MikeandAileen

My alarm went off at 6:30 and I kept snoozing it until 7:00. Mike is always up way before me. He gets his coffee going, makes his toast (warm, dry bread), and feeds Charlie. After Charlie finishes his breakfast he has gotten into the habit of jumping up on the bed and going back to sleep ... tight against my head! Our routine of breaking camp went smoothly. So smoothly in fact that we left 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I could have hit that snooze button three more times! Just before we left, while Mike was in the park's bathroom, I showed Dave the giant bug that pinged off Mike's arm yesterday. It was still in the door cubby where it landed after I shook out my blanket. Dave said, "Yeah, that's a giant fly. ... read more

Holding my breath, I pressed the bottom of the rocker switch to retract the bedroom slide. It came in flawlessly. One down, one to go. After making sure everything was ready for travel I pressed the identical button to bring in the living room slide. I suppose it's really a dining room or kitchen slide because it houses the dining booth and pantry. Regardless, I pushed the button and the slide came in as if nothing happened last night. Yay! Wish we could figure out why the circuit keeps tripping. We only had a 200 mile drive today so mid-afternoon was our ETA. It always depends on road conditions and stops. Because of that, Teri adds two hours onto whatever Google maps shows as an arrival time. She's been pretty close every time. We were toolin' ... read more

The RV park we stayed at was actually west of Glennallen. The road to and through Glennallen was pretty rough with all the frost heaves. It was like riding a kiddie roller coaster. It wasn't until well after Glennallen that the highway evened out enough to cruise along at 45 or 50 mph. Sadly, the thrill of the speed was short-lived and we were back to the lumpy, bumpy, pitted surface we'd grown accustomed to these past three weeks. There was even a short stretch of road construction we had to follow a pilot truck through as it wove its way between and around the big machinery. There wasn't much to look at until we were more than two hours into our drive. A few peaks of the Alaska Range then the range itself came into ... read more

Up at 5:30 so we could leave by 6:15. We have to meet our shuttle at 7:00 at the Visitor Center in town. Even Charlie thought it was too early. I finished getting everything together and ready then made some oatmeal for breakfast. I shouldn't have tried to do that at that time of the morning. I ran out of milk the other day (should have listened to Mike the last time we were at a grocery store) so I couldn't make my overnight oats. I looked at the container for directions and saw a microwave option. I put the water, oats and a pinch of salt in a microwave safe bowl, put a big cover over it so if I made a mess it wouldn't be all over the inside of the microwave. The directions ... read more

It rained again last night. I hope it didn't wash away ALL our trophy dust and dirt. How will people know we drove to Alaska and back if the truck and trailer aren't filthy when we pull up to the house?!? Our truck and trailer are the color of the dust and dirt so you can't see it anyway unless you get really close. From even a short distance it will still look the same as when we left. Our only hope is the tinted windows; they show dirt really well! It was raining again when Mike opened the door this morning to take Charlie out for his after breakfast walk. Charlie took one look outside and backed up as far as the leash would let him. When Mike turned to pick him up he dropped ... read more