Welcome to Adulthood! - Alaska-style

Thank you all for the sweet emails and notes you sent me for my birthday yesterday! I didn't get to read most of them until today, but they meant so much to me. :)

Let me tell you about my "adventure" yesterday! :D


The morning of my 21st birthday dawned bright and clear.

On our way out we saw these two moose again. They like to hang around Kingdom Air Corps.

Jonathan and I had to leave our cabin at 6AM that morning, to be in town at 7:30 for Hazardous-Material training (fun, fun, fun). I was a little disappointed that we'd be spending the morning sitting through that, but afterwards we planned to do our big grocery shopping trip and though that seemed a little intimidating, it also sounded like fun to spend some time somewhere other than home and work. :)

When we arrived at the office, Jonathan made me wait in the car while he retrieved my present. When he reappeared he was holding a big potted plant! I'd asked for one flower on my birthday and he surprised me with a beautiful house plant! (Do I have a good guy or what?)

So, the morning started out very well! After that, it kind of started going downhill, when we realized that, if Jonathan wanted to get in on any flying for Lake Clark Air this year, he had to fly out to Port Alsworth immediately after Haz-Mat was done....and I had to stay in Anchorage. You see, they started training for their new pilots yesterday, which they only do once a year, and since we hadn't known about this beforehand, we'd left all of our clothes and luggage at the ranch, not to mention our grocery shopping yet to be done.

I'll admit that there were tears on my part when we realized what had to happen; I was scared to navigate Anchorage in our manual-transmission truck (which I'd only driven once), do a big shopping trip, and make the long drive back up to the ranch to pack up all alone. I think Jonathan was scared to leave me with all of that, but we both knew there wasn't any way around it. So, he left, and I stayed.

My first challenge was to remember everything Jonathan had taught me about driving a manual...and then do it. I'll sheepishly admit that I may have stalled out 4-5 times trying to back it out...before realizing that I'd left the parking brake on.

After that, things went a little smoother. I made it safely to Costco and I didn't have to stop on any hills - a favorable answer to my fervent prayers.

Later, things got a little hairy. Traffic picked up and I got lost a few times, wandering around Anchorage. Then, to add insult to injury, I spilled my full cup of Coke all over the floor of the truck, just before heading back home to the ranch.

King Ranch. I think that will always be a little piece of home to me. The people there, Dwayne and Carolyn King, Russ, Dan, Carol, Jared, Lucy and Titus..and others too, they were all so good to us. As soon as we arrived they began treating us like family.

Let me give you an example. At about 9PM last night, I came rolling into King Ranch. I proceeded to begin unloading the truck, juggling different categories of stuff to be packed and reloaded. It only took about 10 minutes before someone came along asking to help.

And once they discovered that it was my birthday...the party was on! Seriously, at 10:30PM they called together everyone who was still awake, scrounged up popcorn and some leftover ice cream, even a present and a signed card! They sang me "Happy Birthday" in whispers because the 20-month-old was in bed. They lugged the sweet tea down for me because I've made a name for myself with it.

I don't think I've ever been so touched.

And so, what began as a wonderful morning, what happened to be a rather miserable afternoon, ended up being my most memorable birthday of all!

May Snowfall

Well, we've survived our first ten days and our first snow in Alaska!

We've settled into work at the Anchorage office alright, but it looks like pretty soon we'll finally be able to move out to Port Alsworth! Jonathan and his co-worker Steve, finished the work on the Bonanza late last night, and we've been told that our apartment is very close to being move-in ready!

We love the place that we're staying now, King Ranch; the views are absolutely breathtaking and we'll miss the friends we've made here.

King Mountain: the view from King Ranch.

Still, we're ready to be done with our hour-and-a-half commute each way, have water to shower and wash clothes with again, and settle into one place for a while. :)

This is the office I work in all day.

This is the office I work in all day. This job has been a pretty big learning curve, but I have really great people helping me out.

Last Friday we had our first, real Alaska snow! Nobody around here has ever seen snow on May 16th before. Alaska broke a lot of records this year, 232 days between the first and last snowfall (so far), 133.6 inches.of snowfall this winter/

I'd never seen such large flakes before, it was more like clumps of snow falling! The next morning, everything was white, but it melted off by lunchtime.

Today we had the first sunny day I can remember having up here. Jonathan says it was sunny the first few days we were here, but I honestly don't remember it. It feels like forever since we've seen the sun. I was ecstatic to see the beautiful blue sky contrasting with the white-topped mountains on the way to church this morning.

