25th - 28th August - Into USA and a PLEDGE! :-)

So Wendy left us - it was sad to see her leave and I bawled like a baby in the shower that night - its easy to cry in the shower, the tears just wash away and one has an excuse for the puffy eyes - the shampoo! Talking about showers...... each different campground restroom has a different personality. One stop had restrooms with piped in music - gentle and soothing which made one want to stay in there forever and definately made me feel totally relaxed and calm. Another had a young lady in the laundromat next door that sang with the most beautiful voice while she did her washing....... beautiful to listen to while the hot water beat down. Another shower had a strange personality - it was a reeeeaaallly small little place. The water would turn cold everytime someone flushed a toilet making me move out of the way of the now icy water, only to find myself jammed up against an ice cold tile wall with the shower curtain sucking in up against me from the other side! Then the water would heat up again and the curtain would billow out back to where it belonged - the walls never had time to warm up. Needless to say, it did not take long to finish up that night!

The Cassiar Highway took us through Meziadan Crossing into Smithers - this road is filled with 'shimmering trees' beautiful colors, unreal green ponds, lakes and absolutely awesome mountains. The yellows were especially stunning, at times only a few leaves on a tree being a brilliant yellow and other trees were an enormous splash of the most incredible shimmering yellow screaming for attention........ the camera clicked away happily. We pulled into Smithers with plenty time to spare and took the opportunity to get most of the mud off the Skilpads. It was good to see all the colors on the RV appearing again and the bakkie turned from gray-brown to white again. Once in the campground, we spent most of the time passing the time till Wendy left - funny how goodbyes are - they either come too soon, or take too long to get there. And then thats too soon again.

From Smithers, BC, down south was very different from the roads to the north. We had lost the wild and open views and vistas and were now caught in increasing traffic and there were unending spiderwebs of power and telephone lines everywhere. Before now, the trees had stolen many good photographs, now it was the powerlines. Even editing cannot always get rid of those lines. Now there were mostly farmlands, cattle, lamas and even Alpaca farms along the way. A few good lakes and ponds sprung up and the camera jumped again. There are an astounding number of acres of pine trees that have been decimated by the pine beetle. Everywhere the hills looked brown and the lumber yards bulging at the seams with harvested trees. This is very obviously an enormous problem up here and very sad too. I had to think though, that without all the trees in the way, one would be able to see the lakes better!

We did one of our many many gas stops along the way and a gentleman who was having a yard sale nearby ambled across to talk to us, slowly reading the rv while he dug into his pocket and put $5 into the collection jar. The next night when we stayed in the rest stop, another gentleman walked up and handed us two pennies before he went off to get all the cans out of the dumpsters..........he had read the PenniesforCancer.com sign on the rv and was apologetic that that was all he had on him! This is what its all about - people caring and giving what they can - and its really very touching and lovely when someone does this.

At around Quisnell, BC the traffic really picked up. We were both a bit shocked at how quickly that had happened, and it was a quiet ride for most of the day while we got used to being passed by vehicles of all shapes and sizes - mostly screaming along at a much higher speed than I was comfortable with, sometimes passing in the most dangerous of situations. More cars honked their horns and waved at us - giving the thumbs up sign as they raced by.

We ate the grapes and fruit that we had, aware that at the border coming back into the USA they would probably confiscate all fresh fruit and veges. I was hoping to keep my biltong (jerky). We passed through 100 Mile House, heading south and everything was a most beautiful green with sprinklers thowing water through the sunshine creating incredible multicolored sparkles in the air. It was really lovely. Then into Cache Creek where the hills turned barren and brown with little knobbly round brush-bushes and the taller trees grew in sparse little bundles in the oddest of places. The river rushed through the gorge with its white water swirling around rocks, creating eddies that went on forever. There were a million clicks of the camera as I wound its strap firmly around my arm and leaned way out of the window to get the best views and photos that I could. There were about 15 rafters bobbing downstream, all with different color lifejackets on and paddles paddling like mad to keep them straight in line for the exciting parts of whitewaters rushing up at them. We stopped to watch them for a while and through the camera lens, they looked like colorful toothy smiles bouncing along this incredibly beautiful river. Strange description, but I keep going back to it. The road we were traveling on was listed at the Gold Rush Trail and had many interesting stop offs along the way, goodly climbs up many hills, and screaming downhills with very low barriers. Just my type of road - not! I found that by leaning into the views with the camera to my eye, I could save a bit of the carpet where the brake pedal should be on my side............. more relaxing for Frank too.

We got to the border at 5.15pm on Sunday evening. It was a sad moment in many ways, but also exciting as we still have so much time ahead of us. I mentally kissed the rest of the fruit and veges and biltong goodbye as we pulled up to the window. He SMILED at us! This is really a big deal for me. For almost 13 years I battled the immigration department of the USA and it was truely sad to see how few had any sense of humor at all - now this man smiled. What a wonderful moment. He looked at the RV, asked us about it, took the card I gave him telling about the trip and he wished us a good day........... we got to keep the fruit and veges! Good day. A really good day.

And we then drove the tiny, winding little side roads for miles before hitting the Interstate 5 south; found a campground and ended the day with a good nights rest.

Monday rolled around and we headed further south, closer to Seattle and Debbie. It was so good to see her again after meeting in Fairbanks. Strange how things worked out so well. Frank and I went for dinner with them - what a wonderful family. Deb and Tom's girls, Laura and Sarah, are beautiful! We felt so at home there and a wonderful evening passed way too quickly. Debs had called the local newspaper and Julie was going to interview us all the next day, Tuesday. That worked wonderfully and the article will be in the Herald in Seattle on Sunday. Laura was wonderful at the interview - she really is a lovely young lady in personality and looks too. It has been so important to me to have someone that is in the same position as I am. This said with all due respect to Frank and the many others that I know care tremendously, but Debbie and I are both moms with relatively young kids fighting this cancer. Her friendship, understanding and support is simply priceless. Thanks Debs.

We did not do much of anything on Tuesday as it rained. Tom and Debbie came around to us for the evening and on Wednesday morning we headed south to face that aweful Seattle traffic. When I am nervous, my palms sweat - quite normal, I believe. But my feet sweat too! And we both get very quiet while I look for stuff to photograph while sucking in my breath, not always quietly, as the trucks come within inches of us. Last trips we faced broken tires almost every 4 days - this time the rain. I have to admit that I prefer the rain, even if it always seems to happen when there is a lot of traffic around. We survived the Seattle traffic, are now parked at a rest stop along the Interstate 5 and will go into the campground tomorrow. We will use this camp as a base to explore other places while we wait for Steven and Laura to arrive on the 6th Sept for his appointment with Dr Druker the next day. Then we take them to the coast for two days before they fly back home again.

Last, but definately not least in any way at all. We received a wonderful email from a friend and customer of ours from Tennessee, pledging 2c per mile we travel on this trip! This is f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c......... Thank you Tom! Our aim is to do 15 000 miles and we are already at the halfway mark. Tom G, I promise we won't do 30 000 miles as I joked in my email! If anyone knows of someone, or a business that wants to pledge per mile, equal Tom's pledge or even better it - let me know. Again, ALL monies collected will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Thanks for everyone for riding with us, thanks for the emails and your stories too - I love reading them all...

Love and Light Especially to U3 Annie & Frank XXXxxxxx ps. New photos posted to website.

www.RoadrunnersUSA.com www.livingwithcml.blogspot.com www.PenniesforCancer.com

22nd to 25th Aug - To The Outside.........

Anchorage - Rain. Palmer - Rain. Glenallen - Rain. Christochina - Rain. Tok - Rain. Alaska - RAIN!!!!!!!!

It rained and rained until we felt as if we were drowning, so we left the campground at Portage Valley and headed towards Anchorage and then back into Canada. We had planned to go to Homer, but we could not imagine doing anything much in the rain anymore. Ok - weather subject closed - unless we find sunshine - then I promise to comment on that! I waved at Tom on the way through Palmer - sorry we did not stop and meet you but we were well on our way by then. We were going to have to change Wendy's airticket as she was scheduled to fly out of Anchorage and we were planning on being well south of that by the end of the week.

I had calculated the miles and figured we could get to Vancouver by Friday night. Well, I guess I was a good few hundred miles out, to say the very least - amazing what a difference 1000 miles can make to plans! We fast realised that it would take us a good few days longer to get there, but we were still headed out and looking forward to being on the road again even though we would have to find an airport somewhere along the way.

There were the most glorious glaciers spreading towards the road, and the mountains were daintily decorated with the "terminal dusting" that had made its yearly appearance - really lovely, even through the raindrops. The pictures of that day are quite dramatic in their cloudiness. On one of our stops along the road, we found a beautiful log house and shed and outbuildings that were totally empty! There was a place to keep animals at the back, a shed, a little meandering stream and this most beautiful log interior - the doors were open and there was absolutely nothing left inside. We could see that some people had used the spot to stop for a break and even their trash was put in bags and put in a corner of the building instead of being thrown outside. There has to be a story there and we wondered what was going to happen with the property - spending a winter there could be very exciting - to say the very least! I took a good few photos, Katie - I thought of you all the time we were there!

We spent that night in Tok and went through the Canadian customes just after lunchtime. The officer there was really friendly and wanted to know about our fundraiser, which held up the line for a little while. He had been really chatty with everyone before us too and the line was a fairly long one by the time we got through. Seeing as we had not been in Alaska too long and really could not have come from anywhere else, we went through easily. It was wonderful having a friendly and smiling immigration officer.....

