Unsettled and On the road again

Did you ever feel like things just ain't working the way you envisioned it. Our New Hampshire Innkeepers gig was just that. The beautiful Home Hill Inn just never let Heidi and I in completely. Maybe it was the New England attitudes that were never quite ready for us to unleash the fun factor on them. ??? At the crack of dawn on Monday March 28, H and I loaded a little U-haul and headed west. Our final destination - TBD. To all our very wonderful friends whom we miss dearly, we will be in touch as we look for our future landing site. Our temporary home will be a nice home near the shores of Lake Michigan with an ETA of April 2. Meanwhile we had a great night at the Seneca Casino celebrating our escape.

4 days into our trip back east....

4 days of 400+ miles a day through the Chugach mts, then the canadian rockies has worn us out. Snow and ice, 5 hours of daylight have made each day seem long. Driving conditions have been treacherous and the buffalo, caribou, deer, mt goats, and sheep are on and about the roads. Its beautiful of course, but we're on a tight timeframe to make it to northern Michigan by xmas eve.

Stayed in a big ole log cabin in the heart of Muncho Lake, British Columbia last night waking up to minus 27F. The car is not happy. High during the days have been -5 or colder. We are now approaching Edmonton and the high plains. We hope to be able to speed it up over the next few days and maybe squeeze in more miles per day. I don't expect lots of snow again till we get near the great lakes. We'll travel across Saskatchewan, Alberta, North Dkta, Minn, Wisc, then down the UP of Michigan to meet Heidi's family for Christmas. 3800 total miles to there, 1660 down. We'll need a little luck with the weather to make this happen. We hope everybody is getting ready for the xmas and the seasonal holiday, (we miss that being on the road).. , and has great plans. PS. the picture is one Heidi took of me driving between a young buffalo and Mom?

Leaving Alaska for New Hampshire!

After 9 months of experiencing the Alaskan "Last Frontier", Heidi and I are starting a 4000 mile Mid December journey to New England. We have accepted positions as Innkeeper at a quaint Inn in Plainfield, New Hampshire.(www.HomeHillInn.com) We had the best of times in Alaska, especially when friends and family visited. We will miss our alaskan friends and animals though I think Heidi is "Bear-ed out". Of course, we will update the blog as we head back to the Lower 48... and the best news of all is we'll only be 7 hours from our State College friends.

A trip to Seward and out on Resurrection bay

Hi Friends,

We took a break from the beauty of the Mountains and headed to one of the nearby seacoast towns. Seward used to be a bustling seaport from the late 1800's till 1964 when the great alaskan 9.2 earthquake hit and destroyed the town. It's still a port of some significance used by Princess cruise lines. It's the jump off point on the Kenai peninsula to the glaciers. We had the day free so we took the 45 min drive and took a short cruise to see Bear glacier and hoped to see some whales. We did see a family group of Orca killer whales up close. A couple females, one male and two babies...They got within 100 yds of the boat. Saw some seals, sea otters and an interesting bait ball...

Bait balls are large schools of small fish that form a tight pack to fight off danger. We watched while gulls, puffins and other birds dove into the ball and came up with a mouthfull of these fish..cool for a while. Stopped for lunch at an island lodge, Heidi skipped stones..Then back to the harbor. Afterwards we walked through the marina looking at boats for sale. We found a very cute one that we loved and dreamed owning a boat again. We are very jealous of Geo and Veronica pics on our old houseboat and miss it dearly. We are glad it's in good hands though. Then off to Ray's restaurant on the Marina for seafood and Alaskan White ale. We stopped at Moose Pass on the way home for more local flavor. Next weekend we are off to the other coast to visit Homer and Seldovia. We have reservations at Across the Bay Tent and Breakfast ( http://www.tentandbreakfastalaska.com/ )in Kachemak bay. You can only get there by plane or water taxi! We will use bicycles to get to Seldovia 8 miles away. Salmon season is still a week away when Cooper Landing lets loose. We are seeing more traffic through the area daily. If anyone is feeling adventurous...visit us. I guarantee you will see nothing like this again in your lifetime.

dave

Horseback riding and getting to know the Alaska Wildland Adventure folks.

