road trip west

Last Thursday, Jason "Night Owl" Stoffer decided we should drink coffee and leave Maryland at 10:00 p.m. to beat a weather front coming in. So he and Lori "I Was Thinking Bed Sounded Nice, But Whatever" Stoffer did just that, and mostly missed the front. We did encounter heavy fog for a big chunk of the next day, though. There is actually a freeway just beyond this rest stop tree. See the ghost cars?

First official stop was Nate and Nicole's in Ohio. We only had an hour, since we were due elsewhere, but we made the most of that hour. Around the pancakes-for-dinner table, we fanned the flames of community and trade-based living in each other, a big mutual interest. We got a chance to briefly discuss the ideas of John Taylor Gatto, because last time we were through, Nate had given us a cd of 5 of Gatto's lectures and interviews. I want to do a whole blog on him sometime, but for now I'll just say if any of you have children or are interested in education or even just the future of our nation, I recommend giving this guy a listen or buying one of his books. He's brilliant and inspiring.

After spending the night with Jim and Kate, which is always pleasant, we spent a few days in Indiana at J's grandparents' place. Though they're in the care facility now, there are little tasks to do, mice to catch, and old family slides to watch at the farm. We had delisch spaghetti with Dave and Stephanie in Indiana. They're the ones whose old home I blogged about a couple months ago . . .

Then it was off toward Montana. We decided on a northernly route through Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Montana, and because of that, we got to stop and see Booker and Michele in Wisconsin! It was such a great, unexpected visit at ye old Starbucks. Though they only had 12 hours' warning, somehow Michele rallied around and sent us off with bags of reading materials, snack food, and Wisconsin's best beer. Man! Here's us together and then their littlest, Keziah:

Chinese restaurants are usually not a staple in our lives, but we found ourselves in small towns late on two evenings of this road trip, with Chinese restaurants being all that were open. Our food at each was very good, but the dining experiences were strange. Highlights include my ineffective explaination at both joints about my desire to have hot water to drink, you know, like hot tea but without the tea. Nobody got that. My fortune cookie message at the first place was also exceptionally disappointing: "Did you remember to order take-out?" I knew marketing in our country was a bit out of control, but wow. At the second place, our server talked on the phone with an earpiece attachment the entire time. When she'd come by our table, she'd stop speaking Chinese mid-sentence and ask begrudgingly in English if we needed anything. Also, there were old balloons hanging on the ceiling everywhere, but they were completely deflated, so the round ones looked like pig stomachs and the long ones like intestines. Really interesting.

The trip has been cold and windy. When I emerged from the pickup in Fargo, North Dakota, and the -13 air hit me, I was suddenly alive, as if hit by -13 degree air. My nostril hairs were noticably present and active. And I realized, I haven't experience true cold since Alaska and the Yukon when we drove down in December 06. Our fuel filter went haywire before we arrived in Fargo, so we spent the night there. Actually, we had just enough umph to pull into a dealership parking lot. When we landed in an empty spot, the pickup shut down. They replaced our filter the next morning, and we were on our way.

The wind through ND and eastern Montana has slowed us down a lot and made for terrible gas mileage. But we have thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. The northern plains are not as boring as people say, especially when compared to the lower plains. We 've seen the exit for "Home on the Range," as well as a gaggle of deer and antelope, and we've been playing music on the cd player. So we've got that song covered. A slight blanket of snow brings out the layers and dimensions of the hills, and the sky is light blue behind it all. Here are a couple of pics from last night and today. The second one is our Montana version of the infamous last tree cut down on Easter Island:

This afternoon in Browning, which is a Blackfeet Indian community, Jason stood pumping gas while a group of young Indians joked around nearby. We definitely stood out, both in bodily and vehicular appearances. One young man said something to Jason in the Blackfeet language and asked if Jason understood him. Jason said no. "Well," he said, "I just asked 'How ya doin,' White Man?'" He also wondered, "where are you from with that big camper of yours?" On the way out of town, I wanted to stop at a little coffee shop in a tipi shaped building. There, we had such a great encounter with the beautiful coffee shop maiden, Destiny, and the only other customer, Long Standing Bear Chief. We learned that Long Standing Bear Chief got his recognizably Amish hat from an Amish family near Libby, Montana. He also traded their house-building skills for the rights to a children's book he wrote. We learned that Destiny and her friends have also been dreaming of living sustainably in community. You just never know who has been thinking the same thoughts as you. So the four of us chatted for awhile, and we wished we could stay for hours.