The views all along the way was beautiful. There was the fireweed that changed color from bright red to pink to light pink with all its seed hanging out - this progression got more and more pronounced as we headed south. Then there was the 'quiver trees' - they quivered and shimmered in the breeze, making the sound of rushing water in the amazing quiet. We stopped a good few times along the way - sometimes just to take a break from the noise of the road and other times to fill up the coffee pot and enjoy the view - it was all so beautiful.

Kluane Lake was simply stunning - again. We could not get over the blue of that water...... there was quite a bit of traffic and we had one humongous truck breathing fire on the bakkie which made the ride around the lake not as pleasant as when we came up, but could not take away from the beauty of the lake, the fireweed and the surrounding mountains. Needless to say, the camera clicked endlessly.

That night we spent at a pull off right at Teslin Lake. Unfortunately it had taken us a good while to find a suitable pull off place and it was already dark so we did not get to see much of the lake at all. I heard Wendy gently chanting: "Star light, star bright, the first, second, third star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, see the lights tonight!" We all wished SO hard to see the northern lights again. All the way we had been told that it was way too early to see them - but we had already in BC on the way up so we knew it was possible. If wishes could have made it happen, it would have. But it did not. None of us had been sleeping well at all, our eyes popping open every half hour, in rotation between the three of us, checking for the aurora's. Wendy covered the front view of the skies and Frank and I the back of the rv....... nothing. Ah well.

After us all waking up late, we left the pull over at about 8.20am - lovely warm coffee and sunshine in our windows! Glorious. We had been scanning the sides of the road for bear for days now and finally Frank spotted a bear! We came to a screaming stop on the side of the road and the bear did not run off......... we watched him for a good long while as he scruffled through the bushes, sniffing the air in our direction every now and again. He did not seem worried at all about any traffic coming by - even when big trucks made a good amount of noise. He was not a really big bear, but all of us stayed safely in the RV, not wanting to look for problems at all...... Only when he ran back into the forest could we pull ourselves away and headed further south. We did see one more, but only managed a good look at the top of his head and eyes.... he stayed hidden in the long grass.

After getting gas at Junction 37, we headed south on that road - 37 South. The mood of the countryside changed - it seemed rounder, more gentle, less stark and the sky had definately lost its clarity. A fairly large herd of young caribou spread themselves all over the road and we gently passed through them, camera clicking, of course! The road conditions were not bad at first, but did get worse the further south we went.

The road is fairly narrow on this part of the trip with no side to the road at all. We were not traveling fast at all and when a car towing a boat came towards us, Frank slowed down even more. It seemed as if the car kept moving towards our side of the road, which was just a dirt road with no edges at all, and by the time we passed each other, the wheels on my side of the RV were only just on the road and the boat missed us by probably 2 inches....... it was interesting to see how quiet all three of us went while we waited for the crunch. It was an awful moment and we were totally astounded that we had not collided! It took us a little while to get over that one.... I just know that we all had thoughts for that driver, but the overriding one was that he not hit anyone on his journey northwards.

A little further down the road we saw a huge live porcupine and two fox - they were a lovely gentle orange color and running along the top of a little hill. Unfortunately I did not get them on the camera - but they are firmly imprinted in my mind. All along the roads are places that have been spread with loose gravel to fill in the potholes, now we were approaching one that was a good size and we had a humongous truck screaming down the opposite hillside. Frank brought Skilpad to a stop before we got to the gravel part to try and avoid a broken windshield from flying stones, but we still got two small chips in the top window and windshield - but the worst was how the dust that barrelled out from under that truck totally hid everything! We could see absolutely nothing and spent a minute praying that no one was racing up behind us into the dust! We did utter some words that were definately not ladylike as the dust cleared and we could breathe and see again......

After the roadworks and the bumpy roads we had to make up some time so that we could get Wendy to Smithers to catch her connecting flight to Vancouver. We camped again in a pullout alongside the road, right next to an awesome place called Devil Creek. We walked down to the road bridge just past where we were stopped to get some photographs - there was a beautiful deep narrow canyon with the smallish river waaaaaaaaaaaay down below. The bridge was metal and we could see the water a gazillion feet below us. I was chicken and walked off that bridge after taking only two photos! Frank went back and snapped a few more, Wendy took a couple and then we all got off there - it was not a comfortable feeling at all. Just a minute after getting off the bridge an enormous tractor trailor came screaming over the hill at an incredible speed. I thank God that we were not on that bridge.

There was a beautiful puddle of brillian pink fireweed on the edge of the pull off and in front of the forest of trees where we had stopped for the night, so we ambled across there, Wendy wanting to get a photograph of it. She stood in front of this awesome display taking her pictures and I had my camera pointed at her, just about to ask her to turn around so I could get a photograph of her with the fireweed as a background. It was right then when Frank, who had taken a good few steps backwards away from us, let off a ................. ummmmmmmm......... indelicate rumbling of great magnitude (how does one put that delicately?) Wendy spun around, leaving the ground with a look of absolute, undiluted horror and I instantly recognised what thought was in her mind! I lost control of my legs, falling to the ground, my camera finger paralysed, unable to catch that moment! I was balanced on my toes and three fingers of one hand crying with laughter while Wendy yelled : "Tell me that was you!, PLEASE tell me that was you!!!" She has thought the "rumbling" was a bear! (I am howling with laughter again while typing this!! ) Wendy saw me fall to the ground and Frank was just too far away to see what had all happened.... Her face, the timing (tears running down my face now as I am trying to type this without rocking the RV and waking Frank up!) was perfect. I laughed so loudly that I could hear the blood coursing through my veins and I could not catch my breath, there was a puddle of wet mud in front of me when I could finally stand again from the tears streaming from my eyes. Wendy and Frank had by now put it all together and seen the humor in it all and were also discovering new "laugh muscles". How we got back to the RV is a mystery - we stumbled around the pull off like three drunkerds, screaming with laughter and tears blurring our view - what an opportunity for a hungry bear! It took a good few hours before we could stop giggling or simply popping with laughter......... it was wonderful to laugh like that - we all enjoyed it tremendously. I know that will go down as one of the definate highlights of the trip! And one of my sadnesses will always be that I simply could not capture that moment on camera!

All night long, whenever I woke up to check for the northern lights - my stomach convulsed in laughter - still does when I think of it. That was glorious - thanks Wendy and Frank!

And so we went to sleep on the last night for three of us - the next day, Friday 25th, Wendy left us to go back home to Atlanta, taking the crew back down to the two of us. A good 10 days filled with awesome beauty, amazing scenery, wildlife, wild rides, situations and so much laughter and fun! Anytime Podner, anytime.........

Love and Light to you all Especially to U3 - I am SO proud of all that each of you is doing with your lives...... Annie and Frank Xxxxxxxx

www.RoadrunnersUSA.com www.livingwithcml.blogspot.com www.PenniesforCancer.com

21st August - Glaciers!

There are few things that will put one's life in perspective as being right at the foot of a growling glacier! The wind howled off the top of the this enormous slab of ice, bringing near freezing winds whipping onto the boat, driving most people back inside and every now and again we could hear a pop, growl and snap - big ones - as the ice slowly moved forward! Wendy and I stood there with frozen noses and teeth but in absolute awe of the colors, the feel and the beauty of the place. Frank went inside to enjoy it all through full size windows, from the comfortable warmth inside - with endless coffee to help the warming process.

While we were being rained out in Fairbanks, we had checked the weather and it looked as if Monday would be the very best chance of any sunshine for a Glacier Cruise. So when we arrived in Anchorage on Sunday evening we all felt that the timing was great. After a good nights rest we called in our reservations - thank goodness as the cruise was totally filled up for the day and we would definately not have go on there without the reservation! The road from Anchorage to Whittier is beautiful. Whittier is about 58 miles south of Anchorage along the Cook Inlet and has really awesome views of glaciers and snow capped mountains and shiny waters and and and........ The water looked rattled, with white caps bouncing all over the place - not peaceful or friendly at all. The only land access to Whittier is through the Anton Anderson tunnel, the longest combined vehicle-railroad tunnel in North America - two and a half miles long. It is the first US tunnel with jet turbine and portal fan ventilation, first to use computerized regulation of rail and highway traffic and can handle -40° F temperatures and 150 mph winds. I took pictures as we drove through, but they all came out orange and filled with squiggly lines from the lights of the cars in front of us. The walls of the tunnel are wet and in places the water drips through from the top - but not too much. There are "safe houses" along the way in case of a problem, but I have to admit that I did not get a warm fuzzy feeling from these... This tunnel was only opened to cars in the year 2000 - before this it was only a train track. Sharing the drive with a train track is not reallly comfortable as the wheels of the RV hooked into a track but did not stay there and the sides are pretty close. I know that there really is more than enough space, but the idea of being in a tunnel of this length and one that has a humongous mountain with a glacier all of its own, on top of us was quite a thought........I found that I was definatly not comfortable in there this time either.

The boat we went on, The Emerald Sea, was the same as last time and was dwarfed by the enormous cruise ship, the Coral Princess. We had a good hour to walk around Whittier and it was not too cold at all - best of all - we had blue skies and absolutely no sign of rain at all - wonderful! It seemed impossible that everyone would fit on the boat, but we all did and quite comfortably too. As soon as we left the dock and headed out into Prince William Sound, the stunning views arrived. Everywhere we looked, there was either an icefield, beautiful waters, a glacier or awesome looming mountains. It was great seeing Frank and Wendy become friends with their respective cameras and click away at all the beauty around - they had often laughed at how many photos I had been taking! Frank and I had been on this cruise a few years before, and it was lovely watching Wendy's reactions to the new view at every turn - at times she literally had a stunned look on her face as she looked at what was out there. I had told her that it gets "beyond cold" close to the glaciers and I am not sure she believed me, but fortunately she brought enough warm clothing along. It was not too long before she was shivering and asking if this was the "beyond-cold" I was talking about. When her face lost feeling - THEN she knew!

