Back to Alaska!

So, here I am again.  It's been awhile since I've posted, but as you know, I've been quite busy and unavailable.  This was our THIRD time leaving Alaska, and coming back again.  Some people jokingly call Alaska "the boomerang state" because it is VERY VERY common for people to come back after they leave, and we are certainly no exception.

I must say it is SO SO SO very good to be back!!!!

It almost feels like we never left, or like we were just gone on a really long vacation.  Chuck says it feels like he was gone on a long work detail.  Everything is pretty much the same as we left it, the people, the places, and the scenery.  I even drove by our house on Sweetie Pie just to see how much it has changed (and also for my own closure because I still miss that house), and that hasn't changed very much either.  My garden beds are even still in the back yard.

Anyhoo, in my last post, I expressed a lot of uncertainty as far as how things were going to pan out for us, and everything went very very smoothly.  No problems getting across the  Canadian border, no problems getting across the Alaska border, no problems quarantining, no problems getting into our house.  We didn't have to spend any of our savings on hotels when we got here.  All went well.

God took care of us.

It seems like a long time ago now, but when we were getting ready to leave Granger, one of our church elders was trying to come over and see us before we left, and on that Friday we were cleaning the house and packing and he asked us if it was a good time for them to come.  Of course we said yes, so when they came we discovered they weren't alone.  Our whole street was lined with cars!  Because of the social distancing, this was the only way we could see everyone and say good-bye.  They all made big signs and drove by our house waving and yelling parting words and we stood on the porch and waved at everyone and yelled back.  There was one lady that came out of her car and ran across my yard toward me.  I didn't care about the social distancing - I had to run to her and give her a big bear hug anyway.  It was so cool that they did that!  They are such wonderful people there at Willowdale and it was hard to leave them.

That same night, we decided to leave because we had the cleaning all done and Chuck decided he wanted to get a 3-hour head start on the next day's driving.  Our first stop was going to be Fargo, ND, and that was a 12-hour drive from Granger.  So we drove for 3 hours on Friday night and stopped in Kenosha, WI.  It was hard to drive through WI without stopping to see anyone, but we didn't want to create any delays, especially since we were hauling two cats, and plus we didn't want to take any chances in spreading the carona virus, especially to Ma.  Anyhoo, the 3-hour head start made the drive to Fargo a little bit shorter the next day, although 9 hours is still a long day of driving. 

The next day we made it to the Canadian border - this was the part that we were most worried about, but it was easy as pie.  Chuck was in the truck ahead of me and they asked him most of the questions, so when I got to the window after him, she only asked me a few questions and let me through.  As for the virus, she asked that we wear a mask when we go into any building, keep social distancing, and she also asked us if we had somewhere to quarantine after we got to Alaska.  But we didn't bother wearing a mask because everywhere we went, most people weren't wearing one.  I hate wearing a mask and won't wear one unless I absolutely have to.  We do try to keep the social distancing protocol though.  And if I use a public restroom, I wash my hands twice.

The first couple days of driving through Canada was long and boring.  Nothing but a sea of open prairies and no trees or animals.  It was nice when we got closer to the Rockies.  The scenery was much better and we got to see animals. We saw Dahl sheep, elk, buffalo, and a black bear.  

Somewhere in the middle of Canada, Chuck stopped unexpectedly in this little side town because he noticed my tire didn't look right.  Sure enough, my tire had a HUGE blister on it and it looked like it was ready to pop.  Good thing he notices things like that!  So we had to find a business that was open that could fix it for us.  We found a garage that was open, but the guy said he didn't have our size tires on stock, so I stayed there while Chuck drove 15 minutes back to the town that we just passed and found someone there that had our tire size, brought it back and had it put on my car, and then we were on our way again.  It took up a chunk of time to get that taken care of, but at the same time, it was a nice break from driving.

