperoni (worth it's weight in gold), and other required ingredients and made my own pizza for the first time in many years.  It was horrible!  But I will have fun continuing to try!

Perhaps you heard about a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in AK a few days ago.  The epicenter was only 90 miles from here.  Funny, we didn't even know it had happened until I got an email from a friend in Kansas wondering about it!  In retrospect, yes, we felt it but obviously not greatly. Apparently, even though it was of a size to do damage, it didn't because it was so deep.  Later in the week we had lunch with an acquaintance who has an amazing house on a hillside with the most beautiful view I've ever seen from a house.  They have earthquake insurance!

Where there are earthquakes there are volcanoes.  Our nearest active ones, Mt. Redoubt and Augustine are about 60 miles away and awesomely beautiful.  Every now and then (like a year ago) there's an eruption.  We can see them from Homer but not our house.  It's exciting to watch plumes of steam rising from those mountains during an eruption.

We have not yet been fishing because Nels wants some professional guidance at first.  He will be in DC all next week so we're waiting until he gets back.  The salmon are running, though, and everyone else here is fishing! This is Alaska, not Pennsylvania. We can't get chicken breasts at the ShopRite but we can get halibut!  Sounds tough, huh?

Reporting From Fox Meadow

It's 43 degrees and raining outside.  Very gray all around except for a thin carpet of grass and the green fingers of spruce pointing to the sky.  The mountains across the bay are completely shrouded.  I have often thought about the reaction of first settlers when they arrive at such a  spot as this---- how their breath was probably taken away when, after seeing nothing but gray, the clouds lifted and there before them was a knock-your-socks-off scene.  I think God planned that the weather here should be fickle and sometimes frustrating so that the scenery is REALLY appreciated when it emerges.

We have been in our new space here in Homer for two days now, schlepping boxes and suitcases from car to house, trying to find the best place to store everything, doing a record-breaking grocery shopping, opening a bank account, visiting gas and electric service centers.  You get the picture.  It's been more than ten years since we have moved, but the process comes back like riding a bicycle.  As of today Nels and I have been married 43 years and have moved 14 times!

We are by no means settled but are working at it with something a bit less than vigor.  You'd be surprised how exhausting it is to drive 5,000 miles!  The house is great.  It has everything we need and more, and it is very attractive.  The weather has been typical for June here, as I understand----very cool, overcast, sometimes rainy.  The temperatures have been mostly in the 50's and the clouds heavy during the day.  But late in the day they start lifting slowly to reveal more and more of the mountains  so that by evening they are fully visible.  There is still lots of snow on them.

Of course the evening is very looooonnnngg here.  It's the most uncanny thing to be reading at 11:00 PM with the window shades up and no lights on in the house.  Suddenly you realize how late it is and that you should be going to bed, but the bed-time cues are absent.  Waking up through the night is confusing.  You look at the clock and it says 2:00 but there's light seeping in around the window shades.  We are at 59 1/2 degrees north latitude here, whereas Pennsylvania is at 41.  This takes some time to get used to, but we haven't had a hard time sleeping.

Yesterday we went into town to do errands.  Grocery shopping was an adventure.  There's one main grocery store---ShopRite.  We spent several hours there and thank heaven Nels went with me as I was really overwhelmed by all we needed to get and sticker shock.  Some of the prices were not bad; most were shocking.  We knew that's how it would be, but experiencing it was an order of magnitude more intense.

Then there was the bank experience.  The clerk asked us our mailing address which we gave.  Then she wanted a "physical" address, which we didn't know.  She said that was ok, just give her an approximate!!  So we said ten miles out East End Road, and she was satisfied!  I have no idea what that was about.

So far we haven't been out much but are about ready to change that.  The people we have had contact with have been very friendly and nice.  We really look forward to more activity this weekend and going to church.  The compound here has our house and three smaller cabin duplexes, most of which are rented.  We have dogs of all sizes and colors around the property belonging to the cabin residents.  Alaskans love their coffee, ice cream and dogs!

Every morning we look for moose around the property but haven't seen any yet.  We'll keep watching.  It's not hard to stare at the scenery here.

Last Leg

I am sitting in a 108 year old hotel looking out the window at yet more amazing mountains with lots of snow on top.  This is Haines, AK.  The town is about 2,000 people strong and 1,990 of them work at fishing or in gift shops!  It's a charming little place.  There used to be a fort here and the hotel is where the commander lived. 

