In, Around, Under and Above Anchorage and Soccer Field

We are now in Seward and Aunt debbie has forced me to do this blog post today cause she did it two days ago and it's time for me to do it. So here's what we did the past few days. We got into Anchorage around noon and needed to exchange our rental car for a cheaper one. So we went to the Avis downtown. Okay this is Aunt Debbie, and I have to take over. Will forgot that we checked out of the hotel saturday a.m., ate at snow city cafe were he consumed massive quantities of biscuits, gravy and a a breakfast burrito. Thank goodness though because it took over 2 hours to finally switch out vehicles, well maybe not quite that long, but we did have to go from downtown to the airport. The woman "Star" was her name, no kidding, couldn't get the computer to cooperate and therefore wanted to charge me a $160 drop fee!! Sorry, I still have to feed Will for a few more days. Anyway, we connected by phone with Caroline who was doing nursery duty at church so we headed to an Alaskan adventure at the Beartooth theatre. We ordered pizza, and joined all the other peoples in the theatre to watch National Treasure book of secrets while dining.

Will's back!! Go Will, go Will, GO WILL!!!!! That was the song you guys were supposed to be singing cause you were so happy that I was now doing the blog. Haha, I know you guys love me. Anywho, the rest of the story. We got to the Kirby's and just hung out the rest of the day, I know that seems boring, but I enjoy some downtime once and awhile. Especially after running around like a chicken with its head cut off these past few days. The next morning we went to church with the Kirbys. There church was HUGE!! The largest church in Alaska. Their attendance was about the same as our church in Tennessee, but the building was an old Factory and contained thousands of square feet. Each kids classroom was about as big as our Apex. Those of you who have been to my church know that is somewhat of a large room. They even had slides in the classrooms. One was about as big as the slide we rode on in Fairbanks. After church, I went and played a game of indoor soccer on their churches soccer team. And it was fun! I played goalie. Now I know you all are thinking how many did he let in. And some of your guesses are around twenty goals. But you are wrong, Wrong I tell you, WRONG!!!!!!!!! I only allowed two. And they were flukes. I had both of them. One I dove for and it glanced off my arm, hit the goal post and rolled in. The other I stopped. and when I reached out for it, the stupid ball rolled over my arm into the goal. But hey, at least I had fun. After that little escapade, we rented I am Legend, watched it and went to bed.

It's getting late so I better get off of this thing we call the "Evil One" ( the computer). Not to be confused with "Evil One Jr. (the TV), or Evil One Jr. Jr., (the Xbox), or the "Evil One Jr. Jr. Jr. (the PS2), Or "Evil One III J,. (the Wii or anything Nintendo, The Gamecube, Gameboy, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, etc.) And last but not least "Evil One III Jr. Jr. twice removed, (Atari.) I'll tell you about Sewerd and Homer tomorrow. Keep the comments coming. You guys were slacking the last few post. I just wanted to leave you guys with one las thought....................

Glacier flying... and driving

Well, we are in the big city of Anchorage again. Yesterday was a slow morning that developed into a beautiful flight over around and through part of the Alaska range. We landed on a glacier and Will took a nap (....).



It was an awesome day of beautiful weather and views that will be stuck in my head for a long time! Quite impressive! The rest of the day was spent driving back to Anchorage were we had an awesome meal at the Alaska Brewhouse! Of course I had salmon, Will ribs! I just saw the weather and it is supposed to snow this week here, although the temps are 30's today! We are now entering the "twilight zone" version of our vacation... I have not made a plan.... well anyone who really knows me is not surprised! So start praying!! Oh we are going to stay with some relatives of a friend! Maybe you all should pray for Caroline and Matt!!



See ya, keep the comments coming and hopefully Will will be inspired to write again soon!

Hanging in the Thriving Metropolis of Talkeetna

On the way to Talkeetna, we stopped by the local store known as Wal-Mike's. If you needed a tire, they had it. If you needed any thing, they had it. Just like Wal-Mart. They even had that little star in-between Wal and Mike's just like Wal-Mart. Can't get the pic to show up for you... you will have to imagine



Talketna, a small town in the middle of Alaska, who's size makes an acorn look huge. Taking advantage of this small town, I went for a little drive.



It was quite interesting. Especially after I parked and Aunt Debbie wanted me to get closer to the hotel. I was close enough. It was a fine place to park. But no we had to move those extra six inches closer. Aggh!! So I did. but I went about eight inches, and that wouldn't do for Aunt Debbie. So I had to back up those little two inches to make her happy. I backed up three. This went on for a few minutes until I just turned off the car and got out. Before our little driving adventure, we stopped into a little pizza place and watched some March Madness. I ate one huge Calzone. It was about 15 inches long and about 10 inches wide. I almost ate it all. About three fourths of it. But man! it was BIG!!!! The hotel we stayed at had the greatest french toast I have ever had (made fresh by the owner who is originally from Switzerland). One of the cool things about this hotel was the fact that they had a theme over every door and a few bible verses explaining that theme. Ours was Repentance. Thank God the local Catholic Church was having confessions that very day. i can breath much better now.