Every time I turned my head, there was a different and equally beautiful view..but there really is a different and humbling feeling when you are 'parked' quietly below a slowly moving glacier with ice in the water gently bumping against the boat. The way you have to lift your head up to see all the way to the top, that incredible blue, the countless waterfalls flowing from everywhere around the glacier - even from underneath. The sunlight glinted off a million points and lit up the surrounding areas of ice sometimes leaving it white and other times turning it that tremendous blue that is so difficult to describe. All of this and the gulls dipping and diving around gave it all a fairytale look and feel. The sky was crisp. Its impossible to explain its clarity, but it was clearer than any other place we have seen, and this definately added to the beauty and feel of the place. It is phenomenal to stand and look at these glaciers that are so tremendously old and try to picture what the world was like so many years ago.

The glacier only calved a very small piece of ice which was a little dissapointing so the captain got us all to shout loudly to try and help it along....... needless to say that after we had all yelled as loud as we could - twice - he laughingly asked us if we now all felt better! He also stated that it was guaranteed to get the glacier to calve - 45 minutes after we left! The mood on the boat was great with many people taking photos for other couples in front of the waterfalls and glaciers. The food was great, the views were awesome and it was colder than any of us had been in a very long time which made us appreciate the complimentary coffee and warmth inside so much more. There was ice floating in the water all over the place and we even found an iceberg - it certainly would not have sunk the Titanic, but when the captain nudged it - we bounced and "the berg" just sat there.......

We saw both fresh water and salt water otters - I forgot to listen to the explanation of that piece of information - but the sun glistening on the water, the birds gently cruising the sky, the white and the blue of the glaciers and icefields and the different greens of the mountains and hills split by waterfalls all the way from the sky, are what got me breathing deeply. The movement of the boat, the free feeling - especially when almost everyone was inside and it was blissfully quiet outside - those are truely soul refreshing moments. When we left the glaciers, the sun touched on the wakes of the water creating beautiful silvery twirls and there was another boat stopped at the glacier which gave the whole view some size perspective. Truely awesome.

When we were waiting outside the tunnel before the cruise, a couple came across and was chatting to us about the RV being all painted. They knew two people battling the disease, so now we have Rachel L and Sarah W riding with us too! They were wonderfully kind and gave us a donation to pass on to the LLS as well. Really lovely, sweet people.

We were tremendously fortunate to have a totally clear day on Monday, we really could not have asked for more at all. That night it rained again and the weather forcast rain for everywhere in Alaska for the next ten days, so we decided to leave Anchorage and head towards BC and less wet weather. We stayed awake fairly late, looking at the all the photos - mine alone were 693! Wendy took over 100 and Frank close to that too.... so many awesome memories. My poor printer will be working overtime when we get home again! I will put up some photos as soon as we get to another place with high speed - promise!

Anyway. Monday was totally wonderful and Tuesday we started to 'the outside' as the Alaskans say. The Outside is the lower 48's - I like the way that is said. Anchorage had also recieved their 'terminal dusting' on Saturday night, which is the first dusting of snow which heralds the end to summer up here. A somewhat sad day for many as it gets progressively darker and colder from then onwards. So it was a good time for us to leave.....and we did

More later......... :-)

Love and Light Especially U3 Annie and Frank XXXXXXxxxx www.RoadrunnersUSA.com www.PenniesforCancer.com www.Livingwithcml.blogspot.com

Anchorage - the long way around

We showered, unplugged, tied the bakkie behind us and headed south to Denali National Park. Wendy was not sure what to do as we are pretty organised about what we do when we pack up the house. I tried calling Debs to say goodbye but she was not answering her phone - kinda strange to leave town and not be able to say goodbye to anyone - especially as we had met so many wonderful people. I did get to speak to Debs later as well as a woman whose daughter, Daphne, is also riding with us on our sides.

It was misty with the sunshine breaking through but we did not want anything to do with the sun in Fairbanks - not now that we were leaving town! The mist made for some wonderful pictures along the way - the sun most determindly breaking through in places. The scenery was wonderful - the mountains and rivers really lovely - a lovely ride.

We all agreed that the awesome snowpeaked mountain we saw was McKinley. It was beautiful and then quickly dissappeared again. Right after we saw this, there was a long lane of backed up traffic in front of us - all at a dead still stop. A flashing sign told us that the Denali Highway and the Parks Highway between Fairbanks and Anchorage was closed due to flooding and road damage. But no one was telling us anything and all the cars in front of us were still being shown over the bridge that was being worked on so we did not worry too much - just checked to see what road we were on. The Parks Highway.......... So when we pulled up to the flagger, I asked him if the road to Anchorage was open. No. Turn around here. No one else had asked him and he had not shared that with anyone either. We turned around. The drive from Fairbanks to this point was almost 200 miles. The scenery back was equally stunning - more photos were taken, we stopped at places we had missed on the way down and we not at all upset - does not help anyway. It is quite amazing just how different the scenery is from the other way around! And all three of us firmly believed that we had seen The Mountain! We still believe that and nothing will sway us at all. There has to be SOME payback for having to drive all those extra miles! Apparently there are not many days of the year that the Denali Mountains can be seen - we missed them last time we were here.

The skies were a beautiful blue and the camera clicked happily - we had hope of the northern lights, despite what anyone told us.

So. Back into Fairbanks - yet another photo of the "Welcome to Fairbanks" sign and we took a wrong turn, so did a gloriously slow tour along a tiny, winding, little, pavement-less road all around the airport. Things in the motor home bounced loose, were tied up and on we went finally finding the road back into town and out South towards Anchorage from the other angle. By this time it was 4pm - yes, we left Fairbanks at 9am and were leaving again at 4pm. We just gently tootled on out of town, this time I did not call anyone! We stopped at North Pole for some Chinese supper and McDonalds fries. Don't ask me - ask Wendy and Frank. The fries were delicious. Around 6.30pm it became time to stop for the night. First we found a little store alongside the road and bought a single dip ice cream. I am not sure what school those people went to, but by the time we were finished with this 4 scoop icecream, our lips were totally frozen. In our books, it is virtually illegal to throw away ice cream but it does create a problem when trying to understand what the other person is saying when their lips, tounge and swallowing tube is frozen!

A short while later, we pulled into a rest stop thinking that this might be the place to stop for the night. A lady in a car pulled up next to us, pointing at the "PenniesForCancer.com" writing on the RV. She told us that she had followed us as her daughter had a whole purse full of pennies she wanted to give us! Out came the jar and in went the pennies. It was such a lovely gesture, we hugged and they went on their way. Really lovely people. We went on for a little further and stopped just north of Delta Junction which put us only about 80 miles outside of Fairbanks - not bad: Left there at 9am, now 7pm and were were only 80 miles away. 10 hours of driving.....hmmmmmm. But we felt good, had seen some stunning countryside, met wonderful folks, were in good company, had a riverside spot for the night - what more could one ask?

The river ( I dont know which one it was) was rushing by at a tremendous speed with trees swirling along down with the current. The river was a muddy gray color and we were really glad that there was no chance of us getting caught up in those waters. The banks looks so vulnerable in places with that current beating against it all the time. It really was impressive. There were about 8 big birds that seemed to dance above a cluster of trees. At first we thought they were vulture-things but then we saw that that were just having a blast! They swirled, twirled, ducked and dipped, always so gracefully, sometimes dissappearing but always coming back up in a totally effortless leap upwards. We sat and watched them from the warmth of the RV. A boat went screaming up the river a little later and not too long afterwards, two sea-doos came leaping downstream looking very cold and throwing a lot of spray around themselves. It must have been awfully cold on there. The boat came back down a short while later. I just know there is a story there.

The wind howled all night, rocking the house beautifully - it feels almost like being at sea when that happens - glorious! The sky was clear-ish, so none of us slept very well as our eyes all popped open at regular intervals checking for the northern lights. Only when it starts getting light again did we all sleep soundly. No lights. The traffic was also fairly heavy as everyone that had tried to get to or from Anchorage on the Parks Highway was now coming this way around, on the Richardson Highway.

The next day - Sunday - we headed further down towards Anchorage. The mountains were stunning with their capes and caps of snow and ice and clouds. It rained. All the time. But what we saw was really lovely and we ooh-ed and aah-ed our way into Anchorage. The rivers were really rushing by with the rains swelling them into rushing torrents. I am almost sure that I saw puffins but that does not seem to make sense - must look that up. It was certainly cold enough and .......... I will look it up to see if it was at all possible. The camera caught one moose crossing the road. One Bald eagle - the photograph will not make the National Geographic Mag. Rain. Small trees in permafrost ground. Sometimes the tree size changed dramatically and then inbetween were these incongrous little ... towns (?) with the strangest of houses or living quarters, most of which looked as if they needed desperate TLC. Some places had all new cottages that were just begging for tourists to fill up. The views must be awesome if it ever stops raining! It rained non-stop.

And then we got a cell phone signal and I managed to get a quick call into Penny before the signal faded.... soooo nice to hear her again!