Today has been a day of rest for us.  We got off the boat (ha ha) around 9:30 this morning, did a little exploring, and then took naps, or in my case, tried to nap.  I hate sleeping in a situation like this because I'm afraid I'll miss something.  :)

The trip on the ferry was great.  It was a large ferry and so, had many amenities------observation room, game room, bar, cafeteria, but not internet or TV.  We had a "state room" which was a way of saying VERY tiny room with bunk beds and a closet-sized bathroom.  The room was so small that you had to back up to turn around, and if you felt the ship sway while you were in the
 bathroom, there was no reason to worry.  It was way too small for anyone to fall down!

No matter about all this.  There was such incredible scenery to watch out on the many decks that  in the "state room" was not where you wanted to be.  Of course it was rather cold and windy on the decks.  The temperatures during the day were in the 50's but the wind took care of any feeling of warmth .

Tomorrow we head out early to Tok (pronounced with a long "O").  We have been told to watch out for moose and bear.  It's a two lane road through  more than 400 miles of very remote area.  Can't wait!  We are both enjoying this trip so much.  It's a real gift to be able to do this, and we are grateful.

A couple days ago Nels found a coin on the ground.  I commented to him that he's really good at that, and then he told me this story.

It seems there was a young boy who was good at finding pennies on the ground.  He was so skilled at spotting them that he purposed to always be looking for them so he could save them.  By the end of his life he had collected $17.94, but he had spent his life looking down and had missed all things seen when looking up.

Nelson and I spent the last few weeks literally looking up at the glories of nature.  We have spent the last 38 years looking up symbolically.  And that, my friends, is the only reason that we will be celebrating our 43d wedding anniversary right at the time we move into our Homer house.  I highly recommend "looking up".  Sometimes dreams come true.  Sometimes they don't.  But God is good either way.

(One) Liner Notes May 29-31

-  South Dakota is truly beautiful.
-  The Missouri River really is wide.
-  South Dakota on the west side of the Missouri looks completely different from how it looks on the east side.
-  The Badlands is an incredible sight, and I'd like to return.
-  Some of the Badlands topography looks like conglomerate rock and some looks like elephant skin.
-  The texture of the formations in the Badlands is like wet, sticky clay.
-  Wall Drug is really like a mall with many stores and a Western theme.
-  The good thing about the rain on May 29th was that is wasn't snow!

-  The Corn Palace is a large building covered in murals made out of corn and other grains, and the murals are changed yearly.
-  Mt. Rushmore was awesome!
-  The Master Weatherman was sooo good to us on Monday, parting the clouds to reveal glorious sunshine and crystal blue skies while we were at Mt. Rushmore.

-  Devil's Tower was interesting.
-  Sheridan, WY is an impressively clean, neat town.
-  Deep fried dill pickles with either ranch dressing or peanut butter are available in Sheridan WY.
-   When driving across the plains you cannot tell how fast you're going until you glance down and see the odometer needle much farther to the right than it's been since the last time you were in WY-----fun!
-  Because WY is so uber large, it still takes a very long time to get from point A to point B even though you're hurtling down the road at 90 MPH!
-  The Sheridan, WY phone book covers approximately 8,000 sq. mi.------I'm dead serious.
-  We saw a horizon 60 mi. away and our road 9 miles away at one point.
-  It's still fun watching for antelope.
-  The Western sky is incomparable with amazing clouds that change constantly.
-  The wind still blows incessantly so that wind chill should be part of the weather forecast all year long.
-  William Fredrick Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, was not only busy hunting buffalo and putting on shows but also visiting many bars in many towns that have later boasted about his visits.

-  Montana should be called, " The Mountain State" instead of "Big Sky".
-  Temperatures across southern MT this morning were in the 30's and this afternoon in the 50's-low 60's.
-  Montana is also HUGE with very high mountains everywhere.
.  The mountains are still very snow covered, looking like someone dusted them with a heavy coating of powdered sugar.
-  Nels saw a coyote and I saw a sand hill crane today. (Tues.)

-  We have now driven almost 2,500 miles.
-  We have enjoyed every minute of it---honest.

-  We have now driven half of the amount we have to drive.
-  Tomorrow, Wed., we drive to Seattle where driving on the interstate system way too fast ends!
-  Above pictures top to bottom: 1) Badlands, 2-4) Three Rushmore pictures with the weather improving, 5) along the road in Montana, 6) the Corn palace.

-  Finally, a Maserati doesn't really look any different from other sports cars, and sometimes it's a fat, old man in shorts driving instead of Fabio.

Dreaming

No more looking out windows (see blog titled "Dog at the Window").  No more waiting.  Whatever isn't packed gets left behind.  We are on our way!  After more than five years of planning and dreaming, saving and preparing, we are leaving for Alaska in a few days.