 When we first arrived here, every time I looked at the mountains all I could see was their enormity instead of their beauty. They looked so intimidating and harsh with their jagged edges. Sunshine helps them to look a lot friendlier and today I am basking in the knowledge that the great God who formed these mountains has taken personal responsibility for my care.

Somebody very special sent me this verse this week.

 "I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?

 My help comes form the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. 

Psalm 121:1

First Days of Work

The ground was crunchy and slightly less soggy when I walked across the yard at 6AM this morning. It was cooooold!!

The water supply up here is still frozen up so we have to trek past the cafeteria to the hangar to use the bathroom, shower or get a drink. Usually we're only in our cabin at night anyway, since the stove is also not working and we just use a space heater in our bedroom for warmth.

Today we managed to get up on time and so we were able to get in showers before leaving for work. Yesterday was a different story. Somehow our alarm didn't go off and we woke up at 6:25. We flew to get ready and made it out the door at an amazing 6:33.

We feel so blessed to make our hour-and-a-half commute through scenery like this every day!

Even more, we are so grateful to be making the trip twice a day together. Once we get to the office, we don't usually see each other until lunch, and then not again until it's time to go home. That's a whole lot more than most couples, but still less than we've been used to, so we're extra-glad to see each other at the end of the day. :)

We get into Anchorage at 8AM and Jonathan heads into the shop while I hang out in the office. This is my very first job and pretty much the only thing I remember about my first day is a general feeling of being overwhelmed. Today was much more successful. :) I answered phones, took reservations, accepted payments, weighed and labeled freight, counted passenger lists, and other miscellaneous tasks. There is no way I can explain how complicated organizing and keeping track of everything is because I barely understand it enough to function there now. I'm learning it all very fast though.

On our way home today we ran into some very unexpected weather. Snow! A lot of it too! By the time we got back to the ranch it was coming down in flakes so big they reminded me of cotton candy. I'd never seen anything like it...especially in May! We're beginning to wonder if there is more than one season up here in Alaska. :)

Changing Plans

"So, have y'all made it to Port Alsworth yet?" Is a question we've been hearing a lot over the last three days. The short answer is, "Not quite yet."

We arrived in Anchorage late Friday morning to unload our truck at the Lake Clark Air office in Anchorage and do some important grocery shopping. Upon arriving we discovered that Jonathan's boss had been trying to get a hold of him for a few days, but couldn't since Jonathan's phone had died on the trip up. Once we were put in touch with him, we found out that our apartment is undergoing some improvements and will not be ready for us for another week or two.

Initially, we were pretty disappointed not to be able to move in our new home right away, but we have a wonderful place to stay and they have work for both of us to do in Anchorage so things are still working out for us pretty well.


So tomorrow will be the first day of work for the both of us. Jonathan is working on a plane they have in the shop there and I'll be working in the dispatch office.

We'll jump in the truck at 6:30 tomorrow morning for the hour-and-a-half commute to Anchorage and hopefully be back around 6:30PM.

Stay tuned to hear about my very first day of work! ;)

Alaska at Last! (Part 2)

I wish I could have a picture from each mountain that we passed, but there were hundreds of them, and each spectacular in their own way. Besides that, there were lots of pictures I missed out on because we were in a moving vehicle and the scenery changes so quickly at 50-60 mph. Here are a handful of them anyway. :)

 

There you go! That was a long post, but it still feels like I left out so much. Honestly though, I wouldn't know how to put much more of it into words. This has been an enormous transition for us and there is still more going on and waiting for us yet.

Thank you all so much for your prayers for our safety! Jonathan and I are just in awe of the way God has taken care of us and provided for our trip. For an adventure like this, you prepare for the worst and hope fervently for better, but this one went absolutely ideally!! We couldn't have even hoped for it to go so smoothly, for our truck to perform better, to have such wonderful weather, good company, encouragement and support from so many people. 

Right now, our blog has had around 950 pageviews since we left Georgia. I can't tell you how encouraging it is for us to read your comments, know that you still think about us and pray for us. 

We feel very far away from home, we feel our youth, our inexperience and our weakness, but the wonderful part of that is how it helps us feel our absolute dependence on God. It was God who held our overloaded truck together over 4,700 miles through the Rocky Mountains without any breakdowns, it was God who gave us grace to handle miscommunications, stress, grumpiness, and homesickness without turning around (yes, that thought did cross my mind a few times). ;)

God has shown us every step of the way that He is leading us and we are thrilled to be on this amazing adventure!

(more later on our pending move to Port Alsworth.)

Alaska at Last! (Part 1)

We made it!!!

Our 10-day trip of a lifetime is finally complete(ish). We crossed into Alaska on Thursday!

