Hope the meds are starting to work and you're beginning to feel a bit
better. Sounds like it was an exciting Friday for you. And now, about our
experiences and greetings from Anchorage, Alaska!

As I think you know, we were supposed to be babysitting Seward High School
campus for the summer. We arrived in Soldotna last Saturday, checked into a
pretty yucky campground there, and on Tuesday drove the 12 miles to Kenai
High School for the orientation meeting. We were welcomed, given our site
information and signs and told to travel the 105 miles to Seward and set up
at the school. The other couple was already there, so we would be
positioned at the back of the school.

When we went back to the campground, we were unable to raise the rear jacks
of the RV. We don’t know quite how it happened, but somehow, the ‘feet’ on
the bottom of the jacks came off, and when we leveled in Soldotna, the jack
standards went straight into the ground and refused to come up. Dan tried
most everything, digging them out, etc., to no avail. Finally we found a
mobile RV repair guy who was on his way out of town, but stopped and
assisted us. He drained the hydraulic fluid and manually pushed them up
then wired them in place and charged us $100.

We finally got to Seward about 7:30 p.m., found the high school, and drove
up to it. After a number of phone calls and conversations, the principal
there advised us that he didn’t want a second host, that he didn’t have room
for one, and that he had told the district that just that morning. We spoke
to the operations guy at the district, who said something to the effect that
he didn’t know anything about that, but he guessed we could stay there
overnight and, though he was going out of town in the morning, he’d have his
admin assistant contact us. To say we were a bit put out was mild…..he then
said he “guessed we could stay there overnight and dry camp, since it was so
late.” I have never seen Dan hook up the car so quickly and we left. When
Patty called the next morning and left a very nice message that she had
other schools that needed hosts, and apologized profusely, I called her back
and said we were extremely upset by the treatment we’d received and didn’t
feel that the school district and the Pence Family were a good match.

By then we were staying at a funky campground out on the inlet….the farthest
out that we could go. No jacks, so we drove the rig up on boards to get it
fairly level. We spent one day on a Kenai Fjords cruise that was
spectacular….we saw orca and humpback whales, sea lions and a sea lion
rookery, sea otters, dall sheep, including a really little baby, puffins,
and all kinds of other birds, visited a glacier and had a marvelous dinner
(prime rib, salmon, wild rice pilaf, salad, sourdough bread, and several
choices for dessert. While we were at the glacier they snagged some pieces
of glacial ice and made margaritas from it….amazing taste! It was a great
day and we both really enjoyed it. On Friday, we came up here and made an
appointment with an RV shop to repair the jacks. They will pull the old
assembly off, assemble a new one, and reinstall it. We should be out of
here towards the end of the week. In the meantime, we’re enjoying the city.
When we leave, we will probably drive up to Fairbanks, and then start making
our way south….we’re thinking of heading over to Jasper National Park,
Banff/Lake Louise National Park, another Canadian national park whose name I
always forget, then down into the U.S. and revisit Glacier National Park.
If all works well, and our friends Jerry and Linda are home in Kallispell,
Montana, we’ll drop in and visit them. It is their deal at this stupid
shanghai rummy we play. :>)

From there, we’ll head back to Washington State and go from Thousand Trails
campground to campground, ending in San Diego some time in the fall.

We’ve had a some experiences on this part of the trip that weren’t great.
Dan had a ride in a Canadian ambulance in Edmonton and we experienced
socialized medicine…which is a whole lot cheaper than our stuff! His back
started spasming one afternoon and kept getting worse as the night wore on.
No sleep and at 5 a.m. I called for an ambulance. Three cute young blondes
showed up, pumped him full of morphine and carted him off. Eleven hours in
the emergency room and constant morphine finally calmed it down. We stayed
an extra two days here before heading on up here. His back still bothers
him, but it’s much better. The docs said it could take as long as four to
five weeks to heal. So he’s taking Motrin regularly.

We did enjoy visiting the plains provinces in Canada. We headed northwest
on our journey through them, and saw Thunder Bay, Ontario; Winnipeg,
Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Edmonton, Alberta. Thunder Bay was a
disappointment, but the rest of the cities were lovely. It rained from
Thunder Bay to Saskatoon, and then rained the day we left Edmonton.

