On Monday, we spent the morning getting Tim settled into his new apartment. He moved in early so took it “as is” from the former tenant. He had a LOT of cleaning to do before he even wanted to start unpacking his stuff. It is a four bedroom apartment and one of his roommates is already living there through the summer…although he was so appalled at how the other roommates were living, he basically kept everything in his bedroom with the door locked. Tim and Connor have spent quite a bit of time deep cleaning and they are much happier about how things are looking now. Rich and Lily worked together to put a new bookcase together for Tim’s room. He has quite a collection of professional and motivational books. We took Tim out to lunch on Monday then started on our way home. Tim spent the rest of the day cleaning and unpacking. He contacted his supervisor at WVU via email and was told he could start the next day rather than waiting 2 weeks. No rest for the weary! This is probably a good thing as Tim likes to stay busy.

We left Morgantown, WV and made it to Dayton, Ohio. We had dinner with my cousin, Bill Neitzke, and his wife, Lori. We were stationed together a couple of decades ago at Grand Forks, ND. We ate at a British Pub restaurant and it was really good. Rich even had the fish and chips. (when in Rome…) It was great catching up with them and what their kids were up to….along with different branches of our family tree. Even though we have the same last name (Neitzke is my maiden name), we figured out that our great grandfathers were brothers….at least I think that is what we decided. We then drove a few miles out into the countryside to Xenia, Ohio, to stay with good friends, Matt and Lorraine Bonavita. Our two boys are the same age as their two oldest boys. We lived on Hawaii Street some 20 some odd years ago on Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota together. I have always just loved this couple….we always had so much fun with them. That has not changed. We were up until midnight talking like the years had never been there. We had planned to spend several hours at the Air Force Museum showing Lily around, but we just stayed and visited with them. It made my whole week for sure! We drove from Ohio to just outside of St. Louis on Tuesday. Rich had contacted a whole bunch of people he had connected with on LinkedIn that he used to work with in Grand Forks AFB, ND 20+ years ago. A lot of them were working as civilians at Scott AFB, IL. This is also where our oldest son was born….so we drove by our old house as well. We got together with several folks for dinner and drinks from the 906th tanker squadron. There were boom operators, pilots, the commander at the time, orderly room personnel….a mishmash of people that all worked there in the mid to late 1990’s. We had 11 folks there at one point. It was a lot of fun. We also got to reconnect with Chaplain and Shannon Howard from our time in Norway 11 years ago. (I can’t believe it has been that long ago already!) It was awesome catching up with them and finding out how their kids were doing. They went to the International School of Stavanger with our kids. We stayed the night in western Illinois (the photo of Rich in the corn was from there…figured we were getting closer to Nebraska if we saw corn this high!) and then took off across Missouri on Wednesday to get to Kansas City in time to have lunch with our fabulous daughter-in-law, Michelle. Joe wasn’t due back from his month of fun in Fort Polk, LA with the Army National Guard until the following day, so we had her all to ourselves! After a nice lunch and even better company, we put Lily behind the wheel and had her drive 3 hours home to Omaha.

Lily drove a lot on this trip and has driven in at least 9 states now on her driver’s permit. She had a driver’s lesson in the car today and they just gave her the driving test, which she passed. She has to wait until she has had her permit for 6 months, so she can’t get her license until mid November. We are now just catching up at home, enjoying the Olympics each evening, and loving on Tallinn. He was pretty thrilled to go on a 5 mile walk with me this morning. I have a doctor’s appointment for a Lupron shot tomorrow, so we may have to postpone our walk if it gets as hot as they say it might be. I think he is happy to have his people back though. I know I missed him….not his hair…but his dynamic personality. I heard that Joe made it back to his wife and dogs today, so I am guessing there is a lot of dog love going on there as well.

I have been to 13 states in the last 6 weeks and I have been in 4 times zones. School starts in less than 2 weeks and I am ready to be at home for a little bit. Never thought I would say that after 18 months of isolation with COVID 19. I am so blessed to have gotten to see so many people along the way…meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends.