There was a time when dreaming wasn't part of what we did.  We were busy with careers and raising four kids.  Life was good but intense.  We kept our heads down and our motors running.  Even vacations were few and far between.  Oh, we got to travel quite a bit, but most of that was in conjunction with Nelson's work so that I got to see the sights while he got to give seminars and attend meetings.

I'm not complaining.  We have had a great life together.  Dreaming was not a highly developed skill in either of us though until the kids began leaving home, salaries became more than barely adequate, and the edges on the daily "gind" smoothed out somewhat.  Slowly we lifted our heads and began to see a fun and interesting world out there beyond kids and work.

I honestly can't remember when this particular dream took on a life of its own.  It was a birthday; so new binoculars were purchased.  It was Christmas; so we bought fishing equipment and a NOAA weather radio.  Our car had an argument with a deer and lost; so we replaced it with an all-wheel drive SUV.  Slowly and steadily our dream took shape, and we collected what we needed for our adventure.

That adventure is here now.  We're like kids on Christmas Eve.  There's much to be done in these last few days in Pennsylvania, but we're up for it.  Dreaming is a good thing.  Realizing a dream is even better!

Odyssey

Odyssey-------"a long series of wanderings or adventures, especially when filled with notable experiences, hardships, etc."  Little did I know how prophetic the title of my blog would be.  Nelson submitted it when I asked for suggestions.  I loved the double-entendre.

Homer, the Greek poet, wrote  The Odyssey  almost three thousand years ago.  It is an epic poem--12,110 lines-- about Odysseus's trip home after the Trojan War.  The man had problems!  It took him ten years to get home.

While our story may not be all the way to "epic", it certainly is on that road, quickly passing many mileposts.  But hey, smooth and easy was never promised!

 The collective life of our family took a sharp turn toward the scary when one of our members landed in surgery for a quadruple by-pass and valve repair.  This scenario is common to many families, I'm sure, but not when the patient is only 38 years old!  Fantasizing our family's story, I had never pictured one of my daughters being widowed during my lifetime!  Fortunately, the procedures were successful and recovery has begun.

Before all this happened, as you may recall, we were having trouble finding a place to live in Homer.  We thought we had two different houses only to loose them both and so had to postpone our departure by two weeks.  We didn't know it then but now realize  we needed to be here.  How unfortunate and frustrating it would have been to be on the road somewhere in the wilds of British Columbia when all this drama was taking place in PA!

Now, at last, we're able to breathe.  The crisis is abating; my daughter is demonstrating grace and maturity under very difficult circumstances; her husband is recovering; we're able to make final preparations to start our trip.

 Oh, and one more completely fantastic and amazing thing.  We have a house to go to----one that is better than any other house we considered, one where there's plenty of room for guests and when you look out the window or sit on the deck, you're looking at water, mountains and glaciers!  Or you could be looking at a moose!  It's fully furnished and yet cheaper than others we didn't get.  How awesome is that?

Dog At The Window

Right now Tuhlula, our black and white lab/boxer dog, is sitting directly in front of me staring out the window.  It's a beautiful day out there, a day she would mormally be outside sunning herself, her naps punctuated with frenzied Ups truck chasing.

Tuhlula has a real love-hate affair with box trucks.  She barks and carries on frantically inside or out when one comes by.  But I think she secretly loves them because they give her an excuse to run an impromptu race through our yard at breakneck speed.  She usually wins.  The various drivers know her and comment about her racing prowess when they happen to stop at my house.  They often leave a milk bone with my packages!

But today she has to stay inside.  She doesn't like that.  Nelson is spraying the yard with weed killer.  It would be very bad for her to be around that.  And furthermore, she'll have to endure for about three days!  She doesn't know that yet.  So she sits, staring.  Every once in awhile she will moan and sigh.  But she never gets mean with us, her masters.  She never growls, bares her teeth, gets moody, chews up shoes or furniture.  She always has a wag, a kiss, excitement for us when we pay attention to her.  In this way she has more sense, trust and "maturity" than most humans.

Nelson and I are currently staring out a "window" too.  Noses pressed, sighing sighs, wondering.  I have lost track of what "plan" we're on.  It must be double T  by now!  I'm grateful plan A didn't work.  There are a host of reasons why it wasn't the best.  We know that now.  And because in hindsight we understand that, we can trust that plan double S wasn't the best either, along with all the plans that went before.

