23 June 2007 – 2345 (11:45 p.m.)
One the road again
Oh no wait, we need to pick up laundry
Just can’t wait
Hummm, we really need linner
To get on the road again
The rare Chugiak harmonics stop
Ugh, finally!
Greetings from Tok, Alaska (pronounced toke), population not a lot. It is late, but we are here. This is our third time in Tok since it is the logical stopping point one day drive from Anchorage. We’ve been here enough to know that sourdough pancakes at the log cabin in front of a campground will be calling our names in the morning.
We got a late start today. Call it too much to do. Call it we went out for margaritas with friends instead of finishing the new utility room floor last night. Call it not really being motivated to leave our home. Whatever you want to call it, we left Eagle River somewhere between 4 & 6 hours later than we planned to.
So, we finally piled into the car with enough stuff to put any pioneer family to shame and made the long trek 3 doors down the street. Then we got out to pick up the last of our laundry. It was pretty anti-climactic. Our friend Angela is away for the summer, so we took advantage of an open guest room and washer and dryer that weren’t loaded on a truck by the lowest bidder for the last 2 nights…thanks Ang!
So is it time to go yet? No… it was about 3 pm and we hadn’t eaten much today, which led to our first challenge. We needed food fast. Easy enough, right? Notsomuch. One of the goals of this adventure is to make it all the way to DC without eating in a national chain restaurant. Greasy spoon dining across America. This will also necessitate “Family PT” every morning. Mom will lead the sun salutation yoga practice and dad will lead calisthenics. It’s a plan & now that it is written for the entire world to see (or at least the 4 people who have made it this far), I’m sure you will all keep us honest about it. But I digress. Eagle River is not a thriving metropolis, but we have our share of fast food. We drove past all of them to hit the Fred Meyer. Freds is a big grocery store, household goods type of place. Think Super Wal-Mart with better stuff. And without the smilie face. Or the discriminating employment practices. Or the community destruction.
We had lunch at the deli counter. It was about 3:30, so it was more like linner. I was surprised that a sandwich for Steve and I, mac & cheese for Drew & two chicken legs for Nate was $24 bucks. This no-chain thing might not be cheap. Oh well.
We discovered during lunch that chickens have handle bones. That is apparently the bone that holds the chicken legs together so you can hold onto it and eat it. Drew’s theory, Nate’s lunch.
It is now 1600 (4 pm), which is ridiculous since we had planned to leave the house at around 1000 (knowing full well that we really wouldn’t be gone until noon-ish). We missed. But now we are finally on the road. About 30 seconds after entering the highway, we discovered Chugiak Harmonics. What’s that? Well, we were headed to Chugiak and our Explorer was humming. Loudly. The boys bikes are strapped to the back of the SUV and the belt was making a lovely noise. Also, the Alaska flag that Steve had taped to the top of the antenna was making an awful noise. So, we pulled off at the Chugiak exit – about 2 miles from Fred’s and a grand total of about 7 miles from our house. Maybe we’ll never get to DC. I’m not sure that is a bad thing.
Steve reset the bike rack & lowered the flag as we burst into a quasi-respectful rendition of the Alaska Flag Song. Yes we have a song about our flag. Alaskans have this thing about our flag. Any Alaskan over the age of about 5 can tell you that Benny Benson designed our flag when he was about 12 years old, and can sing at least the beginning of the flag song. That’s the kind of place Alaska is. We’re a young state, ol’ Benny is still walking around. I like it.
Steve then realized what the problem was. We are out of road trip practice. SAP ALERT! We hadn’t done our standby-the-car-hug-and-kiss thing yet. That is why it took us an hour to get 7 miles from home and nothing is going right. So we stood by the car pulled off an exit ramp and did the mooshy thing. Much to the Monkey’s disgust. EEEWWWWW.
Now we are really on the road. It is 4:00 and only 290 miles to Tok. Hummph.
We passed through the Palmer Hay Flats on our way to the “Remote” Matanuska Glacier. If you saw the TV show Treasure Hunters last year, one of the teams started on the glacier. We laughed at the “remote” description because it is about 30 minutes from a Starbucks and 45 minutes from a Wal-Mart. Which I guess in most parts of the country would make it remote.
Running out of time, so I’ll leave you with these cliff hangers…
Did they make it to Tok? (oh wait, that was in the first sentence)
Did Monkey-Doo make the trip?
Were they attacked by Arctic Chickens?
Will the mooshy-ness continue?
Tune if for more…
.
