The blog comes to an end

Well, we have ended where we started...right here in Searcy, Arkansas! Natalie starts back to school tomorrow morning and I return to Texas to be with my kids, Nate and Lily. It was a long, winding road which was filled with excitement and adventure...truly the trip of a lifetime!

Many, many thanks go out to Natalie's Uncle Jay and Aunt Jenna, who housed us in Tulsa on our last night on the road and welcomed Grandpa John, Grandma Barbara, Uncle Bill & Anna over for dinner at like 9:30pm, which was as soon as we could get there. They had hamburgers, guacamole, fresh fruit salad, key lime pie and brownies, among other things...nothing could have tasted better to us at that moment.

It was my first opportunity to be amongst the Lohrey extended family, and I loved every minute of it...here are three of the Lohrey men at dinner that evening...Jay, John and Bill.

Jay and Jenna also made a delicious breakfast for us the next morning, all while they were preparing to go to Hawaii for John's senior trip...thank you SO much for your hospitality! Also, to John, Lily and Molly...thanks for welcoming us so graciously into your home (and thanks to Molly for surrendering her room!). Lily, thanks for singing with us and John, we hope the game night went well! To all three of you we look forward to seeing you again very, very soon!  Enjoy every moment of your Hawaii trip!

For those of you who have followed this blog closely, I am going to leave this site up for a while...it will serve as the basis for some of our own scrapbooking from the trip...and I will try to update the slide show one more time...we have so many photos!

Made it to Denver

Right now road construction is murder! We are OK, and have made it safely back as far as Denver, CO!

Catching Up!

Well, today we were very glad to be greeted by civilization...signs advertising restaurants we know, real towns filled with a variety of eating and shopping options, even CITIES filled with museums and shopping malls!  We could stop anywhere we wanted, and I must say we did stop often to take advantage of all this region has to offer.  I am also happy to report that the weather is still cool here...I think the high was about 62 degrees today, and I am even wearing a sweatshirt as I type this.  We drove through grey, rainy weather most of the day and arrived here in Edmonton, the capital of the Alberta province around 9pm this evening.  Natalie has been nursing a small cold or allergies now for a couple of weeks, so we are trying to get her in bed early tonight.  I poured a bath for her, then went downstairs to get her hot tea from Starbucks (and an Orange Juice to boot -- love that 'ol Vitamin C!).  Then we ordered a kids meal to share from room service and now we are about to get her into the bed...but enough about today.

Back to yesterday, which was such an eventful day. We drove all the way from Whitehorse, which is the capital of the Yukon Province to Fort St. John, in far Eastern British Columbia. When you are driving the Alaska 'Highway', you face many difficulties. Rough pavement due to the terrain (it undulates wildly), a highway which may turn from pavement to gravel at a moment's notice and constant road construction (because they have such a short Summer season in which to do any work on the road).  In addition, animals such as bison, mountain goats, wolves, moose, bears and any number of other animals may be next to, or even on the roadway.  But the biggest difference in traveling here is the lack of civilization and the rarity of finding places to stop and receive services such as food and gasoline.  You may go 150 miles and not see another sign of civilization, when out of the blue, you will come upon a small oasis.  Usually it consists of a motel, café and gas station, all owned and staffed by the same folks.  Whatever they have stocked in their convenience store is what you can choose from, and whatever price they ask is what you have to pay, because there is no competition.  So you stop and get exactly what you need (nothing more), and move on down the road.

I was much more prepared for this return trip and had our cooler packed full of parmesan salami (the outer edge of the salami is ringed with parmesan cheese!), cheddar cheese, pretzels, peanut butter, water, salt & vinegar chips, crackers, some of Natalie's favorite candies and some cherries we bought at a farm stand as we were leaving Anchorage. So we were much better outfitted for this trip down the 'highway'.  Needless to say, if you need to stop often while traveling, the Alaska Highway is not the place for you.

