Alaska Reflections (by Anna)

Road trip to Alaska. Crossed off the bucket list. Now that I’m settled into a more normal routine in Ohio, staying put in one place for more than a few weeks, I have time to reflect on the places we’ve been. We’ve covered many miles, seen places of monumental beauty, visited dear friends, made new ones, and crammed more new sights, sounds, tastes, textures, and smells into my memory bank than I possibly could have room to digest. Here are some that rise to the top.

Sights:
• the endless plains of northern Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, and eastern Washington
• Aunt Rachel’s homey bungalow in NE Portland
• a cloudless day in Vancouver, biking around Stanley Park and crossing the Burrard St. Bridge with a view of the English Bay
• the mountain lake north of Whistler
• the clear waters of Kluane Lake (Lake of Many Fish) framed by the mountains and glaciers of Kluane national park in the Yukon Territory
• the view from Cindy’s window of Grewingk Glacier
• mountain sheep and caribou nibbling at the salt beside the road
• salmon jumping up a mountain stream

Sounds:
• the gurgling of a creek
• the honking snort of great blue herons
• the crack and crunch of sunflower seeds between my dad and brother’s teeth
• Dad snoring
• laughter
• conversations and stories with the Dunns, the Knutsons, Aunt Rosie, Aunt Rachel, and Cindy
• the wind whirring by the driver’s side door
• people honking as they drive past and read our Alaska blog sign

Tastes:
• authentic Chinese meal in Vancouver
• poached egg and smoked salmon on toast, made by a creek in the Yukon Territory
• fresh grilled salmon with Dave’s secret sauce, potatoes from the garden, and rolls with salmonberry jelly at Cindy’s house in Homer, AK
• homemade vegetable soup and chocolate chip muffins in Anchorage, AK
• homemade ribs, rolls, and salad in EGF

Textures:
• the slippery slime of fish scales of a rainbow trout
• the cold pitter patter of rain and the splash of ocean water in Homer
• the soothing smoothness of water-softened pebbles on Diamond Ridge beach
• the soft sinking of sand beneath my feet

Smells:
• the dank, musty, worn-sock odor of the camper after a few days on the road
• the crisp cleanness of my mother-in-law’s well-kept house
• coffee brewing in the morning
• the smell of home in my aunt Rachel’s bungalow
• pine trees
• fish and ocean water

Now that I’m home, and grateful to be so, I am mindful that the beauties of a small farm in Wayne County, Ohio, are as abundant, if not as grandiose, as those of the Alaskan wilderness. I’m working on a different kind of seeing, now. Instead of taking in as much as I can and skimming the surface of things, I’m looking more carefully at the intricacies of the land that I love, and trying to live the words of Marcel Proust: “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

Final Blog Summary

Anna, Thomas & Peter on our day of departure

The time has come to put this blog to rest. We have been home for a couple of days now. We pulled in at 2:00 a.m. on Friday. Whatever it took we were going to make it home that morning. Neither Thomas nor I wanted anything to do with one more night in the camper. Thirty two days was enough! I was not aware of how much adrenaline I had burned, and energy consumed in preparing for and completing a trip of this nature. I slept until 3:00 p.m. on Friday, and didn’t really get back into gear until Sunday.

The following are some of the highlights:

12,980 – miles travelled

200 – approximate hours spend in the truck cab

40 – approximate number of friends visited on the trip

0 – number of flat tires on the truck

1 – number of black bears run over at 70 mph in the dead of night

998 – approximate number of gallons of diesel fuel consumed

15.9 – best miles per gallon (achieved heading east)

7 – worst miles per gallon (heading west and up a steep grade)

15,145 – number of hits on our blog

The Spot Messenger Data Feed was probably the most appreciated part of the blog. People appeared to genuinely be interested in knowing where we were at all times.

Between the three of us we posted 53 blogs. We were not happy with blogspot.com as it was not conducive to comments and in many ways we found it rather cumbersome to work with. Having said that, I found the blogging experience to be a gratifying and learning experience, and am seriously considering continuing a personal blog, but on a much stronger platform than blogspot.com.

Looking back over the blogs we posted I am finding it difficult to summarize the experience for the three of us, suffice to say it was an unusual opportunity for a father to reconnect with two of his children, a privilege to experience the grandeur of the United States and Canada, and last but not least, the reconnecting with family and friends.

Our thanks to all of you for "traveling with us" on this odyssey. You made it more pleasurable for us, knowing that we had friends and family staying in touch with us through this medium.

Goodbye and God-speed until the next trip!