A three day birthday celebration might seem a bit excessive, but honestly that’s just the way it turned out.  We were going to see Worthington Glacier on the down, but because of the late start we moved it to the way up. The special crab leg/steak birthday dinner we scheduled on the day we returned because I was a little worried I might be nauseous from the boat trip.  So on Wednesday we had two fun things to do and we all headed out back towards Glenallen.  Kelly and Bill had never seen the glacier, and Ben and Jo had seen it sixteen years before on their honeymoon, and were excited to see it again. So off we went and were all excited that there was some sunshine when we got out of Valdez.

At one point Kelly turned to me and said, “This does not suck.”  She was totally right.  We loved sharing this experience with them. Lee didn’t take any video this time, but if you missed the video from the last time we were here, it’s worth a watch.  I think it’s one of Lee’s best, plus you can see how much the glacier changed since June.

 

After the glacier we headed back to Glenallen for our big birthday dinner.  Last week Kelly and Bill had gone to considerable trouble to buy fresh frozen crab legs for me and at $75 for 3 lbs we all wanted to make sure they were perfect.  Kelly steamed them for me and even had unsalted butter, and with much anticipation we all dug in.

Well. they were absolutely delicious.  I had intentionally selected Brown King Crab because it is cheaper than Red King Crab and actually has a milder taste.  I loved it and Lee took the pictures to prove it.

After dinner we had a fire and then all said our goodbyes in the morning.  Jo and Ben will be seeing Kelly and Bill later in a couple of weeks, but this may be our last shot at seeing either of them for awhile.  We are hoping to all get together this winter though at some point, and in this lifestyle you have to take these moment when you can.

Lee and I had changed our days off, so we were back to work without a day off until August 25th.  We had tons of chores to do including tons of laundry and since Marc went back to Anchorage it was just the two of us for a few days. This was a good thing, because the fact that we were coming to the end was sort of right in front of us and we started making a list of all the things that needed to be done before heading back to the lower 48.  The truck needs looked at (brakes checked, AC fixed, and a rattle in the engine checked out), furnace needs fixed, editing work to be done, finish and send my nephew’s present, and lots of other stuff.  I was actually starting to feel a little overwhelmed by it all when Bob Abrel stopped by.

We met Bob and Lindy at the RV-Dreams reunion rally in 2015 and our routes have been very close to one another ever since.  They were late getting up to Alaska, but were able to stop and see us on their way out and it was great seeing them.  Then the next day Carole and Scott stopped by to say hi after a 4 day trip to McCarthy.  I just love their energy, and it was great seeing them as well.  One of the nice things about being in Glennallen is that sooner or later everyone stops by here, and seeing people has been a lot of fun.  But to be honest I was still feeling a bit bummed about the birthday thing (thanks so much to everyone for their kind words, Nancy you made me smile as always) so I called DeDe, my mother-in-law.  I can always count on DeDe to give me the best advice, and she has a knack of getting to the heart of a matter very quickly.  She said when I was 70 I would look back on 50-65 as the best years of my life, and since DeDe said it, I know it must be true. Then Denny said it’s not downhill from here but uphill, since getting to 70 is a slog uphill, and everything felt better.  I love talking to them, and between the 4 hour time difference and my 11-8 schedule it’s been tough to find time recently.  I’m glad we scheduled something though because their unwavering support of what we are doing is really very special and I am so very lucky to have them in my life. Love you guys!

We also finalized a job selling Christmas Trees in San Antonio over the holidays.  The Good Sam representatives who passed through here a few weeks ago started talking to us about it and recommended us to the company they used to work for.  Since we plan on being in that area anyway and I always wanted to try selling Christmas trees, we were in!  So this fall will be the beet harvest, a stop at Escapees in Livingston, and then selling trees in San Antonio.  Still not sure what we are going to do for the winter yet, but those jobs should give us some cushion going into January.

Oh, and while we were gone we got another really nice review.  They have been coming in steadily all summer but this one was really special so I thought I would share it.  It really feels great to see the impact of the work we have been doing.

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