Kodiak Koehler's

...on the mainland at least. We'll be getting on the Kodiak ferry tonight around 10 pm. Good thing the sun will still be up. We made it into Homer day before yesterday after taking Beth on her first fishing trip. We went to Ninilchik and tried our had at catching some salmon and halibut. No luck though. We saw one guy catch a King Salmon though. That's the only fish we saw the entire day. It was wet and rainy too but we had a great time. Since then we have just been bumming around Homer. It is very pretty here but I think both Beth and I are ready to be off the road. Living out of the car for over a month is fun to a point. And I think we're fast approaching that point. Most of our conversations lately have been about what we're going to unpack first. Beth seems to think it'll be her craft stuff but I've got my vote for our bed. It'll be so nice to hook up that SleepNumber matress and sink down into that soft goodness!!! So today is just spent ...

We have changed our plans after going to Sunny (Jed's mom's) house for the afternoon. They have invited us to join them all in Soldotna for some fishing. We will are packing up the hotel right now and are going to check out in a moment then eat at Sunny's and head down to Soldotna. We will be camping tonight and fishing tomorrow. How fun is that? I'm really excited since I've never been fishing. After only spending an hour or so with them all I felt like I was part of their family. They are great! I'm excited and will try to update tomorrow night when we check into our hotel in Homer. WOOHOO!!! Hopefully we'll have some good pics and have caught some good fish too! This is the most spontaneous thing we've done this trip. It's been a whirlwind of an afternoon, but so much fun. Love to all and we will update as soon as we get another chance.

I guess Tok was the last time anybody heard from us. We've been relaxing in Anchorage for the past couple days. We decided to stop here for a couple of reasons. First I wanted to give Beth a little time to explore the city for when she gets a chance to hop on a Space A flight (space available on a CG plane) and come back to civilization for a day or weekend. A chance to find all the good places to spend our hard earned ducketts. Second, I have some childhood friends and my god-daughter here in Anchorage. I haven't seen them in over 5 years and with a few exceptions everything is pretty much the same. My god-daughter is a HOOT!!! She will be 6 in November and is sharp as a tack. We had breakfast with her and her dad, Jed yesterday morning and she had us laughing the whole time!!! When we left she asked her dad if she could "go with these people". She has these beautiful brown eyes that will get her out of trouble just as often as they will get her into troub...

After much tossing and turning and a little heaving we made it safe and sound back to dry land. Actually it really wasn't that bad. Beth didn't even get sick. And the girls were fantastic!!! They didn't mess up the car at all, even though they were trapped inside for hours on end. They were unable to go to the bathroom on the ferry because they are so well trained that they didn't want to go on the hard deck. So the poor things held it for almost 2 days. The were certainly relieved to pull into Ketchikan...in more ways than one!!! The ferry was a whole new experience for Beth. We were unable to reserve a stateroom so we did the next best thing and pitched our tent on the back deck!! Now that's traveling in style!! And believe it or not we weren't the only poor folks out there...there were at least 4 other tents on our deck and another half dozen on the deck below us. But at least we had some shelter and privacy. There were tons of people just sleeping in chairs ...

We decided to drive straight to Seattle on Wednesday so we could have a break on Thursday. I think the girls needed a break too. I tried to get the pics up, but it's not letting me post any and we can't for the life of us figure out why. We may try deleting some of the pics in previous posts to see if that is the problem. We went to the Space Needle yesterday. What an amazing structure! It's 605 feet tall and was built for the World's Fair in 1962. We walked around and got some pics up there before going down to the nearby foodcourt for some lunch. Zach hasn't been feeling very well, so we ended up having soup and sandwiches. We headed back to the hotel after that so Zach could get a nap before dinner. We were invited to Leighanne and Todd....ugh, I can't remember their last name I just remember her maiden name - Presley. I do know it starts with a G. Hmm...Delinda, help me out here. Anyway, they had us over for dinner, but Todd, Cora Lynn and Savannah had to go...

We've updated the blog with 3 new posts including this one, so you can start a couple posts down to catch up. We didn't want to do one HUGE post. Ok, now for the rest of the story... Now that graduation is over and all the parties are done with we are finally able to relax for a day or two. We spent most of the days getting ready for the rest of our trip. Sierra Trading Post was having a huge Memorial Day sale and boy did we take advantage of it. New jackets, new clothes, new day packs, etc... We also got the girls updated on their vaccinations, got some laundry done and got the car packed. We were able to consolidate a lot of stuff and now the girls have a little bit more room to move around. Whaddaya know; we're getting a lot better at this packing thing. The last night we were in Koehler Kountry we spent basking in the home-made goodness of the wood heated hot tub that my dad built. It was really nice and gave us the best night sleep!! The next day (Tuesday) we left afte...

I am so proud of my sister!! She is the most talented, open, loving person I know. She graduated with a 3.6 gpa and has been accepted to the Young Americans . This is a 4 year college for performing arts. They travel around the country exposing grade school, middle school, and high school students to the fine arts of music and dance. They take time to talk and interact with the students and then afterwards give a performance. If you have ever heard of Up with People, it's kinda like that. They have also performed for presidents and dignitaries the world over. They even had a special stage that they performed on right next to the French Riviera. During the school year they will have a full load of classes (17 credit hours) plus dance practice plus work. On the weekends they will have about 20 hours of dance practice. I am really excited to see what an amazing dancer she will become. But don't let her know that cause I don't want her to get a big head!! The graduation ceremon...