We made it to West Virginia! I have to say it is absolutely beautiful! There are more than rolling hills….rolling hills on steroids maybe. Everything is so green….lots of trees and fields with cows. The best thing is the weather has been decent. I was expecting really hot, humid weather and we maxed out today at 81. Rich’s brother, Joe, and his wife, Heather, came down yesterday to spend Saturday night and most of Sunday with us. They live in northern Virginia, so it was about a 3.5 hour drive for them. What was even better was today was Joe’s birthday. It has been a long time since these siblings have been together for one of their birthdays. We spent the morning playing Settlers of Catan, a board game that is a family favorite. Joe won (of course he did, it’s his birthday!). Heather is training for the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct 31st (she is a way better woman than me!) and went on an 8 mile run this morning whilst we were placing the game. We left soon after to head to a nearby park to go for a hike near Cheat Lake. It was a wonderful place to hike and I have a feeling Tim will be back many times. We then went down to eat at a place called Mountain State Pub and Brewery in the Wharf District down by the water. Joe and Heather have left now to head back and I am posting photos of our first full day in West Virginia. (we are less than 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border….and Pittsburg is about an hour north of here). Tim is getting a workout in the hotel gym, which is actually quite descent, and we are going to go meet one of his roommates later this evening and move his stuff into his apartment. We will get him settled and start heading west tomorrow. We aren’t going back the way in which we came so we can see a few more things and more importantly, people and friends.

Saturday we got up and started to finish our way across Indiana…then into Ohio. We stopped in Canton, Ohio around lunchtime to tour the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is really very cool. If you are a football fan at all, I would highly recommend it! We were there for a couple of hours….but could have easily doubled that time. I went to high school with a man named Kevin Mawae. We both graduated from high school together down in Leesville, Louisiana. He has been blessed to have a long and successful NFL career after playing at LSU. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019. I wore his jersey and got a picture next to his bust in the Hall. Very cool. It was sure a nice break from the two days in the car. Afterwards, we got in the cars and drove the last three hours to Morgantown, West Virginia!

Friday we took off with two loaded down cars and four drivers to head towards Morgantown, West Virginia. We stopped for a bit of a hike in Starved Rock State Park in Illinois….near Chicago. It is a free….and beautiful park. There are lots of waterfalls…but I guess during the summer it dries up quite a bit. I can’t imagine the beauty of this place with fall colors or in the spring when the water is running much higher. We took a few pictures there. We then hopped back in our cars and struggled through the Chicago traffic in the late afternoon on a Friday. I have never found a good time of day to travel around or through Chicago….but Friday at 4:30 p.m. is definitely not ideal. We also lost an hour as we entered Indiana. We drove as far as Elkhart, Indiana and stopped for the night. My sister and her family live less than 30 minutes south of there, in Goshen, Indiana. Pam, her daughters, Kara and Alyssa, and Alyssa’s boyfriend drove up to Elkhart to meet us for dinner. It was nice to have these four cousins together to talk over dinner, as they don’t get to see each other often.

First off, our awesome jeep tour guide took a few photos of us on his phone and then emailed them to us. They are what he calls “Alaska postcard photos” so we are pretty small but the mountain range behind us aren’t! Also a photo of us with what he called the skittles jeeps…because from the air, we look like scattered skittles on the dirt road.

As for the VA….you know I had a horrible experience with them when I was trying to get vaccinated earlier in the year. I was turned away from a patient empty clinic with 20 free spots to be vaccinated…even though I had my separation orders in hand with the history of my service. They turned me away because I didn’t meet their criteria. Simply serving my country and getting an honorable discharge did not count enough for them. I am still a little salty about that. Well, while I was in Alaska, the VA sent me a letter. Actually I have been getting mail from them almost every week saying that they can loan me money to buy a house, car, etc. So not only did they turn me away, because I filled out their paperwork, I am on their spam mailing list. Wonderful. This letter was different though. It called for me to once again serve my nation and be a responsible citizen and get vaccinated!! Really? Argh. The irony. They want me to contact them if I have been vaccinated outside the VA system so they can keep track of me….even if I am not allowed to be seen by them. Grrrrrr.

We returned from Alaska on Thursday, close to midnight. I took Friday and Saturday to try and catch up on paperwork for the store and laundry and loving on Tallinn, who was pretty excited to see us.

On Sunday, I took off a bit before 0700 to make the 8.5 hour drive to Fort Collins, Colorado, to see Tim. I arrived in the afternoon and we proceeded to get all his worldly possessions packed up and in his living room. My Godson and youngest first cousin, Auggie Neitzke, lives in Fort Collins with his wife and their 4 month old son, also named Auggie. We met them for dinner after Tim and I took a short walk around Old Town Fort Collins. It was so nice to catch up. I hadn’t seen them since their wedding in Texas several years ago. Their son, Little Aug, is adorable and loves to look at everything. It has been a long time since I have been spit up on. I didn’t mind one little bit. It was great to see them.

