him - 3aug13 - stuff and casey is clumsy

Disclaimer: i wrote this thing about 10 days ago. sadly, i've been unable to upload the pictures that i took, so i simply didn't post it. so, while reading, pretend that it's actually about a week ago.

Making fun of Casey

packing was rough on casey. she had to sleep on the floor for several days. we only had a couple dishes we could use and the plate selection was rather limited. in fact, i took away the kitchen table and chairs. and the rolly desk chairs. such as it was, she was forced to sit in the camp chairs that we purchased from REI. all in all, they are great chairs...i like them lots (not least of all b/c when they break, we can return or replace them at our leisure). sadly for her, they don't have much in the way of 'grip' or 'anti-slip' or 'anti-don't-fall-on-your-ass' bits on the feet. as it turns out, all of that lack of stuff combined with my slick wooden floors and casey don't make for a good combination. 

so, we were sitting around my fancy new card table in our fancy returnable REI chairs a few nights back. probably on saturday night. maybe friday night. the night had been a little stressful (not terribly uncommon as we both uprooted ourselves from our known lives and friends and security in search of new knowing and more friends and whatnot). i think i was checking my email and facebook (dreadfully important, i know (i've spent some time with a londoner over the last few days and it influences my speech patterns)) for the first time that day (not counting several hundred glances at my phone). i'd been pretty damn busy with packing and cleaning and building and all that. i'm fairly certain she was setting up her new ipad.

so, as she was setting up the ipad, i was helping her figure out how to transfer some word and excel documents from an external hard drive to the ipad; this required two new apps: "pages" and "numbers" (i really like the names of those...quite clever). i had brought up a page or video on my computer and had turned it just so she could see the screen. apparently, i didn't turn the computer quite far enough, forcing her to lean forward and turn it a bit farther. as she did this, she fell right on her ass.

it happened rather quickly and she didn't fall that far. at first, she didn't react at all and i worried that the days' stress combined with a little fall would morph into some tears and unexplainable girly emotions. fortunately, i was way off base and she burst into laughter! first thing she said was "you're gonna blog about this, aren't you?!?". i was thinking "most likely", but i said "are you alright?". after a few seconds, the laughter tapered off and she righted the chair...no harm to her poor derrière. 

luckily for us, this little incident helped us boil off the stress of the evening and end on a pretty positive note. so, the moral appears to be as follows: if you're having a bad night, find a way to knock your girlfriend in such a way that she laughs it off and then you'll feel better. 

also, she farted several times in the car on the way through canada. got me the first time…thought it was me. again. last time that’ll happen. now, it’s deeply embedded in my psyche that she farts and it stinks bad. i’ll not blame myself again.

Different Perspectives (as of a week ago)

 so far, we really haven’t done much that’s resulted in significantly different perspectives. we’re still working through our different styles of planning and packing and living…it’s going pretty damn well considering how ‘out there’ our lives have become.

sometimes, she thinks i’m not nearly detailed enough in the answers i give to her questions. sometimes, she refers to ‘it’ or ‘that’ without naming the object because we have spoken about it in the past. it’s just little things like that. nothing major.

the only thing that sorta fits the bill is us finishing the Yukon Trail Marathon a few days back. my second race and casey’s first standalone marathon (she did complete that Ironman back in the day). i completed the half in 2:13, coming in 35^th out of 102. casey completed the marathon in 4:17, placing 17^th out of about 60 (i forget the exact number and i don’t want to steal any of her thunder). it was a tough course (i actually got off course and cost myself about 3/10 of a mile…several minutes). i’m pleased though…it went SIGNIFICANTLY better than my race in Michigan (amazing what a proper diet and a little training can do for you)…35^th percentile vs 48^th percentile. really pleased. casey was thrilled with hers, even if it was only a training run for her long run ;). we both figured out some things we need to do to improve, which is really the most important thing about stuff like this. and we had fun.

Building the Truck

so, as most everyone knows, i own a 2007 toyota tacoma. currently, it has 114,000 miles, give or take a few hundred. back when i lived in colorado i purchased a hitch-mounted bicycle rack that holds up to four bikes. shortly after moving to alaska, i bought a 'camper shell' (not really sure what the proper name is) that covers the bed of the truck...it's the standard model with a couple of windows on the side and it's the same height as the cab of the truck (in retrospect, i would most definitely have purchased a shell with a much higher roof…one that was higher than the cab, allowing for more headroom when trying to sit up in the back as the platform takes up a good 10 inches or so).

bikes on back and fuel/water cans in the wooden box on top. yakima box is just visible behind the wood. obviously, they're both sitting on the shell.

