The Raison d'etre for the Alaska trip.

 I mentioned earlier that I would post the primary reason that we have taken this trip and I’ve heard from a couple of you indicating your growing impatience for this post.  So as we finish off the last 200 miles to Homer heading south on the Kenai Peninsula I’ll attempt to write this on my lap-top from the middle of the back seat (best view in the truck) as Thomas nobly herds our 10,000 pound beast south, and Anna takes in the splendor of Alaska riding shotgun.

I have always wanted to make this drive and had resolved at some point to do so upon my “retirement”.  Perhaps it was my fondness for Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck, or Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.  Regardless, I was born with wanderlust, and have never quite shaken it.  My Mother informed me at one time that by the time I was five years of age I had travelled around the world two and one-half times – and that was before the common commercial use of air travel, but just slightly after the Lewis and Clark era of the oxen and Conestoga wagon.

On a relaxing evening during the Christmas holidays of 2009 LeAnna and I were home alone when we received a disturbing phone call from Anna and Joe asking if they could come over.  Anna had just received a diagnosis that she had come down with breast cancer.  We were all in shock.  LeAnna prayed the way only a mother could; I was incapable of doing so.

Anna dutifully went through her treatment and from all appearances was making great progress until December of last year when we received a call while in Atlanta that the cancer had returned.  It was the same strain of cancer that she had in her breast but it had now metastasized to her bones.

This was more difficult for all of us to process than the initial diagnosis.  This was stage four.  The second round of treatments began.  She continued with her full-time job as a prof at Ashland University.

Gradually she was able to get her strength back but it was a long, arduous, and painful process for all of us.  After much processing Anna decided not to return to her job and set about making a “bucket list” for her and Joe.

When she got wind that I was seriously considering heading to Alaska this fall it didn’t take her long to throw in her lot with me.  Thomas, our son, had earned a one-month Sabbatical after five years of pastoring, and joined up with us as well.

We do not know what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future, and as long as He gives us all breath, we will relish each day.  Living on the edge heightens one’s sense of awareness and gives you a deeper appreciation for the gifts we are given, and for the beauty we are surrounded with.

No tea in China or gold in Juneau could replace the last fourteen days in which we pounded out 6,500 miles and 120 hours together in the cab of the truck – not counting the hours of food preparation, eating, and sleeping together in the camper.

We motor on with an occasional glance in the rear-view mirror, but our energy and enthusiasm are directed out the windshield.