November 3

The weather has been amazing so far and today was no exception. After a morning of lounging and eating left over chips in an egg scramble we headed to Bondi beach.

We sat in the sand – two very pale girls surrounded by very tan bodies. We hope no one was blinded. Sydnians Leo live their sun. It is only spring here but the temps have been in the 80s and some people look like leather already. A very crowded bus took us back to the train and we retraced our steps to pick up our stuff and head to the airport. $30 dollars later we re ready to check into our flight. We discovered that we had not paid for baggage so they were going to charge us $400! It ended up being $260 but it was still a shock. Lesson learned- make sure you buy a ticket with bags!

It seemed that Australia did not want us to leave – the extra bag fees and then we were told we needed to fill out extra paperwork. So we had to go back and fill it out.

Eventualy we got to Chrischurch. I think it 95% of the passengers were Asian. They must have been excited it was the loudest flight I have ever been on. Sleep did not come easily.

We arrived late and then had trouble contacting our host. By 1:30am she came and was very gracious despite the hour. She loves Alaska and I wish we were here longer. As its as we spent less than four hours at her house and by the time Alison got her phone out  of the car we got three hours off sleep. A short night again.

November 2

We slept in. . . Until six. It was fabulous. We aught up in Internet, renee went for a run, we ate our leftover Chinese and headed back to the city to explore.

on today’s docket: the royal botanical gardens with its many paths leading to delectable sights. We took in the herb garden and many trees. We ascended many a stair to the sound end of the harbor bridge and we walked all the way across to obtain fresh nectarines for a dollar a piece. Oh, and also for the views of the opera house. We tried to go over the other side of the bridge however we realized we did not have bicycles and were not allowed on that side.so we went back the way we came.one thing. One thing we have noticed is that it is a hard habit to break to stop walking one the right side of the path. Instead of “keep to the right” everyone  here “keeps to the left”. Therefore several dances or sidesteps or near accidents ensued. We must figure this out soon as we will have a more difficult time with this dance with our rental car.

Our theme for the day seemed to be failed selfies. The opera house is evidently hard to take a selfie with. But we finally did succeed.

Fish and chips were on the menu tonight for supper. The chips portion s huge so we kept them in Renee’s bag. The pigeons also wanted Alison’s food but she was a little protective and a growling match ensued. Alison was successful in guarding her food from the beggar. We had tickets to my fair lady at the opera house and we nearly joined a line to get in for a “function”. When we asked what the line was for ally’s they would say it is that it was for a ” function”. Maybe we weren’t dressed nice enough for an answer. Is a musical considered a function here? I’m new here please use more descriptive words! We finallys found someone who would answer our questions and we headed to the box office. The lady that scanned our tickets suggested I put my bag in the coat room – she must have smelt the fries!

My fair lady was very enjoyable but it wasn’t the same as th schmeckfest stage. The actor that played Henry Higgins was phenomenal. A brisk walk to the train station aftere the three hour musical, a train ride to rock dale, a walk to our stay and to bed.

Australia and New Zealand! Oct 30-Nov 1

This is the story of two sisters traveling to Australia and New Zealand. We left October 30 and arrived on November 1. A few highlights:

• Renee had 32 hours of travel, Alison had 19 hours and met in LA
• Renee was able to sleep about six hours on the 14 hour flight to Sydney, Alison slept little because she has been used to nights.
• Alison’s shuttle for her ride from Greeley to Denver was actually scheduled for the next day so she had to drive and leave her car at the airport for three weeks. Later she as able to have someone get her car and take it back to her house.

We finally arrived in Sydney at 8am and after much discussion we took the bus from the airport. But we took it in the wrong direction. In 40 minutes we realized our mistake when everyone got off the bus at the end of the line. So we felt rather dumb and got on the train to find our airbnb stay.

Once we got to the train stop we discovered our lack of planning. Our phones were both dead. We hoped the street we were looking for would magically appear. Thankfully neighborhood names were on the signs as well as street names.