We came through Palmer and into Anchorage at about 5pm on Sunday. We were hoping to make it in time to a concert that was to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society here in Anchorage, but with the road closure, just could not get here in time. I did get to meet Vicki and a few of the others - lovely people. They had announced at the concert that we had come in and that anyone who wanted to have thier name on the RV could come and do so. No response. But while we were waiting, a young girl read the Pennies For Cancer words, balanced a penny on the rear view mirror and then donated it! A gentleman came across the road, just a passer-by, and wanted to know how to donate. He was tall, thin and had this little pile of coins inbetween his fingers. He dropped the coins into the collection bottle saying that this was all he had and wanted to give it to a good cause. Talk about being humbled! And then we had three guys walk past, come to a screaming halt, appear in the doorway again and ask how much it cost to rent 'this rig'. They were almost appalled when we told them that it was ours. "What!!?? With all this written on it?? YOURS??!?!" Then they wanted to come in and see it inside, which we let them, they then called "Pops" in to have a look too. It was a good gentle moment while they talked of their dreams of renting an rv and going traveling. After a few minutes, they jauntily headed down the road again.

Shortly afterwards we left to find a campground and to close the day. Driving in the rain takes quite a bit more out of one than doing so in good weather and we were all tired. We slept very well in the Golden Nuggett Rv park just outside of the center of Anchorage. And there I stop for this update - the Glacier Cruise deserves its own day...........

With love to everyone

Especially U3

Annie & Frank

XXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxx

www.RoadrunnersUSA.com

www.livingwithcml.blogspot.com

www.PenniesforCancer.com

Gold and Rivers and Rain

The busy day! The bus picked us up right at the campground in the morning and took us the the El Dorado mine a few miles outside of Fairbanks. We passed the Alyeska Pipeline on the way - well, we passed plenty of it but there is a place where busses can stop, a gazillion people can get off and look and touch and read all about it. The bus trundled on by - that's for another day. At the mines we easily picked up our tickets that Nancy and Eric had organised for us and hopped on the little train. What a wonderful job they did building that train! There are tv's dotted down the middle of it so when the tour guide talks, everyone can see him or see what he is talking about even if you are all the way at the back of the train. We trundled gently into a permafrost tunnel, very interesting and there was a goodly size pile of bones that they have found - these bones are many many years old. I would have loved to know more about those animals but then was not the time to ask...... All along the way we were shown examples of how the people so many years ago did their gold mining and panning. It was really fascinating. We watched as a ton of dirt was dropped into a sluice, water added and the gold setttled to the bottom of the sluice. They then shovelled a section of the sifted dirt up and put them into bags which we were given to use to find our gold. When one has that little clump of dirt in a pan in front of you, it just looks like a little pile of dirt. You swirl, shake and slowly empty that dirt out into the water and find yourself hoping that there will be at least one glimmer of gold in there somewhere. Only right at the very end, almost on the last flick-of-the-wrist swirl do you see those little glitters! Its amazing to see everyone lean forward when that happens and a smile appears, even if its only at the corner of their mouths. Frank got a goodly amount more gold than I did, but that was ok because I just knew he would give it to me anyway *smile*. We had the flakes we found put into two pendants for good memories. And then we were put back on the train and taken back to the bus for the ride back home. The bus conductor, Tim, had some very interesting history facts about Fairbanks and the ride went by really smoothly and pleasantly. A lovely morning! We had just enough time for lunch before another bus picked us up for the next adventure. This one on the Riverboat Discovery - this was a trip down the Chena River, into the Tanana River with a good many things to see and experience along the way. It was great having Debbie along on the ride with us and she was able to show us the house she grew up in, right on the banks of the Chena River. She told the story of always running down to wave at the paddle boats as they passed by when she was a kid growing up there - I could almost picture it. It was fascinating to see where the two rivers met - it was like oil and water and the patterns created by these two rivers not joining easily got my camera clicking again. We had found ourselves seats right in the front of the boat on the third level up - really a good place to be! We watched some little airplanes taking off and landing - one from the land and the other with its water ski's on - those pilots were really amazing....... We stopped by at the Trail Breaker Kennels which is the home to Susan Butcher and listened to a fascinating talk about the dogs. They had a team of dogs hooked to a four-wheeler and they were really keen to get moving! The yelping and jumping around showed how keen these dogs were to get running. After a while they were let go to do just that and they pulled that four-wheeler with two people on it down a trail at phenomenal speed! Then we headed further down the river to a fish drying camp and a little village that had a good few things to show - huge cabbages, sod roof houses, skins of all sorts, caribou and numerous others. It was starting to get cold and a gentle rain had arrived, so the three of us headed back to the boat and a warm cuppa coffee. It was a truely wonderful way to spend an afternoon, I have always loved the water and there is a certain kind of peace when out there - even if there are a few hundred other people on board too! Most of them were inside in warm comfy weather, but we all felt as if they missed the true experience of the ride. A really, really big thank you again to Nancy and Eric! On Wednesday we decided to explore the town on foot a little bit. Downtown Fairbanks look so pretty with all the flower boxes overflowing with the most incredible array of flowers of all kinds and colors. Even the sweet peas were worthy of a good few photographs. We parked the bakkie and walked over the Chena River on the footbridge to the downtown area. It was cold. We had jackets on, but they were not rain jackets or even very good wind breakers, but we really wanted to walk around, go into some of the stores and see what there was to see. It was cold. We got properly rained on, browsed through most of the stores and galleries and decided to find some food and head back home. There was a Mongolian food stand that looked intersting and had really pretty big flowers all around it with a humongous cabbage growing right in the middle of one flowerpot. Good reason to stop and order some food, besides - it was right next to an ice cream stand. Food we got all bagged up, and then we turned weak and decided to get an ice cream too! The small was not small. By any means. So here we stand in the light rain, with dripping wet coats on, shivering gently with one hand filled with bags of Mongolian food and the other with an incredible size ice cream. Only one thing to do - eat it! So we walked briskly back to the bakkie, laughing at the stares from other people who were hustling themselves quickly down the road. It was cold! Crossing that bridge was like walking into a freezer. Our teeth were thoroughly frozen and we were laughing slighly hysterically because we could not see any trash cans to throw the ice cream away in so simply HAD to eat them! (How's that for an excuse??) We were both really keen to get home and into a hot soaking shower........ this campground really has good shower facilities! Thankfully! After a good relaxing afternoon and supper, I met with Sandy from the Cancer Center here in Fairbanks and we had a wonderful evening talking about all sorts of things. It has been really wonderful to meet Debbie and her family and friends. They have all been so welcoming, helpful and just plain darn nice to us. We had the local newspaper do an article that was printed in the papers this morning and then Channel 11 TV came out today to do an interview as well - that should be on tomorrow night after we leave, and Monty said he would send us a copy of the newscast. He was really easy to talk to and wrote his wife's name on the RV too. I had emailed David Monson to ask his permission to write Susan Butcher's name on the sides of the RV and he very kindly emailed back giving permission and saying that Susan would be honored. The honor is ours - for each and every name. I found that I could not write her name - it felt as if someone local had to do it, someone from here, so Debbie did that for us. A gentleman called after reading the newspaper article and requested his name on here too - Don E - you are riding with us - thanks so much for the phone call! We have slowly been getting requests to add names and meeting people who know people with cancer, so the lists are growing slowly but surely. Wendy arrived on Thursday early evening - she is our friend who is joining us for 10 days here in rainy Alaska. It was simply wonderful to see her arriving and almost unbelievable that we were actually meeting way up north in Fairbanks! Lovely. It has rained since we saw the northern lights in British Columbia - a good 10 days ago now and promises to rain for the next ten days at least! So although we had hoped that we would all see the northern lights together - it looks like that will not happen, this time. Maybe it is too early way up here and it definately is too rainy - better luck further south? We hope so! Today we drove out to Chena Hot Springs - it rained thoroughly all the way, we stopped at the tourist viewing place of the Alyeska Pipeline - it rained thoroughly. We went shopping a little - it rained. It's still raining. But its lovely to have Wendy here with us! Up to now our roads have pointed north. Now the southward drive starts, but its by no means close to the end. We still have many miles to go and are really looking forward to some warmer, drier weather. We have not even taken the bicycles out of the bakkie yet! Although the rain has stopped us from getting out much, it has helped slow us down to be able to meet and spend time with some truely wonderful people. A really big thank you to all that have been so wonderful to us during our stay in Fairbanks - we will always treasure you. We are heading down to Anchorage tomorrow and the rain will be there to greet us too, but that's ok - we will enjoy the ride and whatever scenery we manage to see. Tomorrow night will be spent in a pull off alongside the road,not in a campground. These stops are always special as there is a definate kind of peace out there, no lights, no people - just a good feeling peace and quiet. We have a gas stove, generator and gas refridgerator so are pretty spoiled, even out of campgrounds. A day cruise to see glaciers calving is on the agenda and maybe even a ride to Homer if its just not too rainy. So much depends on the weather and I guess this is just the way of life up here. It does not seem to bother too many people, so we will simply go with the flow. On Sunday evening there is a concert in Anchorage to raise money for the LLS and we are hoping to get there in time to be able to have the skilpads there - maybe that will help encourage people to donate, whether through us or not - donating is the point of this all and any help we can be is great! I have been talking to Vicki at the Anchorage chapter of the LLS - another contact through Debbie - and cannot wait to meet her too. She will be putting out press releases tomorrow so hopefully the news will have notice of us coming that way. So, tomorrow morning we will shower, unplug the house, tie the bakkie behind us again and head towards Denali National Park. We really don't expect to see the mountain with all this rain around, but are looking forward to being on the road again. Very much. With love to you all Especially U3 Annie and Frank XXXXXXXxxx www.RoadrunnersUSA.com www.livingwithcml.blogspot.com www.PenniesforCancer.com

12th - 14th August - Fairbanks and Debs!

