Presenting Mrs. Ludlow...

Our final day in Astoria, OR ended with a totally organized Truckster complete with new vanity and kitchen storage area. My yoga mat is now providing the dog with enough traction on the linoleum so her bed no longer slides at every death defying turn on the freeway. She's also surprisingly more centered and zen-like...

Living in a van, down by the river...

Astoria

Jack riding the human Kai slide

Kai's parents threw a BBQ in honor of his aunt and uncle who were both turning 50 this month as well as our visit. Burgers, salmon, and sturgeon fritters + Kai's massive family = a good time. There was no shortage of obnoxious "It's Nifty to be 50" and "Over the Hill" buttons, balloons, banners, napkins and plates. I'm sure Mark and Millie, the birthday boy and girl, were just thrilled with all the attention and awesome decor. KK finished all the leftovers mummu could give her and her HgA1c is no doubt highly elevated.

We left Saturday morning to head north to the Bellingham, WA area to celebrate the union of Caitlin Ross and Orion Ludlow. Her parents who live in an amazing lakeside house were the hosts of this all night soiree. Fresh flowers and mini lanterns adorned every table while pale gray and yellow fabric and tall grass swayed in the breeze as we watched the ceremony as the sun set on the lake.

We sat at table number 12 with all of Kai's old Ashland, OR mountain buddies, former ski lift operators and a lone local celebrity reporter, Tom. (Orion works for one of the local news stations in Portland so naturally there were a few reporters and anchors as guests). But we were the very luckiest of all to have Tom at our table because essentially we all dined with Ron Burgandy last night. Tanned to a perfection and with a sweater tied over his shoulders in a subtle, "Hey, anyone want to go sailing later?" sort of knot, he made inappropriately awesome comments all evening. All that was missing was a neatly groomed mustache.


After a Mexican feast, we enjoyed weepy speeches and champagne toasts followed by an array of delicious pies. The barn was the site for the dance party which really kicked into high gear after most of the guests had caught the last shuttle back to their hotels in town. It was at this time that the bride and groom seemed to noticeably relax and a very small group of us took over the DJ booth, did keg stands, and talked a lot of mess about the issue of to circumcise or to not circumcise. We rocked out to Orion Ludlow original songs and to Ween and the Miami Vice soundtrack (random), we reminisced over good old times when Orion lived in Anchorage, AK. But the most fun of all was spent discussing Catilin's new alter-ego, Mrs. Ludlow. Miss Ross, the girlfriend, was sweet, fun-loving, and cute... but Mrs. Ludlow is going to gain about 50 pounds (mostly in the cankle region), make Orion sleep in another room so that she and the dog, Sarge, have the whole bed to themselves, demand foot rubs, and burn his dirty laundry if he doesn't pick it up off the floor fast enough. Mrs. Ludlow has a deep, gravely voice and she takes no shit. She probably will wear t-shirts that have cartoon characters on the front and says something crotchety like, "Don't mess with me, I haven't had my coffee yet", she'll likely never ever do her hair again, or wear an ounce of make-up either. Us ladies laughed as we watched the developing sweat beads and look of overall dismay and defeat come over Orion's face. Isn't marriage awesome?!?! 


Dr. Jim (Jimbo) Ross, father of the bride, put out plates and plates of his homemade pork sausage at the perfect time, you know when you're drunk and tired and sweaty from dancing and need a little meaty-pick-me-up? The teenage boys from the next house over showed up like little hyenas looking for scraps, but they were after liquid scraps such as half drank bottles of vino and champagne. Kai and I provided cover as they rooted through the nearly empty reception scavenging for bottles and chewing tobacco. Normally I don't condone underage drinking, however these boys' parents were out of town and they were allowing us to camp out in their yard next to their trampoline, so it was a fair trade in our opinion. Plus they got wrapped up in having to listen to the very, very intoxicated best man's current marital woes and anybody who had to listen to that deserved a drink in return.


We slept well in the van despite all the nearly poisonous gas that is the inevitable result of an evening spent drinking beer and eating Mexican food. Thank God for the vent above the bed. This morning we woke up at a leisurely hour and walked up the hill again but this time for a brunch spread. We rondied with fellow party goers and discussed the possible fate of both the best man, who was last seen asleep on the neighbor's trampoline at about 2:30 am, and of Clare, who can be seen in the keg stand photo below, last seen topless (???) and passed out in a vehicle around the same time.