At the time of this posting, we have arrived in Whitefish! Mom and Dad greeted us with 3-bean casserole and hugs! I'm noticing a trend in my writing: I always mention the food we eat with people. Weird. Anyway, today we drove through crazy head-and-side winds in eastern Montana and then a near-blizzard crossing the pass into western Montana. This lined up with the NOAA's weather website, which gave a high wind advisory in effect in the east and a winter storm warning west. It's kind of cool/nerdy/technologically ridiculous having this satellite internet thing on our laptop.

And now, we shall chill out in beautiful Montana for a few days and prepare for the northward haul.

general plan for the first 2/3 of 2008, unless something else comes up

We are heading back to Anchorage for a few months of the spring (mid-Feb through mid-May) to work, work, work, and see our buddies, whom we've missed like the dickens. Side benefits will be hopefully catching some northern lights, driving to Homer, hiking along the Turnagain Arm, eating at favorite local cafes, and drinking Kaladi Brothers Coffee.

And by we, I do mean Jason, myself, and Bethy-boo, though we were certain that her days in Maryland, her birth land, would be her last. We had forgotten about that classic overhauler of plans: love. Hunter, Mick and Mark's year-old lab, was smitten with Beth from the moment he laid his dark, giant eyes on her. Originally he had one thing on the brain and one thing only, but when she made her teeth and feelings clear, he settled in to the fact that theirs would be a Platonic, albeit physical, love. They chewed on each other's heads and necks, wrestled, and tug-of-warred (tugged-of-war? tug-of'd-war?) for hours at a whack. The effect was that Beth left a younger woman than when she'd arrived, to our [varying degrees of] chagrin [depending on company]. We love our dog. We do. But rotties make life quite difficult at times, especially for owners on the go. Renting apartments is difficult. Staying in campgrounds is impossible unless you keep her imminently dangerous breed hidden. "Why, Sir, she's a labschumerotchiwaweilleryorkie mix." Nobody could ask for a sweeter, more gentler soul with whom to share time on this earth. She has been our only child, really. However, big dogs usually last for 8 - 10 years, and around the time of Beth's 11th birthday she met Hunter. So, as I say, it's three of us returning to Alaska.

We're on the road at this moment driving from Maryland to Whitefish, Montana, where we'll spend a few days at my folks' house getting Alaska-ready. Then, we'll hit the Alcan highway northward and hopefully arrive in Anchorage mid-February. Once there, Jason will work construction, and I'll do odds and ends. Then, it'll be back to Glacier Park in Montana for the summer, with Jason doing Biology / Fire Ecology stuff. There you have it. But what I really want to blog about is our road trip west. Coming soon. Maybe even moments from now.

leaving the east

In many ways, it was hard to leave Jason's family in Maryland. We had set up home in Mick's lawn (and contributed the obligatory 1% for art in the form of various tire markings). We'd gotten into the groove of their daily schedule, recognized the specific beep pattern for Mick's firehouse when it came across the scanner, listened to Mark Jr. entertain himself in the driveway while he waited for the bus. True, we couldn't deny being excited to hit the road, because we're westerners through and through (me by birth, Jason by decision), but I still thought of bunches of undone things, unhad conversations, uneaten crabs. I guess that's why they make vacations and telephones. But still. It was surprisingly jilting to take off again. Being nomads has its downsides. One of our final goodbyes was with baby Alex, who made his way to the glass door after we'd gone out: