Many of my friends (especially those in California) have wondered what I've been doing with my life since I left Santa Barbara. I decided that instead of having to tell everyone the same story over and over again, I would just start writing a blog and share it with my friends and family. I am new at this, so please forgive me if I do some crazy stuff on here...
I guess I should start out by telling everyone how I got to Alaska in the first place. Most people in Alaska are from somewhere else, but when I tell people that I am from Santa Barbara, they are all quite surprised that I would leave Santa Barbara and move to such a cold place... Sometimes I wonder about that myself, even though I also consider Alaska a slice of heaven.
Before I decided to move to Alaska, I was a single woman with a solo law practice located in a little room upstairs at the University Club in Santa Barbara, California. My daughter, Gina, and my grandson, Tristan, were then living in Anchorage, Alaska - without me. I missed them so much - it drove me crazy to have them so far away. I had my little routine with my friends, many of whom were my dancing friends. I went to work every day, spending a little time in the office trying to make (and collect) enough in fees to earn a living. I went dancing several times a week, which was my biggest passion. I also went camping occasionally with one of my good friends, Meggi. Meggi was not a dancer - not a country & western dancer, anyway. Meggi was my camping/hiking buddy.
Meggi and I had decided a long time ago that we would not wait around any longer for men to come around that liked to camp. We had our own equipment, so we just went on little camping trips ourselves. It seemed that most of the men in California were not into that kind of thing. We went to Big Sur, Havasupai, the Sequoias, etc.
Meggi was also single - and she had 4 grown daughters. One of her daughters lived in Kodiak, so she had been to Alaska before. One of my best friends (Pam) from my Napa, California, days in the mid-70's was also living in Alaska, and I had gone to Ninilchik to visit her when I helped Gina move up there the prior year.
In 1997 Gina got a job driving a truck for UPS in Anchorage. Of course, just her luck, shortly after she landed the job, UPS went on strike, and she was still not quite on her feet financially from making such a big move. She had rent to pay, and daycare expenses, etc. They told her she was going to have to walk the picket line with everyone else, but she could not afford to pay daycare in order to do that - when no money was coming in. As a result, she felt the best thing to do at the time was to move back to Santa Barbara and Mom for awhile.
Needless to say, I was thrilled. However, she burst my bubble as soon as she got there, telling me no to "get my hopes up" because she was going to move back just as soon as she could save up enough money again. This time I begged her not to move back up without me. I really had nothing to keep me in Santa Barbara. I was looking for a change. Alaska - here we come!
I bought a little 22' Toyota Dolphin dual wheeled motorhome, which we promptly moved into over Thanksgiving of 1997. A good friend (Bob) let us park in his driveway and plug in. I started getting rid of everything I couldn't take with me. Gina started delivering pizzas a night while I watched Tristan. Then I went to work on closing my practice. We started trying to save everything we could for the trip. I bought one of those small bi-fold trailers to pull behind the motorhome, and Bob built some wood sides on it for me. You can only imagine what it was like for 2 adults and a 2-year old to living in that little motorhome for 6 months! But we were pretty happy and looking forward to being able to hit the road in the Spring of 1998.
Well, we heard that Alaska had experienced a "mild" winter, so we decided that by April we should be able to head north. We packed that little trailer as high as we could, and another friend (who owned a moving company) shrink wrapped it for us. At the time, we had no idea about maximum weights for pulling trailers, or maximum load weights for trailers. We just thought that if it fit - it could go! We even bought bicycles that we would store inside while we were driving down the road, planning on biking while we were on our trip. We wanted to take our time and enjoy the Alaska Highway. We had seen it in the Fall, and were looking forward to seeing it in the Spring - when everything would be nice and green. We were hoping to take several weeks to travel to Ninilchik, and then hoped to spend the Summer visiting Pam before heading up to Anchorage to find real jobs...
Finally, the day came for us to take off - April 2nd, 1998. We wrote "Alaska or Bust" on our motorhome and hit the road. I have since learned that many of my friends had a bet going as to how long I would last in Alaska. None of them thought I would last a year. Meggi and Bob were the only ones that thought I would make it.
