September 9th

“Great is the art of beginning but greater is the art of finishing” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2 Countries….. 8 Provinces….. 18 states….

FINAL THOUGHTS as we drive our last 100 miles of 100 days on the road;

When Adam died I suddenly grasped a deeper meaning of what’s important in life… and maybe more importantly, what’s not. The trivial things that we invest our time and talents leave us with a house full of “stuff” and short on memorable moments. I have to agree with Dr. James Dobson who said, “life is all about the people you love and those that love you.” This 100 day trip to Alaska has confirmed those thoughts in my heart. I will remember the people that we met who spent time sharing themselves with us. Bert, who took time to not only fix our hitch but take us on a boat tour of his lovely little town, and Gene who spent an afternoon “teaching Gary everything he knew about catching salmon” on the Kenai River. There was Patty in the laundry room that sat for an hour while my loads dried and shared recipe after recipe on how to prepare salmon! We are still in contact with Pastor Don who we met on the boardwalk in Soldotna who helped me catch fish and couldn’t stop talking about what the Lord has done in his life. There were Mellissa and June who both lost daughters way before their time, and we shared our pain. We enjoyed an old friend, Matt, in Anchorage and made new ones like Jack Kimm. We enjoyed the hospitality of those we visited on the way home; Andy & Amy, Paul & Leslie, Harold, Dennis & Mary, Geoff & Kiersten, Charlie, Russ & Ruth, Dana & Sharon and Cheryl & Steve. People are important, not the nice car or house or clothes. It’s not how much money you have or where you went on vacation. It’s all about how you have served those that God has given you in your life to treasure and bless. With all of that said let the credits roll…..

To all of our 25 blogger friends (and other readers who chose to remain anonymous), we want to thank you for coming along on this trip over the past 3 1/2 months. It was a little crowded, I must say, to have you all here but it’s what made the trip that much more fun! Tim & Dave, you need to come out of the wine closet now, you guys need to dry out. Thanks especially to all those who commented on the blog. It confirmed that some one was really out there.

Thank you Kim & Tommy for watching the house for taking care of all the mail and bills.

Thanks Mary & Perry and Mom & Dad for picking up where Kim & Tommy left off.

Thanks Dowst’s & Byrd’s for the gift of Bruno who gave us all a laugh.

Thank you Tim & Sue for being on the receiving end of 100 pounds of fish! Is there any left?

Thank you Gail for my “midnight moon” body wash and cream… it made the fishing days of Soldotna a little more bearable…. And the books you lent that filled many hours.

Thank you cartographer & IT man, Dan for educating us all along the way. You did so much work on making this blog more interesting than I could have done alone. I appreciated all your comments and especially your humor.

Thank you Martie for being our off-site Editor-in-Chief.

Thank you Rick for informing us of all the bad men from Arizona and Judy for warm socks!

Thank you Bruno for putting up with the shower stall as a den for 14,077 miles. We made friends quicker because you were our friend.

Thanks Gary for the dream that led us to Alaska and all the miles & miles of driving…. And multiple repairs inside and out.

Finally, thank you Adam for the inspiration for this trip and whenever I see the flower of Alaska I will always think of you.

Ultimately, thank you God for giving us beautiful places like Alaska to travel to and see Your handiwork.

“He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.” Joshua 24:17

September 8th

THE WEATHER: Another beautiful day for traveling. High’s in the 80’s, clear skies

THE DISTANCE: 359 from Bellefonte, PA to Granby, MA

Once again we broke camp and got on our way towards home. Everything continues to look more and more familiar. The recognizable roads, the oaks, maples & black birch trees, the roadside pumpkin and sweet corn stands and the typical New England white steeple churches. Ahhhhh, the feeling of goin’ home, there’s nothing like it.

It worked out that after 350 + miles and 8 hours of driving Gary’s sister’s house, Cheryl & Steve is in Granby, Mass. where we will camp for the night. Before reaching them we made a slight detour into Northampton, Mass. to visit with Gary’s nephew’s family, Dana & Sharon. They were all very happy to meet Bruno in person as they have been following his adventures on line! This is our last night on the road and calling our RV home. No more hook-ups at the end of the day, no more climbing a ladder to get into bed, no more saying, “excuse me, could you move so I can get into the kitchen”, no more moving Bruno before we take a shower, no more seeking out WIFI hotspots, no more pulling out the kitchen table to have dinner or asking myself in the wee hours of the morning, “Where am I?” We can now look forward to settling into all the familiar surroundings….. And watch the first Patriots game on Sunday!!! Wooohooo!

