Our 3000 mile adventure

Well, luckily I took notes while on our trip that was err...2 months ago.

Please remember, I had minor surgery Monday, Thursday we went to see my doctor for a post op check up, picked up our U-Haul, bribed our friends to come over Thursday night with free beer, food, and stuff, if they would help pack up the U-Haul, then Friday morning, we were on the road.  So I was still recovering and pretty uncomfortable for the first 2000 miles of the trip.  I'm a lucky girl though and have a great boyfriend who drove just about the entire trip, dealt with my post surgery nastiness, and whining.  

Friday Cody and Chris came over to help us pack up the last of our things.  Stupid boys kept making me laugh, which was extremely painful AND we kept catching Ruckus with his face in the treat box which was also causing me pain.  We drove ALL day Friday and didn't make it out of Alaska.  Texas, you're actually not so big.  The drive through AK was pretty spectacular.  Just north of Palmer is so beautiful.  

Way north of Palmer the roads have tons of frost heaves which kills the beauty.  I was so ready to stop by the time we got to Tok, all the ups and downs and bumps from the heaves were causing me some pretty serious discomfort.

We had planned on camping the whole trip, which would have cost us $200 MAX the whole trip, but because I could barely get myself out of a BED, there was no way I was going to be getting up off the cold ground, so we hoteled it.  The whole way.  Not quite the $200 we were hoping for...

Saturday we left Tok nice and early to get into Canada and feel like we were actually getting somewhere on this trip.  Ruckus managed to get his head stuck in his treat box and dumped treats all over the backseat.  More pain.  We finally made it into "No man's land" the strip where you are no longer in the US but have about 20 miles to go until you make it to the Canadian border.  WTF is that area?  

We spent a lot of the day on gravely roads in road construction for the frost heaves. Hit some beautiful spots overlooking a lake, finally saw a brown bear past Haines Junction (where the Canadian cupcake is)

We ended up staying in a hiccup of a town called Teslin Saturday night.  It was literally a town that had 2 motels/gas stations and that's about all.  We had discussed driving through the night but decided to stop so we could get a good nights sleep.  I ended up only sleeping 3 hours, good thing the olympics were on TV.

 Sunday we decided we were going to shoot through and drive all night and get to Edmonton by the morning. I'm a horrible night driver (not so much anymore now that I have glasses!) so really, it was Dylan who was going to drive all night.  Sunday was the most beautiful part of our drive.  We went through the sign post forest in some town who's name I can't remember and don't feel like looking up.  

We made it through Muncho Provicial Park (I drove!) and it was SOOO hilly and curvy but so incredibly beautiful.  

We saw lots of buffalo, some baby mountain goats and I had a baby caribou run right out in front of the car while I was driving.  Yikes!  

We were able to get Ruckus out of the car for awhile and let him go swimming in the lake, which he really needed.  The water was so crystal clear and not really even that cold, I was wanting to go swimming as well.  

Just past Muncho Park everything turned really green and beautiful hills and farm land.  I cranked up the country music, put the windows down, and was missing Illinois.  (Dylan was asleep, that's why I was aloud to turn up the country music...) 

(not quite where I was missing IL, but close)

Along the way gas stations closed about 10pm, but we made it to all of those stations before they closed so we were able to reach our goal of driving through the night.

We arrived in Edmonton around 8am Monday morning (thanks for driving Dylan!) We quickly found a hotel that would let us check in so early and accepted pets and went straight to our room and passed out until noon.  We then went and checked out the Edmonton Mall.  The mall was really cool, but would have been way cooler if we could have enjoyed the water park and amusement park.  (damn you appendix!!) 

 I got tired from walking around so much pretty quickly (I think it was from carrying my purse and I'm not the kind of girl to let my man carry my PURSE for me.)  So we went back to the hotel room and spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching the Olympics, and wishing we were in Idaho already.

Tuesday morning we got up super early, found there were no gas stations open anywhere nearby, got on the road anyway, almost ran out of gas, finally used our emergency gas, made it to a town just South of Edmonton and was finally able to fill up.  Phew, close one.  