When we got to the Yukon territory, things got a little weird.  Traffic was routed to a place off the road where there were some Canadian police (or whatever they were), and they stopped everyone and asked a ton of questions.  Name, driver's license, car license, where are you going? where have you been?  They wanted to know every town we stopped at, where we got a hotel, where we stopped to get gas (as if we can remember all those stops, but we did the best we could).  They also wanted to know where we were going to quarantine after we crossed the Alaska border and they even wanted Steph's address, and I found this to be creepy and irritating because why was it any of their business what we do after we leave their country? - and they were entering all this information on their hand-held devices.  And then they said we had 24 hours to get out of Yukon, punishable by law - "do you understand this?"

Uhhhh............okay.........

And they also instructed us not to stop and do any sightseeing.

Bummer.

It was a long day of driving and we had planned on stopping in Watson Lake, which is just across the border of Yukon.  The police guy (or whatever he was) suggested we keep going to Whitehorse to ensure that we're out of Yukon in 24 hours, but we were tired and wanted to stop.  I'm glad we did because Watson Lake is where they have the "sign forest" and I wanted to see that.

It was just up the road from the hotel we stayed at, so the next morning as we were driving by it (you can't miss it), Chuck let me stop there and take some pictures.  I wanted to go in there really bad!  There was no one else about, so I was really tempted, but we weren't supposed to stop and do any sightseeing and they took down my license plate, and if they see our car sitting there, they might come and investigate, and then what?  This is what was going on through my head, so I decided I didn't wanna take the chance, even though I also "knew" that probably nothing would've happened.

So I snapped a few pictures and left before anyone could approach us.

So another long day of driving brought us to the Alaska border, finally!

There weren't any Canadian law officers there so I don't know how they are enforcing their 24-hour rule.  My guess is that they mostly just threaten you just to scare you out.  Anyway, this gate was a welcome sight, and we wondered if we were gonna get the same kind of treatment, so I was kinda nervous, even though I had no reason to be.

To our surprise, the lady in the window didn't care doodly-squat about the virus.  She never even mentioned it.  Chuck went first so I don't know what questions she asked him, but he said that he offered Steph's address and she said "no, I don't want that".  Very interesting after what we just went through in Canada.

So we made it back to Alaska!  We thought about driving straight to Steph's house, but we would've gotten there in the late evening, so we decided to stop in Tok.  It would've been only 3 hours more of driving, so CLOSE!  But we decided we didn't want to get there that late because then it would be close to bedtime and we'd be too tired to visit, etc., so we decided it was better to stop in Tok, and sleep in the next morning (what a treat!), and then get to Steph's in the early afternoon when we're feeling more refreshed and have the rest of the day to unwind and get the cats settled in.

Quarantining at Steph's house was fun!  I didn't mind the two-week quarantine because it didn't feel like a quarantine.  It felt like a normal regular vacation at Steph's house.

For Mother's Day, Steph enrolled us in an on-line class from her local greenhouse and we planted some flowers in a pot.  My first plant for my house!

 During the second week there, Chuck started teleworking and spent a lot of time on  his computer and participating in teleconferences.  On nice days, he would do this outside on Steph's back deck.  The squirrels kept him company.

It didn't take long for Peeka to find a cozy spot on the back of Steph's couch.

Weeners pretty much spent the whole two weeks hiding upstairs under the bed.

Steph's cat, Shadow, was NOT happy to have her house invaded by two cats!  There was a lot of growling and hissing going on, and several times she would attack and we had to break them up.  I took this picture because I was surprised that they were in the same room together, and Shadow even had her back turned to Peeka, one of those rare amazing moments.

Poor Peeka.  Poor Shadow.

I'm sure Shadow was really glad when we left so she can have her house back.

When Chuck had some time, Steph had a big long project for him:  Steph needed the power steering pump and the radiator changed on her jeep.  This took several days to accomplish.

And in the evenings when it was really nice out, we went for a walk, and somehow we often made our way to Mochalicious, the drive-thru coffee hut.  Even Justin went with us a couple times to get some hot chocolate, which was not like him.

