What most people don't understand is how far away Alaska really is. When I was looking for a Norwegian Elkhound to adopt, many people, not just a few, couldn't understand why I didn't just drive down some weekend and pick up a dog in Oregon or Washington. I think folks think Alaska exists where the weatherman has it on the TV map: floating off the coast of Washington. What they don't seem to realize is that there is a not-so-little thing called CANADA between Alaska and Washington state. It's 2,313 miles (according to Milepost, the best Alaska travel book/magazine ever) between Fairbanks and Seattle. It's about 1,462 between Seattle and Albuquerque (according to Rand McNally. When I drove up here it was roughly 5,000 miles.
So the first thing I had to do to set out on my trip is drive to Anchorage, 350 miles away, so that I could catch an airplane. I could have paid a ridiculous $300 to Alaska Airlines to add the one hour travel to Anchorage, but since driving was half the cost of that (round trip) I opted to take the beautiful Parks Highway to Anchorage, going past Denali National Park and some of the most stunning scenery in the United States.
As of yet I've never seen Denali from nearby. I see it often from 150 miles away in Fairbanks, but every time I drive down the Parks Highway the mountain is under clouds! Arrrggghhh!
My friend Ruth in Anchorage put me up for the night. She's been a great friend and very tolerant of my comings and goings in that town. In spite of being a very busy woman she graciously let me use her spare bedroom. The only price I had to pay was throwing lots of toys for Ace, her dog, a price I happily enjoyed.
The next morning my plane was scheduled to leave at 9am. That meant I got up at 6, drank coffee at 6:30 and was freaking out that the cab wasn't there until quarter to eight. The cab driver was from Macedonia, a heavy-set guy who really wanted to talk. He kept letting out these burps and snurking up snot as he talked. I tried to stop talking since he was grossing me out...I mean this was first thing in the morning...and even when he didn’t talk he still made the same awful noises. It was disconcerting that he kept turning his head back to look at me while driving, too. Hasn’t he heard of a rear-view mirror? I was sure my journey was going to end in a big car crash as he zipped around rush-hour traffic.
A bit queasy from the cab ride I still got my ticket just fine, and as I had no luggage to check, the trip down was a breeze, other than the lackadaisical pilot who gave us a bumpy landing in Salt Lake, where I switched planes to a smaller jet. That pilot did a better job on the landing in Albuquerque, but I don't like those little jets that are so small that one would have to be anorectic to sit comfortably.
Amber and Ole met me at the airport for lots of hugs. Amber then went home and Ole and I went to get the compact (two-door Speck) rental car I'd reserved a month ahead of time.
When I got to the Avis counter I was told immediately that if I wanted to pay "only $8 more per day" that I could drive a Mustang. Um, NO, I just want my car. And suddenly no cars were available. Funny how that happens. Let's see, I made a RESERVATION, does that word mean anything anymore? Apparently not. My choices were an SUV or a Dodge Caravan, she said, and then added, "Oh, no, the SUV just got rented."
We were the only people standing at the counter. HOW could it have suddenly disappeared? Aliens?
I'd pre-paid for a compact car. I ended up with a Dodge Caravan, though I didn't pay anything extra for it. I asked for a 53 Buick. Heck, if I was going to drive a gas hog, let it be something I know and like....In the end the van turned out to be a decent, if weird car. We needed to move things for the wedding and it came in handy. But it took us five days to figure out how to get any other window but the driver's side window to roll down. This we accomplished by punching random buttons and switches repeatedly. Good old American ingenuity built that van, of course.
Ole and Amber bought a house last year and it's a modest stucco "adobe" in a decent neighborhood not far from the municipal golf course. Athena and Lilly (the dogs) greeted us as we arrived. I was thrilled to see that Athena was in great condition, compared to what she'd looked like a year ago. Last year she was skeletally thin, with short, dry fur and obviously didn't feel good. The dog that greeted me had full, thick, soft fur, and was a normal weight. She obviously felt great. Amber and Ole had started feeding the dogs a premium dog food and the change was enormous. She didn't look like the same dog!
The next few days were a whirlwind of housecleaning and wedding preparations. There was no time for fun stuff. It was stressful but not extremely so. Ole and Amber were dealing with pre-wedding anxiety very well. Amber had planned the whole thing and done a great job!
One afternoon Amber and her sisters, Ariana and Alicia, and I went shopping for my wedding clothes. It was fun driving around town and hanging out with the girls. We even met Amber's mom briefly so I could try some of her shoes on to borrow for the wedding.
The weather was gorgeous: cool in the evenings, warm to hot during the day but low humidity for the most part. The monsoons are back in New Mexico! The seventeen year drought seems to have lifted, though the aquifers haven't fully recharged yet, it was lovely to see the weather back to the normal pattern of afternoon thundershowers. Every day the air was washed clean, the sky dotted with puffs of cloud.
Friday night Amber and Ole hosted the rehearsal party, complete with barbeque and plenty of yummy dip, salad, cheesecake (that came in handy later in the week for snacking!) and other good stuff.
On Saturday the big preparations began. I took the things I'd been carrying around in the van over to the golf course for the ceremony. The plan was to have the wedding ceremony on the driving range and the reception in a large room in the main building.
Note: Albuquerque is a working-class town where golf is accessible to everyone. The golf course is run by the City and anyone can play there. There is no club.
All the chairs were set up, the arbor that Amber and her sisters had made and covered with silk flowers was there in the trailer, ready to be set up. I drove up and we unloaded. Everything was ready, with minor things still to be done. I made myself useful doing small tasks for Amber and basically hung out. We were doing pictures before the ceremony so I had been told to be there three hours early.