After dinner, Tim and I carefully tetrised (that is the term we use for tightly packing) our two cars with his possessions. The next morning we turned around and drove back to Omaha to rest and relax for three days. We will be leaving Friday (tomorrow) to head to Morgantown, West Virginia, for Tim’s new adventure. He was accepted for a prestigious internship at UVW for the school year. This will not only help him accomplish the requirements he needs to finish his master’s degree in strength and conditioning coaching, but will also allow him to get a high level accreditation which will hopefully land him in a good job for next school year at a college somewhere….. I know Tim loves Colorado…but for the year he was there, he was in lockdown over COVID, and had major wildfires last summer keeping him inside. I am guessing he’ll be back again somewhere in Colorado…but for now, he is on to other adventures!

My last set of photos are from the train ride from Denali down to Anchorage (about 7.5 hrs) and then a few early morning photos of Lake Hood, the busiest seaplane port in the world…before it got going for the day. All in all, we had a fabulous time in Alaska. It was everything I expected and more. I fell in love with Talkeetna and would love to go back there in the late fall/early winter to see what it is like with the 800 natives versus the 5000 guests. If you get a chance to go…you should!

Sorry folks! I have been crazy busy trying to catch up at home and even put a short trip in to Colorado…but that’s for another post! Our last full day in Denali was spent on a 13 hour bus tour that took us 92 miles into Denali National Park. It is the furthest you can go on a tour bus and it did not disappoint! I know what you are thinking….how can a 13 hour day on a bus seem like any fun at all? Well, I have to say that God was certainly shining on us that day…not that He doesn’t everyday…but this day was extra special. First off, it wasn’t a school bus. You may laugh but 13 hours on bumpy roads on a school bus sounds kinda miserable to me. We had bucket seats in a school bus shell. Second of all, we had a fabulous driver! His name was Erik. He is originally from Washington state, but lives his winters in Colorado…near the mountains in the cities of Breckenridge, Telluride, etc. Swanky ski towns. During those winters he drives school buses for the local elementary school kids. He had a shirt on that simply said, “Listen to Erik” It was his only rule for the day. Of course a lot of rules can stem from that simple concept – this was not lost on me. I would say that Erik was in his 30’s, and man, does he love his job. First, he told us about his job as a school bus driver in Colorado. He knows each of his student riders by name. He goes to their sporting events and goes to their music concerts. They, in return, sounded like they were enamored with him Erik”. They would organize days where the whole bus would wear their shirts and he would come in and eat lunch in the school cafeteria with them. He had a long school bus-esque rectangular rearview mirror to keep an eye on all of us. We, in turn, could see his face as well. There was a time when we were all ogling at a big grizzly bear that was only a few yards from our bus and he said what was even better than watching the bear was watching all of our faces as WE watched the bear. Erik spends his summers driving tour buses in Denali National Park and he really knows his stuff. He was able to talk about the flora and fauna of Alaska, history, the wildlife, rock and mountain formations, and hiking techniques for those who try to summit Denali. (About 5 years ago they changed the name of Mt. McKinley back to Denali-meaning the ‘great one’). He has climbed Mt. Rainier in Washington state in the hopes of someday getting a chance to hike Denali. So Erik was enthusiastic about what he was sharing with us and he went the extra distance to help each side of the bus get good photos and opportunities to see scenery and wildlife. We were very fortunate that we were able to see Denali that day. The smoke from wildfires were in the air much of the time we were in Alaska, but we had a couple of clear days that we got to see Denali, so we are in the 30% club….because that’s about the percentage of people who get to see her when they come…30%. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some pretty scary roads we had to traverse in order to get to the lodge at the end of the road. After 15 miles into the park, the farthest you can go in a personal vehicle with a park pass, the road becomes a gravel/dirt road and the further you go, the skinnier it gets. When there are only tour buses and a few park rangers/scientists/road workers, it gets a little dicey…especially if you are doing hairpin turns around the sides of mountains. I was very very very impressed with Erik’s ability to drive that bus, even if my stomach dropped to my knees a few times when I was sitting on a ledge that was a sheer cliff drop off.