Clare

Intermediate Poets, Theo and Orion

Mr. and Mrs. Ludlow

After hugging the newlyweds goodbye and stealing a centerpiece, we headed out to Everett, WA to have an early dinner with Kai's aunt and uncle. We re-gifted the centerpiece to Eija and Risto, who made us a Thanksgiving sized meal complete with a homemade ice-cream cake. They're kids Marko and Katri and Marko's fiance, Michael, joined us on the deck in the sun. We departed with full bellies and a sandwich baggy full of cookies for the road.


Up next? We're trying to make it to Hayden, ID by this evening to see long time family friends Pete and Jerry LaMetterey, former Alaskans who have successfully made the transition from Alaskans to Americans, like we hope to do.

Astoria Bound

Meanwhile back in Hillsboro, OR it was back to the business of organizing the Truckster to get her officially road-ready. Meaning well and doing well though are two separate things. We awoke lazily to fresh blueberry pancakes and coffee. After dinking around and visiting with family we finally headed into town to attempt to find some furniture for the new "home." Four thrift stores and even a Habitat Restore later and we were essentially empty handed. Why is that always the rule? Whenever I'm looking for a particular item at a thrift store, I cant find it... when I don't need it? There are 20. This happens to me on an annual basis when I get retarded for Halloween costume planning.

Giving up on the idea of finding a dresser or cupboard for the van today, we went about installing the items we did have. Installed was a new towel rack here and there, some of those sturdy clasps that help keep cupboard doors shut while Kai is hauling ass on I-5, and enough rubber shelf liner to make any grandmother proud. Organizing a roughly 100 square foot home is more difficult than it may seem. Some how all of this crap fit in the Robot on the way down, but now it's exploding out of the Truckster like a hemorrhagic brain injury. It's a difficult and frustrating task just deciding where to keep the peanut butter... When will we use the peanut butter next? Should it be in the front of the shelf or near the rear? Why did we bring peanut butter on this trip? When was the last time I even had any peanut butter?

We finally decided that without the new but not yet present storage unit that the van would just have to wait to become an organized machine. So we headed to downtown Hillsboro to check out their weekly Tuesday Night Market. I had the biggest plate of Thai food $7.00 could buy and a cold beer while enjoying some family time on the steps of the Civic Center. I even won a dollar betting against my old man in an impromptu game of "Name That Band" that he likes to think he's amazing at. Turns out, The Animals sing "House of the Rising Sun" and I'm a whole dollar richer.

Local Hillsboro celebrity

After big good-byes and our expressed appreciation for having us and our cat-hating dog, we loaded in the Truckster. The Truckster would not be the vessel it is today without the diligence, hard work, sweat and probably tears my dad poured into it, and for that we are forever grateful. We adorned her with Lebowski quote bumper stickers as well as some Alaskan Love art and a firefighter logo that our friend Mitch said may or may not assist us in the next time we are pulled over. Fingers crossed...

After the sun went down we hit the highway heading west for Astoria, Kai's hometown. Mummu and Poppa were still awake waiting for us when our beast pulled in the drive. KK has never been to her paternal grandparents' home, but oddly enough, she was spoiled just as much as back in Anchorage. She pranced around the kitchen and even started howling as Grandma Melissa gave her an entire banana, a hot dog, and several grapes. She's currently in a banana coma at the foot of our bed right now. I informed my loving mother-in-law that she had just created a monster who will forever stare at her kitchen counter and husky-howl for the fruit bowl to be unloaded directly into her mouth. What in the world will ever happen when we bring children into this world? My own mother will be pouring Mountain Dew down the kid's throat as mom-in-law sprinkles sugar onto Sugar Smacks cereal?!?! There must be some weird age that these women hit that automatically turned them from stern yet loving mothers to crazy, we-talk-baby-talk to dogs and feed them in the kitchen Grandmas. 

Our new nephew Grayden

His big sister, our niece Ciara

 The poor dog is in for a rude awakening when we depart Oregon...