As for plan double U?  I don't even know what that is!  I'm fresh out of plans.  That's probably a good thing.  So we'll just take it "one day at a time".  What an easy thing to say but hard thing to do!  We'll keep trying though.  God, help me to at least have the sense, trust and maturity Tuhlula does!  I don't want to sacrifice "the best" on the altar of "the good".  I need to just keep looking out the window-----expecting, trusting, grateful that I'm not in charge!

Flexibility

Okay, I have to be honest.  For more than two weeks, even as I was getting this blog going, there was a major upheaval in our plans.  Just days before signing a lease, we learned that the owner of the house we wanted/had in Homer changed his mind about the deal.  The house is for sale, but he had told us he would take it off the market for a year.  Suddenly, he changed his mind and was no longer willing to do that.

So how did we feel about driving 6,000 miles to live in a house where we had no idea how long we could stay and while we were there we would have to "show" to potential buyers?   Forget it!!

With that turn of events, we were homeless in Homer.  Now you have to understand, this is not a city, not even a large town.  There are 4500 people there year round and not much in the way of rentals, especially furnished. Well, there are the $300 per night places for short-term vacationers.  Not our scene.    We quickly decided along the way that we had to be willing to rent an unfurnished place and then buy what we needed up there.  That's cool, I thought.  Shopping and I are close friends. 

With many emails and phone calls we finally found another place.  It sounded good and the owner was positive.  It wasn't available until June 15 so we postponed our trip.    For two weeks we were almost certain that we would have this new place.

NOT!

As of today, we are back to square one.  It's easy to be discouraged, easy to feel angry.  Today I've been flitting between  both.  And then I remember that this is testing, testing.  Tests are not fun, but they are necessary.   If a task is "easy", it's not as much fun, and where is the victory?

Of course, I'm preaching to myself, here.

It's still about four hours too early to get on the phone and try, try again.  Making these types of phone calls has always been hard for me.  I would rather have a root canal. This is why secretarial work was never one of my career considerations.  I'm usually relieved when no one answers.  Unfortunately, Nelson feels the same way; so guess who gets to do the calling?   But, hey, do I want to live in AK or not?


So..........one ringy dingy; two ringy dingies.........

Flexibility, a very useful quality!

Crazy or Courageous?

Crazy or courageous?  I'm not sure which adjective describes what we're doing, but I've heard them both.  I have never defined our adventure either way.  It's just something we want to do.

Over the more than 40 years we've been married, we've lived in a couple of unusual places----Guam, Wyoming.  We've always loved to travel and have visited many exotic places in the world.  Family circumstances were such that we were always on our own.  So I guess we developed a kind of pioneering spirit.  If we had been alive during the 1800's, we probably would have ended up on a covered wagon going West.  But as our one daughter reminds us, it's usually the children who leave home, not the parents!

Believe me, I'm not claiming we've always been smart about our adventures.  Years ago we decided to visit India.  Everyone visits Europe, I reasoned.  Let's go some place most people don't see!  We happened to know someone else who had been there.  She gave me a quick tutorial on how to get a guide.

So off we went, landing in New Delhi while the airport was being expanded.  It was quite a site because there was almost no heavy equipment, but  rather thousands of loin-cloth clad men making, pouring, spreading asphalt by hand.  The temperature was 105.

After we took care of all the formalities of passports, fees, baggage claim, we needed to get a guide; so we did what my friend told me to do.  We stood in the middle of the airport and yelled a man's name!  "Anoop, Anoop Singh" we yelled in all directions.

A few tense moments later a small, middle-aged man approached us claiming to be Anoop Singh.  We hired him on the spot.  He took all our luggage and guided us to his car.  We were with him for the next 10 days, completely dependent on him for transportation, food, settling of arguments with locals, paying fees, information, and itinerary!

We were young and stupid, but it worked out great!  God protected us, although  I'm sure He was shaking His head at us!  Our stay in India was amazing.  We got so close to Anoop that he took us to his home to meet his family, and we corresponded with him for awhile after our trip.

We know people who know people in Alaska, but we don't know anyone directly yet.  We have never driven 6,000 miles on one trip.  We know what minus 40 degrees is like, but we don't know what it's like to be in relative darkness for months at a time----or light, for that matter.  We have experienced snow in May, but not feet of it.  We  have never looked out the window of our house to see glaciers.  We have never seen moose or eagles in our yard.  We have never driven a few miles down the road to a stream to catch salmon for dinner that night.

Crazy or courageous?  It's a matter of perspective.  I like the word, "adventurous"!

Dogs and Cats and Kids, Oh My!

We have lived on our house exactly nine years now.  We're in the country with a bit of acreage and awesome vista views, but we're not isolated.  It's a great place for the grandkids----seven of them----to play.  However, our house really isn't "kid proof".  It wasn't built or decorated with kids in mind.  So far this has worked just fine since the kids are in and out.