If you have been following along with our Alaskan adventure, you know that we haven’t seen a ton of wildlife. We saw a moose that was 1/2 a mile away whilst on the train. We saw a porcupine (that I thought was a large, wide cat) about 20 yards away – it was dusk….and I figured it out before I went to pet it, a couple of eagles seen from the train, a very industrious beaver couple building a dam across the river from our hotel, and a lynx slinking on the same side of the river as the beaver couple, which caused them to disappear for awhile. So really, it was nothing real close (except for the porcupine – which was I think an oddity all the way around for Alaska). We weren’t seeing Moose walking down Main Street or bears munching on blue berries. (another 2 weeks and the blue berries would have been ripe and maybe it would have been different). Remember way back when on TV there was a show called Northern Exposure? I loved that show! Anyhow, we weren’t seeing the animals I thought we would see frequently. Locals talked about them, but it was just too warm for them to be out and about for us to see. Even Rich, who has been to Alaska several times, was shocked at the lack of wildlife. However, our luck changed on our bus ride. We saw 7 moose, 6 arctic ground squirrels (which Erik called “bear burritos”), about a dozen caribou, 4 dahl sheep (although they were very far away), a whole brood of ptarmigan, and 8 grizzly bears….including a momma and her cub. We got to see a grizzly bear and a caribou up close and personal because they walked around our bus as it was pulled over on the side of the road. I had my nice camera with me and have not had time to go through those photos yet. These will be all the ones from my phone. But they aren’t too bad!

At the end of the road, there is a lodge and we had a nice lunch there and then had the option of taking a class on botany, panning for gold, or a few other informative hikes about legends from the area. Lily and Rich decided to pan for gold. They listened to a briefing and then set to work shoveling and sifting. Rich found a pretty impressive little chunk of gold colored rock that he was really excited about. His hopes were dashed when the nature guide did the thumbnail check on it and it exploded to dust. Lily, however, found a couple of flakes that were real gold. They laminated them on a card for her. They got some massive mosquito bites until I dusted them with Alaskan cologne….aka deet. They had a good time though! Watching them, I often take a step back and think that maybe they will be okay when I am gone. That they will have each other and they won’t need me to be the glue to connect them. As sad as it makes me to think I won’t watch her become a mom or a wife…it makes my heart feel good that Rich and Lily will look after each other.

I don’t know when I will have the opportunity to post again before we leave…hopefully I will, but perhaps not. I wanted to put our photos from this morning out for you to look at. We went on a jeep tour of old Denali highway. This is not in the park itself, but a dirt road that runs alongside the Nenana River. Our guide, Jeff, was originally from Brainerd, MN and really had a lot to teach us about the area. It was a full morning! Our only issue was that didn’t see any wildlife at all! Fingers crossed for tomorrow on the 13 hour bus tour of Denali National Park! So there were several different colored jeeps with our guide in the front. He talked over the CB radio to us and we stopped several places along the way to get photos. We got several family photos but they are either on my good camera or on Jeff’s phone…who will email them to us later today. Tonight we will be going on an ATV ride through a creek bed. Should be fun! Tomorrow, as I said, we are riding in a bus for 13 hours deep into Denali. The next day we ride the train most of the day back to Anchorage to head home and back to reality on Thursday. Thanks for following our journey with us!

On Sunday, we got on board the Alaskan railway system and headed north for Denali National Park. We are staying in the canyon just inside the park and we have a river flowing right behind the back of our building. It is beautiful. We have been to the “boardwalk” which is the part of “town” that has the shops and restaurants. This area was hit very hard by COVID-19 in that many places have closed and stayed that way. Princess cruise lines has several buildings and restaurants that are all closed for the second year in a row. Others just can’t find servers to work there. We highly recommend Prospector’s Pizzeria, but the wait is almost 2 hours to eat. You can get seated after a 30 minute wait, but then it is an hour wait for the pizza to be made. We ordered sandwiches last night to spend things up but I have to admit I was looking longingly at those with pizzas on their table! Most of these photos were taken on the train. The one of Lily and Rich sleeping….she bobs her head forward, and he leans his head backwards. They made me smile. There are a few last Talkeetna Lodge photos….and a photo of Curry, Alaska….which is no more. It was a 5 star resort back 70 years ago…but it burned to the ground and they never rebuilt it.