Ramblings on the Road

A clear day greeted us on our long drive to Fairbanks for our weekly supply of groceries. I was in the back of the van, head on the window, looking at anything and everything as we passed. The co-pilot Dave was starting to doze off, Brian was in the zone, driving with his Monster in hand, both Nick and Matt were in the row behind me on the lookout just like I was.

Then I heard it: "hey look, McKinley is out!"I looked back to my left, and even from a hundred miles away, it was the most prominent mountain in sight. I don't know when I became so emotional, but I almost cried seeing it. I looked back any time I knew there would be an opportunity to see it through trees and ranges. I couldn't get enough of it. I didn't get a photo, just like the first time I saw the northern lights. I couldn't even think to get my camera. I just wanted to look at it.

Coming home, in the same spot and position, with my journal in hand, I wrote down my thoughts and everything I saw. My personal journals never go public, and things like that, in the van, I never really thought about until later that afternoon when Nick approached me in my hammock and asked "hey what were you writing earlier in the van?"

I was journaling at the time, listening to Matt play guitar as I played around writing lyrics. Instead of telling Nick what I wrote, I just handed my journal to him. He read what I wrote in the van, then turned to what I just wrote while in my hammock. He asked why I never put it on Facebook or share it with people. I told him he sounds like my family. And so I guess to answer him, I don't really know. Maybe it's the feared scrutiny or just the sake of keeping my thoughts private, but whatever the reason, I journal because that's how I process my thoughts, I don't do it for recognition.

But for Nick, if he ever finds this blog, and for my family and closest friends, who I know read it, I'll leave you with my drive to Fairbanks:

Meet me in this place of wild
Find open roads to mountains and rivers.
The air is crisp, the sun is out
Drive for hours in silence.

Nature speaks - though quiet- so loud
Beyond the spruce trees and vast land
There's Mt. McKinley claiming her lot
Proud with beauty, never ceasing.

Jet streaks leave a trace behind
Then leaves the sky to be.
Snow starts melting
Leaves start changing
Showing signs of spring.

The ranges take over the open land
This place is bigger than life.
Valleys of green inviting rivers to flow
The seasons they change over night.

The spirit of Alaska runs wild
for those open to let it take hold.
---------------------------------------------

Photos from the road this weekend (McKinley, Easter, and Northern Lights to come on the next blog)







"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect." - Anais Nin
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." - Unknown