A Landscape Changing Event

You may have heard about the tornadoes that hit Alabama and Georgia last week.  As I was living my normal life of work, exercise (believe it or not), eating, and sleeping, 200 miles away in Georgia, my sister, her oldest son, his wife and four young children were hunkered down in a bathtub as the house shook so hard that it set off the alarm clock while a tornado ripped through their yard.  The next morning, they said that the landscape had changed.  Trees that had stood longer that I've been alive were broken like matchsticks.  There were trees through the son's roof and neighbor's roofs up and down the street (although surrounded by broken trees, my sister's house, which they had all sought shelter in, was miraculously untouched). The mailbox was gone.  Trampoline probably sailed like a Frisbee for miles, as the storm destroyed houses, schools, and disrupted peoples lives all around.  Kevin's daughter's experience was not as close, but a tornado touched down only a few miles from her house in the series of storm's which wrecked havoc across the state. 
The good news for us personally is that all of our family ended up safe. You can repair a house and replace a mailbox, but you can't replace family.  We thank God for protecting the lives of our family and friends and ask him to comfort all that did loose family and friends during these horrific storms. 

The landscape changed for all those affected by the storms and puts our future trip into a different perspective than before.  When the trees blow down, it gives you a clarity and depth of vision you did not have before.  Regardless of the pain, appreciate the vision after the storm, with all of it's changes.  It will help you to see what is valuable and what is temporary.   Make the best of a Landscape Changing Event.

One Month Out

One month from now I hope to be packing my bags and taking care of last minute business to prepare for the flight out to Anchorage.  Every day reality settles in that this trip may actually happen.  When you plan a trip two years in advance you never know if it will actually come to pass.  Crazy thoughts enter your head, like, what if I stub my toe, get a MRSR infection and they have to cut my leg off.  If that happened four months ago, I might could get use to an artificial leg and still make the trip.  If it happpens now my leg is going to be real sore, and if Kevin and I get chased by a bear, he will be able to outrun me and the bear will get ME.  Oh well, welcome to my brain.

This trip qualifies as a bucket trip.  A few years ago I saw the movie Bucket List and knew that on my list had to be an Alaskan trip.  Talking with Kevin awhile back, he told me of a trip that he and a friend made years ago similar to the one we have planned.  We kidded about doing another one ourselves, but didn't really think it would ever happen.  Well, two years ago we decided to do it.  He had a grandbaby that came into the world last summer that he couldn't miss (who could blame him), so we planned it for two long years away.  Well, those two years flew by and now it is summer 2011.

Kevin and I go back, well, to the beginning.  His mom and my dad were brothers and sisters and we were born about a month apart.  We grew up in the little communnity of Chalybeate Springs, Georgia, where we fished, hunted, worked, and played.  My funniest memory of Kevin growing up was when he and his brother went fishing one day.  I was working at a small country grocery store that our grandfather owned and looked out the door in time to see Kevin and his brother coming back from the lake.  It was unusual to see Kevin riding his bicycle using only one hand with his fishing rod in his other hand.  However, this was explained when I saw that his brother was riding in front of him with a fishing lure in his head, connected by fishing line to Kevins rod.  I guess the fish weren't biting (and I plan on not getting too close when we are fishing).

Our plan is simple.  Fly to Anchorage, rent a motorhome, travel for two weeks, get very little sleep, and fly back home exhausted.  We have no big plans or destinations except to fish for some halibut and salmon, see Denali, and have some fun.  We plan to taking some photos, seeing some really pretty county, and maybe even try to meet Sarah (as long as she doesn't talk too much).  I am going up a couple of days before Kevan and picking up the Moho to do some gold panning at a little place called Crow Creek Mine in Girdwood.  I figure with the price of gold, I can pan up about three ounces and pay for the trip.  Hey, I am a geologist, I should be able to find some gold with all of the learning that I have.  If not, my parents sure wasted alot of money on that education.

Next post should be from the Great State itself.

Stay tuned, this is going to be fun.