Our Trip Outside

So we are home, YEAH!!!

Just a visual of our driving trip. Start with A, where we flew in from Anchorage. We flew home from J. Don't forget the flying miles.

Outside Alaska- CA

We rent another car to head towards Cali. This time we upgraded to a Chevy Malibu. Still a small car compared to what we are use to, but a HUGE improvement from the teeny, tiny Aveo we spent so much time in. Even the kids were remarking over the space. We didn’t get the same cheap rate as the Aveo though. Cars are cheap in the Midwest. This is not the case on the west coast. Especially when picking up at one location and dropping in another. At $83/day our 4 days with the Malibu cost about the same as our little Aveo did for two weeks…yeah it hurt!

We hit the road and made it into CA by about 3pm (about 500 miles). On the way we hit 117 degrees. Seriously, why did we decide to travel through AZ and CA in Aug??

We got to LA and stayed at March ANG base. This base is closing so it has the abandoned feel to it. The billeting is very Spanish inspired with terra cotta roof tiles and heavily textured white stucco walls. Large palm trees were in the center of the courtyard with a trickling water fountain. Absolutely GEORGOUS!!

About 2 years ago I helped my mom find some relatives she had never met and some she had lost contact with. While looking for her family I also decided to try looking up a long lost best friend from my childhood. Hours and hours of frustration and several dead ends later I was finally able to contact her. We had spoken over the phone and emailed, but had not yet made contact in person until today. Even though I had not seen her in 17 years I so could have picked her out of a line up. She was always beautiful and now, as a woman, has only perfected her look. She has the squeakiest of voices so Mickey Mouse was a nick name through school. Wanna talk about flash backs. We had a great time. She lived just 2 houses down and we were attached to the hip for many a year. She has 2 daughters that are the same ages as mine so they got along great. And meeting at a Dave and Buster’s was a great decision according to Zac. How quickly time passes. We are hoping next time to plan a vaca together.

A friend, Tina (Jason’s wife), who grew up in LA told me to watch out for the traffic in LA. I was confident in all my travels and growing up in a large city I could totally handle a few cars driving beside me. She informed me of the 70 mph posted limit and the ACTUAL driving speed and how I would be sitting still. Speeding ticket, hello! Ok Tina, you were right!! I am cruzin at 80ish :) and cars are flying past me and pissed that I am in the way. Oh and locking up the brakes during morning rush hour in the fast lane, 6 lanes in is probably not the best choice. Oh and FYI a Chevy Malibu will shut off IMMEDIATELY when the brakes lock up. Laughing now with slight residual twitch.

The next day we headed out up highway 1. We spent some time on the beach and the weather was awesome. It was sunny and high 70s the short time we were there. When we pulled out of the parking lot of the beach I got pulled over again! The police came to the window and asked if I knew why I had been pulled over. I was speeding. NO! Well I might have been, but that wasn’t the reason I was getting pulled over. I guess I had run through a stop sign in the park. Lucky for me I got a warning. He was a little confused though. I have an AZ driver’s license with a CO address but we reside in AK. Another interesting fact about AZ driver’s license is the expiration date. Mine is not set to expire until 2041, seriously! Now the kids think they have some dirt on me. “Look out mom, there’s a stop sign,” or “Are you supposed to be going that fast?” HAHA funny stuff!

We got to Travis and stayed in the TLF there, another 400 miles. WHOA!!! I felt like I was in the Ritz or something. Our room had 2 bedrooms and a full kitchen for $43 a night. What a deal. The next day we drove through Napa Valley and the surrounding area. It was absolutely beautiful. Zac wants to move to CA when he is an adult. He loved southern CA and he saw upper on our trip to AK. We turned in the rental car after 1400 miles in 4 days and spent the next day at the Travis terminal awaiting a flight home. The USO has a family lounge that kept the kids and I busy to kill time. We were able to catch another C-5 for the return trip. With 3 ½ weeks and over 6000 miles under my belt I needed a rest. It sure was great to see lots of friends and family. We missed a few but will definitely try to catch them next time. Never know when we will make a trip.

The flight home was uneventful. The landing was a little rough but we landed in one piece. We bounced a few times and the face masks were falling out due to the molding coming off the plane.

All in all we had a great trip. I HATE flying!!!