We found the street and the next issue arose. How would you interpret the address 6/16? It does not mean room 16 of building 6. We finally stopped an elderly couple that was trying to get away from us and they cleared things up. I realize that we had been traveling a but we didn’t look that scary!

Made it, made ourselves at home, ran and then took a well deserved shower. In order to stay awake we decided to take a train to darling harbor and walked around Hyde parka where there were ficus trees and a beautiful a purple one. A Chinese restaurant rounded out the evening with pork buns and sweet and sour chicken. We collapsed into bed at 7:30pm.

Cleaning 101

As I alluded to in my last post I have been cleaning houses for several families here in Anchorage. It has been a nice supplement to my income and Target. I would have enough business if I wanted it to become full time, but I just can’t stand the thought of cleaning for more than 2-4 hours a day. I started out on care.com but, most of my clients have been word of mouth.

There are several things that I have learned or realized since I started cleaning houses:

• It is very humbling being invited into someone’s home and see their mess. I have often told people not to clean before I get there. No need to be nervous about how your house looks. I would much rather clean a dirty house than clean a ‘clean’ house! I like to see the progress I have made. I do appreciate things being tidied up though so I can clean properly.
• People’s definition of ‘the house is a mess’ is TOTALLY different! Some houses I go into and they say “The house is an extra mess today” as an apology. I look around and there are maybe a couple of extra sticky spots on the floor, but otherwise most people wouldn’t think it was dirty at all. Other houses I want to scrub the walls, rip up the carpet and start over because all I would be doing is scratching the surface in 2 hours. People just can tolerate different levels of filth.
• My favorite cleaning supply is the off brand of magic erasers. They really are magic! And my favorite place to use the: the shower/tub. The only thing that I could ever go door to door selling would be these magic sponges. I’d walk right in, ask to see your shower and show you the amazing results. They are amazing!
• People are really thankful when I come to clean. It seems to take a huge burden off of them to be able to run errands and when they come home their house is clean. Or I run their errands while they are working. Most of my clients have families and are busy. When I come to the door I can see the relief on their faces. “Oh good! You’re here!” Even the kids say thank you.
• Part of my job is listening. At one place in particular I spend about 1/2 an hour each time in conversation because she doesn’t get to talk to a lot of people during the day. This is a real life giving thing for her and she thanked me profusely last time I cleaned for her.
• My clients have become my friends and connections to other circles that I wouldn’t have been in. They ask me how I’m doing (and want to know). I invite them to my concerts. If I don’t see them for a few weeks they let me know it’s good to see ME, not just my cleaning abilities.
• I have an eye for dirty things. I mean, I see things that need to be cleaned that most people don’t even notice. It is a blessing and a curse. BUT if go to your house for a social gathering I am NOT going to judge you if your baseboards aren’t dusted.
• I have figured out things I don’t want in my house. Like tile shower or tub surrounds, (the grout is impossible to clean!) lots of shelves with knick knacks to dust and miles of carpet.

I never thought I’d be cleaning as a form of employment, but it has been good for me. I like the variety I have in my work. It keeps me entertained!

Yeah, ok it’s been awhile

Some of you no doubt, have been wondering what my plans are now that my Service Adventure term has come to an end. Well folks, I am wondering the same thing. For now I have the next 4 months planned and depending on how that goes, I will know more then. Yeah for taking life one day at a time!

The last of my participants left my care July 14^th. I can’t believe it’s already nearly 2 months! This summer in AK has been amazing. I’ve gotten out and hiked more than any previous summer, yet my legs are still not as in shape as they were on the Appalachian Trail. J The new leader Monica arrived then then the rest of the leaders for Service Adventure had their orientation up here. It was so fun to show off the area that I have called home for the past 3 years. I enjoyed orienting Monica to Anchorage as well and sharing my knowledge of how the unit has run in the past, being careful to let her know that it’s totally up to her how she wants to do it from now on.

