May 8, 2005

Eleven cents. One dime and one penny sit on the left side of dashboard tray as I write this. A few miles into our journey, I reached into the coin tray and pulled out 3 quarters, one dime, 2 nickels, and 5 pennies. I explained to Kris that I was putting together a counter. Every 40 miles is 1 percent of our 4000 mile trip. I moved a penny from the right side of the tray on the dash to the left side every time we covered another 40 miles. We are now 11% of the way to Anchorage.

A lot has happened since my last entry. After the Everglades trip, Kris and I had the pleasure of spending several more days with my parents. We actually got to relax a little, eat a little too much, walk on the beach looking for shark’s teeth and visit. My parents even bought airline tickets from Fort Meyers to Anchorage while we visited. We will see them in late July for two weeks. On our last day in Florida, the four of us went for a ride in my Dad’s new boat. It seems like a very versatile boat and I had fun driving it even though I wasn’t allowed to open it all the way up since the motor wasn’t broken in yet. Of course that might have just been a story my Dad told me to keep me under control.

Oh, yeah, and it turned out that Kris and my Mom had fun while my Dad and I were fishing. They visited the Edison and Ford homes in Fort Meyers, went to Sarasota Jungle Gardens, and lost money at a casino. I am not sure why Kris thought it was alright for her to lose money in a casino without me, but I guess it was only fair since I was out playing in the wilderness.

Upon our return to Ohio, we found the dome light had been accidentally switched on as we exited the van at the airport 12 days earlier. Luckily, the shuttle bus has a jumper battery. They said it happens all the time.

We returned to Joyce’s and Jim’s house for a few more days before departure. We faced a daunting list of errands that kept us running up until the last minute. Things started to seem like pressure when I took the truck in for its routine service on Thursday and they discovered a leaky rear main seal. It is still under warranty, but the problem was schedule. The repair was going to take them at least the rest of the day. I already had an appointment scheduled for Friday morning to have the broken windshield replaced (75 mph speed limits on our ski trip out west left me with a crack running halfway across from the passenger side). Luckily, my friends at Westside Landrover took care of me again, switching mechanics and finishing it up early in the morning in time for me to make the windshield appointment.

Joyce bought our Honda minivan. Our lease would not allow us to take the van to Alaska. We got stung pretty bad when Provident (the lease company) was bought out by National City Bank. Provident allowed you to find someone to take over your payments on the lease with only minor penalties. National City stopped that practice just a month before we sold our house. I was pretty sure I could get someone to take over the lease since we had an insider deal on the van, but when I called to check on the details, I was told that it was no longer a way out of the lease. The lease penalties ended up costing us over $6000, but Joyce got a nice vehicle for really good price. I felt sorry for Joyce because normally getting a new car generates some excitement with your friends. We didn’t even ask her to take us for a ride in her new car. We are excited for her, though, because it is a great car. It was my ‘never never’ mobile. I know I had said sometime earlier in my life that I would never own a minivan and I am pretty sure I had also said I would never own a Japanese vehicle so I broke two ‘nevers’ when we got it. It really is practical and comfortable, and it has an awesome drivetrain for a front drive vehicle. We made two trips to Idaho with four adults in that van, once with four bikes on the roof.

As the week came to a close, it was time to say goodbye. We had a nice visit with Kim and John on Friday night, we had a great breakfast with Kris’s parents on Saturday, and then we had a party with many of our friends on Saturday night. Saying goodbye is really strange. Anytime you say goodbye to someone could be the last, but when you are moving far away that thought is closer to everyone’s mind. There comes this moment when we stumble on our words and the tears begin to flow. It is painful and awkward, yet somehow reassuring to know that you matter to someone and hopefully to let them know that they matter to you.

I began to feel sorry for the people we were leaving behind, not because I thought that we were that big of a part of their lives, but because they didn’t have a choice in the matter. We made a choice to move toward something in our lives, understanding that there was a cost in proximity to our friends and family. We weighed that cost carefully. In the past, we made different decisions based almost entirely on this cost, but this time the calculus provided a different result. We decided to move in spite of this cost. Our friends and family did not decide. This change in proximity was thrust upon them. I know most of them understand what we are doing and why, but I doubt that reduces the pain.

The party was a blast. Our regular crowd was mostly there; Joyce and Jim (who hosted the party), my ex-brother-in-law, Rich, Kris’ sister Kasie and Kate, Kris’ other sister Kim and John, and our strange friend Paul. Missing was Rich’s significant other, Barbara, who wasn’t feeling well. Her absence was the one noticeable down side to the party. Up sides included our old friends Marybeth and Steve, who drove up from New Philadelphia, and a real surprise, Paul showing up with a date, Jen, who seemed to not be too frightened by our strange group.

The food and beverages were awesome. We had Tony Packo’s hotdogs, a throwback to Joyce’s, Jim’s, and my years in Toledo. Kris pigged out on vegetables. I pigged out on fruit and Girl Scout cookies. On top of this, we drank some amazing wine. Rich and Steve have been talking for years about the wines they had aging in their cellars and dreaming of the day when we would all get together and drink some of them. That day was Saturday. My contribution was a bottle of Dom Perignon that I had been saving for celebrating this new phase in life. My contribution paled in comparison to what Steve and Rich brought. We had a 1986 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, a 1985 and a 1986 L’hermitage, and a 1995 Rhone. These were some truly fine aged wines and a real treat.

The group was a lively bunch, slipping seamlessly between adolescent humor and deep philosophical and political discussions. The differences among the group was particularly striking and a source for the liveliness. Only a few moments bordered on true conflict and they were transformed by some more adolescent humor.

Today, Kris and I spent a good hour in the car discussing the elements of friendship given such a diverse group of friends such as ours. I think we concluded that having the same values was not as important as shared experiences and compatible temperaments. It is interesting to look at your friends and be totally baffled as to how they all happened to become your friends.

Kris seems to be disoriented. She keeps saying she feels weird today. She says it is strange to think this day has finally arrived. I don’t see today as a milestone that we worked so hard to reach, it is only another step in the journey. I explained that I don’t feel weird at all, which is actually a pretty weird feeling in itself. I think a big part of what Kris is going through is that she is still getting used to not working. I cleared that hurdle a long time ago.

Our travel today was less than perfect. Our trailer rides a little harsh and we frequently found things bounced around the back of the trailer. After three stops, I almost ran out of bungy cords to keep things in place. I suspect we will find a few broken items when we unpack. The tongue weight seems to be a little high, but the rig is handling fine. We will finish with the high speed roads in the next two days, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I hate my brake controller for the electric brakes. I knew that before we left, but couldn’t justify buying a new one for one use. I finally just turned it off since I feel confident that the truck brakes are more than adequate for dealing with freeway driving scenarios. We ran into horrible traffic in Chicago. We lost more than an hour in bumper to bumper stuff. We purposely started on a Sunday to avoid heavy traffic in Chicago but were thwarted in our plan. The roads through Illinois have been in bad shape, yet the tolls have been harsh. Cars are paying $0.80 every 15 miles or so, but with the trailer, I am paying $2.25. I don’t know why I have to pay more than double the car rate for my light load. We celebrated when we crossed the Wisconsin boarder. Illinois was just plain pissing us off.

Anyway, we didn’t get as far as we wanted today. We had planned to get to Madison and camp, but we arrived in Beloit at sunset and checked into a Super8. Going to bed at 2:00 AM last night got us started about an hour and a half later than expected. Add the hour for Chicago and several lengthy stops to move the debris back into place at the back of the trailer and we decided to quit early and stay in a hotel. We are in no hurry and we are over 11% of the way there.