Outside Alaska- AZ

Now it is a straight shot to AZ. Just as we are approaching the AZ boarder my cell phone rings. It is my mom calling from her neighbor’s cell phone. She locked herself out of the house when she took out garbage…in her jammies. My dad is the only person with her spare key (my divorced parents are best friends, adds to the craziness huh?) so here she is on her back porch, without her cigarettes and her soda, in the middle of August in AZ, and we would not be there for about 2 ½ hours.

I think I jinxed myself as I made a stupid comment a while back about how I WAS NOT going to AZ anymore! Since Brad and I moved away in ’99 we have been back to AZ NO less than 3 times a year. One year we went 6 times! I am an AZ native, born and raised. I am done, no more, seen enough for now. Since my stupid comment I have been back 3 times in less than a year. I even said once we moved to AK I was not going to visit anyone for a long time. I made it 4 months before heading down to see our family. Something is really wrong with me!

In AZ we have my dad’s station wagon to crusin around in. Talk about a pimpin ride. It used to be my grandparents and my dad bought it off of them.

Zac and Kenzie spent most of the 4 days in AZ visiting their daddy Jason. Luckily we get along great. Yes, just like my parents all 4 of the kid’s parents hang out. Normally Jason and his wife, Tina, will join Brad and I and my 3 parents for dinner. So it is our 5 kids (my 2 with Jason, Brad’s 2 with Julie and Brad and I’s daughter) and my dad, mom and step-mom, Jason and Tina asking for table reservations. I also get along with Jason’s family and visit with them. Crazy as it seems it works out great. The kids think it is great. When Jason comes to visit them, he stays in our house and he and Brad get along. Jason’s wife and I get along. I just wish it could be like that with Brad’s ex.

Before we left, the kids took some photos with their Grandpa Chuck (Jason's dad above), Jason's mom and Jason's Grandfather.

While in Tucson we did just over 300 miles in the 4 days. Of course we hit our favorite spots. We were even able to see my sister’s land where they are planning to build a home. On the 3 acres they will also build a stable and coral to board their own horses and maybe even take in some to make some money. This has been a lifelong goal for their family.

I was ready to be home. I am a spoiled Air Force wife. Brad has never deployed and in almost 9 years we have never been more than 3 weeks apart. We talk on the phone several times a day, but not having the face to face conversation really wears on me. We also spent the past 3 weeks on a couch, living out of suitcases, which is more than enough for me. I know everyone thinks we are crazy for living in an RV, but as much traveling as we do it sure is nice to have your own bed and ability to cook your own meals where ever you are. Don’t even get me started on having your own restroom. People are nasty at rest stops!

I was hoping a flight would be leaving AZ to AK but no such luck. We are now headed to CA to try and catch a flight from there. No guarantees we will be able to do so, but that’s our best chance to get home. Who knows how long our stay in CA will be. This is a great advantage to homeschooling. We don’t have to worry about making it back for “school”. This is "school"!

Outside Alaska- MO/OK/TX/NM

We follow my dad to Rolla, MO and stopped for the night after 600 miles. This is the small town Brad’s grandmother lives in. The area is beautiful. Got a kewl pic following behind just past St. Louis, MO.

The next day I made good on my promise and ate at the Bob Evans before dropping off the car. I turned in the rental car after 3600 miles in 2 weeks and full of white sand from Lake MI. We now cram into my dad’s car. My dad is driving, Kenzie is in the middle, and my step-mom is in the passenger seat. The second row consists of Zac, Mikaela and me. It is a station wagon with two useable seats. The third seat and back are filled with luggage and pillows.

Remember this is the end of August. There has been an unusual heat wave plaguing the Midwest and 6 people smashed in a car for about 1300 miles. The A/C would freeze up so the vent would circulate the hot, humid air. It felt as if we were being slow cooked. The windows would get crack so the sound of 70 mph wind would deafen us. In my childhood music would be on in the car, in the house, everyday. I don’t remember my dad ever watching TV, ever! Well something happened as he has aged. The entire trip to AZ is without the radio… and this vehicle actually has one! For those who do not know my dad (great guy) this ’88 Olds station wagon is his newest vehicle he owns. His daily driver is a ’67 Ford p/u. Or a ’64 Pontiac Catalina, or ’64 Pontiac Bonneville…all without FM radio.