Edmonton to Calgary wasn't very exciting.  Actually, Calgary to the US wasn't that exciting.  We could see some beautiful mountains way off in the distance.  We had talked about making a side trip out to them and decided we couldn't stand to be in the car any extra.

We finally made it back to the US around 2 after stopping just North of the border to get gas.  This was the first place Canadians were overly friendly towards us.  I had 2 people offer to help me pump gas (trust me, I did NOT look cute.) and I had someone asking about our trip so far.  We finally got back into the good ole USA around 2pm, after we thought we were going to be searched.  That didn't happen, luckily.  

Since we couldn't drive through Glacier (due to our trailer) we drove around it (which really couldn't have been much worse than going through...) 

It was really great to go through West Glacier again, it was fun to see some of that again.  I wish we could have gone through the park since I don't remember a lot of it, but we will hopefully get up there for awhile this summer.

(notice Ruckus.  He was taking the rocks out of the lake for us.  Thanks dog.)

We ended up staying in Missoula for the night.  We were finally going to camp but the campground we went to was beyond packed and it was too dark to set up camp in some of the other places, so we had to hunt down a hotel that had vacancy.  APPARENTLY, it was the Montana State fair that week.  Convenient. 

Wednesday we hit the road with Burley on our minds.  We drove and drove and drove and the landscape went from green to... well this: 

and then we drove and drove and drove some more and we FINALLY made it to Burley early afternoon.   

(Ruckus was so excited he couldn't sit in the back any longer)

We got everything unpacked and into our place.  Dylan once again is a wonderful wonderful man, since I was still unable to do any heavy lifting and grew tired very quickly.  We had to spend our first night on the floor of our new home but it didn't matter, we were so tired we could have slept anywhere I think.

So we did it!  We went 3000 miles in less than a week, pulling a trailer, on antibiotics (which I had an awesome reaction to, hello rash in my mouth), with minimal sleep, no major incidents, no accidents, injuries, or illnesses.  We were very lucky.

I can't believe that we have been here for 2 months already and we still have no friends.  WTF.  We are enjoying Burley very much, missing AK and our friends and family all the time.  Dylan found a job the 1st day he applied for one.  He started working the following day.  This relieved so much stress and made it all feel so right being here.  I absolutely love teaching.  It's everything I have dreamed of.  The teachers I work with tell me I'm doing an awesome job, my principal loves me, and I don't feel like I'm drowning.  It just feels good.  Like my life is finally back in my control.

In other news.  We adopted a kitty!  We have been talking about it for almost a year and Dylan always said once we moved back to the US we could get one.  So last weekend I saw this orange kitty looking at me at PetSmart (don't worry, he was a rescue kitty) and it was love.  His name was Clarence when we adopted him but we couldn't keep that one.  So in the car we were picking names and picked Rozzy (after the brand Rossignal, we wanted something that was tied to snowboarding) and the kitty just started meowing and purring when we called him Rozzy.  So it stuck.

Ruckus has been adapting pretty well to the new animal, he is starting to play with Rozzy and I'm not as worried that he's going to eat him anymore.  We have left them home alone for short periods of time and there has been no blood.  Until we are all completely comfortable Rozzy lives in the spare room while Dylan and I are at work and at night.

Looking at my past posts, I have zero comments so I'm wondering if this is still being read by anyone out there.  If you do read it, let me know.  Drop a comment.  Otherwise I may drop this.

Life is good.

P.S.  I didn't proofread this.

Things I Learned Living in Alaska.

I learned some things living in Alaska for the past (almost) 2 years.  

1. Alaskans party harder.  You think you do?  You're wrong.

2. Despite the parties, I still don't like whiskey.

3. Riding in shoulder deep powder is 98% exhilarating 2% terrifying.  The fear of falling and getting lost in the snow was enough to keep me upright.