The letting go has been a process. There is some grief, knowing that what I poured my life into for 3 years is no longer there. What purposes do I find next? I find that if I don’t have something to pour into I get bored or worse lonely. For many years it was Swan Lake Christian Camp, then the Appalachian Trail, then Service Adventure. Ideally I would like to pour into a family of my own, but that hasn’t happened yet. What now? Well, I’ve decided that maybe this is the time to pour into myself. Sometimes I take care of others at the expense of myself and it’s time to switch that a bit. I worried about what I would do in all my free evenings. But here are some things I’m going to focus on:

• Get more sleep – I wake up at 3:15 every morning during the week. It is a miracle if I get 6 hours of sleep much less 8. Often it ends up being 4-5.
• Join a hiking club – get out there and meet people and enjoy God’s creation while doing it. Also it’s great exercise.
• Join a running club – it’s been awhile since I’ve run with a team/group and it will be nice to meet other like-minded runners and be able to push myself farther and faster with some friendly competition. Also I will start training for my next marathon soon, which is after I hopefully lessen or get rid of my plantar fasciitis.
• Just in general meet people and make friends. This is a key component in whether I will stay up here long term.
• Eat healthier – In Service Adventure you learn not to say ‘no’ to nearly any donation, especially if you have 7 people living in one house on one budget. Sometimes it’s not the healthiest foods that get donated. And being a true Mennonite, I won’t let anything go to waste!
• Maintain those friendships I do have both here and the lower 48. I want to make phone calls a priority and keep in better touch. My life has been so crazy busy that I haven’t taken the time.
• Start doing my devotions every day. It’s something that has slipped by the wayside with my busy schedule.

There is a lot of sadness that has come with this transition. I will miss living with 18-19 year olds and helping them sort out life and make an impact on their lives. I will miss the way I felt needed when they asked me questions even if it was ‘do we have any ___________?’. There is also the realization that I am now three years older than when I started Service Adventure and my relationship status is the same.

There has also been freedom in this transition. I can go hang out with the Service Adventurers for an evening and then I can go back home. I don’t have to stay til the bitter end of a potluck to clean up because it’s not at my house. I do have those free evenings to do what I want to do. Even though that is something I’m still working on figuring out. I can buy the groceries I want and they won’t be gone in 2 days because I am the only one eating them. I’ve been able to be a listening ear for Monica, which has been awesome. She is doing a great job!

So now to finally answer the question at the beginning of this post. For now I am committed to AK until December 18^th. That date is set by the Christmas Concert for the Anchorage Concert Chorus. I loved being in the Chorale so much last year and I want to be a part of that. Then on the 19^th I will head home to spend Christmas and New Year’s in South Dakota. In the meantime I will be working at Target and cleaning houses. After moving around several times I am now living with the mother of one of my church members. There may be some house sitting opportunities for me too. Alison and I have also planned a trip to New Zealand for about 3 weeks in late October into November. This is a trip that’s been in the works for quite a while and so we are excited to be able to go. In January there is a marathon in Mississippi that I will be running.

After that, we shall see…Things I could do:

• Go back to South Dakota
• Go to Colorado to live with Alison
• Stay in AK

So far I am only buying one way tickets – to home – to the marathon – to ?

What do you think I should choose?

Stones

Today in church my pastor recounted the story of the Pharisees trying to trick Jesus by bringing him an adulterous woman to be stoned. I was moved by the still life scenes with real life actors and actresses that were put with the scripture from John chapter 8.

Each of us had chosen a stone to hold during the service to think about the times where we had felt anger at persons or things that we had the desire to throw something. I have felt this feeling where my righteous anger, or not so righteous anger, wells up in me and I have to get the aggression out somehow. Usually this takes me on a sprint where my anger dissipates as my body slows down. I can’t sprint for very long, I’m a distance runner!

