Our Glorious Trip, Part 1

Our trip out of Alaska to our new duty station in Ft Leonard Wood began on Sunday July 25th. We started a small journal with just note entries to help us remember for this post when things settled down.

Leaving SUCKED. There is no other way to put it. It was heart wrenching. The swollen eyes, the attempted hidden hiccups, the long hugs and whispered advice. It SUCKED. I think I would have gotten out of there okay, but for a few tears, if Rachael had not opened her heart. Her blessing and prayer with all of us standing there was my undoing. With the 'Amen' around the circle, crying began all over again. Rachael, I am going to miss that kind heart of yours and your ability to see the good in others and read our souls it seems. I think God knew what he was doing when he brought you into my brother's life. We love you so much it's CRAZY! :)

All I could think driving off is that my sis is pregnant and I am missing it; my card playing buddy and phone pal is no longer going to be right next door; my brother that understands me in ALL ways will not be able to share his hugs on a hard day; my dad and best buddy and confidante will be harder to reach than just the front porch; and the mom I know and love greatly, when our relationship is all I dreamed it would be, I would have to step away from and get to know again in three years.

Yes, I wanted the adventure. Yes, I wanted to see if our family has moxie and could only rely on each other. I don't think I truly realized the losses to the gains until I pulled out of the driveway and waved goodbye with eyes so full of tears I could barely see to drive. And Joey, not knowing our adventure is for years, says "why are you crying Mommy?" THAT SUCKED!!!

We were high on adrenaline so besides bathroom breaks, we drove all day from 10am until we hit the boarder at midnight. It was sooooo boring. If I had only known what I was going into, I would have enjoyed the boring just a bit more. No animals of any kind were out to humor us on this adventure. We saw NOTHING, and boy were we looking!

Canada boarder guard got pissed at Wes for having the documents in MY car rather than his and told him to "fucking go then!". I get to the window and she lectures me about the rules of Canada and passports and that they send the military a letter every year about the rules and they should have notified us...yadda, yadda, yadda. Then she shut the window. I held up my as-yet-not-signed passport and waved it at her face and she waves me through with a glare. All that trouble to get a passport saying I was in another country and the damn thing didn't even get stamped. ARGH. The roads directly after the gate were dirt, full of large rocks and pot holes, and it was pitch black. We decided to get a cheap hotel room at the West Mark Hotel and crash at 2:30am.

It was a tiny room with a bathroom, two twin beds with just enough space between them to walk, and stunk like cigars. Wes and Nate on one twin, Joey and I on the other, Matt on a sleeping bag between the beds, Josh half under a table at the foot of his dad's bed, Luke under the shoe rack at the end of my bed. None of us cared that it stunk, was too hot, or was cramped. We were so tired that ANYWHERE would have done, and no one woke until the alarm screamed at us to get going.

7/26/10~ We loaded our bags back up, grabbed some muffins and fruit, and got back on the road at 9am. Down the Shackwak Hwy we went!!! (Yeah, I smacked Matt when he read the name, lol!) Hit Haines Jct at 2:30pm, Whitehorse at 5:45 with dinner made at the rest stop on the tailgate of Wes's truck of course, enjoyed the view at Miles' Canyon (Wes's middle name), saw the beautiful Watson Lake for a rest on the legs and to play at 7:30pm, and FINALLY stopped to camp at 10pm. It was a 15mn set up, with boys arguing and fighting, and finally crawling into the one big tent in hopes to stay warm.

We froze...all of us. We were up at 9am, but did not leave camp until noon. I could not see what kind of camp it was until morning, and it was UGLY out. We slept on gravel since all the sites were filled with it to level the ground. There were very few trees so it was like setting up a tent in a parking lot. There was trailer for showers and laundry, so we did both. Wes cooked eggs with nothing but a plastic spoon, so he was VERY irritated. (That and he had no smokes, lol) That's all we had to eat too, small amount of scrambled eggs and toast that would not brown on our fireplace toaster. Yuck. The bugs were in swarms, so every time I opened my mouth for a bite I am sure I got extra protein! The kids were able to play at a tiny park while I washed two days worth of clothing. When we finally pulled out, we bought cigs right away, which came out to be $15.00 for two packs! CRAZY!

Today I wanted to enjoy the trip, not just rush through it. But Wes had other idea's. He wanted to get back in US soil as soon as possible. I tried to talk him into stopping for this or that, but it did not happen. We were in Teslin when it was time for dinner, and had another meal cooked on the back of Dad's truck. It was the sticky rice and chicken legs we had gotten as left overs at our going away BBQ. It was DELICIOUS! Unknown to me, as we were pulling out, I had left one of the boxes of food out of the van. On my check to back out, I never saw it. I even had Matt look out to make sure Joey's shoes did not fall out before his door shut. No one saw the box...and a bunch of food was left at the rest stop. I did not know this until later the next morning, so the rest of my day was still filled with excitement.

I got the hubby to stop at Jade City, just a small mining business off the side of the road we were traveling. We had a learning experience, where Jade comes from, how it is mined, how they cut it (diamonds and water!) and what they make out of it. Wes even risked touching the blade as it was spinning and cutting the stone after being told and shown that it would not cut a human finger. None of us others would try it! lol. I bought some beautiful (but cheap) earrings to remember the place. We were now half way through Canada and stopped for camp at 9:30pm.

See Our Glorious Trip, Part 2 soon to follow...