4. How to drive using "braille".

5. That the "shuffle" feature on iPods can ruin an awesome run.  Nothing is worse than being in the zone and iPod decides to change your song. 

6. It's a different world in Alaska. Seriously.  I can't explain it, but it is.

7. We deep fry Salmon.  You may never find this in a restaurant in the rest of the US, but we have 50 lbs in our freezers, so why not fry it?

8. A moose encounter is more intimidating than a black bear.  (I hope I'm not alone on this one...)

9. 60 degrees can be freezing or sweltering.

10. It's not cold until you step outside and the chill literally takes your breath away and instantly freezes your nose, eyes, throat, etc.

11. By day 3 my hair starts getting greasy.  

12. You do get to choose your family and they get to choose you too.

13. Lifties are a special breed of people.  They can vomit off the lift, shovel feet of snow, then still go ride harder than anyone else on the mountain. (I'm not including myself on this, we all know that I don't ride hard.)

I'm loving Idaho but I'm still missing Alaska every day.  We just got the 2013 gear guide in the mail, I'm in heaven.

Appendicitis, what?

That's right, this girl, a week before moving, had her appendix out.  Let me explain.
Sunday afternoon I started experiencing some very minor stomach pain.  Our going away party had been Saturday night, so I played it off as a gas bubble as a result from drinking the night before.  Dylan and I had dinner plans with Greg and Nicole so we went and had a fantastic feast of coconut salmon and halibut.  When I got up from eating the pain was much worse.  Damn you gas bubble!  So we went home, I chugged some pepto like it was fall 2008 and went to bed.  When I woke up at 3:30am with pain I started self diagnosing.  Constipation, food poisoning, gas bubble, cramps.  Eventually I was able to pass back out so I could wake up at 6 and go to work.  That's when I started realizing that perhaps this wasn't a gas bubble.  I sat at work (with my head between my legs, crying) for 5 hours until Johnny finally answered his phone to come take over my duties (this is a whole other story that I am not going to put online.)  I had been texting/calling/crying to my mom while at work and she suggested something to relax my stomach, so I baby stepped to the merc and got some more Pepto.  When that had done absolutely nothing for my pain, she started urging me to go to the ER.  To which I thought, I don't want to go to the ER for a gas bubble!  Well, when Johnny showed up and I stood up, I decided maybe mom was right. I promptly called Cody, cried into the phone that I needed a ride to the hospital and 5 minutes later Cody and James arrived in my chariot to the hospital.  Oh, the things I owe those boys.

Waiting to hear my diagnosis.

Upon my ER arrival, I was quickly taken to a room where I was told to put on a gown, which provided zero warmth, in my freezing cold room.  The doctors and nurses arrived (with warm blankets, might I add) pretty quickly and I was told my pain was either a ruptured ovarian cyst or my appendix.  After some poking, prodding, a few doses of morphine (love), a CT scan, and a couple naps, I was informed that it was indeed my appendix.  This was the time when I could no longer be brave.  I was scared, I was alone, and I had lost a friend due to complications with his appendix.  Shortly after a few more pokes and prods, phone calls to my mom, hundreds of texts, and panicky voicemails to Dylan, he finally got off work and was at the hospital. YAY!  I was scared I wasn't going to get to see him before going into surgery, so it was a major relief when he showed up.  My surgery didn't end up happening until 10pm and by then my pain level was at a 12.  The staff was all very nice and helpful.  They explained everything and were comforting and friendly.  I honestly felt like I was in good hands.  My surgery went quickly and had no complications.  I was discharged into Dylans care at 2:30am and got to come home and learn that I could only sleep sitting up.

Before surgery.  That's the morphine smiling.