Bender

Heading out to Bend our hearts sank a little watching the gas gauge in the Truckster drop... long gone are the days of the Robot's Japanese gas mileage. Clearly, we'd planned for this, but it was still hard to watch. We rolled into the Juniper Pool Saturday afternoon to see my little sister Ruby swim at the weekend meet. Rubicon was up bright and early in the hot Bend sun, swimming her ass off against the other kids in the under-12-year-old bracket. She took several seconds off her best times in all of her events and looked pretty wiped out by the end of the day.

Rosy cheeked and sunburned, we loaded up into the Truckster and Burb and drove to the center of town where we inflated a massive 4 person inner-tube and the girls got into their kayaks. We loaded a wet bag full of beer and blatantly disregarded the open container laws that we later learned about as we floated the Deschutes River with hundreds of other party goers in boats, tubes, kayaks, and air mattresses. We could've floated that river forever, it was so relaxing and the weather perfect. 

We split with the family for the evening to catch up with friends Mitch and Lesley who live in Bend. We had hopes of getting over to the Deschutes Brewery while in town, but Mitch and Lesley had graciously invited us to a friend's house who were barbecuing that night. The only requirement the homeowner had for us to attend was that we "didn't suck." Knowing full well that we in fact do not suck, we headed to the corner of 14th and Davenport. Our hosts for the evening were Matt, the executive chef of the Deschutes Brewery and his fabulous wife Jill acting as prep chef chopping the biggest mushrooms we've ever seen. The spread for the evening was incredible... Grilled asparagus, tomatoes and hearts of palm, a napa cabbage salad, pork and lamb shanks with walnuts and roasted garlic, wild black rice, growlers full of Deschutes beer, and endless bottles of wine. The company wasn't too shabby either and we could see why they didn't want sucky people to infiltrate their close knit clan of cool people. The beer, wine, and conversation flowed well into the evening. There was even a massive dog party in the back yard that KK eventually joined and managed to keep it cool. We offered free tours of the van in exchange for letting us use their bathroom and feeding us. When it was over I hugged Jill so hard in appreciation that I hugged her full glass of red wine right out of her hand. Red wine and glass shattered all over her beautiful 1920's hardwood floors, I shouted "Mazel tov!" and quickly exited. I think, despite the wine glass incident, we might just have made some new really great friends in central Oregon. 

Afterwards we headed to Mitch and Lesley's amazing home on the other side of town. The dog party continued with their two mellow black labs Sara and Lacy. Amazingly enough, KK and these girls kicked it in the back yard with hardly a scuffle. We relaxed in their huge back yard by the fire pit drinking Tecate, PBR, and Rainier well into the night and there was some drunk talk about rock climbing the next morning. When we awoke we remembered that we needed to get back to Hillsboro and our hosts were actually heading to the Oregon coast to meet up with their families. So instead of physical exercise, we ate at a great little bagel joint downtown. Having worked in the restaurant industry in the past, Mitch and Lesley have these amazing connections... Cohen, co-owner of Rockin Dave's made us breakfast on the bagel of the week, lemon pepper and cheddar. We even had BM's with pickled green beans, carrots and onions. A bagel shop that sells local beer AND Bloody Marys!?!?! Is this town for real? 

We found it hard to leave this morning but we all needed to get on the road. So stoked this weekend in Bend finally came to fruition as it was well worth the hangover and early onset of both renal and liver failure. Good times, good food, and good people. Did we mention that our dog got along with everyone too?!?! There must be something in the water here....

Captain Kai at the helm

Happy Ceilidh

That there is an RV, Clark!

Lacy, the cuddlebunny

God Bless America!!!

  


We awoke Friday morning to find the Alcan open again so we left our fabulous accommodations at Been Lazee RV park and headed out for the longest driving day of our lives. We, as Kai likes to say, had to grudge-f#$% it all the way back to America. As Kai took the first shift of Operation Get Us Back to America STAT, I sat back relaxing, reading up on the latest People magazine. Engrossed in my article about the now deceased crack-head Amy Winehouse, I felt Kai take a deep swerve to the shoulder and let out an, "Ohhhhh shit."  I glanced up to see a cop with his lights on do a u-turn on the highway so as to meet up with us. As the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer approached our window our hearts were pounding, adrenaline flowing as we prepared to Royally Mounted and screwed yet again since our trip south began just 5 days ago.


