water water everywhere but mostly on our roads!!

OK, I have tried on several occasions to update you on our lives since we have been home. Alaska made a great impression on us and even though we left a week or two early, we are obsessed with the idea of going back. There was so much we didn’t do. The entire northern area wasn’t visited (Fairbanks, Chena Hot Springs, The Artic Circle and beyond) and much more time could easily be spent in all of the areas we did visit.

In spite of telling ourselves that we weren’t going to rush through Alaska, we did not spend the kind of time in any one area that we had intended. We did spend 8 nights in Denali Park but other than that, 4 nights was the most we spent in any one location. When we did spend 4 nights in one spot, it was a town where we could do most things from a central camp spot. We did not take a car. We anticipated being able to camp in the towns that we visited and figured that just learning to drive the motorhome around was a big enough challenge for our first trip. The next time, we will want to have a car with us. That seems to be the secret to spending more time in the various areas. After 4 days, we felt trapped. Since we got a late start, that was acceptable for the first trip but not the next.

We have not used the time home to any good use. We have things to do but do not seem to be able to organize our time. We are working on that and will overcome in our own good time. We have been looking for our trip for next (actually this 2007) summer. We were looking at leaving in the late summer and heading for the Southwest returning for Thanksgiving. We would fill this in with some shorter trips around Maine, New Hampshire and the rest of New England through the spring and Early Summer. Everything is kind of up in the air now as my daughter has announced her intention to get married in the late summer. Sometimes the best trips are the ones that you don’t plan; just react to the time available at the last minute. We do have some timeshare credits that we have to use also. More as the fog clears and we can clearly see the future.

We still hope to go back to Alaska in 2008. We have been watching all of the shows on TV regarding Alaska. Alaska Magazine Television is one of the best. They are on weekly on the RFD channel. It is a magazine format show. Once in a while they spend the whole show on one subject. It is interesting and well done. They show some of the things everyone sees when they go and balance it with a lot of items that you are not likely to see unless you get lucky. We have seen lots of things that we drove right by. Of course, we saw lots of things that many other people miss too so it all is a wash. North to Alaska is a sporting show that covers hunting and fishing in Alaska. It is hosted by Larry Csonka (always did wonder what happened to him) and while I am not a hunter, it is a fascinating show. They did one episode on hunting bear on Kodiak Island. They had some film of a grizzly that was coming down a mountain in the snow. He slid on his stomach and his back and did summersaults, crashed through several patches of trees while descending several thousand feet of mountain. Csonka and his companions watched the whole descent through binoculars and said “you can’t shoot a bear that is having that much fun”. They turned and went the other way.

Our motorhome is back in the shop getting repaired from our accident in Palmer. We have had no appreciable snow so my snow blower sat unused in the garage until late in the winter. This is one of those deals where we spent money on a good snow blower and haven’t had a chance to let it earn its keep (and don’t mind one bit). We did have some really heavy wet snow at the end of the winter (about 12 to 14 inches). The snowblower earned its keep on that one. We got the snow and then it turned to rain. I had to go out in the rain to clear everything in case the weather got cold again and everything froze right where it was. That didn’t happen and the snow was pretty much gone in 3 days. In fact, the ice went out of the river by our house this week. One day it showed signs of cracking and the next day it was gone. We might pull out the canoe and take a trip down the river before the bugs come out. I’ll have to let you know how that one comes out.

Less than a week later, we had another big storm. We cleared my mother’s driveway but left ours. The snow was heavy and wet and the wind blew steady and strong. We lost our power for 3 days. Trees and branches were down everywhere. The temperature in the house went down to 50 degrees and held pretty steady there. We hung out at the house the first day and bailed to my mother’s for the second day. On Thursday night (Maunday Thursday) we went to the church. Cheryl was one of the leaders of the celebration of the Last Supper. A huge limb was hung up in the wires just outside of the church and the power was out in the church. We held the ceremony by candle light and bailed back to my mother’s to watch Survivor (we felt like we belonged there). We eventually got our power back. Any hope that this would be the last of the “winter” problems ended shortly thereafter when the weather started to prepare us for a Northeaster; snow, rain and any mixture in between. Well, there was little snow but we did get 6 inches of rain. We still have power but we are reduced to one way in and out of our home. Flooding has closed the bridge we usually use and the road beyond our house is flooded. We can get out Witchtrot road but that road is partially flooded in places. We had a trace of water in our cellar but the catch/drain system we have worked and drained most of the water out. We only have a small leak in one place. The house on Parent Street though had water so we put on the pump. Soon the rain let up to just a light rain and the water stopped coming in. It is almost dry by now but I do wish we could get to the dry warmer air. It has been an interesting spring.

We still don’t know what our travel plans will be this year. We think we will travel around New England in shorter 2 week trips. Bar Harbor, the White Mountains and Cape Cod are among the places we are considering. More on that another time. Our main event for the summer will be my Daughter’s wedding. We may take off afterwards but have too much to do before that to sit down and plan.

Well, catch ya all later.