just wanted to share a fun sunday afternoon pic of sam, jamie, rufus and catwoman. j/d/gp

happy (early) halloween!

after the flight cancellation last night, cheri’s and rebecca’s flight out of chicago was a lot more trick than treat…by the time they touch down, it’ll be 20+ hours elaspsed time since they left charleston. ugh. for a diversion, they got to take a cab ride from hell during their 12 hour lay-over in chicago. then, on top of repeated postponements, they asked 30 people to deplane after boarding because they anticipated heavy winds and the flight was overloaded. yup. THIRTY people. pretty grueling stuff after the emotional roller coaster they’ve been on the past two weeks. it was exhausting just HEARING about it. anyhow, they’re due in about 2:45…or thereabouts. not likely they’ll get much sleep on the plane, so hopefully cheri can settle in for a long winter’s nap.

we’re all supposed to go to the aces game tomorrow night…david and rebecca have tickets, too, and lisa and nathan are joining us along with a bunch of the boys’ friends. hopefully, cheri and rebecca will be up for it…but, i’d sure understand if they wanted to pass on hanging out with 6,000 frenzied hockey fans (it may be too reminiscent of the concourse at o’hare).

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Hello Everyone:
We began our anniversary vacation with the grandgirls. We had a nice dinner at Lisa’s and everyone in Anchorage came to celebrate Marina’s birthday. The next morning, early, we flew to Spokane, rented a car, and drove to Colfax. We went straight to the garage where they had been working on the Xplorer motorhome that Debra’s sister, Jenny gave us. On first inspection, it seemd a bit rough, but we both saw the potential. We spent two days and nights there and had a good visit with Ron and Mary and Jenny and got alot of work done in preparation for the trip across the state.
Thursday morning found us traveling north to Spokane to return the rental car and there we bought a new mattress for the bed and picked up a few supplies. The weather was glorious and actually warm. We traveled across Washington on Highway 2 and as we drove over Steven’s Pass, we realized we were not going to make it to Robert’s before the kids went to bed, so decided to camp out for the night. We called Priss and she insisted we park in her driveway in Goldbar, so we went there and had a snack and slept in the rig for the first time.
The next morning we headed for Robert’s where I worked on the rig while Debra visited. Robert was alot of help, loaning me his truck for parts runs and letting me use his tools. We went to Deb’s for dinner that night and saw her and Bill, Willy and Jacque, Sarah, Charles and Giselle, and Katie. Deb made a great turkey dinner and also made Debra a “legal” blueberry pie. We slept in their driveway that night and even hooked up to their outside plug, so we had heat.
Saturday morning we went for coffee at Cafe Ladro in Edmonds where Jacque works, so it was nice to see her and get some coffee for the road. We went to Sarah’s apartment to see her and Giselle (Sellie)….what a cutie! Was good to connect with them before heading off south. That night we camped in Robert and Anna’s yard and it poured rain….we discovered the leaks in the windows on both ends of our bed!
We left there really early to head for Olympia. We got over the freeway bridge and there was a wreck blocking all lanes downtown, so we got off at Denny and proceded to get lost (we just didn’t have GIGI plugged in with a route)and I was relying on memory….well, long story short, we ended up at the Bay Cafe next to Chinook’s at Fishermen’s Terminal. It seemd right, as I always try to make it there each visit to Seattle. Had a good breakfast and then headed south again. Got to Markay and Garry’s sometime before noon and had a good visit and an awesome ham dinner. Was great to see Ericka, Austin, and Garret, but sorry to miss Kurt and Garry Jr. who were hunting. We slept there in MK and Garry’s driveway and the caulking we did there that afternoon seemed to stop the leaks in the bed.
We headed out from there early Monday morning to avoid the traffic and made it to LaConner about 9:30 after stopping for breakfast just north of Everett. Had a great visit with Jean and met her new dog “Lillibeth”….what a bundle of energy! “Foxie” has his paws full there. It just so happened that Anna was working in LaConner for the week so Debra got to spend some quality time with her and watch her do her job.