As of now, I am feeling pretty good all things considered.  My belly is full of gas from the surgery and that is causing me discomfort and my pain is pretty low.  After the pain I was in yesterday this is pretty much nothing.  Dylan has been babying me all day and took the rest of the week off of work so he can take care of me and finish all the things that I was going to do before we moved.  I go back to the doctor Friday afternoon for a routine follow up.  I am optimistic that I will be feeling better by then, considering how I'm feeling today.
We are still hoping to leave Saturday morning, I won't be able to do much driving since I will still be on medications, and I'm not sure that we will be able to camp along the way, but Dylan has already told me that he's going to make the car super comfortable for me.  I am lucky to have him and Ruckus.  Ruckus hasn't left my side since he got home from Cody's.  Good dog.  I am lucky this happened when it did and not next week.  I am lucky to have such supportive and loving friends and family, who have been texting and calling constantly to check on me.  I am blessed.

Adventure is out there

Well I wanted to stay true to my word and not update for a month after my mom and Earl left and sure enough, it's been about a month!  It was wonderful to see my mom again, it had been almost 2  years since I had last seen her.  Way too long. Unfortunately, they came during our coldest summer since about 1920, we've only had about 2 weeks of "summer", the rest of the time has been rainy and 40's and 50's.  Yuck.  They were able to experience a true Alaskan summer, it rained for them most of the trip!
Because Dylan and I were working during their visit they were able to travel around AK without us, but we did have some good weekends together.  The first weekend we went down to the Kenai, camped in Seward (in the rain) and Soldotna (also, in the rain).  We met up with them in Seward where I got bit by an ankle biter dog (on my ankle, ironic, no?) and froze in my sleeping bag. 

Ruckus prefers to ride shotgun

After Seward we drove out to Soldotna and then on to Homer.  We stopped along a river and saw hundreds, literally hundreds of Eagles.  Being terrified of birds this kind of sucked but it was also pretty cool to see so many eagles in one place.  

The birds on the water are all eagles.

This was my first trip to the Kenai and it was much flatter than I had anticipated, however we literally turned a corner on the way to Homer and there were suddenly mountains everywhere.  

Mom, Earl, and I on a lookout on the way to Homer

Homer Mountains

After we made it to Homer we did some exploring out on the Homer Spit, stopped in the Salty Dawg, where we didn't get any service for the 10 mins we were in there, so we left and went to the Homer Brewery and Winery.

We then had to have our DD (Earl) drive us back to Soldotna.  

My birthday was the weekend after our Kenai adventure and Girdwood finally had a sunny day so Lauren, Johnny and I took advantage and went on a bike ride followed by an awesome birthday dinner!

I think we did more drinking than bike riding.

Birthday moose!!

The following weekend we drove to Denali to spend a weekend camping and hiking in the park and around Healy.

Ruckus was tired of holding his head up during the car ride.

Welcome Moose!

 We spent a day and hiked out to Johnny's cabin to hang out in the wilderness.  I got in a fight with a car door and lost, the mosquitoes were in thick clouds, but we all had a good time hanging out by the fire, eating an awesome meal, and just having a relaxing afternoon away from everything.

View on the trail to the cabin.

We spent another day hiking through Denali, we hiked out along the road and saw a grizzly bear and some caribou.  We were lucky and had a few days of no rain but on our last night we heard some thunder in the distance.  I hadn't heard thunder since California last September.  It's the little things in life that you begin to miss.

Hiking along the Denali Road

Our last morning in Denali mom came and woke us up to tell us that a grizzly had killed a moose in the campground during the night.  I had actually woken up and heard weird noises outside and Ruckus was acting weird but I hadn't thought too much of it.  Guess I possibly heard a moose dying.  Crazy.

The grizzly that killed the moose.

All in all I had a great time visiting with my mom and Earl!

In other news, for those of you who don't know, I was recently hired as a 1st grade teacher in Burley, Idaho.  I received a call shortly after mom and Earl left inviting me to participate in a phone interview.  I of course said yes!  A few days later the phone interview became a Skype interview, which I actually preferred a lot!  Going into the interview I had a really good feeling about it and during I felt like I really clicked with the principal and other 1st grade teacher.  When I said goodbye, I was skeptical to feel like I had it, but deep down I knew it was mine.  Sure enough the following morning they called to offer me the position, which I happily excepted!  So in 2 weeks Dylan, Ruckus, and I will be driving to Idaho via the Alcan highway.  We are very excited for this new adventure in our lives and excited to have a new place to explore.  But mostly, I'm excited I can finally, FINALLY, brag about my new teaching job!  (Which by the way, I still get giddy about.)