anyhow, a few months back, i got the thule bars installed on top (they are what the cargo boxes or ski racks or whatever else you want to put up there sit on). the bars have a dealer recommended ‘300lb weight limit’ which we’re trying to abide by…don’t really want to damage the bars or the shell, so it’s a bit of a balancing act…what goes in the bed and what goes on top??. shortly after i purchased those, casey bought the 18-square-foot yakima cargo box (the big plastic thing with a top). currently, its full of climbing gear and paper towels and sleeping bags and sleeping pads and whatnot. 
 

open yakima box. visible are a bunch of backpacks, some trekking poles, a bike pump, and some other crap.

a few weeks ago, i built the platform in the back. not to toot my own horn, but it's literally the first thing i've built other than a bird house and some pinewood derby cars when i was a kid. that took several days longer than it probably needed to, but it's working out great so far. we have a couple of plastic bins each that we use to store our clothing and toiletries and a few other bits – bought the specific size of bins to match what the platform would accommodate and they fit underneath just about perfectly. also, have a couple of little cubby holes with lift off covers towards the cab (in front of the wheel wells); mine is filled with random crap while casey’s is filled with some dust and air.

a little cleaner than normal, but this is generally what the backend looks like. the two black boxes contain our food and kitchen/cooking stuff. the blue on the right is the tarp we covered our bikes with.underneath is where we put our clothing bins (the center two spots...casey has the one on the right).

the cubby holes in front of the wheel wells. not huge, but an extra space to store things. also, this nicely shows off the astroturf i used to cover the whole thing. it's real nice.

about a week after that (and just a day before we left), i finished the other cargo box that's sitting on top (it's the second thing i built). this one had to be waterproofed, which took a little thought and still needs a bit of work…the paint has been rubbed off in spots after only a couple of days of travel! maybe a clear coat of some kind? mostly, just using it to transport the fuel and water cans as it isn’t protected from the elements. maybe we’ll end up getting a couple of large dry-bags.

fuel cans in the wooden box. the holes are both for drainage and to reduce the weight a tad bit. i'm sure i could've put many more holes in it.

we’re using several plastic boxes in the bed and the cab (two of them contain our food and our cooking stuff) as well as a cooler to organize most of our things. seems to be working out pretty well so far. we’ve been making several trips a day, ferrying things between our campsite and the truck; partly, because we don’t want our valuables sitting in our tent and partly because it helps us stay organized. we’re continuing to refine our systems and I suppose we’ll continue to do so as we continue. all in all, everything is going great so far.

The Future

we'll be in birchwood, wi for the next week...leaving on saturday for montana. i think we're going to make a stop in south dakota and climb for a day, but i'm not totally certain. while in WI, we'll fish quite a bit and drink some beers and have some bonfires with casey and her family. pretty great so far! 

more to come.

HeR - Hello August, where did July go?

We made it out of Eagle River and onto the first destination!  I didn't think the day would come - although in reality we were only about 11 days past when I originally thought we would leave.  But had we left any earlier - we would not have had the opportunity to see my first up close bear, nor had a moose trample through a campsite in the middle of the night (i am telling myself it was a moose), drove through a rain & hail storm, met a Londoner on his 20th month of travel, a trip that started in South America, or tested each other's patience and resolve with all the "little shit" that happened up until our departure.  At any rate, I'll use the cliche phrase that I believe wholeheartedly in, "it all happens for a reason" and we were late departing for those reasons.

July was a flurry of activity - hence, another month goes by until I post.

Rolled off project July 6 so work was officially done at that point; however, has unofficially continued to take up my time as "minor details are sorted" with the contracting company.  A project end always seems to come with unexpected hiccups and now that I expect these instances, I pretty much take them in stride. Case in point, having to move from the apartment to a hotel for the last week of the project.  What a waste of time, but in hindsight it prevented me from procrastinating on sorting and packing clothing and possessions for Michigan, road trip, or storage unit.  I was pretty much ready to head out whenever I got the word.  

Michigan trip was fun - spent an entire week at a beautiful place with good company.  Can't ask for much better than that.  Indulged in delicious Michigan cherries and home-made raspberry jam along with gluten free goods from Unrefined Bakery - Barry's mom and sister (Anne and Taylor) own the business and make some really tasty non-allergen baked goods.  They have hooked us up with their snack bars and pancake mix for this trip - and I must say, not being a huge pancake fan, I love that stuff - it's pretty much been our staple breakfast along with eggs most mornings.