Our Tanana River Bridge spot was very comfortable and we had one other motorhome spending the night there. It simply wonderful when its so quiet with just the river running by. Nothing quite like it. We had gone for a short walk and I said to Frank that if a bear popped its head up - I would jump in the river in a flash and he could drive and pick me up downstream. Well, that would not have worked at all. We have been told that the river is so full of silt that it immediately fills up your clothes and would drag one down in a very short space of time. Wonderful thought. We have also been told that it was definately not a good idea to drink that glorious river water we did a few days back. Apparently people get really sick from "stuff" in the water. Oh dear. At least we only shared one bottle of it.........

A little way down the road we spotted an animal! At last! It was a big black dog with a whole bone of a leg of some really big animal - probably a moose or something - in its mouth! It's tail was wagging furiously and we could definately see the smile wrapped all around that face as it waited for us to drive by before crossing the road! I did not have the camera ready for that one but it will always be imprinted in my brain. That bone was so big and we hoped that the dog did not plan to try and go between two trees - he would get stuck and one could see that that dog was definately not going to let his bone go, for anything!

It rained and rained. All the way - all day long. We saw a moose in a pond, a mama moose with her baby - they dissappeared really quickly into the forest. I managed to get a clear enough cell phone signal to be able to call Penny and chat for a few minutes! Wonderful........... That cell phone is ready to run me wild - to keep the signal I have to first see which way to hold it, then dial and keep my head perfectly still all the time while talking. I cannot talk and stand still! I have to walk and move around, and it is very difficult to remember that I cannot do this. I have had to re-dial many a call.

Driving up the road into Fairbanks was interesting - there are many little side roads with wonderful log cabins and really interesting houses behind the trees. We dont see them long enough to take photos, and that would be a fascinating project to do - photograph all the different styles of homes up here. We saw a good few sod-roof places, with grass and fireweed merrily growing on top of the house - really pretty.

When coming into Fairbanks, the rain pelted down relentlessly. The GPS was bouncing around and kept on telling me that we were off route and driving in the middle of a lake - I turned the sound off. I thought I would remember the name of the RV place we stayed in last time, but too many days had passed and that information had apparently leaked out a long time ago. The roads did start to look familiar and we remembered some buildings that we had passed on our bicycle rides before. Finally it all came together and we got to the park we wanted to be in. Its lovely - we have a few trees around us, are next to the Chena River, have a beautifully level spot, full hook ups and ...........wireless high speed internet! Life is good.... We pulled into our designated site, right at the back of the park - again, and stayed one night before asking to be moved to a more central place which they graciously did.

And then we got to meet Debbie! Debbie is my 'Seattle internet friend' who's daughter, Laura, also has CML and who is visiting her family in Fairbanks this week as well. It was wonderful to meet her and know that here was the only other person that I knew personally, that understood exactly my position in this cancer learning curve! She had already been such a help to me over the past months and it was simply wonderful to finally meet her - and a few weeks early at that! We had originally planned to meet in Seattle around the end of the month.

We were very kindly invited up to her family's home for dinner of king crab, steak and all the 'fittings/fixings' that go with that. What a wonderful dinner and really, really lovely people! Tammy, Randy, Jaclyn, Jocelyn and Debbie were so easy to chat to and the evening went by way too quickly. The view from their house is stunning, looking over the Tanana and Chena Rivers with mountains hiding behind the clouds waaaay in the distance - simply beautiful.

We went back there this morning and were beautifully surprised by complimentary tickets on the Riverboat Discovery trip as well as the El Dorado Gold Mine! These were generously given by friends of Debbie and her family - Nancy and Eric. The Riverboat Discovery outing will take us on the Tanana and Chena Rivers in an enormous sternwheeler riverboat. The Eldorado Gold Mine experience will put us on a train, in a permafrost tunnel and we get to pan for gold too........ It sounds like a full and wonderful day waits for us tomorrow. Thank you Nancy - you really have spoiled us!

After another easy few hours there, we headed out scratch around in some little stores around town. We found a place that had antlers for sale and bought two relatively small moose antlers - I want to try my hand at carving those things - I have seen some awesome carvings and would love to see if I could try something like that. We also went into a fur shop and it was amazing to feel all the different furs. It was weird and somewhat uncomfortable seeing wolf feet hanging up for sale, but they felt wonderfully soft - along with all the other furs. We did not buy anything there although there were many beautiful items, not all fur products either.

Debbie has helped us make contact with a few people here and we have an article in the papers tomorrow and on Wednesday I will hopefullly be going to a cancer support meeting in Fairbanks - just a small group but it will be lovely to chat to some people here. I had a lovely chat with Sandy from the Interior Alaska Cancer Association this evening - she spent many years in South Africa and South West Africa and we spent a good while chatting about what we loved about those countries. We are hoping to get to Anchorage by Sunday where The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has a concert organised there. The people that I have spoken to up here from the LLS and the Cancer Association are lovely! They are full of enthusiasm and really interested in trying to help get this fundraiser some exposure. We need all the help we can get!

Thanks for the emails and responses to my postings, they are all greatly appreciated.

Love and Light to you all

Especially U3

Annie & Frank

XXXXxxxx

www.RoadrunnersUSA.com www.LivingwithCML.blogspot.com www.PenniesforCancer.com

August Thoughts........

There are a few things that have touched me very deeply on this trip and I have found it difficult to put those feelings into words that make sense or even convey what I feel and have felt.

Cancer has touched me (obviously Frank too) through Steven, deeply. When I first started researching and trying to find some way of dealing with having cancer as a direct part of our lives, I met some really incredible people. Penny is one of those really special people. I have been so incredibly fortunate to have this lady in my life, even though it is for such a short and difficult time.

When we met her in Edmonton at the beginning of this journey, I felt so comfortable with her. She was going though some really bad pain and her quality of life is not the way she wanted it to be at this stage at all. It was so difficult to watch this lady dealing with all of this. It broke my heart and at the same time, gave me so much strength.

And then she showed me a knob of cancer that sits right below her left rib cage. With her permission I touched it gently. I touched cancer. Cancer has touched us and changed absolutely everything, our whole world is different - yet when I touched it, nothing changes! It was shattering to me to touch that bump, to see the look in Penny's eyes. It made it all so absolutely real and unavoidable. Her eyes told the story. My heart, stomach and soul clenched at that touch and I could not begin to imagine dealing with that every day. I had to tell myself just to breath. I don't know whether holding it together was good, or should I just have let it all come out and cry right there? I did not cry then. I cried when we left Penny's house, I cried when we left Edmonton the next day and I cry now. But it was too deep to cry then.

I think of this every day and I know that Penny is trying to control her pain and be able to live the very best she can for as long as she can. I don't know how. I read the cancer support boards whenever I can get online, I hear that others have lost the battle with this disease and I know that Penny won't be with us for too much longer. It breaks my heart and at times I feel like I am drowning. There are times when I am sorry that we have the RV done up like this - cancer is in my face all the time! But it's in our lives. It's never going to leave. Never. So I had better find a way to make those days better and be extremely grateful for what we have and deal with the pain. I am tremendously grateful for the people I have met so far, for the laughs, the sharing and for the learning - even when that hurts so much.

Writing this makes me feel selfish in a way, but I find it difficult to deal with it too - and I think this is an important side of this disease - no matter what version it is - there is always someone 'on the outside' learning a new normal. There are many days when I can handle all this very well and then there are days when I want to crawl in a corner and go back in time - till when? To a time when there was no cancer? So much learning and growing has happened since March 6th. Lifetimes have passed and I am no longer the person I was before then. One cannot go back.

Steven deals with the leukemia in what appears to be a very strong way. He does not seem to let it get him down, and he has become much more outgoing since diagnosed. I hope he realizes now, at his relatively young age, that life has to be grabbed and lived to the fullest - there is no time to waste at all. He has to learn to be strong enough to share his 'scared' and worries with someone - its too heavy to carry alone. Those bad days come, even in the good times. It is impossible to ignore the fact that he has leukemia, yet it does not seem appropriate to ask him about it all the time. And then I don't want him to feel that I am not interested in how he is doing or coping or not. It's a very fine line to walk and one that gets played by ear day by day. He is very patient and understanding and open with me when I do go down that road.

When we were visiting Penny, I had a million questions and she was also fantastic in answering them. I think it is natural to 'pull away' from other people when we are not feeling well, and I had noticed this in her. I was hoping that she knew that I still cared about her and missed our earlier days of being able to joke more and be a lot more lighthearted. Was it just me that lost the lightheartedness during the last few weeks as her pain got worse? Did I get too serious? Was this something I should have tried harder to maintain or was it ok to lose the light side in our talks and emails? I already miss that lady so much!

The names on the RV mean so much to me. Most people shared a bit of their life and trials with me and every day I do the walkabout, sending them happy vibes, good results and happiness. It's like being entrusted with a little piece of each of them. Maybe I am reading too much into this all, but that is the way it is. When we saw the aurora the other night - I stood there in wonder of this display of nature and thought of all of those battling any type of cancer and wished I could share this wonder with them all.

We carry my son's name, my grandmother's name and my sister-in-law's name on the side of the RV along with all the others. We have children's names, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers, friends, sisters and brothers, as well as those that have lost the battle, on our sides as we drive these roads and see these wonders. How could it not be an emotional experience to see these names daily? So much hope is in each name, so many stories, so many days and nights with tears and worry and so much joy and strength and hope too.