We make it through OK and are on the outskirts of TX and it is late. We are in search of dry ice for the 20lbs of MI blueberries my dad is bringing home with him. Every year he brings them to AZ. They are the biggest, juiciest, sweetest blueberries known to man. As the minutes pass the dry ice is evaporating so the hunt is on. A small town in TX at 10pm = no dry ice. We drive on and still no ice. We make it into Tucumcari, NM and finally stop for the night after almost 900 miles. We have the blueberries in front of the A/C unit for the night. Blueberries just hold on please don’t let go. We made a stop in the morning at a local store to get dry ice. Score! They will make it to AZ without completely thawing. I thought there for a while we were gonna have to eat 20lbs of blueberries in NM.

Outside Alaska- MI

We made it into MI late that night, just about 600 miles. We headed over to the Foster’s house. They are like second parents to me. Mr. Foster and my dad have been friends since young teen years and Mrs. Foster has been there just as long. We always spend some time with them. They have a beautiful spread out in rural MI. A few acres with a flowing stream cutting across it, a nice home and a HUGE garage where we spend most of our time. Mr. Foster had just had surgery on his hand so he was home the entire time we were there. Their youngest daughter was there too. She was just about to start her senior year of college and was spending a few days at home. It was so nice see them. We just hung out and relaxed.

We met up with my dad the next day. He had car problems that stopped his progress from AZ to MI. Luckily they made it just short of their final destination. So Mrs. Foster and I grab some of Mr. Foster’s tools and headed off to help my dad and step-mom. By the time we got there someone else had stopped to help out. My dad had neck surgery the year before and here he is under his car trying to drop the fuel tank. I swear to you I want to smack him! With all of us helping we were able to drop the tank, replace the fuel filter/pump and raise the tank again. Oh did I forget to mention this is at a gas station parking lot and my dad had just filled up his gas tank. Of course it always could be worse. There could have been a heat wave floating through MI at the time of our visit…oh wait there was one. Well we got it done and headed to eat. Wouldn’t ya know it there was a Bob Evan’s on the way back to the Foster’s.

We made the trip to my grandparents to see how they were doing. We got lucky at the beginning of the year when we went to AZ to drop off my Jeep. They were there so we got to see them twice this year. I have a huge family in MI. My dad is 1 of 10 kids and of course everyone has married and had children. My family is a little sick and twisted and if you can’t take a joke you might not wanna come over. Sarcasm is a prerequisite to join the family. Now you see why Brad fits in just right. Montgomery and Gentry have a Xmas song that paints the picture perfectly Brad says.

This year the family reunion started at a bowling alley. There’s nothing like a bunch of Benkerts invading a bowling alley. We all look the same (all 10 kids have brown hair and blue eyes) and have A LOT of kids between us. So here are all these hillbillies bowling. It’s amazing we are all in shoes!

I am blessed to have the craziest family. My children are never at a loss for people to talk to or play with and Zac can build ANYTHING with the supplies at my uncle Bruce’s. My aunts have creative ways to play games and have fun toys for the kids. This year all the kids got screaming, flying monkeys! Yep, you heard me right, screaming flying monkeys. You pull their sling shot arms back as far as you can, aim at your target and let it fly. Through the air sails a streak of brown fur until it hits something and then you hear a LOUD shrieking scream from this thing. Lotta fun for another 5000 miles in an itty bitty car! I will find revenge ladies. Just you wait and see.

So we spent a week in between the Foster’s and my grandparents. Got some great photos of the MI scenery, just wish I had a better camera. Brad, listening??? HINT...HINT....

My grandparents live right next to Lake Michigan so one of the days we drove to the beach and walked around. We walked through the museum of transportation. There were so many amazing model ships. They were so small, but had every little detail. Talk about patience. The kids got to do some swimming and build sand castles.

I am trying to plan my return trip home. Not being accompanied by Brad I am only allowed to fly from any base going straight to Elmendorf. Most flights out of the Midwest are not heading straight to AK, so the plan is to try and head to CA where the most flights going directly to AK originate.

We say good bye to my family and the Foster’s. My dad heads out with us as he is our ride to AZ.

Outside Alaska- IL/IN

We left that night heading onward to IL. IL and IN were the same as the several times we have been through there before. Lots of construction, truckers and impatient drivers. I was so distracted in thought about Brad deploying. I was trying really hard to joke around with the kids but found it was hard to focus my attention.

