"Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed..."

"Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed..."  This song was playing over and over in my head yesterday as we pulled the Free Spirit 180 miles down the Glenn Highway with our F-250 diesel.  Our new home away from home has a been a bit of a challenge the last couple of days.  It all started with the installation of the sliding hitch.  Dave spent all day Friday climbing up and down the bed of the pickup, measuring, drilling holes, crawling underneath, and cursing underneath his breath.  I spent the day doing laundry, packing, chasing Dylan, and running to help my hard working husband when he called for my assistance.

After the hitch was finally installed (around 5 o'clock that evening), we quickly discoverd some faulty wiring and non-functioning brake lights.  After more fiddling, cursing, and a run to Lowe's, Dave managed to get the right brake light and the left blinker working.  Halfway there.  This small success (and our rough day) called for some celebration and we spent the rest of the evening catching up with some good friends and sampling Anchorage's tasitest hot wings and Russia's finest potato beverage.  The late night quickly turned into an early morning and we woke up tired and a little foggy.  But we are miners now, and parents of an energetic toddler, and neither of those jobs wait for one to snap out of a late night fog, so our duties began at 7am, no questions, no excuses.  We had breakfast, finished packing up the truck and the fifth wheel, loaded up the dog and the kid, and began our trek towards Glennallen.

About 20 minutes into the drive, passerby's began waving wildly at us and pointing at the Free Spirit.  My first instinct was to honk, wave back, and say, "Thanks!  She's a beauty isn't she?!"  But my husband quickly snapped me into reality by replying, "Oh crap, somethings wrong with the fifth wheel,"  followed by a few more colorful words.   We pulled over onto the freeway onramp and found that our jack had fallen down and had been dragging for who- knows- how-long and shooting sparks all over the Glenn highway.  Lacking any tools, Dave crawled underneath the Free Spirit and kicked at the broken jack until it fell to the pavement with a clang.  He picked it up, threw it into the pickup, and away we went.  Twenty minutes done, only about three more hours to go.

The rest of the drive went fairly smoothly, despite a few strange thunks and thuds that came from the hitch and Keiser's upset stomach that required an ubrupt stop and an emergency potty break.  We stopped at Eureka lodge and refreshed ourselves with a sandwich and a cheeseburger, then drove the last hour without interruption as Dylan entertained us with funny faces in the mirror.  When we pulled into the Dempsey driveway, Rita, Dani, and Apollo were there to greet us, and Dave hollared out the window, "The Free Spirit turned out to be a little too free spirited!"  Heh, heh.  My hubby cracks me up.

Dani holds a Copper River King caught in the fishwheel

Rita and Dani had been slaving away at the fishwheel since 5 A.M. and Dr. Dan was helping a friend lay a foundation until 7 P.M.  Needless to say, the Dempsey party was pretty exhausted, but Copper River Salmon are priceless and since 101 of them decided to detour into our fishwheel, there was still plenty of work to be done.  Dani and Dr. Dan filleted, Dave, Rita, and I vacuum-sealed, and Apollo babysat Dylan.  Keiser, the anti-social old labrador, layed in the saw dust pile outside.  When we finally began cleaning up the kitchen and filing upstairs to go to bed, our legs ached and we could barely keep our eyes open, but Dr. Dan called us back downstairs.  We groggily thudded back down the stairs and into the living room.


"Look outside." he said and pointed out a beautiful double rainbow in the sky.  It was bright, vivid, and seemed to stretch from the Richardson Highway halfway out to Mount Drum.  It was absolutely gorgeous and it created a deep contrast against the dark sky that could have been photo-documented onto a postcard.  Gosh, I love living here, I thought to myself.  And I said a little prayer in my head, thanking God for this beautiful life, for our safe travel, and for the bountiful fish that we had caught that day. Then I went to bed, listened to my son's quiet breathing, and fell into the deepest sleep that I've had in a long time. 

Today, Dave and Dan are continuing to diagnose the hiccups in the Free Spirit and we are anticipating a long afternoon of salmon vacuum-sealing and dog and toddler-chasing.  Tonight it's dinner at Tolsona Lodge with my Momma and the Dempsey clan. Tomorrow it's off to Fairbanks for Dave and I to attend our MSHA training class.  The jury is still out on the Free Spirit, but, so far, she's been an interesting and adventurous girl.  The real test will be this week's Fairbanks trip, but I have a feeling that she'll fit in well with the Valdez mine and the rest of the Dempsey camper trailer fleet.  I hope to write more soon and let you all know how MSHA goes!

"Well now its time to say good by to Jed and all his kin.
And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin in.
You're all invited back again to this locality
To have a heapin helpin of their hospitality
Hillybilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.
Y'all come back now, y'hear?" ~Beverly Hillbillies Theme Song~