Upon returning from Michigan, Barry focused on getting his house ready to rent out, packing up everything for storage and the trip, building the platform for the back of the truck, organizing the heaps of gear in the garage, and building an additional wood topper to carry fuel, water, cooler.  He underestimated (by 11 days) the amount of time it would take to complete all this, which made for some terse moments as I don't do well sitting patiently and waiting.  If I have learned anything about Barry the past few weeks, its that he is a tinkerer, he measures everything to precise detail and then measures again, he is more of a gear head than I originally thought, and he is not a budgeter (which is the opposite of me).  Very interesting to watch him work - sometimes I wanted to yawn and knew that if I would take a 30 minute nap and woke up, he would probably still be measuring the same piece of wood to triple check that his fifth measurement of his seventh plan was in line with his tenth idea - oh and he might have to make his 15th trip to Lowe's to get the piece he forgot five trips ago.  But he completed it - and did a great job - so whatever gets the job done...

Two big highlights from last few weeks in Alaska were spent with some great friends - went to the Matanuska Glacier with a few girlfriends to learn and practice crevasse rescue.  It rained on us for a bit, but weather isn't much of a deterrent for me.  Rain, snow, ice, wind - certainly less than ideal, but with the right attitude and company it's no big deal (and can be quite fun!).  The whole walking on ice thing is still new to me.  Counter-intuitive.  Oh - here, take these spikes and put them on your shoes, carry these sharp picks around and just walk normal.  Same mental block I had with I had with ice climbing.  Ice is slippery - how the hell are the tips of few small sharp things going to help me climb ice and then you want me to hold this sharp thing that I will probably stab into my leg when I fall!  But it works, and it's fun, and I've learned to push the bush, and not swing like a girl, so I think I have found another hobby.

Second highlight was running Crow Pass. The race had been held the day before and the winner did it in 3 hours and some seconds.  The distance is 24 miles and after seeing the trail conditions, river crossing, and losing trail a few times -  I am convinced that Alaska is full of bad-ass runners (which I already kind of knew from Mount Marathon, Bird Ridge, Hatchers Pass, etc).  Definitely a novice - I am learning the ins and outs of descending quickly and ascending efficiently on uneven terrain.  Of course, I was the first in our group to take a spill, and of course it was in a little creek.  So much for keeping the shoes and socks dry - we were only 2 miles into the run.  My knee was bleeding, my elbow ached a bit, I was soaking wet, and I was deliriously happy. Not less than a mile or so later, another girl took a spill from stepping off the side of the trail - we both laughed and carried on.  Obviously, I desire nobody to get hurt, but part of trail running is knowing you are probably going to catch a rut or roll on a rock and take a spill.  And it's almost like a high-five moment when you do it, and realize that other than scrapes, bruises and a bit of pain, you are still able to get up and finish your run.  I also learned about "now you see him, now you don't" moments - one minute you are following the lead guy with the whistle and bear bell, the next moment all is silent and you can't see his head bouncing ahead of you.  You hear some rustling in the weeds, a few groans, and the dude pulls himself back on his feet again - that happened about 8 miles into the run to the lucky guy that was accompanying us ladies on the run.  The river was pretty swift and broad, more than usual, so we all met up at the crossing and crossed together - talk about a free f'in ice bath, glacier water is cold - and I am not talking just plain oh "shriek, that's cold", it's more like "piss your pants cold", which is what I would have done but everything was numb and frozen down there so it may or may not have happened - I have no clue.  After that (~mile 11ish), Neil and I took off for the last 13 at a reasonable pace.  At about mile 18, that reasonable pace became a face plant into the dirt for me.  I was going to play it off like it never happened (Neil hadn't turned around yet to witness me sprawled out on the ground), but then I looked down and there was no other explanation for the solid dirt from my chin to my ankles - so I 'fessed up on my second spill of the day.  Yay for me.

The following photo is from Hatchers Pass Relay - which was another super fun activity I did with a couple friends - so beautiful and an event that I want to go back and do again!

Ended that day with a BBQ with great friends - couldn't have asked for a better way to leave Alaska.  I certainly feel that I am surrounded by some truly special people and all will be missed while on our trip.  Not only that, we continue to meet wonderful people as happened with Ivan and Pattie - friends' of friends that joined at the BBQ.

Anyways - I will speak more to our first few days of the trip next post  Have the big marathon tomorrow so going to head out and make myself a burger.  Still downing the meat and iron pills to get my iron back up to a normal level - running with oxygen in your blood is much easier as I have learned the past few weeks of concerted effort to increase my iron (hemoglobin carries little oxygen molecules around to muscles - if that is depleted...you suck at everything).  

Next post - coming soon!