As I held the stone in my hand several things stood out to me. The stone I had chosen fit rather well in my hand. It was comfortable. Over time the rock would become smooth. The hard edges rubbing away. When out on a hike with rock scrambles you can tell where people have put their hands to assist going up or down. They are smooth with wear. So too our anger or resentment can become comfortable. Instead of trying to understand the other person’s point of view it easier to stay angry.

Even though the stone was comfortable there was still a weight to it. We feel that we can somehow lord our anger over others, holding them hostage, when in fact all we are doing is hurting ourselves. Being angry or resentful is emotionally and physically exhausting. When one is freed from anger there is such a weight that has been lifted. Some of the most happy people are ones that don’t let anger take control of their lives. When you give up anger, you give up control. You say ‘it’s ok that you think differently than me’.

Just some food for thought.

part 3 – Fairbanks

After 2 hours being plugged in the van still did not work. It did start momentarily but there was black exhaust coming out of the tailpipe and it had no power.

Thus started my afternoon of calling tow companies to take us into Fairbanks. After being told by AAA that they could come get me, I get a message on my phone that they can’t get us after all. Even if they would have been able to come they could only take 2 people. What am I supposed to do about the other 3 people in our group? There was a really rude guy behind the desk when I asked for the phone book for the third time. He said there wasn’t on there. Granted I had asked other people before. However it was RIGHT BEHIND HIM! He told me to check the phone room. When I told him there wasn’t one there I said that there was one behind him and I promised I would give it back. If only he knew what kind of weekend this had been!

Finally in the evening a guy from Borealis Towing cheerfully said he would come and get me. I didn’t even ask the cost. I knew it was going to be expensive. A 56 mile tow in AK can’t be cheap. I knew that the gal that we were staying with that night in Fairbanks was on her way to Chena and I had met her once before. Maybe I could find her, without calling her. I started walking toward the office and she was coming in at the same time! MIRACLE! So, she was able to take the 2 girls back to Fairbanks with her. Her parents weren’t too thrilled with that idea, but she was very gracious.

Around 8pm the guys and I made it to the Quaker Meeting Place where we were to spend the night. Lizzie and Mariah had started a fire and were cooking supper. Awesome. And time for bed.

As always everything looked better in the morning. Running out to the outhouse was exciting. The hour of silence with the Quakers for church was great. We met a neighbor who let us use their car to see the Ice World Championships. God is good! We also got the van plugged in again.

We were able to relax the rest of the day and decided to eat out for Alex’s birthday. He chose a Chinese restaurant. It was good, but of course our trip wouldn’t have been complete without some food poisoning.

Before we left the next morning, I went and got the van checked out at a shop. They didn’t even charge me for the test. We took the scenic route home and had no other issues…except a guy in the Fred Meyer parking lot that seemed like he was going to run over someone.

All in all it took us a long time to recover. Everyone dealt with the trip as well as could be expected. And that is what puts ‘adventure’ in Service Adventure! Hopefully not all our trips are that exciting!

part 2 – Fairbanks

We decided based on our level of energy that we may not make it back to the van alive if we left right away. So I advised everyone to do some calisthenics to get warm before getting into their sleeping bags. This is when I found out that Tyler didn’t have a sleeping bag. what. He thought it was in the bag with the blankets. Good thing I had brought an emergency sleeping bag, and although it crinkled loudly whenever he moved it kept him decently warm.

I don’t think I slept much that night. Every hour or 2 I would put another log on the fire, as soon as my face would get cold. We probably kept the cabin around 10 degrees. I was thankful for my 0 degree bag, but I wasn’t terribly warm. I kept watching for movement from each person so that I knew they were alive. We all imagined headlines of ‘party of 5 freezes to death on walk to remote cabin’.

Miraculously it was 7am and Tyler and I decided to put all the rest of the wood in, get the cabin warm and then get ready to go. We actually got the temperature up to 58 degrees which was quite balmy! We lounged, ate fried potatoes for breakfast and we were all in a pretty good mood. We had made it through the night. The sun was shining. It was a gorgeous day.