From there we traveled across the northeast corner to British Columbia to
White Horse, Yukon Territory, where we stopped for few days and experienced
the most amazing afternoon. We visited with the man who holds the record
time for the Yukon Quest, a dog-sled race held annually in the Yukon. He’s
run the race for more than 20 years, and has all the dogs still living from
all his teams….adds up to about 105 sled dogs of various ages. To help pay
his $25,000 annual food bill, he invites tourists to come spend the
afternoon at his home. We walked down to the river with about 15 of his
younger dogs (there were two other couples as well) and he talked about the
dogs, the area, what it’s like in winter. Then we returned to his house
where he served us home-made muffins, coffee, tea, orange juice and water,
and showed us a Canadian Broadcasting Company documentary about the 2004
race. He was interviewed and followed on the race and he repeatedly stopped
the dvd to explain things to us. His work background was in social work and
he is truly a motivational speaker. During the video, a synchronized
swimming team joined us, and their coach was really enthralled with what he
talked about. We left there about 6 p.m. and it was an incredible day. I
don’t think I’d care to do a dogsled run like that ---- up extreme
mountains, in –44 degree temperatures. His record is 12 days and some hours
and minutes.

We’re supposed to get a little rain tonight, then clear tomorrow. Dan’s all
excited because there’s an outdoor market here that we’ll go to in the
morning. Monday we take the rig in for a couple of hours, then we’re free
until Tuesday or Wednesday, when the jacks are put back on. Don’t know yet
what we’ll do while we wait, but there’s lots to see here. Best close for
now...

Hugs,

Marla B. Pence

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ---

Wow! What a ride!!!!!




----Original Message Follows----
From: "Chuck Rossier" <survivor@...>
Reply-To: cancer_survivors_gathering_place@yahoogroups.com
To: cancer_survivors_gathering_place@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [cancer_survivors_gathering_place] A Good Day To Stay In Bed
Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 22:26:56 -0000

Yesterday was a big day for me. I got to sleep late while Jackie
volunteered at the local hospital. When she got home I drove back in
to the other local hospital to take a Cancer patient home after her
chemo treatment. After returning home we waited for our son and
daughter to arrive from New York. The four of us were going to spend
the weekend at a local college doing a "We Can Weekend" with the
American Cancer Society. Late in the afternoon my face began to swell
and itch. I was concerned, but I wasn't going to cancel the weekend
retreat.

We arrived at the college and registered at 6:30pm. Then we had pizza,
chips, and pastries. By 7pm I realized that my facial swelling was
serious and left with my son for the emergency room of the local
hospital. The doctor gave me a diagnosis of shingles, prescribed an
antiviral medication, and told me to go home and wait a week for it to
clearup.

My son has navigation problems, especially at night and in the rain.
So, we returned to the college, told Jackie the bad news, and our
daughter Laura came with me to pickup the prescription, drop me off at
home, and return to be with Jackie and our son, Ed. On the way home
there was a muffler in the middle of the road. I swerved in a last
second attempt to miss it, but it was too late. After the bump and the
noise as we ran over it, we counted 5 cars pulled off the road with
people standing behind them in the pouring rain. Using my cell phone I
called 911 to report the problem and drove on the rim of the left
front wheel the last mile to get home. We parked and swapped into
Laura's car to get to the pharmacy for my prescription. We got there
at 9:03pm - 3 minutes after they closed. We then had to drive 15 miles
back to the hospital where there was a 24 hour pharmacy. On the way
back we noted that there were now 8 cars off the road with their
emergency flashers on and 3 state police cars directing traffic. It
was backed up about 5 miles. At least, we weren't on that side of the
road. The pharmacy was mobbed with people waiting for prescriptions
including one woman who apparently had taken drugs and alcohol and was
incoherent and a bit violent. They called both the police and an
ambulance for her. I got my prescription and we returned home, but
took a back road instead of the turnpike.

By now it was after 10pm and the Boston Red Sox/Detroit Tigers game
was over, but I had recorded it on my DVR. So I tried to relax and
watched the game skipping over the commercials and fast forwarding
much of the pitch and wait stuff that goes on during a low scoring
game. The recording ended with the Red Sox trailing 2-1 in the top of
the 9th inning, 2 outs, and a 1 strike count on the last Red Sox
batter. I went to bed saddened by the belief that my beloved hometown
team had lost.

It wasn't until noon today that I learned what happened next. A single
was followed by a 2 run home run and the Red Sox led into the bottom
of the 9th 3-2. Their rookie pitcher then shut down Detroit for his
20th consecutive save and a Red Sox win.

I may be home alone and very uncomfortable, but I am happy knowing
that something is right with the world. Jackie, Laura, and Ed are
having a good time at the Cancer retreat, too.

Shalom,
Chuck