Life on the Road

We’re more than two months on the road and road weariness has set in. Our Alaska adventure is amazing having now experienced Alaska by seaplane, train, ferry and road. It’s astonishingly beautiful; however, a new adventure everyday can be exhausting. When talking to my fellow Airstreamers, it seems like everyone relishes the opportunity to do nothing some days—do some laundry, read a book, rest.

Balancing one’s life must be intentional, and indeed, it is challenging many times because, well, FOMO! Although I remind myself, we’ll not likely travel this path again, I definitely don’t want to miss out on unique experiences. I’m blessed to be married to a man who knows his limits and says ‘no’ often. Normally, I’m not like that, but I’m changing my mindset on this very long trip. Rest is needed. We’ve two more months of adventure and I’m learning schedule rest into it. I need the quiet for my soul to breathe.

There’s a part of me who wants to be home with no adventure planned, but I know that our opportunity is now. We don’t know what tomorrow holds. Knowing how to purposefully add rest into our travel is a new type of resiliency that I’m learning. I think it will carry over into my everyday life. Balancing opportunities and rest have always been a challenge, but it has seemed easier when we’re home.

We travel every two to four days. There’s something new and beautiful at every location, yet the roads here in Alaska are challenging. They’ve got something up here called permafrost. This means the ground under the road is frozen and as cars travel on the road it heats that ice and they sink, creating waves and potholes in the road. So, we drive slowly. Alaska has crews fixing the roads seemingly everywhere, so road construction happens every travel day, and creates longer drive days.

Everyday maintenance continues to be a priority when you’re on the road. I clean every time we arrive at a new destination; toilet, shower and sinks get scrubbed, floor gets vacuumed. Camping is dirty. Groceries and laundry get done weekly. Meal planning is a constant challenge because life is flexible on the road, and the fresh seafood has been an unparalleled treat.

It is equally challenging that equipment breaks–often. We’ve had a defunct hot water heater for most of the trip. We’ve been blessed with temporary fixes that have lasted a few weeks but will need to replace it when we get back to the lower 48 states (update: A new Truma AquaGo Comfort on demand water heater will be installed on the 16^th. We feel very blessed to be able to get this done before the last quarter of our trip!)

At the end of the day the travel is so worth the tired and crazy. The opportunities to connect with people in our airstream community coupled with enjoying the beauty of a largely unspoiled creation all around us are priceless. The mountain and braided river views out our windows never get old!