chaos

August 29, 2013

Day: 4 days until departure
Total Mileage: 0

 

Silly iPhone. I just spent 20 minutes writing this blog and then, wam!, I hit the wrong button. And it's all gone. So fitting. Onward....

I call this time in the packing process "chaos mode".  I've randomly (or strategically, depending on how you look at it) placed piles throughout my house.  The piles slowly dwindle as each thing finds its home in the Big Girl or the PopTop. 

My struggle? Finding peace among the chaos. I find a glass of wine at night just doesn't cut it anymore. And I'm not really a gin or bourbon kinda gal.  Perhaps I should give it another try...

My real saving grace?  Grandparents.  I have no idea how the world would go round without them.  They provide the perfect distraction for my son.  And they can help us out when he sleeps.  Yes, I worked Grandma and Grandpa plenty when they were here visiting us these past few days.  I'm a slave driver.  I'm leaving for Alaska in 4 days and I have to get stuff DONE.



Grandparents rock. 



Big events of the past few days:

 

1. Roof rack up.  Yakima on.

 



Evening fun getting the roof rack ready.



Colter teaches Dada how to work the power tools. 

 

2.  Bumper off.  Winch in.  Bumper back on.  The bumper weighs 150 lbs.  The winch weighs about 75 lbs.  It was a fun project.  My sciatica is still flaring up.



 

CJ gets ready to take the bumper off and put in the winch in.



Bumper off.  Winch in.  Sounds easy, right?





3.  Neat cargo netting up inside the PopTop (for random storage).



I love storage.

Colter eats dried pineapple and supervises. 

4. Seat cushions and curtains.  Done.



Finishing touches to the new seat covers.

5.  Our new inflatable kayak came!  Woot woot!  Access to water anytime, anywhere is ours.  We can't wait.




Testing out our inflatable kayak.  Its rad.


6.  Owen left us to stay with Grandma and Grandpa until we go to San Diego mid-October for a wedding.  I admit I did shed a few tears.  Love my puppy dog!





Colty says bye-bye to Owey.

We were getting ready for bed the other night and my husband says, "It's sad.  In just a few days we won't have a home anymore."  Talk about a mood lifter ;-)  But then we started talking about Alaska, our adventures to be and the plans we have and we couldn't stop talking.  It felt like 7 years ago when we bought Big Girl and started dreaming.  As Emily Dickinson once said, "Where thou art – that – is Home."
 

Home Sweet Home.  For a few more days.

making the dream happen

August 24, 2013

Day: 7 days until departure
Total Mileage: 0

It's "go" time.  T minus one week until departure. As I was sitting sewing away, it dawned on me: we are going to ALASKA! I've got perma-smile. So does Colter.

Adorable.

It's wild. We've been planning this trip for the length of our entire relationship (10 years this fall) and in a mere 7 days it will be happening. Surreal. 

I look through guide books and see all these unbelievably gorgeous backdrops and incredible animals and I have to convince myself that it is really happening. Have you ever dreamed up something extraordinary? Spent months and years, sweat and tears, planning and laboring over it? And then made it happen? It is truly a remarkable feeling.

Grandma and Grandpa have spent the past few days with us. The ladies are taking on reupholstery and the gentlemen are doing manly things. Like drinking gin and attaching pistons to the PopTop (for ease of lifting with weight on the roof).  

CJ takes on the sewing machine.

So it's raining last night, my mother and I are in the middle of disassembling my sewing machine (why do things always break when you only have so much time?) and my hubby comes running in demanding my help. We approach the truck and he tells me to climb on the roof of the PopTop so he can feel if the pistons work.

Picture this: me lying on the roof of the PopTop on a floating wood board. It's wet, dark and rather chilly out. CJ lifts the back up first- so there I am, feet in the air, head down, praying that I am not going to slip off the front end.  I think my feet were in the air for a good 3 minutes- hands braced against the lid of our slippery camper. I survived and lived to tell the tale.

Grandma pins and irons.

Tonight we've got an assembly line going. Grandma is in charge of ironing and measuring. I took up sewing. And can I just say I've gotten rather good (at sewing straight lines....).  I increased my speed triple fold (from a snail's pace to a turtle's). I'm feeling rather proud of myself.

And Grandpa's over giving Owen some love.

 

How can you resist that face??

Ceeg is in the mix now and we are really cranking.

a rainy day

August 21, 2013

Day: 12 days until departure
Total Mileage: 0

Time is ticking away. I only have 2 more days of work at the clinic. 12 more days of projects and packing. And then we head off to Alaska! It is really starting to feel "real".

The bookcase - post sanding and pre tung oil.  For the record, tung oil is different from staining.  Staining is more coloring versus the oil which actually protects the wood.  Cool stuff, I tell you.  I am so thankful for a husband who is quite the handyman.

Our masterpiece.

Tung oil-ing.

This past week we have made some serious headway.  We have emptied out the contents of the poptop and chipped away at multiple projects.  Poor Colter was quite bummed that his "tent" has been moved for the time being. He loves to snuggle up in it:

Snuggles.

Smiles.