All that has to change now.    While we're living in AK, four of our grandkids and their parents will live in our central PA house for three months.  Their dad, our son, will be on a Sabbatical.  Their three cousins who live nearby are thrilled.  The two families aren't able to be together much since they live almost 500 miles apart.  I'm thrilled for them.

Then after the four-grandkid-family moves out, my daughter and her husband are moving in for awhile.  They have no children, but they do have three cats.  Our house has always been dog friendly.  We have an adorable boxer/lab mix, Tuhlula, who really owns the place!  Cats?! That's another story.

So you see my predicament.  Going to AK to live for awhile hasn't been just a matter of packing some suitcases and boxes and taking off.  We have almost needed to move out of our house, emptying closets, drawers, shelves, rolling up area rugs of value.  All decorative items are stashed.  Although the kids probably couldn't even reach a lot of things I put away, the cats could!  Sooo I have spent the last two months child-proofing AND cat-proofing.  The house looks empty and bare now.

It's been a lot of work, but a labor of love.  I appreciate that our house won't be empty the whole time we're away.  I appreciate the fact that I have four children who are excited for us and willing to take care of things here while we're there.  As a mom I really appreciate that my children want to spend time together and go out of their way to enable the next generation to get to know each other better.

The one thing that's hard, though, is that I won't be able to enjoy all the cousins and their parents here together for an extended time.  I dare not complain!

Where Are We Going, Anyhow?

Where are we going anyhow?  Surprisingly, many people thought we were moving to Arkansas!  With all due respect to that great state, if we were moving there, MY big question would be, "Why?"  And so, a lesson on abbreviations-------------AK is Alaska and AR is Arkansas.

I can only imagine that people who thought we were going to AR were surprised to think of grizzlies, eagles, whales, moose, salmon, and halibut  inhabiting that state!  On the other hand, most people have wondered at our penchant for cold.  At least AR is warm.  To them it makes no sense to move to a COLD place; so we must be going to AR.

I can't explain it, folks.  I can only run with it.  I hate being hot.  I love snow, watching wild life, fishing, and I really love mountains.  All of that is abundant in AK.  Right now there's still two feet of snow on the ground in Homer.  A caveat, though, is that it's light until around 9:30 P.M.  I'm not sure when spring arrives, but I suspect sometime toward the end of May.  Then approximately a week later, it's summer!

A short summer doesn't seem to dampen outdoor activities.  Last week a local golf course opened.  Yep, they play golf up there.  This year, according to The Anchorage Daily News, all 18 holes were available on opening day, something unusual.  Pictures of several golfers wearing winter parkas, hats, gloves teeing off with mounds of snow in the background accompanied the story.  This is definitely a place for thinking outside the box  I love that.

The warmth of AR?  No thanks!  We'll take the majestic mountains, the aurora, exciting wild life, tremendous fishing, laid-back life style, and excitement of driving down rutted pathways disguised as roads......... in AK!

Forgive My Naivete

"Forgive my naivete, but the house looks so.....well.....normal!"  A puzzled comment from a dear friend looking at a picture of the rental house my husband and I will be occupying soon in Homer, Alaska.  She's right.  It is "normal".  No blocks of ice put together in a domed structure low to the ground.  No pelts hanging off poles.  No antlers festooning the walls.  No sod on top with grass growing out of it.  No stilts, branches, rocks, mud, or underground parts.  Just a "normal," modern, A-frame log house waiting for new tenants.

Nelson and I are fortunate enough to be those tenants.  But first we have to GET there!  Not an easy task.  From our current home in central PA, it's a 6,000 mile trip-----give or take a few miles.  We are planning to drive 5 of those 6 thousand miles very soon.   Sooo the plan is drive 2,700 miles to Seattle; hang a sharp right and drive 1,500 miles to Prince Rupert, British Columbia; hop a ferry and proceed 1,000 miles Haines, AK where we disembark and drive yet another 1,000 miles to Homer.  Our route is pretty much non-negotiable since other route involve crossing mountains in Canada where the passes will still be snowed in.  After all,  it will only be May when we leave!

The standard reaction when we tell people our plan is similar to being blown back by a blast of wind when  opening a door during a blizzard------eyes pop, mouths fly open, and invariably the first question is, "Why?"

The short answer is when we visited there about six years ago we fell in love with the grandeur of the place and wanted to return for a length of time to get to know it and experience life there.  The long answer will, hopefully, emerge through our lives and attitudes and yes, even this blog.