Heally, then to Talketna

We are ALIVE!!!!! The hit-man did not come last night. He must have been off duty. When we got there was nobody there. And on the main desk was an envelope with our name on it and the keys to our room in it. Talk about freaky! After we put our bags in the room, a lady who claimed to be cleaning the carpet, came into the Motel. My personal opinion is that she was cleaning up the mess left from the last victim. Then on the way to Talketna, we kept seeing the cleaning lady's car frequently pull over on the side the road along the Nenana River. I swear I saw her drag a body out of the car and dump it in the river. Seeing this made me feel extremely grateful for the "Killer at the Motel in the Middle of Nowhere" passing up our room last night. Another thing that happened last night, was we saw the Aurora Borealis. It was just glowing and getting brighter occasionally, but nothing extraordinary. So we decided to go back inside. And about halfway down the road to the Motel, I turned around because I thought I heard something behind me. And there it was dancing across the sky! Man it was awesome!

From the End to the Middle... Somewhere

Sorry for not keeping you guys posted. We've been stuck between a rock and a hard place. Something about being an hour from the nearest city, makes it somewhat difficult to make contact with the outer world. So what, it's vacation! Okay that was not our thoughts about The Chena Hot Springs. Being a teenager and one who likes, and rather prefers, being in contact with the outside world, this somewhat stunk. We had two working channels. CNN and ESPN. But they were as grainy as sand at Myrtle Beach. I couldn't even tell who had the ball or what the score was during March Madness. So I felt the need to go outlaw and protest with Management.



Now I know all you moms are shouting Hallelujah at the top of your lungs because I was separated from Technology. Not funny!! i would love to see you guys go without TV, the internet or even Email (mom.... echem). It's not fun. But oh well time for what we did get to do at Chena and a couple of stops before Chena.

We went to the north pole.





Then we saw Alaskan Pipeline.





and then on to Chena hot springs. The first thing we did was eat. The food was one of the best things Chena had to offer. Then we went to The Ice museum. Where WE drank out off Ice Martini Glasses,




I preached from the pulpit,


had a bad dream,




went to the Bathroom



and wrestled with the Coca-Cola bear for some of his Coke and lost.







Swimming in the hot springs was the best part of the whole visit. Although you had to be an adult to swim in the hot springs, I swam in it. I may not be an adult but at least i act like one. Okay not really, but hey how old are you when you become an adult as a Jew? 14. What about an Eskimo? 12. I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel now. I better stop. The cool thing about the hot springs was the fact my hair froze. I spiked it up and in a few minutes it was frozen solid.





It may not look frozen but over my right ear you can see icicles hanging off of my hair. Pretty cool. literally. But the best ting that happened was we saw the Aurora Borealis. It was out briefly and wasn't that bright but is was still beautiful.

End of the Road... Chena Hot Springs

Sorry no pictures or post from yesterday. We left Fairbanks, saw Santa at the North Pole, Pipeline and on to Chena. We have no cell service, and the other phones weren't up yesterday, or the internet to well... now I know we are still in the U.S., but it has taken a half hour to connect here today!! So we are basically "unplugged" enjoying it, but no lights last night!! Pray for the dance to appear tonight! Hopefully we will be able to post tomorrow!! Love ya, Keep the comments coming!

Bite My Finger!!!!

At first I was going to ask the salmon to pull my finger but... I knew that my Aunt would not approve and the salmon would feel un-evolved cause he didn't have any hands or fingers. So I just asked him to bite my finger instead. The morning started off eating some fake breakfast at the hotel. But at least the waffles were good and somewhat real. Then we stepped out of our comfort zones and went to church....... We decided to go to the church of our Avis car rental clerk that God specifically placed in our path so that we could experience this interesting church. The choir was good and the lead singer dude payed the eukelali and the bass player was a girl. The sermon was pretty good and the Paster got really emotional. But who can blame him, Jesus did a lot for him and all of us. After church we continued our quest to master Fairbanks and figure out where in the world we were going. We familiarized our selves with Fairbanks by missing our turns, cause our map stunk. The highlight of my day, besides church, was the Ice park.


At the Ice park there were sculptures made out of Ice that were incredible.









Plus about every thirty feet there was an Ice slide for the little kids.




And of course I had to go down everyone about five times. The coolest one was one about forty feet long and about twenty feet high.






This one we went down about thirty times. Okay not that much, but it was a lot. The funny thing that happened was when Aunt Debbie got stuck in a ice bowl. I had no trouble getting out and knowing that she would have plenty of trouble getting out, so being the good kid I am I said "Hey Aunt Debbie, how about you get in that ice bowl." She did and she got stuck. And I got a kick out of it. I know it was mean, but we thought it was funny to so it was okay.



Although it was about nine degrees, I was having so much fun that it didn't seem cold. Aunt Debbie is still hindered by her cold and thought it was freezing. Please pray for her to heal up quickly so she can "keep up with me" as she always says. Now we are eating our dinner and looking forward to tomorrow. Keep the comments coming!! thanks to Will for todays post!