The Poptop was in serious need of some new caulk.  Caulk.  Such a funny word.  Anywho, we tore up the old caulk - a time consuming job - and replaced it with new caulk.  However, the "new caulk" was more "old" caulk.  It never set (after staying on over a week).  You can only imagine the sticky mess that created.  When we finally got to town yesterday, we purchased caulk remover and new "new" caulk.  Again today I suffered through multiple hours removing old, sticky caulk.  It's a learning process.

Love me some handyman.

Giving the trim a bit of TLC - a new paint job.

The rain greeted us around noon today and maintained a steady onslaught until late afternoon.  Colter slept right through it (yay for good nap days).  By 3 o'clock, we decided it was high time to sit down, make some tamales and watch a movie.  We started the Lord of the Rings.  *Sigh.*

The perfect rainy day with my boys.

  

projects and purchases

August 3, 2013

Day: 30 days until departure
Total Mileage: 0

Sometimes I think it would be grand if all I had to do is jump in the truck and drive away.  But it doesn't work that way.  And I suppose I should be thankful for that.  It's the journey, not the destination, as a wise man once said.

Getting ready for Project Day

You know that feeling when you complete one task and add another five to the list?  Yep. That's us.  And with 30 days until we go, I'm pretty sure they won't all get done.  That's just the way it goes.

CJ has some projects he's working on with the Big Girl, but I don't really get involved with that.  I love driving around in my big diesel truck.  We've grown up together.  She's gotten us through so much and I am very thankful for her.  And, yes, she is a she.  I give her TLC but CJ gives her the meat 'n potatoes.

What I can help out with are Poptop projects and purchases (oh yeah!).  The Two "P's".  Basically, I'm in charge of setting up our home for 5 weeks.  Making it categorized, clean, comfortable.  Making it functional.  And for me that is just plain fun.

For instance, today I went online and surfed the web for some netting to help hold everything in place.  And then I found a new camp kitchen set - with lids!  I'm so excited - they are multipurpose - eating off of, drinking out of and then storing in the refrig with leftovers.  When you have a toddler, you have no idea how handy this is.  The little things.

I have big projects too.  Last week, we started the construction of two major Poptop projects:  a new seat back and a bookshelf.  Custom Made by the Malcolms.

Safety glasses? Check.

The seat back: We purchased a rad "tent" (aka pack 'n play) for Colter that fits wonderfully in the Poptop.  The tent snugs back against the window beneath where our bed pulls out. A dark, quiet space for our boy to rest.  However, the current seat back must be removed leaving no comfortable couch for us to lounge on.  So we're building a new one.  'Cause we can.

Dada and the table saw. 

The bookshelf: The Poptop does not have great storage.  Everything seems to slide together and get lost somewhere in the mix after a few seconds on a dirt road.  So we're building and creating more compartments. I'm pretty sure I'll go crazy if I can't keep the square footage of a truck bed clean.



Sanding is so much fun!

And then the electric sander broke....and sanding was not so much fun. 
Early onset carpal tunnel? Definitely.

Projects (and purchases for that matter) are just not as fun without Owen around.  A big, snuggly 75 pound dog always makes Project Day that much more fun.  Even if we have to stop every few minutes and throw him the ball.  Journey, people, not destination.

let's start at the very beginning

August 2, 2013

Day: 1 month until departure
Total Mileage: 0

This fall marks our 10 year anniversary of being in love and 7 years of marriage.  What better way to celebrate spending 1/3 of my life with someone than to partake on an epic journey?  And with a 22-month old.  Welcome to the Malcolm Journey to Alaska 2013!

Why Alaska?  Ever since CJ and I have known each other, we've plotted our adventure North.  We bought our "Big Girl" (BG), a 2500 Dodge Ram Diesel, 7 years ago with every intention of taking her north within a year or two.  A year later we bought our greatest investment to this day - the Poptop.  We could taste Alaska.

But, alas, time ticks on.  We moved from San Diego to Grand Teton to Yellowstone to Grand Canyon.  We acquired a dog (Owen) and a kid (Colter) along the way.  We ventured to China, Ireland and Italy.  We road-tripped to Mexico and throughout the Southwest.  In fact, we've driven BG close to 150,000 miles since she joined our family.  BG's charged through feet of snow, forged rivers, crawled over boulders and sank into sand on the beach.  And that's just a sampling of her ability.

And now it's 7 years later and we're finally making the dream happen. 

I admit our trip has morphed quite a bit over the years.  At first, we dreamed of a 6 month endeavor throughout the state of Alaska- perhaps even picking up odd jobs along the way for some income.  As time ticked on, we came to terms with a 3 month adventure.  Today? 5 weeks sounds heavenly.

You may think we're crazy to attempt 8,000+ miles with our 22 month-old, Colter.  I admit some days I have my doubts.  He's done long road trips since he was 4 weeks old (his first 1,000 mile journey to Southern California). They haven't all been "calm".  But, we've got some tricks up our sleeves and I can't imagine Alaska without him. I know he will bring a sense of wonder to our vacation that we would otherwise miss.

I think the saddest thing will be leaving our faithful 3 year-old puppy, Owen.  I know he would love to lay in the truck with us and drive thousands of miles, but he will be better suited in California with Grandma and Grandpa.  We will miss him dearly.  Don't worry, O, we'll bring home some salmon for you.

Preparations are already months underway.  Join us in our last month before we leave.  The list grows.  Our excitement explodes. 

ALASKA.