One the road again
Oh no wait, we need to pick up laundry
Just can’t wait
Hummm, we really need linner
To get on the road again
The rare Chugiak harmonics stop
Ugh, finally!
Greetings from Tok, Alaska (pronounced toke), population not a lot. It is late, but we are here. This is our third time in Tok since it is the logical stopping point one day drive from Anchorage. We’ve been here enough to know that sourdough pancakes at the log cabin in front of a campground will be calling our names in the morning.
We got a late start today. Call it too much to do. Call it we went out for margaritas with friends instead of finishing the new utility room floor last night. Call it not really being motivated to leave our home. Whatever you want to call it, we left Eagle River somewhere between 4 & 6 hours later than we planned to.
So, we finally piled into the car with enough stuff to put any pioneer family to shame and made the long trek 3 doors down the street. Then we got out to pick up the last of our laundry. It was pretty anti-climactic. Our friend Angela is away for the summer, so we took advantage of an open guest room and washer and dryer that weren’t loaded on a truck by the lowest bidder for the last 2 nights…thanks Ang!
So is it time to go yet? No… it was about 3 pm and we hadn’t eaten much today, which led to our first challenge. We needed food fast. Easy enough, right? Notsomuch. One of the goals of this adventure is to make it all the way to DC without eating in a national chain restaurant. Greasy spoon dining across America. This will also necessitate “Family PT” every morning. Mom will lead the sun salutation yoga practice and dad will lead calisthenics. It’s a plan & now that it is written for the entire world to see (or at least the 4 people who have made it this far), I’m sure you will all keep us honest about it. But I digress. Eagle River is not a thriving metropolis, but we have our share of fast food. We drove past all of them to hit the Fred Meyer. Freds is a big grocery store, household goods type of place. Think Super Wal-Mart with better stuff. And without the smilie face. Or the discriminating employment practices. Or the community destruction.
We had lunch at the deli counter. It was about 3:30, so it was more like linner. I was surprised that a sandwich for Steve and I, mac & cheese for Drew & two chicken legs for Nate was $24 bucks. This no-chain thing might not be cheap. Oh well.
We discovered during lunch that chickens have handle bones. That is apparently the bone that holds the chicken legs together so you can hold onto it and eat it. Drew’s theory, Nate’s lunch.
It is now 1600 (4 pm), which is ridiculous since we had planned to leave the house at around 1000 (knowing full well that we really wouldn’t be gone until noon-ish). We missed. But now we are finally on the road. About 30 seconds after entering the highway, we discovered Chugiak Harmonics. What’s that? Well, we were headed to Chugiak and our Explorer was humming. Loudly. The boys bikes are strapped to the back of the SUV and the belt was making a lovely noise. Also, the Alaska flag that Steve had taped to the top of the antenna was making an awful noise. So, we pulled off at the Chugiak exit – about 2 miles from Fred’s and a grand total of about 7 miles from our house. Maybe we’ll never get to DC. I’m not sure that is a bad thing.
Steve reset the bike rack & lowered the flag as we burst into a quasi-respectful rendition of the Alaska Flag Song. Yes we have a song about our flag. Alaskans have this thing about our flag. Any Alaskan over the age of about 5 can tell you that Benny Benson designed our flag when he was about 12 years old, and can sing at least the beginning of the flag song. That’s the kind of place Alaska is. We’re a young state, ol’ Benny is still walking around. I like it.
Steve then realized what the problem was. We are out of road trip practice. SAP ALERT! We hadn’t done our standby-the-car-hug-and-kiss thing yet. That is why it took us an hour to get 7 miles from home and nothing is going right. So we stood by the car pulled off an exit ramp and did the mooshy thing. Much to the Monkey’s disgust. EEEWWWWW.
Now we are really on the road. It is 4:00 and only 290 miles to Tok. Hummph.
We passed through the Palmer Hay Flats on our way to the “Remote” Matanuska Glacier. If you saw the TV show Treasure Hunters last year, one of the teams started on the glacier. We laughed at the “remote” description because it is about 30 minutes from a Starbucks and 45 minutes from a Wal-Mart. Which I guess in most parts of the country would make it remote.
Running out of time, so I’ll leave you with these cliff hangers…
Did they make it to Tok? (oh wait, that was in the first sentence)
Did Monkey-Doo make the trip?
Were they attacked by Arctic Chickens?
Will the mooshy-ness continue?
Tune if for more…
.
1 comment:
Love the trip report so far M. Nothing like a virtual tour of the US. Hope you and the family have great time. Great experience for the boys. Can't wait for the next installment.
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