The final countdown, doodleoo doo, doodleoo oo oo

In less than 12 short hours I shall be leaving, on a prop plane, don't know when I'll be back again.  But I'm guessing early September, awash in the sweet smell of fresh caribou blood, me hopes, and ready to make mountains out of mole hills in the Golden Heart City (Fairbanks).  I signed on the papers today and Angela and I are now the proud parents of 3 acres of permafrost.  With a little help from global warming and our friends in the republican party we'll have beachfront property in under 30 years.  Now that's an investment baby.

Who needs a chainsaw when you have a Grover?

Domo arrigato Mr. Roboto

I had lunch with my nephew today, we talked about work and the stress of being 5.  It was nice.  And it occurred to me that there is no mood a little construction paper and a marker can't fix.  Give it a try and you'll see that I'm right.

Ain't too proud to beg, sweet darlin'

Well this week has been a nice welcome back to Fairbanks.  I hit the ground running and went out looking for property with some help from my old friend Joel.  He found me a nice little chunk of dirt outside of town so Angela and I talked it over and decided it might not be so bad.The red arrow is roughly where we will be if things go well, still haven't had the full thumbs up but I did put some money down so cross your fingers.  The neighborhood is brand spanking new, thus the lack of houses.  Hopefully power will be available by the end of the summer.The rest of the week was spent tracking down funding which apparently requires insurance which you can't get if you don't already have it.  So back and forth and up and down and who knows if I told the right people the right things but tune in next week to find out more.  In the meantime here's the old cabana that will finance the new:

it was squirrel infested and swampy, but nothing a few firearms and some yard work can't handle.  And still no t.v.  Yea!!

Below them old white mountains...

Well we made it, at 2 a.m. Alaska time we rolled into Fairbanks Thursday night.  Hard to believe but we're definitely not in San Francisco any more.  Here are some photo highlights:

Crossing the border from British Columbia to Yukon Territory.

Angela discovers the Alpine Bakery in Whitehorse.

Liard Hotsprings, the best stop in Canada by far.

A passing squall at 11 p.m.

Back in the land of midnight shadows.

Mazzy leaves a special sign at the Sign Forest in Watson Lake.

Oh, Canada

The Beez Kneez Bakpakers Hostel

Bison on the side of the road.

We are in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory after battling 3 days of torrential rain enroute to the top of the world.  Now just 600 little miles and we will be in Fairbanks.  The truck is running well, the trailer is holding up and life is good.  We saw our 4th black bear today, about 50 Bison, a handful of Mule Deer and 3 moose.  Last night we camped in the mountains and it poured on us and our green tarp shelter.  Tonight, we are in a cozy Youth Hostel chalet, The Beez Kneez.  It's a swell spot.  See you soon Alaska.

Mt. Vernon, WA

Mazzy likes to keep an eye on the road...

We're visiting John and Margaret after 5 hours on the road from Hood River.  The temperatures have finally cooled off and tomorrow we cross the border.  We hope to make it as far as Prince George tomorrow, perhaps a bit farther, 500 miles plus.  We'll see how it goes and what the mounties have to say about us crossing with American passports...

Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'

We finally got to meet Clarity Blue- She's a peach

We had tea and crumpets at the local brewery

Walking the trails in Corvallis

Camping above Mt. Shasta

Michelle and Clarity down near the Hood River

We are in Hood River, OR with our friends Steve and Michelle and our new little friend Clarity. The weather has been hot here and yesterday we all got sunburnt on the Hood River watching kite surfers and wind surfers. The truck is running well, the trailer is holding up, and today we head for Mt. Vernon, WA to visit more friends before the border crossing and slog through Canada. Keep your fingers crossed that everything holds up!

Hot and Bothered

The city of San Francisco is giving us an 86 degree sendoff.  Today the temperature will hit 86F and tomorrow is supposed to be 90F.  The East Bay is on enforced water rationing and I've been told the cost of iced lattes is skyrocketing.  We are leaving just in time.

She's My Little Runaway

Angela is calculating the number of warm Alaska nights this little sapling represents.

Extreme shrinkage in the Eel River after the marathon.

I locked in the hubs and drove through this 5,000 year old behemoth.

Utilities included.

A town full of Angela-size people live here in their tree houses, they asked Angela to be their Queen.  She said no.

Kari would not stop barking so we put her in the back of the truck with Payton.

Guitar 'round the campfire.

Matt even brought lyrics for Angela to sing along too. (she sounds just like Dolly Parton)

Mazzy loves a good hug.

Lotta leaves here, lotta leaves.