Hi all,

This week we went for some trail rides around Cooper Landing with an outfit called Alaska Horseman. Great horses and views. Met the owner Alex and his righthand Gurl, Kacey. Kacey sings at Open Mic nights at the local watering holes and suggested we ride sometime, so this week was it. We rode with Anne, a visiting Psychology Doctor from England. We got an interesting ride when as we climbed the trail into the Mountains, we encountered lots of snow (up to the horses bellys) that forced us to turn back after some consternation or fear for our lives. Heidi and I plan on doing some part-time summer work at the next door Alaska Wildland Adventure outfitters. I am going to be a breakfast cook for them and Heidi assorted Hospitality jobs. I cooked dinner and lunch for the staff over the weekend for the managers and trainees so they could check me out. Hardest part isn't the cooking but the time of the first sitting. The fishing guides and customers eat at 4am! Then the rest eat at 8am. I'm done after that and plan on doing lots of fishing. Salmon runs start June 10ish, then trout late july and august, then Halibut here and there, when I get to go with some of the staff to the Cook Inlet in the Pacific Ocean. No bear yet, but I'm told that the breakfast cook always sees the most since at that time of morning they roam through camp. Most all the staff/employees here at the camp sleep in tents. Tonight it is cold and very windy with a rainstorm moving in. We're happy to be in our cozy house with a fire going.
dave & heidi

A new neighbor moves in..

A few nights ago we were visited by 2 very large Moose. One walked by our house..15ft from the front porch, up the driveway. It looked like a large clydesdale horse. As we rushed out to check it out, there standing 25ft away was another one. They both lumbered off before we got a camera. Later the next day we walked to the river to see if we could see any rainbow trout coming into the pools to spawn. While down there we woke up a Moose taking a nap in the sun. Last night, we again looked out our window and saw a Moose in the meadow in front of the house. Though dusk, we did get a picture from our porch. He was about 50 yds away. We were told that the moose have their baby's along the river so when or if bears or wolves try to eat them that they push their baby's into the river to float away while they fight off the hungry intruder. The weather is warming up here. 50's now (the new 70's for us). Days are getting long already. Sunrise at 5:30am and Sunset now about 10:45pm. The first Salmon run starts roughly June 11. People around here are getting excited. We ate our first fresh salmon a few weeks ago and it is unbelievably good. So what's that stuff called salmon that we bought in stores? No bear sightings yet, but we're told it's just a matter of time. Part of the alaskan circle of life.

It's Been Awhile

It's been over a week since our last post. Last week we had a few snowy days but since Friday it's been warming up and the sun actually showed up giving us a beautiful day on Saturday. We planted over 100 bulbs around the house so keep your fingers crosssed the warm weather continues. Dave has been busy working on his wood pile clean up - it looks so good an admiring eagle landed a few yards away from Dave will he was working on it this morning.

Good News! Last week we were hired for full time seasonal jobs at the Alaska Wildland Adventure sport fishing lodge next to our home. Dave is going to be the breakfast cook and help with dinners a few nights a week. I have a couple different jobs; meal server, lunch packer and housekeeping (cleaning cabins). The company has a variety of properties all over the state so we will have the opportunity to see and do alot; too many to mention so check out their website when you have a chance www.alaskawildland.com
If I can figure out how to add an attachment to this blog I will include their 2010 catalog for any of you planning a trip here this summer (hint hint)you can see what they offer.

Last night, we had one of the fishing guides, we will be working with, and his girlfriend over for cocktails and dinner. Dave made a delicious meal so they know he can cook. They are super nice and it was a lot of fun to entertain again. It's been a few weeks since Dave has been able to show off his cooking skills to someone other than me! Later this week we are going to change our driver's license and make it official that we are here! Hope all is well with everyone..we miss you! More to come...Heidi and Dave