Our trip back to the van was not nearly as hard or long. As we were getting closer to the van I was starting to pray in earnest that the van would start. There was no plug in at the trail head. It probably reached -30 degrees. You wouldn’t want to start either.

Well, no surprise that when we reached the van, it wouldn’t start. Alex flagged down a couple of guys that were willing to jump it. But, there was another issue. I hadn’t been able to open the hood before the trip to check the oil, so I wasn’t sure if they would even be able to get into it. After using a crow bar they were and we found that we were low…I mean out of oil too. Great. We were unable to jump it, but leas they had a warm space for 4 of us to ride while Tyler steered the van as they towed us to Chena Hot Springs – about 6 miles down the road.

Once at the hot springs we decided the first thing we needed was sustenance. After all, we had survived an ordeal and were now in a warm place. Every eye in the restaurant followed us as we took off layers, noshed on our friendship bread and in general were rather uncouth as we waited for our food. I felt like I was back on the Appalachian Trail, coming into a civilized town after being on the trail.

Next stop was the springs. They were awesome, and warm and our hair got all frosty. While we were enjoying ourselves the van was plugged in, hopefully thawing out the battery. In 2 hours we would check with the maintenance guy to get a jump. It seemed like things were looking up….

to be cont’d….

What puts the adventure in Service Adventure?

A little over a month ago now the unit traveled up to Fairbanks, Alaska. One word to sum up this trip would be ‘adventure’. Some adventures are ones you want to repeat, however this is not necessarily one of them. Everyone pulled together though and I think it was a great bonding experience for us. Bonding through trials, right? Anyway, here is the story of Fairbanks.

Our van was packed to the gills with wood for our cabin, skis to get to the cabin and enough warm clothes for the predicted -30 degree weather. Oh, and enough snacks/food to feed us for several meals. If someone slammed on the breaks they could very well have gotten impaled by skis, but then again, they may not have moved because of everything packed around them.

We left late morning for our drive to Fairbanks. I wasn’t sure what the roads were going to be like as there had been snowfall not too long before and parts of the Parks Highway had apparently been closed. While there were some icy patches on the road it only started getting bad once we were in Fairbanks, a 7ish hour drive from Anchorage.

Lizzie was driving as we entered the city and this is where our adventure begins. The roads were slick and our white van met a gray pick up a little too close for comfort. As the military personnel got out of their vehicle to inspect the damage, we realized this may be a bit more tricky. The government owned their vehicle and our church owned ours, so getting information was a bit more interesting. We followed them ‘at a safe distance’ to the police station where Lizzie learned how to fill out an accident report. Tyler and Alex entertained themselves with the children’s toys in the lobby.

Thankfully both vehicles were still able to be driven. They had a little dent in their bumper and we had a headlight cover broken and grill piece missing. Our headlight bulb was still working though. We decided that even though we had a rough start to our trip that we would continue on with our plan to ski three miles to our cabin for the night. But first, an hour drive.

When we finally arrived at the trailhead it was starting to get dark.  I told everyone to get their things together, reminding Tyler that he should have a full water bottle to go out there, not an empty one because we couldn’t carry the large water jug we had brought. We loaded up a sled with wood that we would pull. Also, we had a bag of blankets that we would carry. It was getting cold and we decided that our feet would be too chilly to wear our skis, so we put on our boots instead to keep our feet warm. At this point we were in about -10, but as the sun went down the temperature dropped and we were hiking in probably close to -25. At least it wasn’t windy.

Lizzie took the front and I took the rear as we were the only two that hadn’t packed their headlamps in the bottom of their packs! 3 miles in the light and on dry ground isn’t that bad, but when it’s cold, you are walking through 4 inches of snow and you can’t see more than 10 feet in front of you, it is a LONG WAYS! It took forever for us to reach the one mile mark. We had decided that it was too hard for one person to pull the sled with all the wood, so one person pulled while the rest of us carried 2 logs each. Plus one person with the blankets.

