Incredible Journey--Texas to Alaska

After being in Texas with Memommie, Buddy, Daddy Mark, and Nanny, it was time for the remaining members of the moose nugget family to join the humans in Alaska. The really are no words to adequately tell the three day story/saga, but here is a synopsis. Thursday's chore was to catch the animals, aka manhandle Girl-Girl, and take them to Paris to the vet to secure a health certificate. That was accomplished without any trouble at all and pretty much lulled Nanny Nugget into a false sense of security!

After school on Friday, Graham and Fern said their goodbyes. Now Graham really wanted no part of seeing his sister leave as the responsibility of entertaining the humans now falls solely on him!

Buddy shares a brownie with Fern and promises to see her at Christmas. "Buddy, thanks for taking such good care of me and letting me eat your fried chicken. "

Memommie got home from school and had her hands full with Vader who couldn't begin to understand why all the food had been removed from the dryer. He had no idea that he was about to ride 250 miles to Houston. His feeling were hurt as he has found his way into Memommie's heart and couldn't imagine that his needs were being ignored.

Vader and Girl-Girl in the traveling cage telling Memommie goodbye. This follows us gathering up Girl-Girl from behind the toilet! She was wise today about what was going on and had no intention of getting back in a cage! Memommie, thanks for taking such good care of us. We will see you this summer!

"Sarah, you won't believe what happened on the way down. We had been riding forever, and Nanny was driving really fast. All of a sudden, Terri was jostling our cage, telling us to create a ruckus. It seems that Nanny had been stopped for driving too fast and was hoping that we would distract the nice policeman. It seems to have worked because he didn't give Nanny a reward like the nice Kansas officer gave Mike. " The travelers were really glad to get to Sarah's as everyone was really tired. We would have done just as well to have gotten here hours later as there was very little sleep to be had. Fern could not get settled. Girl-Girl hid under the bed. Vader patrolled as if he had been hired as a security officer. During the night, after Fern had gone out 3 or 4 times, Vader began to call for Girl-Girl to come out of hiding. Everytime she ventured out from under the bed, Fern jumped down scaring her back under. Nanny finally threatened to lock Fern in the car if she got up again. Vader was finally successful in getting Girl-Girl to eat a bite and potty. They all finally went to sleep around 7 a.m. and at 9 Fern was snoring so loudly that she woke everyone up! OH WHAT A NIGHT!

It was finally time to get all the animals into their crates and head for the airport. Girl-Girl had a really different idea. Seems she had scratched a hole in the box springs lining and was hiding in the springs themselves. No amount of coaxing could get her out. Vader called her and called her, but she refused to budge.


What she could do was howl and hold onto a spring for dear life!


Nanny's wounds! Girl-Girl really didn't intend to get back in a crate. OUCH! Seems that Nanny was feline-handled.

"The humans at Continental Airlines were so nice. They put my crate together. I'm really ready to see my family! Nanny says that they are going to be waiting for me right after I take a nap. When I wake up I will be with my mommy, daddy, and David. I have missed them a lot. Nanny's house is nice, but there's no place like home!"
"Bye, Nanny. See you Christmas!"
Vader, Girl-Girl and Fern say a big thank-you to Terri and Sarah for helping us today! Alaska, HERE WE COME."

Incredible Journey Part 1

Just a couple of pictures of the departure. More to follow!! Just saying, Sheila Burnford had a better idea. Her two dogs and a cat hiked their way.

Sarah and all three crates. Trust me, if there was audio you would hear Girl-Girl's complaints.

"I love you, Mommy! I was really scared at the airport. Have something good for me to eat when I get to Alaska."

Hiking, Horseback riding, and Home

Well, the moose nuggets are finally starting to feel settled here in Anchorage. It is somewhat hard to feel settled with winter coming soon - and with no clue how to live with the snow! The more I see studded tires, snow boots, and snow blowers, the more nervous I become. Just pray that Mike doesn't deploy during this first winter. David and I might never figure out how to leave the house!

Although this is the rainy season in Anchorage, we did have a beautiful, clear night last Friday. We decided to take advantage of the weather and hike a 'mountain' that is only a 10 minute drive from our house. Along this hike, Mike and I got separated (he took the steep, short path, I chose the longer, more flat path), so we didn't get many pictures, as it took us about 45 worried minutes to reconnect! We saw this family of Mom and twins on the way to the trailhead:


This was the view from the halfway point. This is the view overlooking Anchorage and the Cook Inlet at sunset.


It was an amazingly beautiful hike, and we feel so fortunate to have these opportunities right out our back door!

Speaking of our back door, here is a picture of our house!