...of the Thermopolis hot springs that is. Zach and I drove from Sidney, NE to Cody, WY on Thursday. We were going to stop in Thermopolis to enjoy a night at the hot springs, but after determining how long it would take us to get from Cody to Bellingham, WA to catch the ferry, we decided to head on to Cody and surprise Zach's parents and sister. We did stop in Thermop to enjoy walking around the springs anyway. Snowflake tried to jump in, but luckily we caught her in time. It would have really hurt her. It was beautiful, but man, did it stink!?! We also stopped in the Wind River Canyon and Boysen Resevoir. We just took our time and enjoyed the drive and the outdoors. We were only on the interstate for a few hours of the trip, then on the backroads of Hwy 120. When we made it to Koehler Kountry we started the hike to the house when Makenzie drove up. It was funny, b/c the driveway was muddy and the Magnum didn't have enough oomph to make it to the house (Zach wouldn't get me...

We have had a great couple of days. We took our time driving from Seymour and stopped several times to let the dogs play and us stretch our legs. It's always nice to get out of the car for a little while, even if it's just to get gas. We have taken to stopping long enough for lunch to sit down to eat. That's been a nice break. We didn't really know where we would end up staying on Monday. We wanted to try to make it as close to St. Louis as we could, but didn't know if we'd stop to camp before or after we passed though. We made it easily to the city before rush hour. We all wanted a break, and Beth really wanted to see the Gateway Arch, so we decided to all get out and enjoy a nice walk down to the Arch and sat on the lawn enjoying the view of the Mississippi River and the people. What a fun way to spend an afternoon. We had all kinds of people stopping us to see our dogs. It was quite funny. It was really amazing to see a structure like that. Did you know that ...

Well we're hittin' the road again today after a great visit with Gregg, Delinda, Savannah, Conley, and Rascal. We have no idea where we're going to end up today. Kinda exciting!! We're just going to put the sun at our backs until about noon and then drive off into the sunset. Keep checking back to see where we end up!! We may not be able to post for the next few days but you never know...

We've been in Seymour visiting Beth's sister and her family, including their n ewest member (Rascal). We've been going non-stop since we've been here. The first day after we arrived we took a trek out to Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountain National Forest. It is absolutly beautiful out there. Cades Cove has a bunch of little picnic areas next to a stream. We brought stuff to grill hamburgers and discovered that Conley (our nephew) is a pyromaniac! He loved throwing stuff in the fire and watching it burn. He was truely facinated by it. But even better we discovered that Beth's sister Delinda is a Tree-Hugger!! Who knew??!?!? After lunch Zach took a nap down on a log by the creek. It was very relaxing after all the stress of being on the road. Later we took a drive around the L oop Road and our niece Savannah (author of this post's clever title) played puppy as she hung her head out the window searching for all the wildlife we saw. There were deer, wild turkey, an...

We made it to Dyer, TN (close to Memphis/Jackson) on Monday evening to visit with Beth's Aunt Linda, cousin Brian and their grumpy old dog Chico. We had a nice visit. It was the first time we've seen them since 2002. It was very odd being there without Butch, Aunt Linda's oldest son. He was killed in a car accident on Feb. 26 of this year. It was very hard on all of us. Zach and I weren't able to make it to the funeral so we wanted to spend a few days with them while we are on this big adventure. Butch was a big burly man with a heart of gold. He was just a big teddy bear. May he rest in peace. Tuesday was a really lazy day. We didn't get up and out until about 4 p.m. There is a Mennonite grocery in the next town over that we went to and got some goodies. We got some jams and snacks. Everything there is all natural or organic, so we were loving it. Ok, so we're a little crunchy, but that's ok, we're healthier b/c of it! They have GREAT sandwiches. The p...

We'd like to take a minute to thank all the mom's out there. You so often go unrecognized for all that you do. I will have to say though, that I think we got the best mom's in the world, no offense to all you other mom's. I'm sure your kids feel the same way about you. Saturday night we went to "our" restaurant - the Melting Pot. It's so yummy! Great time, better company. That is where Zach took me on our first date, proposed, and we have also spent every New Year and anniversary there. We're going to have to find something new to do now, because shockingly enough, there isn't one on Kodiak Island. What are they thinking? They would have all of 12,000 people on the island to serve. lol. Our other restaurant is Village Inn. We know...odd choice for another favorite, but it's only because that's where it all began. I was managing the restaurant at night and he would come in to study for flight school. All the waitresses would hit on him a...

...well as far as Pensacola at least. Took us a little longer than we thought since we had to drop off Zach's Chevelle in Orlando to get shipped first. Zach's dad and uncles came down to get it started. Uncle Justin (L), Uncle Dennis (R), and Uncle Glenn (BL) live up in Bell, FL. [Pops at BR] Then afterwards the guys stood around the truck telling lies. It was nice seeing Dad and his brothers together. Anyway back to the story...I drove the Chevelle and Beth drove the Magnum over to Orlando to the shipping place and then we headed North-West to Pensacola. Not much exciting happened on the drive. The girls slept most of the way. Its been pretty relaxing after the couple weeks of chaos we've had. Havn't had much to do. We got a PSP (Playstation Portable) and it is worth its weight in gold!! We can play games, listen to music, watch movies...anybody who is thinking about taking a long trip should invest in one. Of course Beth usually gets her hands on it before I do so I...