Jean called a friend in Anacortes and found me an old ships wheel in an antique store there. I ran up and it was just what I wanted, so that was cool.
I neglected to say that Debra and I had an uneventful anniversary day (October 13th), but we really had a great trip together. Can’t imagine a better way to spend it than be able to visit with many members of the family.
The final push north began Tuesday morning and we crossed the border at Sumas without incident. We drove all day and finally found an RV park (with WIFI) at Quesnel BC, just short of our goal of Prince George. Wednesday morning had us on the road by 5:30, but ran into problems a few miles out of PG in the form of dim headlights and an amp gauge saying discharge. We tried for a replacement in PG, but no luck, so we pressed on after replacing the regulator and adding some stop leak to the radiator, as there was a leak on Debra’s toes from the heater core. Well, we found an alternator in Smithers, which we just carried with us to be installed at our leisure and it became apparent that we needed to bypass the heater, so we did. There was no chance for a new core, so we went COLD! The rig quit in New Hazelton and we barely got off the road. While I replaced the alternator, Debra hiked to a shop and bought a battery and a nice guy to gave her a ride with the battery. Folks were pretty friendly. So, an hour and a half after dying, we were back on the road with all the juice we could possibly use. We continued on and had dinner in Terrace, and although tired, we pressed on to Prince Rupert. Found a place to park w/o hook-up, so we were cold and damp, but we made coffee in the morning and checked out the local NAPA store (something we did in each town, so far). We had breakfast, got some supplies and headed for the ferry “Taku”. We boarded at noon and were on our way across Dixon Entrance toward Ketchikan.
We opted for a cabin and good thing…..the solarian was awash with rainwater! We had a nice 30 hour cruise, with stop in Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell, and Juneau. –We got off on Friday at 7PM and headed for home. Drove most of the night and finally found a turn-out about 70 miles from Beaver Creek, so pulled over and slept. Our feet were cold, so we bundled up and tried to warm up. Got about four hours sleep, made coffee, and headed out. It was snowing and we were a bit worried about our fate with no heat. Had breakfast and got gas in Beaver Creek and headed for the border. Got about 12 miles and the engine just quit. Turned out that the fuel pump had died. A ride on a flatbed trailer and some other nice Canadians later, we were on our way and after 400 miles of snow driving, arrived in Anchorage at Ben and Jess’s house (and a warm bed!) about 11 PM Saturday. Had another nice visit with the girls at the end of our trip too!

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His two front Teeth

caught up with cheri this evening, and it’s one day at a time right now. tom is home and in a lot of ways he’s doing great. on the other hand, there are some challenges, too, and hopefully those can be overcome with time. cheri wanted to post the pic here, but needs her org password…she should have that from isaac in the next day or so, and maybe we’ll see a post from WV before cheri returns on thursday. great to see everyone this morning, and fun to get a tour of the “twinkie”…sam wants one!

have a suggestion for a name (although it depends on the future paint scheme): “BELUGA.” you could even get an “Ah-Hoogah” horn for it (to announce its arrival). ha. i was thinking about what it reminded me of, and it does resemble our white whale friends in the inlet. of course, you could go more traditional with that theme and name it for the original white whale…MOBY DICK. somehow, though, that might be vaguely offensive in some quarters, so the indigenous Beluga might be a better fit. ha.

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jake, sam, nathan and i just got back from the first national bowl…south won, but colony made a game of it in the second half and actually went ahead for awhile. great game! it was the biggest crowd i’ve seen at the stadium ever…there was still a line

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All the best to Jon today on his knee surgery in Palmer. Sounds like a tough procedure, but the pay-off will be nice, eh? Am attaching the latest Google Earth of Snowgoose. The rez is marginal, but at least you can see the pond (in the center there) and main roads fairly well now. Looking forward to B&N with Nina today, and Nathan here tomorrow night…see you at 3:30.

More soon. L, J/D/GP

Been a little crazy here this past week, so when Charlie Hewitt asked if I was up for a quick flight to Kenai on Saturday, it seemed like the perfect diversion. Was really impressed with the Cirrus - I’ve been working with Charlie on doing some marketing for them - and also with Charlie’s flying skill. Took 28 minutes to get there…I’ll have to talk him into heading for Homer one of these weekends…be fun to fly down for lunch or an early dinner.

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