We didn't get too far before one of the wheels came off the trailer - on Hwy. 101 somewhere around San Jose... Luckily, we did not have an accident - but that meant using our only spare tire before we even got out of California! Unfortunately, Bob had forgotten to tighten the lug nuts on the wheels, and we did not think of checking. Good thing we were lucky girls, huh?
We were having a great time. We stopped at "the Enchanted Forest" near Salem, Oregon, and took Tristan to see all the fairy tale characters. We stopped at parks to camp, and fed the deer, and road our bikes. So far our trip was everything we had hoped. On our first trip (when Gina moved up there), Gina was very nervous and tense because she was making such a big change, and did not know what to expect. This time she was more relaxed, and so was I. We had tapes full of nursery rhyme songs and we sang them with Tristan for miles and miles. Songs I had forgotten even existed - but it was so much fun. Tristan actually turned 3 while we were on the road (April 13th).
However - about the time we actually hit the Alaska Highway - that's when we found out that "mild" is relative... When we were thinking of a mild winter, we were thinking with our Santa Barbara minds. In Alaska and Canada, a mild winter is still a very cold winter. This meant that in April the ground was still frozen, which meant that none of the campgrounds or RV parks were open yet. It also meant that it was still cold at night. And it meant that it could (and did) still snow. There was still snow on the ground - and nothing - and I do mean nothing! - was green.
The only heat we had was a small electric heater - which was fine for the winter in Santa Barbara, but was no help when you did not have a place to plug in. We met some wonderful people throughout Canada that let us plug into their outlets at stores or houses. We also wound up staying at hotels or B&B's a lot. Our trip was not taking as long as we originally planned because we could not camp. We got snowed on a few times. I was totally freaked out on occasion because I did not remember how to drive in snow - especially not in a motorhome with no snow tires! We pulled over beside the road once and then got stuck and had to wait. Someone finally came and pulled us out onto the road, after it had been plowed. All making for an exciting trip, right?
One time, we had another flat tire and we had driven for who knows how long on it - a passing car flagged us over to tell us... They took us to the nearest town to get another new tire and wheel - because that time the wheel had been grinded down to where it looked like one of those saw blades that you paint pretty scenes on...
Another time, we stopped to get gas in a remote place in the middle of Nowhere, Canada, when the proprietor noticed that the tongue that was holding the trailer onto our motorhome was coming apart. He pointed it out to us and we proceeded to panic! He took pity on us and went into his old out-building and found a generator/welder which, thankfully, he managed to get started... He welded it back on for us and sent us on our merry way. Such great people in Canada.
We stopped at Liard Hot Springs and took a dip in the water. We all really enjoyed that. We had it all to ourselves - again, I've come to realize this is probably because it was still winter there...
We saw very little wildlife - the bears had apparently not come out of hibernation yet. We did see an occasional moose or buffalo...
There were times when we had to pull over because they were still blasting rocks ahead - building more of the road. That was interesting. Now the whole road is paved, but I think we were some of the last travelers to see the road before it was completely paved. They are still constantly working on it, but it is all paved now...
Finally - we made it to the border of Alaska! How exciting! We headed past Tok, toward Palmer and Anchorage (on the Glen Highway), when we hit the frost heaves. We were laughing our butts off! You haven't had a wild ride until you ride on miles and miles of frost heaves! The road was like a roller coaster!
By the time we were getting close to Palmer, we got flagged over again. This time we were apparently losing our hose for dumping our black water tank. We looked back, and it looked like a giant slinky had been crawling along the Glen Highway! Another good laugh, and we were on our way again.
By this time, we were only a couple of hours from Anchorage. We stopped there to get a new hose, then headed on down the Kenai Peninsula to Pam's house in Ninilchik. What was supposed to take us more than a month only took us about 2-1/2 weeks, but cost a lot more than we realized, as well. But we made it! and we were ready to start our summertime fun with good friends in Alaska before heading to Anchorage and real jobs...
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