We saw many animals along the way, including 2 wolves at dusk last evening, which was the first time we had spied a wolf.  Twice traffic was stopped by a herd of animals on the roadway -- once for Bison, once for Mountain Goats.  When you talk to Alaskans, they almost all fly in and out of the state, due to the inherent difficulties of getting to Alaska by road.  And when you tell them you did indeed drive to Alaska, there is a kind of recognition immediately afforded to you, as if they are saying, 'Hey, this guy is for real...he was tough enough to drive here'.  For whatever reason, having heard something of this reputation before we left, I determined that I would drive all the way from Mile 0 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Mile 1258 in Tok, Alaska, where you take the Glenn Highway another 328 miles to downtown Anchorage. It is a tough test, and I am proud to say that I was able to do it!  Here is a picture of me by the Mile 0 sign in Dawson Creek. I don't know that I would do it again, but it was fun to test myself and finish the job.  It is about 32 hours of hard driving, but worth every minute as far as I'm concerned.

And I will close with a funny story. Probably my favorite thing about Natalie is the passion with which she lives her life.  It is infectious, and I thrive on it.  But, sometimes, I have to reign her in a bit.  Yesterday we were coming up through one of the mountain passes, when we were stopped along with a couple of other cars on a sharp curve by a small herd of Mountain Goats.  I put my flashers on and pulled over as much to the side as I could, and we were honking at these guys to move, so we can get out of this precarious position.  Natalie has rolled down her window and is furiously taking pictures of these wild goats.  Now, several of them have SERIOUS horns.  And, on the side of this mountain, pinned down on a curve and hoping not to get smashed from behind, we have this interchange:

NATALIE: I want pet one...can I get out and pet one?
ME: (Laughing) No baby, you can't pet one.
------------- a few seconds elapse -----------------------
NATALIE: But seriously, I think I am going to try and pet one...
ME: (Distraught) No, Natalie, these are wild mountain goats, you can't do that.
------------- another few seconds elapse -----------------------
NATALIE: Come on, I am just going to try and pet ONE.
ME: (Shouting) Natalie, there is NO WAY you are getting out of this car to try and pet one.
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NATALIE: But they're just cute little sheepies
ME: No, they are Mountain Goats, with horns, and I am not becoming a widower this early into my marriage so you can pet Mountain Goats.  No sirree.
NATALIE: (Disappointed) Okay, you are right.  (Smiling) But I am glad you care that much!

These are just the things you get into in order to be with Natalie.  I love to watch the world through her eyes, and I consider myself most fortunate to have a ringside seat as we go through life together.  It just doesn't get any better than that.  We are going down to Lethbridge, near the US border tomorrow and staying with the parents of one of the therapists Natalie worked with this Summer.  We are getting closer!

Still Safe

Made it safely to Fort Saint John, British Columbia last night at about midnight.  Headed to Edmonton today.  Much love to all.

Arrived safely in the Yukon Territory

Well, another day of Alaskan Highway travel complete!  We have arrived safely in Whitehorse, which is the capitol of the Yukon Territory. We had dinner at Georgio's, a very nice restaurant here, and are nestled in our room at the Skky Hotel. Having traveled up through here already, I had kept my eyes peeled for the better places in these tiny places we are driving through, and we are reaping the benefits on the return trip.  It is a very nice, modern hotel, and, wait for it...it has air conditioning!  Probably the only hotel within a couple of hundred miles that an advertise that!

The traveling here is just soooooo different.  You can go 100 miles without seeing more than a handful of cars, and no other signs of life or civilization.  It is idyllic and untouched, but not the easiest territory to travel through. Also, this is road construction season here, and we have traveled over nothing but gravel for long periods of time.

We did find this beautiful lake today, however, nestled in Western Yukon. We skipped rocks across the surface and enjoyed our time, but the bugs are driving Natalie to distraction, so we eventually had to abandon the spot...seems like the warmer weather has really brought out the mosquitos, which are a hot topic of conversation among the locals.  If you don't know what to talk about here, talking about the weather or the mosquitos will open up doors of conversation anywhere you go.  Last night, Natalie asked me if we could find a restroom somewhere, but we were in the middle of NOWHERE! So I pulled off at a little grocery store, which was closed, but the owner opened up for us (people are very, very friendly here!) We then spent fifteen minutes talking about the weather and various bug zapper contraptions that he had tried...amazing!

Tomorrow will be a long day of driving.  Our goal is to finish the Alaskan Highway and return to 'civilization'.  We have about 14 hours of driving ahead, depending upon the road and weather, but we should spend tomorrow evening in Fort St. John, British Columbia if all goes well. That will leave us a short day of driving on Tuesday to arrive at Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, where there are 'normal' roads / freeways, with exits that have, you know, gas stations and things.  Helpful when you travel.  It has truly been an adventure, and we are eager to return to friends and family.  Hope you all are ready and eager to start a wonderful week!

