Home again

Tim and I just returned from a month long trip rafting down the Grand Canyon. I will write more about it and post some photos soon.

A Blank Ballot

Yesterday, as I was handed a blank ballot, I felt so happy, so blessed, to live in a country where I have the freedom to vote. In our year and a half spent overseas, my husband and I spent time in many countries where people can't vote. Or if they can vote, the results of these 'elections' are already determined by corruption and intimidation before they even cast their ballot. The people in these countries told us that they did not have opportunity. They did not have freedom of speech. They lived in fear of their government. They had no hope for change. So as I stood in the voting booth with that empty ballot in my hand, it was amazing to me that I was there, holding onto hope. Holding onto the power to bring about change.

Winter rolls in

Fall in Alaska has come and gone and the long winter has set in, introduced by a night of hurricane force winds that left trees down, roofs blown off homes, and power outages for about 20,000 people around Anchorage. The berries have been made into jam, the moose are in rut with the bigger bulls gathering up the females and chasing off smaller bulls, and it's almost time to vote.

Itchy feet

After 15 months traveling around the world, it felt pretty good to come home. And, it feels pretty good to be home, but... I'm beginning to get those travelers itchy feet again. Lately, I have taken to pouring over maps and Atlases and drooling over photos of exotic places I haven't been to yet.

What to do? What to do? Oh, Oh, What to do? Well, plan more trips, of course. In fact, our next adventure is only a few months away; in November, we have a private 25 day long whitewater rafting trip planned down the Colorado river in the Grand canyon. Following that, I am beginning to brew up some ideas for another solo backpack through Utah's canyon country. Finally, Tim and I are talking about next fall, using his three weeks vacation time to go to Iran. Why Iran? Well, for the history, the culture, the ancient architecture, the beauty of the landscape. And, of course, because it is someplace we have never been.

In the meantime, we are busy doing what most Alaskans do in the summer; getting ready for winter. Our preparations this year have included lots of wood chopping-our insurance against high fuel costs (which, by the way, are still cheaper than most of the countries we visited throughout the world). And of course we take plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful Alaskan wilderness before another long, cold winter sets in.



View of Turnagain Arm from Penguin Peak



Sleeping lady at sunset



The sun peaks through a border of dark clouds. Glenn Alps trail head.



A black bear watches us hiking up penguin Peak



Ptarmigan

Living in Alaska

Our Alaska Home

We have been home in Alaska now for close to two months and are settling in nicely. Tim has gotten a job, and I have been spending a lot of my time hiking in the mountains close by. I sleep a lot, a symptom my neighbor calls 'decompression', brought on by the sudden ability to relax after 16 months on the road! We are also planning our next trip in November, a private raft trip down the Grand Canyon with the whole family. Speaking of family, my grandfather made the front page of the newspaper yesterday and there are some videos of him talking about bear encounters, slowing down at 81, and frostbiting his ass in the Arctic online at the Anchorage Daily News website. Here are the links:

Mountain Man:Wilderness Shapes a Life

Griffiths bear encounters

Frost bite in the ass

Slowing down by doing the Alaska Wilderness race?

Photos from Alaska





























My uncle running the Bird Ridge race



My grandfather and friend Jerry before the Wilderness race

Bears Among Us

These are photos I took of a bear wandering through our yard in Alaska. The wilderness is truly just out our back door here! For more on what we have been up to in Alaska, come visit us at my new Alaska blog.




Alaska black bear laying by the deck. Take a close look at his paw!



I love his brown snout. He looks almost cuddly, doesn't he? (disclaimer-he's not!)



Our neighborhood black bear wandering off through the yard.

Alaska!

We arrived in Alaska!
For photos of the drive and my latest blog updates, please come visit me at my new Alaska blog:

alaskaroadweed.blogspot.com

Why not keep using this blog? Well, I have used 40 percent of my photo space! But I will continue updating here as we travel in the future. Look for us floating down the grand canyon in November and December!

Touching Down

We arrived in Phoenix, AZ on Sunday; My first time on American soil since April of last year. Two things struck me; 1, how convenient and easy everything is and 2, how many really big box stores there are! We stayed with a couple we met on couchsurfing.com , who spoiled us with wonderful hospitality and spent two days car shopping. On the third day, we hit the open road in a 1998 Honda CRV, which should get us reliably to Alaska. I will continue to post photos of the road trip as we make our way to Alaska, and then, because I have really enjoyed blogging, I will start writing about life in Alaska on my new Alaska blog,

alaskaroadweed.blogspot.com

I will continue to update here, too, as we travel in the future and as I think of stories from past trips I don't want to forget. Our next trip planned is in November. My whole family will spend 21 days on a private raft trip down the Grand Canyon.

This is America: The wide open road



Sometimes you just gotta wear shades. A man with his dog and his truck in Utah.



Utah cliff and mountain views. Utah is my favorite lower 48 state.

Two more days

Two more days till we go home.
Fifteen months is a long time, and I am looking forward to going home. One adventure ends, but a new one begins.
Reintegrating into life in the United States.
With a whole new view of the world.
I am also depressed. Most of my life, I have dreamed about and planned for this trip around the world. And now I have done it.
I don't know what to dream of next.
It has been absolutely amazing beyond words, especially the section traveling by land from Pakistan into China, Central Asia, and back into western China.
Such a different world, and yet so much the same.
So many kindnesses from strangers.
Strangers who are so much like us in their basic needs and desires.
Strangers who reached out and shared a small snapshot of their lives with us.
What better dream than this?

Volcanic Eruptions and Torture Chambers

Did I say that we were staying under a smoking volcano? That's not quite true. We are under an erupting volcano! Usually, the clouds are covering the volcano, which is probably good for our peace of mind, but yesterday they cleared long enough that we could see a big, black, growing plume of ash going sideways and up, and looking a bit like those photos I saw of Hiroshima when I was a kid. Tim and I looked around to see if any one was panicking. No, everyone was just going about their business. We pointed it out to a kid. He smirked at us and said "not much dangerous". A lady told us the volcano is very active, erupting often and causing tremors in the earth. But no one says anything about it because, well, they are used to it. And they don't want the tourists to flee.

We, however, are too busy pampering ourselves to flee. After spending our mornings hiking up the flanks of the erupting volcano, we head back into town for a soak in the mineral hot springs. Or to have my body painted head to toe with mud. Or a steam bath. A steam bath? It sounds pretty good, you might think. In reality it is a well devised torture chamber. You sit on a bench in a giant wooden box, and the torturer slides the top over you, so that only your head and neck is poking out of a little hole in the top.

A hole like you see in those medieval torture contraptions.

Then the scalding steam is turned on. After about five minutes, when you think you can't handle another second, the torturer gets you out of the box, dumps ice cold water over you, and then puts you back in. This time you stay in longer, until you think you are about to pass out from the heat. Granted, you do have control over how much steam is coming out, but if you want the maximum cleansing benefits you want to keep it as high as you can possibly take.

More ice cold water. Another 15 minutes in the steam box. It's almost unbearable by the end. You lurch out unsteadily, drink a shot of mystery plant liquid, and now sit in the ice cold water. Then back in the box, nauseous, dizzy, with a pounding heart. Thank God it's the last time.

Then the grand finale. This time you are hosed off with a jet stream of ice cold water. My skin is as healthy and pink as a baby's bum.