As you might be able to tell, we have almost NO landscaping in our yard. Trees are very slow to grow here, so most people have shrubs and hanging baskets - we don't even have that yet. But, we do have this one, tiny, pitiful, little tree.


Those of you who have lived near us or visited us know that we do not enjoy raking our leaves. In fact, we usually just let them blow into our neighbor's yard for their raking pleasure. So, this might work out well for us, even if not aesthetically pleasing! Also, if we did have trees, we might not have this amazing view from our back yard:


The above picture was the view approximately two weeks ago, and this is the view today! I'm sure you'll notice the colors in the trees and the SNOW! This week the snow has been moving further and further down the mountains. It's beautiful really, David said yesterday that it looked like a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.


Last Saturday, David and I began horseback riding lessons. It's something we've wanted to do for a while, and we saw that the Air Base offered riding lessons at the stables. One more reason we love the Air Force: we get a two hour lesson for a GREAT price! Here is a picture of David and his assigned horse, Casper.


We spent lots of time learning to groom Casper and put on the saddle and bridle. We also practiced leading the horses, and at the end, David got to ride for a few minutes.


Casper is a great teaching horse, and our teacher, Ms Tammy is awesome with David! Speaking of DAVID, he is running for student council treasurer at Kasuun Elementary! He turned in a campaign poster on Wednesday, and today was his SPEECH. We are so excited that he wanted to participate in the elections. Here is his picture dressed for his speech.


Notice how dark it was at 8:20 this morning! Keep checking up on us - our animals are 'moving' to Anchorage this weekend via Continental. We are all so excited and can't believe it's finally happening. Our whole moose family will be under one roof! We can't wait to be together so we can make our own memories. Hehehe...

Denali Road Lottery 2007

As many of you know, the Moose Nuggets were very fortunate to win the Denali Road Lottery this year. We even managed to win before leaving Arkansas! The Denali (also known as Mt. McKinley) park road is closed to personal vehicles past mile 15. You have to take a tour bus or hike/backpack through the park. Each September, for one weekend, 1600 vehicles, chosen by lottery, are allowed to drive the entire park road (92 miles) taking as long as they wish. 400 cars go in each day, and our day was this last Friday!

The drive to Denali was amazing as the fall colors in central Alaska are on full display. It's a very different fall than we are used to in Arkansas and Texas. Obviously, many trees stay green all year, and the black spruce that look like tall black spires. However, the aspen and birch are both a brilliant, golden yellow, and many of the ground covering plants are crimson and purple.

We stayed the night 30 miles south of Denali's main gate in the town of Cantwell. This is a small town of 150 people who fondly reminisce the days when there were no phones (except one at the train station) and the whole town communicated with CB radios.

We arrived at Denali by 7:00 Friday morning eager to begin the trip. After the briefing about what to do if you see a bear or if there is a "wildlife jam", we began our journey of 180 miles on a dirt and gravel road with a speed limit of 35! After the first 15 miles, the forest thins down into land that is known as taiga. Taiga is between the forest and the tundra, and this had a lot more meaning to us as we drove into the tundra! On the taiga, we were able to see a lot of dall sheep, some caribou, ptarmigan, and a showshoe hare! Here is a picture of the taiga.



Showshoe hare - notice the big feet that help them walk (hop) on the snow! These hares change color with the seaons, in winter this hare will be all white.



As you can see, the colors of the taiga and tundra in the fall are spectacular!




It was very difficult to take pictures of the wildlife. Before arriving at the park, I imagined the animals being close to the road - not true! Without binoculars, we wouldn't have seen many animals. The landscape is just SO vast, even grizzly bears are tiny specks in the distance. It was very humbling to be in the presence of such grandeur. We were able to see groups of grizzly bears roaming the mountainsides, feasting on blueberries, and bull moose facing each other preparing to spar. To say we were in awe is an understatement. All that to say: I'm sorry there are not pictures of 'big' animals! Next year, when I go back with my (Christmas present) telephoto lens, I hope to have better pictures!

Mike and David at Polychrome Pass



There were blueberries everywhere! Millions and millions, and the bears were enjoying them. We stopped to pick them at the end of the road before turning around. There were also cranberries, but we didn't know what to do with those!



Here is a picture for Buddy.



This is the best view we got of The Mountain. We were on our way home, and we stopped for lunch at a restaurant with views of Denali. The longer we watched, the clearer the sky became, until finally we had a view of the entire mountain.


It was such an exciting and surreal experience. We are already making plans for entering the lottery next year!

In addition - we arrived home to a surprise. The Chugach Mountains which create the eastern border of Anchorage and are right behind our house were dusted in snow! In Alaska, they call this first dusting on the mountaintops 'termination dust'. The locals say that you can expect snow on the ground 3-4 weeks after termination dust. Winter is approaching!