The trip down, was eventful. Made it but not without the showing the new wife how I do things. At least not when traveling alone. I have now made the voyage with my truck some 7 or so times. Couple firsts occurred on this trip, for one, I was with a significant other for the first time. And that told the universe it was my opportunity to show her my stuff. Besides having the trucks check engine light on for the entirety of the drive and breaking 260k very early on into the trip, I managed to run out of gas about 7 miles short of Tok. In my defense I was traveling with a new roof rack that had a fair bit of our gear so wind resistance was a new addition. On top of that the head wind into and out of Glennallen was substantial. Substantial enough at least to slow me down. Thankfully one of the precautions I took was the addition of a full gas can I remembered to fill in Palmer. It earned its keep right then and there. That of course would not be the last time. We had a long push into Ft Nelson Yukon and short of that also about 7 miles I ran short in the gas tank. The can to the rescue finished us there. Go gas can! Also upon arriving to Ft Nelson I discovered that two of my tires were low. One back tire and one front. Aired them up and only the back tire continued to slowly go low. About once a day is all it took. It would be fully repaired in Seattle. Two nights, 3 days of driving and we would arrive to the border at Sumas Washington. There however we ran almost couldn't enter my sweet home of U S of A. Why pray tell, thankfully not because I'm married, few may believe it, but because of some terrorist listed firewood almost kept me in Canada. Figuring we had some room and could save a few bucks in Oregon I through a pile of firewood from the house on the truck. This while not a problem for Canada the US thought otherwise. Afraid we were transporting spruce bark beetle in our strictly birch firewood we were forced back into Canada to deposit the terrorist wood. Thankfully Canada being the lovely country that it is had a place not 10 (meters) from the border where a elderly lady would pick up daily supplies of firewood from a broker shack. Everyday but Friday was her schedule for the troublesome firewood. Back in line we got, and 45 minutes later we were US citizens again.
Our first real stop was in Seattle with cousins David and Diana and new addition, little Shea. A pleasure to hang out with that they had us in their guest room for a couple nights while we adjusted and got some paperwork done for the upcoming international travels. Took in some local brews, hospitality and Pacific Northwest rain, we have continued on towards Bend OR where climbing and more local brews are on the agenda. We arrived Sunday evening and partook in the local brews and climbed Monday with fellow Alaskan and Smith Rock guru Bruce. Good day, little cool but getting back into the swing of things on real rock after a long sucky Alaskan winter it proved quite pleasant. Hoping for another day of the same we awoke to a light but steady snowfall. For all of central Oregon. A early rest day has been taken. A hot bath and shower along with a haircut for me we found a lovely local eatery with some equally lovely locals for company we look forward to a night of brews and a movie before retiring and hoping for better weather real soon.
And worth a note but not requiring elaborate explanation, I forgot the tent poles in Alaska, had to borrow a tent from Bruce, and have our poles mailed from Alaska.
The wife is gaining a good perspective of what she has gotten herself into though claims to still be quite happy and is stilling willing to continue the trip with me. Go me.
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