RCMP- "Hi there folks, where ya' headed to in such a hurry?"
Kai- "America, Washington actually."
RCMP- "I see, do you happen to know how fast you were going?"
Kai- "Gosh I dont know, maybe 110 or 120 kilometers"
RCMP- "Well actually I got ya at 134 km, soooo.."
Kai- "Oh geez... I see"


After this interaction he heads to his truck with our registration and information while Kai and I debate over how much a speeding ticket might cost in British Columbia and if you can pay it online or not... I'm wondering if we might have time later in the trip to return to Canada in hopes of contesting it and maybe the cop would no-show...


RCMP- "Ok, well I'm going to go ahead and issue you a warning today. We like to extend a friendly courtesy to our neighbors from the north here ya' know, but we ask that you please try to respect our laws and speed limits while here ok?"

Black bear gettin' his grub on..

Beautiful detour on the Cassiar Hwy

Hyder, AK

Hot Dog

Traffic Jam

Biker friend

We nearly burst into tears! Canada had given us a break!?!?! This was an odd sensation, one we had not felt since arriving in this strange, yet familiar setting. We ran with it... putting the robot on cruise control for nearly the rest of the trip and spending lots of time behind logger trucks. Kai did a 5 hour shift, we stopped for a short while in hot, desert-like Cache Creek for a burger before continuing on my own 5 hour shift. We briefly saw one of our biker buddies but he flew by at 80 mph which was unfortunately no longer in our cards.

Cache Creek, BC

On approaching the Canadian-American border, we found ourselves stuck in 5 o'clock Vancouver area traffic. After yet another hour long wait at the border, we were able to happily greet our American border patrol officer. Anything to declare? Yes, we are so happy to be home!!!!


A few miles into Washington state and our AT&T 3G network popped back up and we were able to call home. What a long day... we rolled into Seattle and enjoyed a late, steak dinner with friends Nate and Rose, who had been expecting us a full 24 hours earlier. It was great to see them, and fantastic to eat a home cooked meal as we had been subsisting on chicken sausage hotdogs, triscuits, string cheese, and one frozen bag of Skillet Sensations, not so sensational after all.


Cutting our visit short, we pushed on to Hillsboro, Oregon arriving at 3:00am. It took everything we had to pull ourselves out of the real, large, pillow top mattress and hit the road again. We transferred everything out of the Robot and put it into the Family Truckster, our new home and ride. She's a big girl, if comparing her to a human girl, you might say that she's "big boned." The bed in the back just may very well be a toddler mattress as its slightly wider than a twin but not as long. Oh the good times to come...




Up next is a weekend in Bend, Oregon to visit with my family before heading to the Oregon coast to see Kai's. OFT officially begins next weekend as we kick it off with our friends' wedding in Bellingham, Washington. 

Canada HATES Us

So today is Day 4... after my little detour off highway 37 a la Clark W Griswold style.. we awoke this morning to rain, rain, and more rain in lovely Hyder, Alaska. We begrudgingly got out of the tent, packed up faster than I Dream of Jeannie can wink an eye (thanks Bea, it's really catching on) and went, yet again, through the Canadian border. After eloquently explaining why we might be reentering Canada again for the 2nd time in 3 days, we were finally on the road again.


(In my defense,  highway 37 or the Cassiar Hwy runs north to south. I knew we were supposed to be going south and therefore using my American grown logic- I figured we just stayed on that road till we hit the junction to head east back over to the main Alcan hwy. When in fact, you have to yield to oncoming traffic and make a 90 degree left hand turn OFF the highway to be continuing ON that very highway... the road I stayed on then became 37A which led me to the lamest little town this side of the panhandle, Stewart, Canada. When we arrived I talked to several locals who assured me that I was not in fact the first idiot to have done this. Ok, that's enough of me displacing blame from myself and onto the Canadian road and traffic engineers because as my loving husband did point out this morning, "Well, you can still read, right?" Right. The Canadians have not taken that from me, yet.) 