We're not yet in Port Alsworth; we're staying about 1-1/2 hours outside of Anchorage at the King Ranch, home of Kingdom Air Corps, with Dwayne and Carolyn King. We met up with the Kings on Tuesday at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.

It was such a huge blessing to us to be able to travel with the Kings. Not only did they provide invaluable information about traveling this famously rugged road, they also let us sleep in their camper for those freezing two nights on the Alcan (we had been planning to tent-camp!), not to mention the wonderful company they provided on a lonely stretch of the trip. :)

 Plus, we finally had someone to take our picture!

Driving the Alcan proved to be a spectacular experience. We encountered some singularly interesting weather - highs in the 50s, and yet we were driving past lakes, rivers and streams that were solidly frozen over.

Apparently, last week they had quite the storm; one man who owned a gas-station that we stopped at for fuel told us they had been towing cars out for three days straight after the storm! For us, though the further north we've gone, the more snow we've found, the weather couldn't be better! The roads were dry the entire way and the sky was clear. Alaska, quite literally, has given us a warm welcome. :)

We've passed many landmarks, seen "exotic" wildlife and gaped at so much beautiful scenery along the way. I could never describe all of it to you, I only hope that you will be able to experience something like this someday, but for now I'll try to give you a taste of it through my pictures.

 In Watson Lake, Canada we stopped at Signpost Forest. I have no idea how it began, but it's a place where people traveling along the highway stop to hang up signs, usually from their hometown, but often just random road signs.

A beautiful sunset our first evening on the Alcan.

(The sun doesn't set here until about 10:30-11:00 at night...long days)

 We camped next to this mountain that same night.

 "Stone Sheep"

Buffalo by the roadside. Look at the little baby one!
(anyone know what a baby buffalo is called?)

Laird River Hotsprings

 

We actually stopped and swam here on Wednesday. I read that the water varies between 108-126 degrees. It felt marvelously refreshing!

Sunset, our second night on the Alcan. (This was taken at about 10:30pm.)

I divided this post into two parts for the sheer length of it!

Glacier National Park (Pictures!!)

(Tip: Just so you know, if you click on the pictures you can see them full-screen.)

 

 On our way to Glacier National Park!

 Our cozy campsite in the park.

 

First thing in the morning, we walked down to the lake.

 Driving up the Going-to-the-Sun Road, we stopped at this spot for a while.

 

Not a very good picture, but this one is for our families. :)

Days 5-7 - Alaska Bound!

It's been a long two days since we left Gillete, WY.  Wow, there is so much to cover!

Shortly after we left Gillette, WY, one of our trailer tires blew out and we spent an hour putting on the spare, finding a place to buy new tires and upgrading to better-quality tires.

After that incident, the rest of the day went smoothly. We made it safely to Glacier National Park and set up camp for the night. I was feeling a little bit in shock having had my first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains that same day...*jawdrop* Fortunately, we stayed nice and toasty in our new tent and sleeping bag despite the temperatures dropping below freezing that night.

The next morning we walked down to the lake to take in the view. Unfortunately, I can't get our internet connection to work fast enough to upload pictures (believe me, I'm just as disappointed about that as you are), but it was simply amazing. There was no way my poor photography skills could capture the awesome beauty of the park, but I hope you'll be able to get a glimpse of it when I'm finally able to upload pictures!

After we packed up the campsite and had a quick breakfast, we drove down the Going-to-the-Sun highway and stopped at a few spots along the way. About half of the road was still closed for the season but we had a really good sampling of the park that way. By the time we got back from our drive it was time to head for our border crossing. We so wished we had more time to spend at the park but I'm still holding on to the hope that we'll be able to visit again someday.

We had been a little worried about the border crossing in Canada, as we'd heard a lot of horror stories, but we made it through, easy-as-pie, in about 5 minutes. :) Honestly, I still don't feel that much like we're in a foreign country. Apart from people speaking with Canadian accents, the only other cultural difference we've experienced has been a lady asking Jonathan if he was "in the queue" meaning "are you in line?" Of course, it is hard to get the full Canadian experience when we only emerge from our truck to fuel up or sleep.

We had a short day on Sunday, only driving about four hours from Glacier Park to our next campsite. It turned out well because somewhere after the border, Jonathan noticed a funny noise coming from the truck. He was able to quickly pinpoint the noise, figure out which part he needed, and an extremely obliging family member found a place where we could get it on Monday. Perfect!