"Life's short stay awake"

And that my friends and family is what we are trying to do! 12 hours on the train from Anchorage to Fairbanks, and our shuttle was an hour late sooo... with my cold and all this will be short!! The highlights 6 moose sightings, 8 caribou, 4 dall sheep, 2 people snow shoeing in the middle of what appears nowhere and ... drum roll 1 BIG DENALI! Actually we were truly blown away with many views of the Alaska range, Chucagh, and Talkeetna! As most people will tell you up here, seeing the big one, Denali is never to be taken for granted as it basically has it's own weather system up there at 20+. It was an awesome day really, and so much more to tell... but alas my nose runs and Will is off to find food or snack... he is tiring of the stash of Clif bars and well considering the price of train food... oh yes Will ate reindeer today!! So sorry to tell you all that Dasher will not be flying next year :) Okay my cold medicine must be kicking in! Thanks to all of you for your prayers... they are working, we are really seeing and experiencing great things... keep the comments coming

and if you were wondering what Easter is about... it's about the one who created scenery like this! Happy Easter!

What is on the Horizon tomorrow?

First day of new horizons! Breakfast at Sno City Cafe, and then I "made" Will walk down on the coastal trail! We dodged the cross country skiers, runners, and prayers... well it's Good Friday after all! I had flash backs when part of the trail took me back to mile 22-23 for me in the marathon 2 years ago. I have had salmon, and crab cakes today :) I am praying for patience to be able to post some slide show photos, it's not working for me!! Oh well, maybe you all will have to wait for the 50 pics a day! God is probably "sparing you!"



Will Speaks.... well not really, Will is tired, Will is writing in his journal :)



I do think that some of the hightlights of the day were sliding in the tunnels on the trail, eating Haibut at Humpy's and watching good basketball, learning history of Alaska, and being blessed with sunny views of both Sleeping Lady mountain and the Chugach range. I will leave you with this photo Will took of Sleeping Lady when we were on the trail!

English speaking airport porters please!!!!

Hey we are finally here! LONG flights and a sudden need for Amazing Race training were highlights of our trip. Thank God our luggage made it. Our flight to Denver got delayed about 30 minutes and we arrived about 40 minutes off schedule. That gave us about twenty minutes to get to our connection flight on the opposite end of the extremely large Denver airport. And the Indian airport dude, who couldn't speak hardly any english, offering to put my aunt in a wheelchair and roll her across the airport as fast as possible. We know he was trying to be helpful but...... in retrospect, Aunt Debbie probably needed the wheelchair, but she made it! Oh well, God still got us here safe and sound with nothing lost. YAY!!!! WF

We will post pics when we get some... too bad we didn't have any "head cams" the sprint through the airport was not pretty, but in some ways funny. I had a "lovely" coughing spell when we boarded the plane, and I was getting the "look" from this one woman who offered me gum, gum for coughing? Water was more what I was thinking... oh well, I prayed (a lot) dug in the bag and found a cough drop, and the lady stopped giving me the look... then the nice guy next to me started coughing... gotta love winter long flights!

okay... we really are going...

WOW... this is the photo op we are praying for this weekend! Yep this weekend! I got off work early today (thanks McQ!) so the laundry is going the bags are 1/2 packed and my excitement continues to build at the next part of the journey. I will drive to TN tomorrow, and we fly out Thurs afternoon...
Funny today I was reminded that 15 years ago I was living in Charleston, planning on getting my next assignment in Alaska. My little sister? Her world was changing. Headed into an unknown journey with the child she was carrying... we didn't know Will yet, we hadn't met him, but he was known (Psalm 139:13) SO cool to know him now :)

WILL SPEAKS!

"Hey Everybody!!!! It's nine days until Alaska and the anticipation is mounting. Thank you all for the generous donations to the Alaska fund. I really appreciate you guys!!! All the gear is here and I'm all set equipment wise. I'm loving my new Under Armor Cold Gear and my North Face Jackets, especially the black North Face. I wear that one everywhere. They are defiantly the greatest clothing purchase so far. But I'm sure my mind will change once the cold weather of Alaska tells me otherwise. Because of the cold, I may start liking my thicker, warmer clothes better than my thiner, lighter ones. I can't wait to go and even when I step off the plane into Alaska, it will still seem like a dream."

Well... I do hope that my "old" gear holds up to Will's new stuff... and I pray that all his new gear carries him through as many travels and adventures as mine has! Oh and although most of you all are praying the snow to be over here... pray that we will get to put Will's gear to the test! ... and ditto Will's thanks to all!

Countdown

Ten days from now I will be heading down to Gray TN and on to Alaska after hooking up with Will ... as soon as I get this path cleared!
The "blizzard" started on Friday and I watched as the snow swirled and danced around outside my windows and doors. Saturday brought more of the same and I had to laugh as I checked the weather reports of Fairbanks and Anchorage... reporting balmy 45 degree temps, some winds, and rain!
So once again I retrieved the fleece, long johns, and geared up to clear the snow off the driveway ... oh the beautiful snow!
Really I want some snow... in Alaska, when we get there.... in just 10 days!!