(Written on Tuesday, November 19, 2013)
Right now, I’m seated in the Recliner Lounge of the M/V Malaspina, an Alaska State ferry, en route to Bellingham, Washington with my love, Scotty and our mini-van/ converted camper.
We’re motoring through frothy white chop, but nothing we can feel aboard this large vessel (more on specs later). Another passenger struck up small talk with me just a bit ago and said we’re passing through the “Narrows” as we near Sitka, another little Southeast Alaska town with a Alaska Native and Russian influences.
The night we left Juneau, Scotty and I hung out at a friend’s house until it was time to get the ferry terminal around 1 a.m. to check in for our scheduled 4:15 a.m. departure. Exhausted, we pulled our camper mini-van onto the ferry’s car deck, grabbed our camping backpacks pre-loaded with sleeping bags and air mats, and headed for a quiet corner on the floor of the Observation Lounge. Cabins are an option, but we’re okay with camping out (and traveling as cheaply as possible means we can do more of it).
Soon, the ferry will dock in Sitka from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Last time we were here in January 2007, we hitchhiked downtown and back and almost didn’t make it back in time. Scotty’s working on me for “round two”, but we’ll see. I was a lot younger then. ;)
If I’m going to be blogging on the go like I plan to for this trip, I’m going to have to get quite a bit faster at writing while resisting my natural tendency to contemplate things and self-edit. So in the interest of time and productivity, maybe I can teach myself to let go of those inhibitions, be more candid, and as a result this blog will start to sound less like travel PR and more like I’m talking to a friend, which is what I’ve been going for all along anyway.
With as much as has been happening lately, I’ve been feeling like I can hardly keep up in life, much less with writing about it. So in a nutshell, here’s the scoop: I just quit my job of six and a half years to take an epic road trip and possibly even more epic sailing trip with my beloved, Scotty, this winter. When I say “just quit” I mean, my last day of work was this past Friday and yesterday we packed up and moved out of the apartment we’ve lived in for the past two and a half years before catching the ferry out of town. Yep, these snowbirds are headed south for the winter.
And last but certainly not least in importance, Scotty *finally* asked me to marry him in most awesome and loving way last Sunday, November 10th. But that story deserves a post of its own. :)
Throw in a recent trip to South America and other travel for family reasons, and I’ve been operating on overdrive, looking forward to this trip while frantically trying to “get it all done”. I have never been so glad to just breathe as we quietly motor along on this old boat through foggy, coniferous-covered mountains. And the adventure has only just begun… stay tuned for plenty more.
P.S. I've signed up for AT&T's Personal Hotspot, so wherever we have cell service, we'll have WIFI... no excuses! ;)
1 comment:
I'm enthralled. Write some more!
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