I most likely won't be doing any updating from now until the trip, but if internet access allows me to, I HOPEFULLY will be doing a couple updates along the road. 

Socks

Random:
I have thrown away more socks in the past few months, than I have in the past few YEARS of life.  Crazy.  Apparently my feet (and shoes) hate socks and eat them to pieces.
Other news:
I've started running.  Whoa.  It's ok, you can sit back down.  I know, I was shocked too.  But it's been great (and by started, I do mean today was day 2) I kind of get why people do it now.  I impressed myself by pounding out two miles on day one.  Yes, I know, some people roll faster than I run, but give a girl a break!  I'm going to try to keep it up.  My legs feel like someone is holding lit matches to them but I'm hoping that will pass, soon.
In other other news:
My mom and Earl arrive next Wednesday, so I am very excited about their trip.  Don't expect another update for at least 2 months after they leave.

Oh Walter, it's been a long time.

Honestly, I have been meaning to update this.  Honestly.  You see, weeks ago, I had the thought "I should update my blog, but Danielle is visiting soon, so I'll wait until after she comes." Then Danielle came and went and I still lacked motivation.  Then today!  It hit.  So hold on to your pants. It's gonna be a good one.  (assuming my attention span lasts...)

Let's play catch up.

February: I was sick the majority of the month and when I wasn't sick I was out riding in literal FEET of fresh powder.  I was leaning back as far as I could on my snowboard and my shoulders were hitting the snow.  It was fantastic.  Winds blowing so hard you couldn't see, not running into a single person for half the run, feeling as if you are the only person in the world, then suddenly someone pops up from under the snow and you're back to reality.  And reality included coughing children, fevers, vomiting, the works.  Seriously people, I get that you have work, but if your kids are sick, FOR THE SAKE OF EVERYONE, keep them home.  So, I can honestly say that February contained some of my best and worst days of the winter.

Ruckus cuddling with me while sick

Knee deep snow.

March:  What happened in March? My health improved, we spent a lot of time shoveling, and the boys grew mustaches and looked ridiculous.

 

Shoveling out Little Bears heaters after the snow 

from the roof buried them.

The wall of snow that was on the side of every street and sidewalk .  We got over 200 inches of snow in February.

April: April has been fun!  The beginning of April was Dylan's birthday party, at which a neighbor complained of noise at 10pm on a Saturday night.  Oh the nerve.  So we had a whisper party to avoid the pigs being called.  After that I think I just sat around and waited for Danielle to get here.  AND THEN SHE ARRIVED!

So we went snowboarding, 

Ruckus got muddy, 

We went to the Patroller "Olympics" and hung out with the other Oregon kids,

Went sledding in a super scoop (and saw a ghost dog.)

 

Danielle and Roland fell in love (Roland is not the ghost dog.)

We threw some bras on the Mardi Gras tree. 

We put banana and oatmeal masks on our faces and got super itchy, 

Made cake batter milk shakes and ice cream, 

We went hiking in the rain and hiking out in the wilderness where we got lost for hours, 

We went to Seward to visit Emily, Michael, and their precious baby, Russell.

Saw the largest sea lion in the world at the Sea Life Center.  (Sea lion not pictured, we were waiting for him to swim past for the photo.  It never happened.  Jerk.) 

I got attacked by plastic crabs, 

Danielle took an epic picture of me about to shred the mashed potatoes,

AND the Oregon Kids crashed the slush cup, had our mixed drink pass as "water", almost got drinking tickets for drinking on the "dry" side, and then promptly passed out on our couches.  Overall, it was the best week I have ever had in Alaska.

Now, it's back to the real world. Saturday was my last day of working lifts, and I celebrated by passing out on the couch with a fever.  I guess some things just never change.