PS: BTW: The final score in cribbage is: Debbie; 13 (2 skunks), Gary; 12 (2 skunks).

Septemper 7th

THE WEATHER: Perfect for traveling other than a little warm. We used the air conditioning for the 2nd time this summer. High’s in the 80’s

THE DISTANCE: 443 miles to Bellefonte, PA. Staying at the KOA

So we said goodbye to Uncle Charlie and got on our way by 9:00. We wanted to cover some miles today and again tomorrow to hopefully make it back for Christen Shiebler’s wedding on Saturday. So far it’s looking pretty good. We are finally getting back into some familiar looking hilly territory with lots of trees. As we drove through the Allegheny mountain range and climbed 1,000 foot inclines the RV is once again huffing and puffing. In spite of the distance it continues to do well. I think it may get us all the way home!

So it’s beginning to look a lot more like home. The traffic and congestion and Eastern uptight attitude is unfortunately looking way too familiar also. We drove through 3 states today; Ohio, West Virginia & Pennsylvania. It’s funny how out west you can drive for 2 days and still be in the same state but out East you can drive one day and go through 3 states!

Holding to a family tradition created when the kids started going off to camp or sporting events by themselves, We would ask them 3 questions: 1) on a scale from 1 to 10 how would you rate your event? 2) What was the best thing that happened? 3) What was the worst thing that happened?

So Tonight, we asked ourselves the same 3 questions.

Here’s Gary’s answers:

1) 9.5.… The King Salmon fishing could have been better
2) The best thing was catching a chum salmon. (is anyone surprised by these answers?)
3) The time in Sterling when the RV kept dieing and Gary couldn’t figure out what it was and it was late.

Debbie’s answers:

1) 9.5.… The weather could have been better
2) The best thing was seeing bears in Hyder, running after and catching big fish in the river
3) While in Soldotna, carrying 3 heavy fish to Gary to be filleted, I had a pretty bad fall. That story didn’t make it to the blog.

September 6th

THE WEATHER: Yup, beautiful. 80’s, windy, high thin cloud cover

THE DISTANCE: 377 miles to Uncle Charlie’s house! Hamilton, Ohio

I have never been more thankful for God’s creative side…. He did not leave the world as flat as the Midwest. We crossed the final time zone today, we are now in Eastern Standard Time once again.

We have taken a slight detour south to visit my Uncle Charlie’s home. It will probably be the only time we would be even close to this area to drop in so we decided to bypass Chicago and go through Cincinnati. We also had the pleasure of visiting his son, Russ (my cousin), his wife, Ruth and family for a cookout at their house. It was great to meet more of my cousins and have a very mini reunion! They were all properly introduced to Bruno and we got a family picture before leaving.

September 5th

THE WEATHER: Beautiful. Do I sound like a broken record? We’re making up for the cold, rainy days of Alaska! It was in the 80’s today, high thin clouds.

THE DISTANCE: 350 miles to Champagne, Illinois.


DUNKIN’DONUTS! DUNKIN’DONUTS!!! Life is better on the east side of the Mississippi River.

The Midwest winds continue to blow today and we continue to spend the majority of our time in the car, covering as many miles as we can each day. I liked that all Iowa’s rest stops have wifi! And I liked the message you would see on billboards across South Dakota: “Arrive Alive, Don’t text and drive”. If it weren’t for this part of the trip being so long (and boring), we would spend more time out west and going to Alaska! Even though it’s Labor Day weekend we haven’t had any problems with traffic. We did have a bit of trouble booking campgrounds! Everything is full this weekend, but we did get a spot for each night after calling around. Last night we did laundry, and it seems strange to think that that will be the last time we’ll be doing laundry on the road! This is the last Sunday without church! That’s the last time I have to change the bed which has been such a pain to do because it’s up above the cab of the truck. So there are some good and bad about seeing this trip come to a close. I wonder how much my house will have seemed to grow since we left! After spending 100 days in an 8 X 20 box! I have to say, it’s been very comfortable, and it makes me wonder how much room does 2 people really need??


PS: Steve, the crop we were asking you about turns out to be soy bean! You might want to think about growing some…. It’s all over down here.