It was hard, it sucked, and there was lots of complaining. Alex did his hardest at boosting our morale. I’m really proud of him for that. At least we weren’t cold while we were walking.

Finally we saw the turn off to the cabin and there was much rejoicing! We had made it! It was around 10:30 or 11pm by this point.

We dumped our gear and the first thing was to get a fire going and get out of our wet clothes. My fingers didn’t work too well but I finally got our supper on the stove while the rest of them tried to warm up. I used all my water and asked if anyone had any other water. This is when I found out that Mariah had brought an empty water bottle. I forget that not everyone has as much hiking experience as I do. So, next up after we water ate our supper Lizzie and Alex were in charge of melting snow to get some drinking water. I tried not to pick yellow snow. 🙂 It did have remnants of rice in the water though.

One thing I had noticed when we first got there is that there wasn’t very much wood, or at least not enough to get us through the night. Tyler, Mariah and I went in search of some trees to chop down. After only finding rather large logs that would have been better chopped by a chainsaw we went back to the cabin to have a discussion with the group. The amount of energy we were expending was not bearing much fruit as far as wood so we had two options:

1. Leave now to go back to the van and drive back into Fairbanks.

2. Sleep for as long as we have fire and possibly go back at 2 in the morning.

…..to be cont’d….

 

Iditarod 2015

I am sitting here at the Millennium hotel which is the race headquarters for the Iditarod. I am manning the merchandise table for the Iditarod this morning for 4 hours. I’m glad I brought my computer as it has been super slow. This way I get some other work done while volunteering. Win – Win!

I am surrounded by t-shirts, stuffed huskies ulus, key chains and ornaments. Pretty much anything you can put a logo on, it is here. The people that run the sales are nice and it helped me get to the musher’s banquet last year by sitting for several hours with not much to do. I’m getting to know the people that run different aspects of the trail and they remember me from last year. This is encouraging and I may try to get out on the trail next year at a check point. That would be amazing! I often wonder if all volunteers are remembered from year to year or if something is different with me?

Speaking of remembering from last year I went to the musher food drop earlier this week. Each musher packs bags of goodies for checkpoints on the trial and they get weighed and delivered on pallets. We were sorting. It kind of reminded me of the AT when I got all my mail drops together. Anyway, when I walked in there was a gentleman that said ‘hey’ like he knew me. Hmm, I told Lizzie that I didn’t know who that was. Weird. Later he came up and talked to me again. I couldn’t see his name tag, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. It was flipped over most of the time. Later I realized it was Newton Marshall the Jamaican musher who I dog handled for last year. WHAT?! I felt bad for not recognizing him, but I was really floored that he remembered me from a like 10 minute encounter. He is not mushing this year, but helping others train their dogs. I don’t know if he lives here in AK now?  I have lots of questions now that I figured out who he is but I don’t know if I’ll see him again. Crazy.

I also helped with the food drop for people (volunteers) yesterday. I really enjoy organizing and dispersing food. I was working with someone who I met last year from Nebraska. There are several others that are from the Midwest that I remembered from last year too. They say that Anchorage is a small town and I am beginning to believe it. I met someone who is in concert chorus with me too. Now that I am getting out more I am seeing more people that are familiar. The photographer/reporter that was at the musher food drop is also in choir. Lizzie and I actually made the paper too! I was wearing a bright pink shirts, so it was hard to miss me! I was surrounded by people in gray and blue.

The Iditarod start has been moved to Fairbanks because of lack of snow on the original route. Last year they didn’t  move it and it was a pretty rough race. I’m sure it’s nice for Fairbanks to get people there. The ceremonial start is still in Anchorage, so I will still be able to dog handle.

It is cool to volunteer because you can see the names of the places that they will be going through on the trail. It’s also nice that here in the hotel they are playing Christian music. It’s a decent way to spend a Saturday morning. And I’m not using the house internet!