Angela and I are just back from another half marathon, Avenue of the Giants.  I still can't feel my legs.  I did a personal best of 1:45.23 which means my average mile was done in 8 minutes 3 seconds for 13.1 miles.  Yeah, not too shabby for an old man.  Angela met her goal by finishing without collapsing.  We're all winners.

My what a DUKTIG dog you have, and your IVAR is SKÄRPT and EFFEKTIV!

This is Robber, he gets in trouble at the Dog Park and then pretends that we're his owner.  

Best breakfast burritos in town, The Green Chile Kitchen, two blocks away.

Concrete words of wisdom...

Princess of the Presidio

Trader Jose- at $5.99/6 pack it's a decent Corona knockoff..

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Well Angela and I had a wild and crazy weekend that started with a trip to IKEA in Emeryville.  Emeryville is an industrial hell-hole between Oakland and Berkley that has a higher kill ratio than Baghdad (if you don't believe me check Wikipedia- it's true)  Getting off the freeway there is nearly as dangerous as the place itself.  Although now there are expensive lofts and condos popping up like mushrooms in a cowpie and soon it will be the new "it" place- provided they fix the impossible offramp which chokes traffic to a gagging blue standstill every day at 5pm.

So we hit IKEA and learned a bunch of Swedish words and bought nothing but Swedish fish and 50 cent hot dogs.  Then we rolled to Berkley for a birthday party park picnic with an old friend from Fairbanks who I hadn't seen in about 15 years.  He was taller.  Then we battled traffic home and geared up for today when we sold off our bedroom furniture.  We bid a tearful farewell to our particle-board friends and sent them on their merry way.  They now live with a girl from Mexico City and one from Guadalajara who I then helped move their junk for the rest of the day.  It was good training for our upcoming move because I saw the benefit of downsizing.

On the morrow it's back to the salt mines...

Sometimes you eat the Shark, sometimes the Shark eats you.

I awoke this morning with the horrible realization that I had left my cordless $400 Makita drill "Shakira" in the back of my truck along with my $300 framing level, on a Friday night, in San Francisco, mere blocks from cracktown.  I flew from my bed, sprinted down the stairs and found everything in my truck as I had left it.  Thank the Crack Lords, the Karma Fairy and the fact I happened to have pajamas on for once.

In a related but not so lucky story a man was eviscerated by a shark near San Diego yesterday.  His last words were apparently "Shark!"  Beats the hell out of "Volvo!"  We should all be so lucky.

Me and Lou Seal (the SF Giants mascot)

Me, Lou Seal and Angela- keeping the crowd on their feet..

I caught a homerun!! (with some help from Photoshop)

Overlooking 3rd base.

Way up top.

Timmy was tall enough to ride the Guzzler, I really shouldn't comment on that...

Angela could have used a little more sunblock and a few less pins, the extra innings were tough on her...

Angela and I finally took in a Giants game, vs St. Louis Cardinals, my first baseball game, ever.  Of course the Giants lost (in extra innings) we drank some overpriced ballpark beer and ate some killer garlic fries.  The Giants stadium doesn't have a bad seat and since it wasn't a sellout game we sat somewhere different every 20 minutes or so.  It was sweet.  We watched a couple home runs go into the crowd and one into the bay.

Sweet Barley Pops

Trader Joes now carries ACME BEER for $2.99 a sixpack.  I had to give it a whirl.  It tastes like 50 cent beer, go figure, still pretty cool.

I'm now trimming out the roof on the jobsite and getting sunburnt as hell.  I'm officially a redneck and can feel my patience getting shorter along with a sudden need to yell obscenities.  Strange.

And last but not least, Mazzy got a new monkey to play with!  So much fun with cotton stuffing.

The Week in Review

Gas in San Francisco is nearly as expensive as Coldfoot, Alaska- actually, I think I took this pic on Monday so it's probably there by now.  I demanded the return of the 3's but this man spoke no english and thought I had to pee.  Whatever.

Angela did NOT buy these glasses even though I begged...

Me and my transit...

The view from the penthouse, note the lack of hot tub- despite my daily rants the architect refuses to budge on this essential city survival tool and beacon of wealth.  Perhaps I should return to Alaska where people listen to me...

View from Master Bedroom, there will be French Doors here...

View from the street, you actually can't see the 4th story so it doesn't look so big, but it is.

One more thing of note:  Angela and I went and saw Billy Connelly live last night and he rocks, I say goddamn the man is funny.  His best line of the night:  "San Francisco, I love you guys, Bill O'Reilly hates you and that's all the endorsement I need."  What a guy.