There are days when it seems strange that life goes on relatively normally despite so many people dealing with this disease. But there are more days that it is starting to feel abnormal not to meet up with cancer in some or other form. The new normal. Maybe one day it will fit like a comfy glove and I will also get that look of peace that we saw on a lady at Vanderbilt Hospital who was fighting her third bout of cancer. She was amazing!

Why does it seem like all the nice people get cancer? Do people become nice after diagnosis? Or did I lose sight of just how many nice people there are in the world? My life has become so rich since Steven was diagnosed. I have made firm friends with people that we have not even met yet - people that truly care about us all, despite the fact that they are also learning to live with this illness in their family. Debbie and I have really helped each other along and there have been many days when I know that no one else could understand what I was going through (her 19 yr old daughter has CML) - a quick email to her and I could breathe again, knowing that I was, after all, normal in feeling the way I was. I know there are many others out there that are going through what I am and I feel very fortunate to have clicked with a few of them that are simply wonderful!

Just the other day while stopped at a gas station, one guy asked me about the RV all wrapped. When I told him that my son, Steven, has leukemia, it hit me all over again. I could not say any more. It turned my gut and twisted my soul all over again. God, it hurt! A few minutes passed and that feeling faded back and I could think again. This does not happen every time at all - just when I least expect it! Does that ever stop? And that's me - what about for Steven? Maybe I should take up Lamaze breathing exercises……….

Ok - that's my guts spilled for a while. Funny how writing it down spreads the load and un-clouds some of the issues.

Love and Light

Annie

xxxxxx

www.RoadrunnersUSA.com

www.livingwithcml.blogspot.com

http://www.penniesforcancer.com/

9-11th August. Watson Lake to Alaska

On Thursday morning we shouted goodbye to the signs in the Forest as we drove past, headed north again. It had been wonderful to have high speed internet, even if I have to go into the campground office to get it.... but it was time to go.

The scenery was much of the same today so I get to catch up on a few things we noticed along the way. It has been funny to watch people take photographs - almost all the tall thin men stand with their hips pushed forward, shoulders pushed way back and their necks craned forward as if to balance the whole shebang with their elbows straight out to the sides. The women tend to sink their shoulders down, making themselves shorter while taking the photo. I am serious! Obviously there are many that do this differently, but in a crowd of people, that seems to be the norm and after seeing the first ten, it gets funny!

I had forgotten to mention a really big honor for me. When we were with Penny, a parcel arrived for us, Penny and I, and in it were the cd singles that Canadian singer, Aaron Walpole who is with "Notes and Hopes" has put out with Penny's song "My Sister, My Friend" on it. This is a song that Penny's sister Trish, wrote for her and Aaron Walpole and Sara Westbrook sing it. It makes me cry to hear it - it really is beautiful and extremely touching. The cover of this cd as well as the picture on the cd is my "The Penny" painting that I did for her a good few months ago. It was really such a tremendous feeling to hold this cd with this picture while in the room with Trish and Penny! It was all I could do not to bawl like a baby right there. You can hear a part of this song on the Penniesforcancer.com site and - shameless plugging - buy it from there too if you like it! It really is an amazingly touching song dedicated to a wonderful, gentle lady - Penny.

Steven and Penny's picture are on the passenger door of Skilpad, so all along the way in my side mirror - I see them travelling with us. Nice.

The lovely part of being in an rv is that while Frank is driving, I can get up and get food, water and even go to the bathroom. Sometimes its wonderful. The trick is always to have one hand ready to grab something to hang onto, especially on the bumpier roads. Today we hit a really bad 200 miles or so. I have had to re-learn how to have sea-legs - loose knees and hip joints, just roll with the bumps. It becomes really interesting when we want something from the fridge - having an open bottle of milk in there complicates matters somewhat. I open it just a crack, peer through the narrow opening to see what is leaning in the wrong direction. If stuff is leaning too much, we pick something else to nibble on right then. I found a small bungie cord and now tie the milk and orange juice in there! The rest can fall - even broken eggs are better than a bottle of milk on the floor! Most times we catch most stuff and on bad bumpy days we have learned to open the cupboards with our feet WAY back from where all the contents will land.

Going to the bathroom to day was, um, interesting. The road was really bad most of today - really bad. Sitting on the 'loo' was a reall trick - I could have done with a few bungie cords to tie me on there! There is nothing quite like sitting in that tiny little room, hearing everything in all the cupboards going nuts, sounding like bedlam, bouncing around like a rubber ball, trying not to bounce right off the "throne". The wheels sounded like they were going to part company with us and the bakkie yanked firmly at its tow bar while Frank muttered as each wheel hit all the potholes in the road - there are a total of 10 wheels on the ground or in a pothole which makes for some interesting muttering. One particular spot on the road had us literally airborne - and that was traveling at 40mph! That one left us speechless for a while as we quietly checked that everything was still functioning and turning right.

We catch glimpses of stunning lakes and sceneries before heading downhill again and having the trees swallow the view. I have, once again, photographed almost every piece of water since home..... Frank is coming close to getting cheeky, yelling 'water, Annie, water!" at the sight of any of the wet stuff! But it gets my camera arm working every time.

All along the Alcan there are numerous places where people write their names with stones on the small banks along the side of the road. Quite a few of the stones have been spray painted different colors, making it easy to read. You can see that some have been there for a long time and there are many hearts and " I luv you"'s along the way. Stories, so many stories. We went over the Teslin River Bridge yesterday, Thursday - this is the longest span on the Alcan highway, is a metal bridge and delivers simply beautiful views of the river. It would have been lovely to get out and walk around, but it was cold! It was interesting to hear how each different type of vehicle makes a different noise crossing that bridge.

There were NO animals at all along the way, apart from "Mo Crow" - he is the ever present black crow or raven that we have been seeing all along the way. You think the animals only come out in high tourist season?

Then Whitehorse 'arrived' way sooner than we had expected........ We drove the downtown road (by mistake!), took photos and breezed right on through. Neither of us was ready to stop yet and they seemed to have enough visitors anyway. I had not used the GPS since leaving Penny, so after going through Whitehorse I took it out again, plugged it up and updated our route. Will probably need it going into Fairbanks anyway.

I wanted to get to Kluane Lake. I remembered it as being a tremdously quiet and lovely place and wanted to spend some time walking along the shores again. Not! Construction happened - ALL along the shore where one could walk....... it was very sad but we had no option but to follow the pilot car through and past where we were last time. Not long after that construction patch we started looking for a place to call it quits for the night and found a place that was as near to perfect as one could wish for. We once again made use of one of the many pull offs along the way and got really close to the edge in order to get as level as possible. Both of us were quite comfortable not putting out the slideout - that would have almost had us leaning over the water! The lake curved with the road, so when we looked out of the front, back or one side window, all we saw was water! We turned ourselves around on the bed and when we looked past our feet, it felt as if we were in the middle of the lake! It was simply glorious with a spectacular view in every window. The water swished and it felt like being in a boat. The wind blew, gently rocking the Skilpads. Our eyes popped open every 30 minutes or so, scanning the skies for the lights. Nothing at all except a brilliant moon, slowly marching across the sky and its reflection in the water. That Kluane lake is so beautiful - the color of the water is an ice blue that changes into a deeper blue and sometimes a greenish color near the edges, azure? The camera clicked away, almost automatically.

We both slept late this morning, again, which is definately something new for Frank - but good too. I know that with night sky scanning, neither of us sleep as soundly as we did before, but we really dont want to miss the aurora's! We have been told again and again that its way too early to see them, but we have already seen them so know that it could happen again. Unfortunately we have had cloudy skies for the past few days and nights, but are hoping that its clearer in Fairbanks.

I got a call from Debbie, my Seattle friend who's 19 year old daughter also has CML, who is on her way to Fairbanks this weekend. We had originally planned to meet in Seattle, but will meet up in Fairbanks instead. Anyway, she had spoken to someone in Anchorage who will be getting in touch with us and hopefully we can get something going on the fundraiser side in Anchorage. We will only be in Fairbanks for a week at most. We are waiting for another friend, Wendy, who is flying in from Atlanta to join us for 10 days or so. After that we will be going down to Anchorage, hopefully on a day cruise to the glaciers and maybe even Homer if we have time - thats the plan so far. If we have to time for Homer, I will call you Betsy! We have to be in Anchorage again around the 27th and then in Oregon on the 7th September for Steven's appointment with Dr Druker. Time seems to be simply flying past!

Today while driving, I spotted a bald eagle in the trees! I was not able to catch it with the camera, other than a white blurry spot where its head was - but it was a good healthy size. And then we came up on the Canadian exit border post but did not need to stop. A while later we stopped at the USA border inspection post, I got my passport stamped again and we were in Alaska. I know that I dont need the passport stamped and the guys there look at me rather strangely when I ask that they do - but hey - I like to have it on record that I left and came back again! We stopped at the official "Welcome to Alaska" boards and International Boundary. We have all the required and the fun photos of us both at the Alaska Board, the International Boundary and the Yukon Board. We also have numerous photos of the Skilpads and everyone riding with us at the border. It was a good feeling to be back there again and we know just how fortunate we are.