We used the extra time on Sunday evening to relax a little bit more. When I say "relax" I mean, "climb to the top of a hill that would be considered a mountain back in Georgia". This little hike ended up being steeper than the top of Stone Mountain by the end of it, but the view was absolutely worth it! I so, so, so wish I had carried my camera up with me for your sake....but alas, I did not! :(

Monday morning: (finally, I'm catching up here!) we packed up our little campsite again, (we're getting pretty efficient at that) and headed out. Because of the part Jonathan needed to pick up for our truck, we had to tweak our route a little bit and go through Calgary instead of staying on the Icefields Parkway. To get to Calgary we had to actually drive over and through the mountains instead of just between, which was quite an experience for me. I can't wait to show you pictures! We also noticed an extensive area that had been hit with a forest fire. We must have driven for twenty minutes seeing these vast mountains covered in dead trees. I had never, ever imagined that a fire could cover miles and miles and miles of trees that way!

We entered Calgary at about lunchtime, Jonathan picked up the park, changed it out in a few hours, and we were back in business! (I'm so glad I married a mechanic who can keep stuff like this from becoming a huge deal.) After that we only had about six hours of driving left, which was fairly uneventful.

The scenery did change after we passed through Calgary. We lost sight of the Rocky Mountains and entered the plains again. Something I can't get over is how blue the water is here. Every single puddle and creek is this deep vivid blue that you simply can't imagine unless you've seen it yourself. I didn't know such rich color existed in creation.

One more thing I want to mention from today is something that was one of the biggest highlights of our entire trip for me. The reappearance of deciduous trees. I'm serious. Since we left Missouri, every single mile has been a new sight to me, new landscapes and strange plants. It's the experience of a lifetime but it can be overwhelming. Out here, the mountains are definitely gorgeous, but the evergreens and the jagged peaks look harsh to me, a GA girl used to softly rolling hills and oak trees. So today, when I spotted the birch trees just beginning to leaf out, giving me a small taste of home, I felt just like God had given me a gift. :)

Tonight we made it to Valleyview, AB and are staying in a hotel. I can't tell you how much we've been looking forward to showers and a real bed again! We definitely feel luxurious tonight.

Tomorrow we're driving to Dawson Creek and starting down the Alcan Highway! :) Only three more days on the road!

Day 5 - Alaska Bound!

We're heading out to Glacier National Park, MT. We'll be camping out there tonight so I doubt we'll have any internet service to post for a while.

On Sunday we're spending the morning touring the park and then heading to the Canadian border crossing. Once we cross the border we'll have our cellphones off to keep from getting astronomical roaming charges.

Monday we'll have a 9-hour drive and be camping somewhere along the road.

Tuesday we're meeting a friend in Dawson Creek, BC, Canada and starting on the Alcan highway.

Hopefully, before then I'll have time and an internet connection to update you again but until then, God bless!

Day 4 - Alaska bound! (R&R)

Today has been quite a wonderful day of rest and relaxation for us. We're staying with our friends Ryan and Sarah Flaming in Gillette, Wyoming and having a great time! It's been so refreshing to take a day off of the road, stretch our tense muscles with some frisbee and soccer, soak up some sunshine and fresh air, and just hang out with friends. We greatly appreciate Ryan and Sarah's amazing hospitality; it has been such a blessing to us.

Right now it's 11:22PM local time and Jonathan and Ryan are out flying. Jonathan needed to put in a few more hours of night flying before we get up to Port Alsworth and Ryan has a plane, so they were able to work out a deal. (Did I mention how super-accommodating the Flamings are?)

Tomorrow we're hitting the road again, heading for Glacier National Park in Montana, where we'll spend the night camping. It's a 10-hour drive from where we are now, so we'd really appreciate your continued prayers for safety and alertness on the road.

We're so very thankful for the wonderful support we've had as we have prepared for this move and finally begun it. Your encouraging comments and commitments of prayer mean more to us than you know. Thank you!

Day 3 - Alaska Bound!

Today we began our day feeling like it was the middle of January instead of the beginning of May.

This is what we woke up to.

Look what we did to our poor truck and trailer on that dirt road.

 

 

 

Part of our trek today followed a piece of the Oregon Trail and took us right by Chimney Rock. Honestly, at first I thought it was rather unimpressive compared to Stone Mountain or other famous landmarks I've seen. As a physical landmark, it really isn't that noticeable, but when I paused to think about the pioneers who have passed here before us and the enormous amount of courage and grit it took to do what they did, when I realized that, here we are, with all of our belongings packed up, heading to a place we've only been told about, following in their footsteps, this place became much more significant to me. :)

Mountains!

 Mountains!!

Near the end of our trip today in Wyoming!