Don’t forget, Chicago has tolls, lots of them and you need change :)

Outside Alaska- IA

We are trucking right along and hit IA by late afternoon. I am talking on the phone with Brad (hand slap I know) while driving through Des Moines. Now mind you, I am always the passenger or Brad is in the car with me. This is my first time passing through IA without Brad. So we are cruisin right along. I keep asking Zac how much further for our pull off. He keeps telling me the mile marker which is still a ways up the road. We are driving into the darkest, heaviest cloud I have ever seen. I mean I could almost stand on top of the car and touch the sterling black cloud drooping down from the sky. We then hit the rain. And I mean sheets of pressurized water slicing through the sky. It was raining so hard and so fast, semis were pulling off the side of the road. I am looking for an overpass as I am certain we’ve got a tornado sweeping through the corn fields. I pull off as I cannot see and the road has completely disappeared. I call Brad to remind him of my love for IA and the interest I have to participate in a tornado experiment in a match box car. It was raining so hard off the plastic car he could not hear me or I him. That was a great puzzle piece to add to the mix. I finally begin to drive again as the rain has lightened just enough to actually see the center line maybe 5 feet in front of me. This was the case for about 40 miles. Well we lost a lot of time as we could only go 20 mph at best. Next thing you know we are out of it. As quickly as we entered we were out. The sky was bright blue ahead of us with a beautiful double rainbow and a black wall behind us.

Well I pass another mile marker and ask Zac how much further as we should be turning off by now. He again gives me the mile marker for our exit which is still way off considering we have been driving for a while. I pull off the road to look at the map. Come to find out while I was busy talking on the phone to Brad the road I was on forked while I wasn’t paying attention and I had headed 70 miles North when I should have been heading due East. I know I know that’s what I get for talking and driving on the phone, even with hands free. Guess I got a little cocky as I have passed through Des Moines at least a dozen times in the past few years, remember Brad was always there though. So I look at the map and realize I need to back track to make it to his parents. I can either head ALL the way back down to the original interstate 80 or cut through on farm roads which are more scenic. I choose the scenic route. Hello black wall, here we go again.

I have now driven about 800 miles, 2 hours of sleep the night before, 5 shots of coffee and a few Pepsis. I am pinging and hallucinating and reentering the black wall of fiery. We get about half way through the storm when our exit appears. SO we turn off the interstate to begin our travels on 2 lane farm roads. Guess what… the storm is heading due east and we are in the middle of it. Had I known that before I would have gone down to 80. We had the same sheets of rain and black out conditions but now have cars and trucks coming at us inches away. Every time a vehicle would pass the car would get doused with water. We are in such a POS car that the entire car would shake from the force of the water hitting the car. Did I mention the high winds, lack of street lights and no cell phone service???? Fun times or the making of a horror flick, you chose.

We are crawling along, my hands are crushing the steering wheel cuz every time we hit a pocket of water the car wants to hydroplane into the other lane or down into the ditch I can’t see. About another 80 miles of that had me a bit on edge. We make it into Cedar Rapids by 10pm. Yeah, I am familiar with this city, I can get dinner for the kids as they are about to pass out from starvation and I can get right to Brad’s parents with my eyes closed from here. That was BEFORE they had construction and detours into areas I have never driven. And I think the guy who put up the detour signs forgot a few important signs. We finally make our way out of the maze known as Cedar Rapids and find a fast food place that is still open. Remember these are little towns. Being away from them for so long makes me forget how nice some of the folks are. The guy was super sweet. He even gave us a military discount even though the restaurant does not offer one and sent a message of thanks on to Brad. Small town hospitality is AWESOME!!!! We made it to Brad’s parents’ home just after midnight. I am totally fried. I think we ended up going over 200 miles out of our way. That makes over 1000 miles from CO to IA in 1 day. All because I thought I could talk and drive.

Brad’s dad got home from work shortly after I got there and explained that the storm was only a 10 mile wide corridor that headed east. So the entire time we were in the storm I could have dropped down to another farm road (IA is like a grid of farm roads) and I would have had clear skies and smooth sailing. Oh well lesson learned.

We spent the next day with Brad’s family. I got to share our photos from the trip to AK and many more we have. The kids love Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Fresh cookies, baked ham and a 52” TV, they never want to leave. We even got to eat lunch at Happy Joe’s. While eating lunch with Brad’s parents Brad calls to tell me he is deploying to Afghanistan in Jan for at least 4 months. After a few choice words I explain he could have waited to deliver the news as I was driving 600 miles after lunch so I had plenty of time to think about it. It was great timing on his part. I tried stopping in to our friends, the Schwenkers, but they were hanging out in TX while we were there. I’ll catch you next time guys.