Memory Lane

We drove down memory lane yesterday - aka the Klondike Highway. It was fun making the drive to Skagway and thinking about all the years we drove that road back and forth for groceries, a meal out where no one knew who we were and of course dentist appointments... Skagway has grown these past few years - there are a lot more buildings - the new clinic is huge. Here is a picture of our old house - hey kids - who remembers planting those lilac bushes in the front yard with a post hole digger?

The highway itself is truly one of the most beautiful in the world - we got a couple of decent shots but our camera doesn't do it justice (or maybe it's the camera operators?).

I tried to put the two pictures that are on top down here but couldn't make it work...the top one is at the White Pass summit looking north and the next one down is Emerald Lake which is just outside of Carcross.

We are packing up and getting ready to head down the road - next stop - Liard Hotsprings!!

Patience

The word for the last two days has been patience...because of road conditions it took us about 8 hours to go 250 miles each day! We aren't sure if the AlCan is the worst we've ever seen it or we are just that much more concious about going fast over the frost heaves and ruts. We had a good time though - we listened to the new Dan Brown audio novel and enjoyed the scenery. Last night we parked next to a stream - Scott practiced backing up with the trailer which came in handy today. The traffic got heavier as we got closer to Whitehorse - a guy in a pickup truck flipped us off as he drove past us the opposite direction! Not sure what we did to deserve his wrath - but we prayed for him later... :)

We are now in Whitehorse and found a very small RV park with full hookups and internet connection. We got the last spot in the park and are very thankful. We went shopping downtown and it brought back so many memories of coming up from Skagway to eat at Tim Hortons or Pizza Hut and go shopping at Canadian Tire.

I'll attach some pictures of the road...we watched the seasons change from fall to winter and back to fall again...

Challenges

September 26, 2009

I’ve often thought that how I feel as a person and more specifically as a Christian has to do with how I meet the daily challenges that come at me. There are some days where every little thing is a crisis and others where the world seems to be crashing around me and yet I’m as calm as can be. What is the difference in those days? How can I react with grace to challenges on a daily basis? I’ve found that when I’m connecting with God daily I react with grace, love and patience…and when I’m not…I don’t.

I felt compelled to share that…I would love to hear your thoughts. Anyway – about our adventure…

We’ve been getting ramped up to leave Anchorage and when we woke up Thursday morning there was snow on the mountains – that made us nervous. We had been planning on leaving Friday evening and just going to Palmer – a short “shake down” cruise if you will. Thursday night came with a realization that there was a lot more to do than we thought – so I decided not to go to my class Friday and try to get everything done and still leave on time. We spent the better part of Friday just getting things ready – one last trip to the storage unit etc (and another phone call to Stephanie asking if she thought she was going to deliver our granddaughter tonight!). We got the truck in the trailer and lashed down, then the trailer hooked up to the RV, then we set the brakes on the trailer…and thought we were ready to go. The last thing we always do before we leave a spot is a final walk around and check all of the lights…and that’s when we found out that not all of the trailer lights would work…

So what to do now? I know I had visions of a major rewiring project – I’m not sure what Scott was thinking because as usual I was talking and he was silently thinking. Thank God for my husband. He thought about it for a little while – and I called my friend Cathy to ask her and Steve to pray for us. Then Scott started doing research on the electrical schematics and figured out what needed to be done. At that point we decided to stay put since it was getting dark. After a good night’s sleep Scott went outside and started working on the electrical – and had it fixed within the hour!

After another errand (our friend Gregg came and got us so we wouldn’t have to take the truck back out of the trailer) we were ready to go. We made one more phone call to Stephanie (no baby yet!) and headed down the road! We stopped in Palmer to make sure the truck was still with us and then drove on to Gakona (which is about 20 miles northwest of Glenallen). Parts of the road were very rough so it was slow going but it was very beautiful.

When we went to get settled into the RV park I noticed that an old friend had signed in just above our name! It was so good to see Lucy and her parents…

The "plan"

We have said many good byes in the past week - and will say many more in the next week. Most everyone wants to know what our plan is - so I thought I would write a little about what we think we are going to do next. We continue to pray for God's guidance - He knows where He wants us next and our job is just to go with it - daily...Maybe this is a lesson for us to learn about reliance on God - or maybe there is somewhere specific He is taking us... probably a little of both. How do we feel about all of this? Excited. Scared. Happy. Nervous. It's amazing how all of these feelings can occur at once...

The plan is to leave Alaska on Saturday. We are busy wrapping some things up this week and waiting for a key part to come in. This might change - if our newest granddaughter arrives...

We are going to take our time driving down the AlCan - we are a little nerous about the road conditions and pulling a trailer with the RV. Our first stop in the lower 48 is Spokane - to see family and fix anything that broke on the road! Next we think we will head to Oklahoma to see our granddaughter Dulce (and her parents). After that we plan to fly back to Alaska for a week or so to see Sydney - our newest granddaughter (unless she is born this week). Then we will head to Charleston, South Carolina to see Michael - we plan to stay in that area for a month or so - we want to drive up to DC to meet Cole (our newest cousin), run into some "old" friends from Skagway and of course we want to do some bicycling...

Sometime in December we will head back west...not sure where - it will depend on where Ann ends up with a job. In January Scott heads back up to the slope to work. Travel nursing contracts are for 13 weeks - so after that we will have another decision to make...where to spend the summer? Washington? Alaska? Somewhere else? We have complete faith that God will show us when the time is right...