And it rained, the camera took a break as the lighting from inside the RV is not too good to take photos and the scenery was much like we had seen all day already except with no sunrays lighting the trees or lakes. There are many many lakes around here and the traffic was definately heavier than over the last two days. We drove for a while longer until we came across the Tenana River bridge when we both recognised the spot we had stayed on our first night in Alaska in 2003. We took the tiny, narrow little road down to below the bridge and are now happily parked here for the night. The river rushes, unstoppable, right past our front door carrying a tremendous amount of water with it. It looks milky brown and makes a wonderful tinkly sound and now has a few less interesting stones along its banks - they are safely inside with us :-) Its still raining lightly which has put Frank to sleep very quickly - its a very soothing noise on the roof - not Frank sleeping -The rain!. We have gone through another time zone and are now 4 hours behind Soddy Daisy, Tennessee. This has really messed with our body clocks and will take a few more days to get used to it. The "forever light" issue does not help much either!

It was such a joy getting a cell phone signal today - I immediately called everyone I could get hold of but had to stand dead still all the time as the signal was terribly weak - too weak to get me connected to the internet, sadly. If I breathed too hard while talking, we got cut off, but I did manage to talk wtih two of the U3 group - Steven and Lisa -as well as mom, Kate and Wendy before the signal died completely. A good day!

Tomorrow, Saturday, we head for Fairbanks. We are hoping that it is a bit warmer there as we both need a bicycle ride and a long walk or three.

With love to you all

Especially U3

Annie and Frank

XXXXXXXXxxxxxx

8th August. Sign Post Forest - Watson Lake - Yukon

We both woke up exhausted this morning.......we had programmed ourselves to wake up every few minutes to check for the northern lights, even though it was overcast and drizzeling rain. No auroras. But it was beautifully quiet in the pull off and we had a magnificant view of a big wide river and beautiful mountains. There was a little wooden 'outhouse' stuck between the trees where no one had seen it for a while. The spiders took up residence there in a serious way and we stayed well clear of it - made for a cute picture though. We wondered how come so many mosquitoes got inside last night - and then this morning discovered that a roll of toilet paper had got caught in the pull out, leaving a pretty good "mozzie gap" - no wonder it got cool too.... ah well, so one learns. I uploaded a good few pictures tonight. They are now hosted by yahoo - but can easily be seen from the roadrunnersusa website on the tab - "photos from the road" under different albums. We trundled slowly up the Alcan today into Watson Lake - home of the Sign Post Forest and much more. It has grown SO much since we were last here and there were a good few people wandering around trying to find their signs from previous visits. I wrote all the names that are on the sides of the motor home on the RoadrunnersUSA sign that Billy T and Tom had made for us to hang here, so you are all now in the Sign Post Forest too! If any of you ever get here - the signs are up near the big parking lot towards the little huts - away from the main road. You will see what I mean when you get here - good luck in finding them! We also wrote Billy T, Tom, Pat and Savannah's name on their sign and the PenniesforCancer flag had Penny's family and us all sign it........ so we really do have a good presence in this particular forest. We hung them high enough so none of you will get covered with snow either! Kind, hey? :-) There are photos on the site of this too. We did walk around the Forest a little bit - but each time it started to rain. Tomorrow will hopefully be good and clear and we can take yet more photos....... I am sure there is a road sign, tag, city limits sign, etc. from every place here - its stupendous and will take hours to look through them all... but it is truely fascinating and many folk wander around with their mouths hanging open in wonder. While waiting for the rain to pass, we went to the Northern Lights Centre and watched a fascinating show on the universe and Aurora Borealis - the screen is a humongous rounded roof screen and the chairs all have one almost lying flat down. It was totally wonderful. I have to say, though, that no camera really does not the northern lights any justice at all........the real thing is way better than any of the photos we have seen here so far - and definately way better than mine that were not even taken with a tripod! Next time..........please may there be a next time! We bought some Chinese food for supper and are now taking it easy (as if we had been working hard before!). It stays light here till around 11.30pm and gets light at some unfair hour of the morning. I wake up and its light and have no idea how early it is. If I smell coffee, then its around 7am. If all is quiet I can go back to sleep without any problem. When we arrived at the campground this morning there was this crazy little tent on a trailer sitting outside and a British lady in the store. She was just about to leave, but I had to ask her what she was up to. Her website is Rosiearoundtheworld.co.uk. She is going around the world on foot and pulls this tent contraption that is totally cute! She must have had amazing adventures so far and I cannot wait to get to read about it! Ok - I am off to bed for the night - maybe the skies will clear and we will have another light show - always hopeful. Our cell phones are dead as doornails and it will be a good few days before they pick up signal again. We are due to leave here on Thursday morning again, heading for Whitehorse further up in the Yukon. It really is stunning scenery here and we both feel extremely fortunate to be doing a journey of this nature again. We had more people ask us about 'the rental unit' but one guy came up to us while Frank was nailing the signs in at the Sign Post Forest and asked us what the story was. He was very sweet and interested. Steven, please tell Lisa that I am thinking of her and will call her as soon as we get a signal, and if Joleen calls, tell her the same. You doing ok? I miss you guys and Frank wants to know how Alyeska (Alley) is doing? It will be a day or three, but I will call you when we can........ My need for a "kid fix" is getting strong........ Love and Light to you all Especially U3 Annie & Frank XXXXXXXxxxx www.RoadrunnersUSA.com www.livingwithcml.blogspot.com www.PenniesforCancer.com

7th August. THOSE LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now I will pick up from the last email where we went to sleep, exhausted and puffy eyed......

 

For some reason, I woke up at just before midnight on Sunday night and looked out of the window to see if perhaps there were any aroura's around - and there WERE!!!  At first it did not look like it as having the wrap on the windows of the rv makes it difficult to see through in low light. but then with much squinting it looked like there were some white lights where they should not have been - or rather exactly where they should have been!  Thank goodness I had crawled into bed fully clothed, because I ran outside shouting to Frank to come and look!  I only had a pair of shorts and a t-shirt on and it must have been pretty near freezing outside......... but I did not feel it - at first.

 

Those lights were absolutely awesome....... they flickered, grew, receded, undulated like a magic ribbon all across the sky and made us swivel our heads as if watching a tennis game.  Every few minutes I ran inside and grabbed a sock, a shoe and finally a jacket - always keeping an eye peering outside.  There is no way to describe those lights, they reminded me a bit of the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas's music fountains turned upside down with colors added.  At times it would all fade and we breathed a bit - Frank even heated up some coffee.  We woke up the other cars of people in the pull-off but they all just went back to sleep.  Just when I thought it was over, the lights would start up again - it was like curtains of light playing around in the sky.  There was mostly white and green, but a little bit of red flickered in every now and again, especially at the ends of the 'spikes'.  At times it was as if the lights wer e made up of separate uprights of colors that would flicker in and out to a tune we could not hear - the green made really big curvy circles in the sky and then it looked like different colors all originating from one spot, reaching down in a huge wonderous display of nature at her best. 

 

The feeling of standing in the middle of nowhere in almost pitch darkness, listening to the gentle 'shuuuush' and seeing those lights, was absolutely indescribable.  Totally awesome.  I thought of you all - of all the things we are going through and wanted to send a shard of light to each and every one of you.  It was a very full moment, shared by so many in my heart.

 

And my camera would not work!  I pressed that poor button till the battery went dead.  I knew it was something simple, but forgot that just pressing the button would not solve the problem - I had to stop and think.  Finally when there was a break in the lights, it twigged.  The automatic focus was on and ...........well, I switched the button across to manual and took a good few photos while holding my breath for the 15 seconds each shot took.  Those photos came out surprisingly well, but by the time I was prepared to stop for a minute and find the tripod, the lights had almost all gone.  Three shots with the tripod later, with freezing hands, feet and nose, I climbed back into bed with my eyes wide open as Frank frantically tried to warm my feet before I stuck them up against his back!

 

It was kinda spooky standing outside by myself taking the photographs, yes - Frank was back inside and warming up by now.  The thoughts of bears and moose and other big things comes to mind and I wondered whether I would run and leave the camera out there if something spooked me.  Thats when I decided to stop and get me and the camera safely inside.  Of course there was no sign of anything other than a very overactive mind.

 

Those lights were totally "rad awesome".  I have so wanted to share this with everyone - but no cell signal and no internet puts that on the back burner.  Wendy, you would have got the 3am call "just to share" if we had had a signal!

 

This morning I had a crick in my neck from having my head turned to see out of the window - just in case.  Frank still had a case of the giggles at me rushing outside time and time again for "just another quick shot" in pitch dark and freezing temps with way too few warm clothes on.  I think he almost got more enjoyment out of watching me act like a mad person than he did out of the lights - besides the 'mad person' hung around a lot longer than the lights did.  I was woken up at 8.30am with the delicious smell of scrambled eggs and hot coffee.....  :-)  after which we again checked that everything was fine with the bakkie and headed out.  The views were again stupendous with a fresh feel and a glint to everything - made for some really good shots.  The bakkie tugs gently at her tow bar which reminds us that all is well with her.  She is covered in dust and desperately needing a shower too!  Skilpad has a not-so-fine coat of dust on her, but I keep taking my hand and rubbing all the names clean - my hand is coming away dirtier and dirtier each day!  Today Frank picked some pink flowers and stuck them to the side of the rv on some or other little catch right under some of the names, next to Marisa B - I guess it's her day for pretty pink flowers!