The second weekend that we were there, the weather turned HOT.  

81 degrees on Saturday, and 79 degrees on Sunday!!!

So we took advantage of it.

On Saturday we took a little hike around Chena Lakes.

Despite being 81 degrees, there was still ice on the lake, but the leaves on the trees were budding.  It felt so hot out that day, but I was glad it wasn't sticky hot - the kind of hot that makes me crabby.  So nice to be back in the non-humid climate of Alaska!

I even saw my first moose since we left Granger!

We didn't see any wolves, but that would've been kinda cool, don't ya think?

Anyhoo, when it was time to close on our house, it was time to leave Steph, which was kinda sad, but exciting at the same time cuz I was ready to have my own house again.

We got the keys to our house on Friday, and our stuff was coming on Monday, so that only gave us the weekend to clean and get ready.  The people before us wiped stuff down, but they didn't really clean, so we spent the whole weekend scrubbing.  There were lots of places that have been neglected for a very long time, some things were just gross.  For instance, the hood range above the stove was so covered in grease, we decided to just replace it with a new one.  And of course the cabinets by the stove were covered in baked on grease.  Chuck did a LOT of scrubbing; it's next to impossible to get that off.  Those people must've done a LOT of deep frying.

And don't even get me started on the bathrooms....we are going to get all 3 of them remodeled.

On Monday, there was a welcome sight in our driveway.

It's been two weeks now, and we still don't have all the boxes unpacked, and we still don't have everything organized.  I lost a lot of storage space in this house, compared to my last house, so some things can't be dealt with until Chuck puts up some shelves, or we buy some book cases and/or cabinets.

But anyway, we are settled enough for me to somewhat start getting back into my normal routine.  We still have a lot of work to do though.

Last Saturday we drove to Anchorage to visit PW.  It was good to see her again and to meet her cat, Peanut.

On Sunday, our congregation was still not meeting at the church building, so once again, we worshiped at home and followed along on live stream.  We set up our "podium" on a step ladder in front of the steps that go down into the living room cuz we had nowhere else to sit yet (before our furniture came).

But the following Sunday, the Alaska governor eased up on the restrictions, so we were able to gather at the church building, which was good timing for us, because this way we weren't the only ones who were coming back for the first time.  It was the first time for everyone in over two months, so it was a joyous occasion for everyone, and I was glad about that because I always feel weird getting a lot of attention, and this way we sorta "blended in", although we did see a lot of people who were excited to see us.  Some people are still staying home, so there are still some friends that we are waiting to see, but it sure is nice to see the ones we have seen so far!

On Memorial Day, we joined one of the groups for a fellowship bbq, and that was a lot of fun, even though it was cold out.  We visited some more with some friends we already knew, and also got a chance to meet some new people.

My friend Bonnie gave me 13 tomato plants and 1 cucumber plant, which I was grateful for because I have no garden this year otherwise.  And then later, my other friend Bonnie gave me two more!

I find it very odd that this house came with a nice attached greenhouse, but there's no gardening area set up outside.  (what did they use the greenhouse for?) So these tomatoes will stay in the buckets all summer because I don't have any garden beds yet, but that's okay with me.  Maybe it's better this way because if they are portable, I can move them inside or outside, depending on the weather.  Tomatoes like warm weather, at least 70 degrees, which does not happen a whole lot here in Alaska, but it's nice that I can move them outside when it does get that warm.

The greenhouse can get way up to 100 degrees, which is probably too warm, so we do what we can to not let my plants gets scorched.  The greenhouse has a vent that automatically turns on when the temps get in the 80s in there, but aside from that, we turn on the fans to blow out the warm air, and open the little screen window.  I wish the greenhouse had more windows that open, but it doesn't, so we just do what we can.  So far, I haven't seen it get over 100 in there.

So anyhoo, that's pretty much the latest news for us.  Mostly we're just busy trying to get settled in, and Chuck's been working from home, which is kinda nice.  We still have a lot to do, but we're getting there.