I brought a book and read a lot, too, while the wedding activity flowed and surged around me.
Half an hour before the wedding the monsoon thunderheads, right on time, started massing up and sprinkling. The siren, warning people on the course of lightning, went off. Fifteen minutes later we had completely changed our plan and the wedding was now set for the reception room instead of outside.
I helped set the arbor up inside so that it wouldn't fall down, and started to visit with the guests. It seems like every other person I talked to was Amber's cousin.
Ole and Amber dealt with the change in venue like champs! I am so proud of them! There was no Bridezilla meltdown, no nothing, just two happy people who kept their eyes and hearts set on what they wanted to do: get married!
The ceremony went smoothly and quickly, and was broken in solemnity only by a lot of laughing when Amber couldn't get Ole's ring on his finger. The whole room laughed with them.
Amber and her father going down the aisle.
Amber's and Ole's friends made their red velvet cake and decorated it with cream cheese frosting and real flowers. In case you don't know what a red velvet cake is (I didn't, apparently it's a Southern thing), it's a very light chocolate cake dyed with red food coloring. It was delicious.
A beautiful engagement portrait of the couple was made into a signature board. Here Amber's Uncle Greg and Aunt Sheila sign.
There was excellent food after the ceremony, and dancing, and we dashed in and out of the room to get our pictures taken between rain showers.
Amber's sister Ariana and her mother, Betsy, zooming around on one of the three golf carts dedicated to the wedding guests.
It was a great, fun wedding and party, and at the end of it Amber and Ole took off for a night at a luxury hotel in town for their first wedded night. I spent the night alone in their house having quality time with the dogs, and interrupted by young guys coming by to change out of their tuxes.
I met Ole and Amber at the hotel at 9:30 the next morning for an excellent brunch. Then we all went back to their house only to find that the plumbing was not working, and the bathtub, so laboriously cleaned not three days before, was full of sewage. Of course this was on Sunday of Labor Day weekend. The estimates for cleaning out the main line were upwards of $300. And Monday was Labor Day. So by Tuesday they still hadn't had it cleaned out and we were all making visits elsewhere to take care of business. What a rotten trick on two sweet newlyweds!
I didn't get a shower until I got home to Alaska four days later.
It was hard to leave my son and Amber, but, determined not to be the weepy mom (I'd made it that far without crying, I didn't want to spoil my record!) I settled for lots and lots of hugs and kisses from them both before finally driving back to the airport car rental place. I'm not saying I didn't get all teary as I drove away....
The only notable thing that happened on the plane ride back was being told on the outset that there were
"scattered thundershowers" in Salt Lake and that there "might be turbulence." Okay, well, I thought, that's par for the course and we'll be fine.
After we'd circled SLC for an hour I began to wonder. The turbulence wasn't all that bad. The little girl in the seat behind me was having a ball. When the ride got bumpy she'd say "Wheee! Mommy! Isn't this FUN?" Then she looked out the window and said, "OOOOoooH! Lightning! OoooHHHHH That one was CLOSE! WOW!" All with total glee and no fear at all.
Meanwhile out my window there was a complete sea of BLACK clouds underneath us, and lightning all around us. I was still in the tiny needle-jet and not confident that we
OUGHT to land.
The pilot told us that the airport was closed. I could see lots of planes circling. It always makes me quite nervous to be able to SEE other planes when I'm in a plane already.... The stewardess said that there was wind shear of up to 40mph and that they wouldn't let us land. Thank God for that, I thought.
After an hour and fifteen minutes I wondered if we could just fly on to another, non-closed airport. Not in their plan, apparently. Eventually we did land safely, and I have to commend the Delta pilot for a job well done.
We landed at 9:15 and my plane, which had been scheduled to leave at 8:56, was still on the ground scheduled to take off at 9:20....on the other side of the airport, of course. By the time I got to the gate I was breathing like a marathon runner, and probably not looking too good, my lips might have been blue...I'm asthmatic....and the attendant immediately got me a bottle of water. I clumped back to my seat, thankful I made it....and waited an hour and a half for us to take off.
Periodically other passengers would appear, looking nearly as bad as I had, an plop themselves down in a seat. Eventually the 757 took off, and punched its way through the clouds with little trouble. Give me a BIG plane any day!
Got back around 1:20 am. Another cab ride (with a guy who had to look up where I was going, but at first I thought he was looking at a Cambodian/English dictionary, yikes, but he was an English speaker, thank God) got me back to Ruth's house where I put my chile and posole in her fridge for the night. Of course I had to bring home a whole suitcase of the good stuff from New Mexico.
Denali is there......somewhere......
In the morning I took off northward. Denali Park was in full Fall colors!
A storm blew off the mountain (yes, of course it was under clouds) and I drove 15mph through about a mile and half of freezing rain! After that though, the coast was clear and I made it home in time to wade through road construction, and then drive all the way out to the kennel to pick up the dogs. I think we finally got home around 8:30pm.
Ole the Dog is a rescue dog, and I'm glad he was able to stay in the same kennel with Sofia. The report was that he was "so quiet, the are both so quiet" (!!yes, this is an elkhound!!). When I walked up to the kennel the look of complete SHOCK on Ole's face was hilarous. Yes, Ole, I CAME BACK!
Ten days is a long time for dogs to be left, and I'm sure he thought he was back in the dog pound. Both of them stuck close close close to me for the next couple of days.
Now I only have to miss Ole the Man (he's not a boy anymore). They plan to visit me next summer. I can't wait!
