The Accidental Olympian

OLYMPIA TO ANCHORAGE ROAD TRIP, DAY 2

As you can see, we've made significant progress from yesterdays start. Yesterday was more about getting the house emptied out, getting the car packed, and getting into Canada. Today? Today was about DRIVING. 

And really, as glamorous as I want to make a "road trip" sound, it's basically just a lot of junk food, small towns, shitty food, bathroom breaks, and listening to music/podcasts/Stephen King audio books. Ok, there are some really nice views too, but ugg I hate driving. 

Tomorrow we've got more driving on the agenda, another small town I'll probably forget, but apparently the night after that we're staying at a lodge at some hotsprings up in the mountains and we'll do a little fishing too, and I am SO ALL OVER THAT.

Since my brain is FRIED right now, here's some highlights from day 2. Photo style.  

Even better? After day two, they're still alive and well! 

OH, and still no moose. Saw a LOT of moose sighting signs, but no moose. 

We did see a black bear trying to cross the road right in front of us, a bald eagle, a badger, lots of deer, and some bighorn sheep. 

But NO MOOSE. 

Not cool Canada. Not cool. 

OLYMPIA TO ANCHORAGE ROAD TRIP, DAY 1

As you can tell from the map, we haven't made it all THAT far at the end of day one, but we have in fact crossed into Canada. 

Also, turns out we have a lot of shit. 

LOTS. 

Why in the world do we have so much stuff? 

Getting from the car to the hotel was comical. Bag carts, multiple trips, bags bags and more bags, and then there's this.

Yes you are seeing that correctly. 

That is a 5 gallon bucket with a battery powered air stone, and two fancy goldfish. 

What? Doesn't everyone bring their goldfish on their 7 day relocation road trip?

I know what you're thinking I'm insane, but listen. I've had fish for almost my entire life, and in college when I couldn't get a dog I picked the one type of fish that when cared for correctly can live 15-20 years. Yes, if your goldfish dies after two weeks, then you did something wrong. 

These two (Diego and Plath, yes I named them) are almost four years old. 

You don't just flush four years of water changes and algae scrubbing in the toilet because you are moving from Washington to Alaska. 

NO SIR.

You get a bucket, and you make that shit work.

 

 

So, as you can imagine, this whole journey is hard enough with two people, a ton of shit, and two dogs. Throw in two goldfish that need to have their air stone going, some of their water changed nightly, and a relatively un-stressful (HAHAHAH) environment, and you have yourself a PARTY my friends! 

If we make it to Anchorage in one piece, it will be a miracle. 

But we made it to Canada, so at least we got through step one. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow. 

Maybe there will even be moose. 

And the excitement builds...

 

MY OWN PERSONAL GHOST TOWN

Depending on our ability to clean the remainder of the house and check off exciting things on our to-do list like, "Make copies of house keys," we'll leave for our Alaskan adventure Friday night after work.

As in, TOMORROW NIGHT.

Plans would be to make it at least into Canada that first night. 

If things don't go well and we have to, oh I don't know, REPAINT OUR ENTIRE BEDROOM BECAUSE THE PAINT WE FOUND IN THE GARAGE FROM THE PREVIOUS OWNERS ADAM USED TO TOUCH UP THE NAIL HOLES IS NOT THE RIGHT COLOR BROWN, well, then we'll be leaving Saturday morning. 

It's down to the wire. 

 

Either way, this house is currently my own personal ghost town, and I just want to be on the road already. 

THIS BLOG IS ABOUT MOOSE, OR SOMETHING.

You guys. 

I made a new header for the blog. 

And I didn't even have to pay someone $200 to do it for me! 

All I needed was a quick tutorial from my homie Kelly on "moose tracing" and I was done!

Additional thanks to Sarah for my new tag-line. 

"This blog is about moose. Or something."

 

The website is still accidentalolympian.com, and I am still technically "the Accidental Olympian" but let's be honest, we're about to embark on a whole new pile of Alaskan crazy, so the old digs simply wouldn't do. At this point, call me whatever you'd like, but just remember to come to your same old stomping ground for your daily pile of crazy.

So, if you will, raise a glass with me (coffee, milk, hell wine if you roll that way this early. I don't judge) and let's toast to the fact that right now I am working in Seattle, and when I get home at 5:30pm tonight strange men will have taken everything I own except for a small bag of clothes (gross they touched my underwear) and placed it all on a barge set to cruise across the ocean and I probably wont see it all until three weeks from now. 

Or, let's toast to the fact that we're almost set to depart, that the moving hell and the painful good-byes are almost over and the exploring is almost here. 

And one more toast about the fact that my blog is now about moose. 

Or something. 

STELLA JUST WANTS TO BE SURE WE DIDN'T PACK HER KIBBLE.