 

We spent all of today driving through the Great Northern Rockies, bear country - with not a bear in sight.  There were many more bison and young moose, but no bear.  We saw two humongous moose that had been killed by vehicles and one tow truck with a pickup and camper that had obviously hit something.  So sad on both counts.  Driving past Muncho Lake was beautiful.  The water is crisp and clear with logs pushed up against the shoreline, the road meandering gently around it - almost at the same level as the water at times.  The mountains rising up on each side gave all this a rather surreal feel to it and there was no other traffic for miles and miles - totally and wonderfully peaceful.  The road was so smooth and easy that nothing jumped around in the house either.  We turned the cd off, opened the windows and just enjoyed.  At one of the pull offs we walked down to the river with a water bottle to see wha t the water would taste like - and we wish we had gallon jugs to fill!  That water was sooooo cool and lovely.  Frank nearly slipped and fell right into the river.  The water is a milky ice blue color that fits in perfectly with the surrounding greens and colors of the flowers everywhere.  I now have a gazillion photos of rivers of this amazing color water. 

 

We stopped on top of Steamboat Mountain to look at the scenery - another stunning view.  There, many people had written their names and messages on a barrier - so I added PenniesforCancer.com and RoadrunnersUSA.com with greetings to all and a HI to Penny! 

 

We are again parked in a pull off somewhere on the Alcan Hwy, south of Watson Lake and north of Fireside and Coal River.  I know you will look us up mom! :-)  We use the generator to make the coffee and use the microwave, but have a gas stove.  I have been charging batteries as we drive during the day and the laptop is now powered with an adaptor into a cigarette lighter plug-in.  We have plenty propane gas for heat at night and the fridge works very well with that too.  So we are pretty much sorted out - apart from no cell signal or internet!  We have three signs to put up in the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake  tomorrow (go look that up online - its awesome!) and there is a place all about the northern lights there too, that we want to look at - last time it was closed. 

 

I am going to head off to bed for a few hours sleep and hopefully we will be fortunate enough to see the "magic lights" again tonight....  Frank is already sleeping in anticipation!  The camera is ready on the table and the tripod easy to grab as are the jackets and warm socks... now I bet we will both sleep through it all!

 

I know these emails will only reach you days after all this has happened, but this is the way it is here.  We will probably be out of contact for a few days again after Whitehorse (should be there by Wed/Thurs) until we get inside Alaska where the chance of a signal is much better.  I will answer all your emails as soon as I can, but expect a good few days before I can get to them.

 

This trip is wonderful in so many ways already on a personal level.  On the fundraiser side, its not done much at all - so far.  We have had a good few people asking us how much "these rental units" go for per day - and one even said that it looked like a moving truck...........most people just ignore it totally and actually turn their heads away so as not to have to even acknowledge us.  Be that as it will.  Time will tell, we will do what we can do and will enjoy the trip as much as possible every mile of the way.

 

Love and Light
Especially U3
Annie & Frank
XXXXXxxxxx

6th August. Heavy Hearts and Open Roads

I have been wondering for days how to put into words what it meant to meet and spend some time with Penny.  I cannot.  She knows and I know.  She is one really strong and wonderful lady and I have really  been blessed to spend time with her.  Penny, It was SO difficult to leave on Saturday evening and then Sunday morning - I wanted to drive to your house for one last wave.....It was a very quiet and tearful drive for the first day after we left you.  You are riding with us, every mile of the way, my friend!  You and Michael are really wonderful people........ many thanks for a really good few days, I will always treasure them..and you.

 

So by the time the Sunday afternoon rolled around, I was totally exhausted.  I could hardly keep my eyes open and just wanted the day to end.  Leaving Penny had been very difficult and I heard that another CML'er had lost the battle...very sad.    We tried to cheer up by eating McVites Digestive biscuits with chocolate covering - they were good.  Then we tried some other candies, some chips and some biltong.  I REALLY needed to lie down after all of that!  There are many 'turn-outs' along the road here - these are places that are mostly wonderfully level and normally have the most wonderful views around, or are at least well off the road.  We pulled off into many of these with the camera ready and clicking.  One lady passed us on the road and when she was faced with the humongous rv coming towards her, or us next to her - she opted to try and push us off the road.. we obliged and kissed the gravel unt il she had passed, very thankful that that stretch of road had a little bit extra on the side.  Its never quiet in the rv - there is a lot of noise that happens each bump in the road - and there are many of them!  The cutlery jumps around the cups and mugs and plates joustle together and anything else that can move, does - with as much noise as possible.  When we stop for the day - we both tend to just sit for a minute and savor the silence.  And these are not even bad roads yet!  Yesterday evening I let Frank deal with opening the fridge and cupboards first.... quite a time he had too with everything jumping out at him.  Slowly we are managing to get things settled, but there is always a renegade can of peas or something.

 

We did not stop at Dawson Creek this time again - saw the official start of the Alcan Highway and took photos as we passed by - we stopped and took those photos last time we came up this way.  There are the most glorious hills around.  We head up these hills with the motor screaming at full tilt at times only to start downhill way too soon.  I get the 'heebie geebies' going downhill fast.  This is when the floor carpet on the passenger side of the rv gets worn thinner where the spare brake pedal should be!  Now I have learned to look at the view and not try to hold my breath for the whole downhill stretch.  So far, this way works much better.

 

Driving down the Alcan Highway is really really pretty.  The flowers on the side of the road are pink, red, white, blue, yellow and then a good few whispy dandelions sprinkled in - the colors change with the light and shadows and its an everchanging scene with towering mountains on all sides and the different shades of green are just glorious!  Sometimes the sun seems to pick out a particular spot and highlight it with an extra strong ray of light - I cannot resist trying to capture these sunspots on camera.  We saw a bear running across the road waaaaay in front of us - does that count? We have seen many young moose (meese?) and goat and bison.  Those bison stink, are ugly and seem to carry a serious attitude with them!  We treat them with plenty caution and give them all the space they need, gently nudging through the herd if they stay too long on the roads.

 

On Sunday night we stopped in a pull-off just south of Fort Nelson for the night - it was well off the road and already had another motorhome in it but was plenty big enough for a good few of us.  I was exhausted and headed straight for the bed, kicking off my socks as I went and was asleep before my head hit the pillow, not hearing a thing, until midnight. 

 

We had no cell phone signal from early on Sunday, so there has been no way to send emails or phone anyone.  I had forgotten about the 'black holes' up here where a cell signal is not something that is easily come by. I believe that we should be getting one again in Whitehorse and you will get a few 'catch-up' emails from there.

 

I am going to end this email and start a different one - much more to tell - and if I dont split them - they become waaaaay too long!

 

A really sincere Thank You to Penny and Michael
and love to you all
Annie and Frank
XXxxxxxxxxx

Meeting Penny!

We came off the Icefield parkway after a very cool night below the Crowsfoot Glacier.  It was awesomely beautiful up there......... and quiet, once the traffic died down.  And then we headed towards Edmonton, Alberta and Penny.  I was really keen to get there and we tootled right on in, only stopping once for lunch.  After setting up in a campground just two blocks from where Penny lived, we cleaned up a bit and headed her way.  It was absolutely great to meet her!  She looks just like her pictures - those eyes!  It was so easy to visit with her and Michael that we stayed long past all our bedtimes that first night!  What a lady this is....... she is so gentle, speaks with a quiet voice and a glint in her eye.  They moved into their new house the day we arrived and had had a full day behind them already.  I am having some difficulty putting all this into words.... somehow the meaning of meeting Penny is not coming out properly.  I have started to try and describe what it means to be able to sit and chat with her, to meet this lady that is such an inspiration to me........so many times - and its not flowing the way I am feeling it.  She is so strong and determined and open when talking about her battle with cancer, she smiles a lot, laughs with us and Michael and I know that most of the time I talk too fast - we all have accents to each other!  That glint in her eye and her sense of humor is beautiful. 

 

We went out to a Ukranian dinner together which was something totally new for Frank and I - and very good too!  Michael and Penny then took us on a tour around Edmonton, over the river and through the center of town.  What struck us the most was how clean this city is.  There was so little garbage lying around and everything was so neat.  The river is beautiful - but then I have a thing for water and rivers.  Bridges ran back and forth over it and fast-transport trains too - there is even a waterfall that cascades off the one bridge but it only gets turned on during special occasions.  The fading sunlight caught the buildings of downtown and lit up those that were tall and glass faced, creating some awesome colors and effects.  Really a lovely city.

Today we went to the West Edmonton Mall.  It was awesomly humongous!  It boggled our minds how much 'stuff' there is.  Everything you could think of and then 10 times more than that.  There were flamingoes and a petting zoo - small one, but there.  An enormous boat took the centerstage and one could even go for a submarine ride around this boat which 'floats' in the center of the mall.  A swimming area with waves and all was on one end, filled with people and looking almost like a beach!  There was a whole amuzement park on the other side - also filled with kids with big eyes...  We walked for what seemed like hours and I know we did not cover it all, but what we saw was truely mind blowing.

 

We also moved campsites this morning - to a much better one in the same park.  We have decided to stay here till Sunday morning.  On Saturday we get to meet most of Penny's family - and then we will head up north again early Sunday morning.  It's going to be tremendously difficult to leave here, they are such lovely people and so easy to be around.  Maybe after we have left and my mind has settled again, will I be able to write more about this time.  Right now it's as if I want to keep it close to me.

 

Both Frank and I are sleeping later in the mornings - and this long stop is probably just what we need in more ways than we know.  Frank is feeling better now and my sliced finger is starting to heal up again.  We have put off doing the laundry but tomorrow simply has to be the day!  I managed to get some pictures up on the roadrunnersusa site and have many more I want to add, but the flaky connection simply won't allow that - for now. 

 

More later....

Love and Light
Annie & Frank
U3 are close in my heart...
XXxxxxx

www.RoadrunnersUSA.com
www.livingwithcml.blogspot.com
www.PenniesforCancer.com