Greetings from Tok, Alaska!

Well, we have safely made it to Tok (pronounced Toke), Alaska, and are settled in quite comfortably at the Mooseberry Inn Lodge B&B.  Hotels are scarce and not always the highest quality along the Alaskan Highway, so I was glad to find a sweet, cosy B&B.

But, let me backtrack a moment...and tell you about the WONDERFUL evening we on Friday night. It began with dinner at The Bridge, which is a new, upscale restaurant right down on the river in Anchorage.  We had a corner table right on the window and were able to watch the fisherman trying to grab one of the 30+ pound salmon that flow right through the heart of Anchorage.

It was a beautiful setting, and a beautiful table and my wife was beautiful.  Here she is, with her plate of Alaskan King Crab Legs -- yum!

So that we got to try a variety of meats, I ordered the skewers...which had Rockfish, Salmon and Reindeer on them, as well as vegetables and roasted potatoes for each of us.

Dinner also came with an appetizer bar with salad, cold snow crab legs (we found that we prefer them served warm), beet salad, cole slaw, antipasta with salmon...and most surprisingly, sourdough rolls with a spread of cream cheese mixed with salmon (awesome!).   Natalie was so full and wasn't going to have the rolls and spread, but I gave her a taste, and she decided she really did need to join me.

After dinner, we went to a place called the Taproot.  Natalie and I aren't big bar people, but we love live music, and the Taproot specializes in acoustic music in a wonderful setting. They have good food, and it is strictly NO SMOKING!  So we saw a band called Alameda, from Portland...and it isn't every day you get to see a band made up of: a male drummer, a male acoustic guitar player / vocalist...a female vocalist / cello player and a female bass clarinetist.  They were great, we scored a front row table and even found an Alaskan Whiskey called Outlaw which was actually quite good.

Today Natalie closed her time with Time For Speech.  They have an annual picnic for the children and families they work with, and we felt very fortunate and blessed that we just happened to be here for it.  Natalie's boss, Kathie, has been a present from Heaven, and gave her an A for her time here in Alaska. Natalie has been desperately wanting an A in clinic.  And she got it from the Director of the Alaska Speech & Hearing Association!  Way to go, Natalie!  It was neat to see the therapists interacting with the families outside of the clinic.  They are very much like family and I was deeply appreciative that Natalie was able to sit at their feet and learn for an entire month.

This photo is of Sarah (on the left), one of the other therapists and Natalie's boss, Kathie, on the right.  Other than a mosquito infestation (I thought we had big mosquito problems in Texas, but they are nothing compared to Alaska!), it was a very successful event, and Natalie and I stayed to help them clean up, then made our way out of Anchorage.

It was an uneventful trip, other than the Moose sightings.  As we were driving out from the party, I missed my turn, and as I was slowing down so I could turn around, Natalie once again cried, MOOSE!  And sure enough, right in someone's front yard, there was a mama moose and her 2 kiddos...right next to the main highway!

Several hours later, we again saw a mama moose and her 2 cubs, and then, not far from the B&B we saw a male moose.  But these are things you get used to here in Alaska...and everyone is thankful it was a Moose and NOT a Grizzly Bear!

We are 90 miles from the Canadian border here in Tok, bound for Whitehorse, over in the Yukon Territory tomorrow evening.  Looks like the weather should be clear and partly sunny for the next couple of days, which certainly makes traveling this far that much easier!

Today's the day...

OK, team...we had a great last evening here in Anchorage, but I will have to write about that later.  I have packed nearly all of our stuff in the car, and am waiting for Natalie to finish her little bit of packing.  Nothing Natalie likes LESS that packing at the end of the trip!

Yesterday it reached a whopping 58 degrees...wow! It was also overcast and grey all day, but this morning has dawned crisp and clear...after we pack up, we are headed to the Mail Cache to check our mail one last time, hit up one more pawn shop looking for the camera, then downtown to the Weekend Market and Solstice Festival, and then finally, we will close with the Time For Speech Annual Picnic.  After that, we leave for Tok, Alaska...and then, to infinity, and beyond!

We will be hard to access via cell phones for the next few days until we reach the United States border once again...coverage is very poor and we don't have an international plan, so it is very expensive when there is coverage.

Much love to all...the journey back begins today!