We ran into some biker friends we had met at the Sealaska Bar the night before at a gas station on highway 16 and rode with them for some time in the sunshine until a Harley Davidson shop was too much for them to resist and they exited the roadway.


Continuing on we saw less and less wildlife and more and more slow talking Canadians in small, run down villages where shabby mobile homes appear to be the home of choice. One drunk woman approached me at an ATM to ask, "How does this thing work?" And, at another quaint truck stop gas station I heard my new favorite Canadian quote, "Look at the size of these hot dogs, eh?!?!?"


We were hoping to make it to a town called Williams Lake to camp this evening and possibly reunite with our biker buddies... instead we are just outside Prince George on the Alcan camping here at the ever so lovely Been Lazee campground and RV park. Why would we choose to camp so close to Prince George and not continue on the several hours originally planned for today you ask? Because the Alcan or Highway 97 is closed at the moment due to (and dont quote us because we heard this from a rumor mill that consisted of RVers, truckers and motorists stuck in traffic with us) an ambulance who lost control, ran into a power line at a local gas station which in turn closed the highway for at least 6 hours and caused the evacuation of the town of Hixon because of a gas leak.


It's as though Canada doesn't want to let us through... Is she angry that Kai and I have done nothing but poke fun at her accent and her childlike fascination for gas station hot dogs? Or is it because we've completely disobeyed her speed limits, or maybe because we've cursed the fact that our debit cards haven't worked at one ATM machine since arriving? Whatever the reason, she's totally pissed off at us, eh?

Again, on the positive side, its been in the high 70s and according to our new trucker friend, it had been raining all summer. So we consider ourselves lucky to experience the sunshine and amazing scenery whilst being held captive in this massive land. We've also made great "road friends" whom we bump into again and again at local gas stations and rest stops.  Randomly enough, while filling up in the Yukon, I looked at the guy at the pump next to us only to realize that it was Bret, a CT-scan tech from Alaska Regional. He too was moving down south. What a loss to AK Regional too because he was seriously the ONLY nice CT-scan guy down there.


So, we still have 560 miles to go just to get to Seattle where we hoped to visit friends Nate and Rose and baby Kai on our way down to meet up with my fam for a weekend in Bend, OR. Fingers crossed we make it out of this place alive by sometime next week... haha


Trying our hardest to keep the hope alive,
Nicki and Kai

We Messed Up

Sooooo, while Kai was sleeping, I took a wrong turn on the Cassiar and ended up in Stewart Canada which is the sister town to Hyder, AK... Soooo there's no frenching gas till 7 frenching am and our debit cards haven't worked at any of these podunk Canadian ATMs so we came back home to Alaska. Enjoying a beer and gonna camp here tonight till gas station opens at 0700 tomorrow. Mother French me! On the positive end, this has been a gorgeous drive and it's sunny and clear out. We've seen so many black bears they've become as common as ravens!


Addendum to previous post: If you are ever stuck in Hyder, Alaska please come to the Sealaska Inn and bar. They have free wifi, the bartender Debbie not only pours a mean drink, but she gave us free hot dog buns since we missed the dinner hour! We highly recommend this bar if you're ever in town, stop by and say hi to Deb.

Day 1

We did it! Finally sold the house, actually, right on time. August 1st we signed the papers, packed the car, loaded the dog and hit the highway for Canada. We made it to Tok for night 1. Slept at the Tok River State Recreation site after enjoying a greasy cheesy burger at Fast Eddy's (a recommendation from a Tommy-I-Dont-Give-A-$%#@ back in Anchorage).


A relatively peaceful night, we scored a tent spot right by the river. Our dog is mellow as can be... We think she may be hungover from all the awesome food she scored begging from numerous guests at the going away party... we're just waiting for the vomit to come.


Hit the road this morning and are averaging 36 miles per gallon in The Robot, the name I've given to my Corolla. The Alcan in the Yukon has been uneventful. Lots of ravens, 2 moose, and supposedly a jack rabbit according to Kai while I slept.


We just scored some free wifi here in Whitehorse and wanted to update the blog. We've gotta hit the road though for more Alcan Highway before we set up the tent again tonight. Will post photos soon!


Cheers from the Road,
Nicki and Kai