It’s been four years since I’ve written or posted anything for the LatvianAlaskan family blog. Those four years were full of work, fun, hardship, lessons, dreams, and plans – not to mention laughter and tears.
A couple years back I got laid off from my telecom analyst gig unexpectedly. It was a short unceremonious phone call that ended with “effective immediately” and three or so years of my professional life in the IT telecom industry face-planted. It turned out to be a blessing from a god I guess I don’t really believe in. I got taken on as a IT project manager / analyst with a software development and consultancy company called Resource Data. Its honestly the only IT job I’ve had that hasn’t driven me insane with boredom and/or frustration due to incompetence and bureaucratic doldrum.
Ance, ever the smarter and more capable one, has worked her tail off to become a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) and now has about a year left of prereqs to enter into Nursing school. Unaffected by mere mortal concerns of sleeping, she has worked nights, parented, and gone to school with a smile so big and a heart so full one can only marvel at her spirit.
As for Augustine and Ophelia, what can a parent say? They amaze and infuriate me in the same breath. They both grow in mind and body in ways that surprise, humor, and scare me. Both will be smarter and taller than me before I am dead and I’ll probably owe both of them money before too long.
Ance and I have been discussing another cycling trip since the last one ended six years ago. We’d loosely ‘planned’ doing a trip through Eastern Europe (starting in Latvia) and then trying to hit up as many of the -stans as possible after getting down to Turkey (don’t ask me the exact route, we didn’t have one). These rough ideas where targeted for implementation in 2020. That year turned out to be ill suited for traveling, just google ‘global pandemic’, you’ll figure it out.
So, we settled on a trip across the United States (and possibly back again) for 2021 – 2022. The Adventure Cycling Association has put together a variety of routes that crisscross the United States. We are looking at loosely following the TransAmerica route to the east and the Southern Tier route back to the west – totalling approximately 7,000 miles.
We flew into Portland, Oregon on July 20th and as of today (July 28th) we’ve turtle paced our way into Corvallis some 120+ miles later. After a 2020 in rainy Juneau and pretty much no traveling the past few years, I had forgotten that other places on the planet get warmer than 75 degrees. With the ongoing heat wave in Oregon, I am pretty sure I am inches away from bursting into flame. The Willamette river has saved us all though and being back on the road with little in the way of cares is pretty-freaking-nice.
Happy trails and adventures from the LatvianAlaskan Family!
Pregame Show – June 2017 to July 2021
Apart from the 9 to 5, Ance and I have been working on becoming Juneau Trailer park slum lords. We now own three. Very much like the beginning of our last cycling trip, we were working on finishing touches on a trailer just before departing. Over the past 4 years, we’ve torn down one to the trailer frame, built it up (only to tear it down again, a hard lesson from the City and Borough of Juneau), re-did the shoebox trailer we completed just before our last cycling trip, and did various roof jobs on another trailer we purchased two years ago. Why? For some cash flow for another bike trip. Here are some before and after photos for your enjoyment…
Sh** barn to Mother of Pearl
A four year project where we learned a lot, but I am still a sub-par carpenter. Lots of help from friends made it all possible.
Shoebox to the Petite Purple Palace
This is the one room hole Ance and I bought (with help from a Latvian grandma and best friend) in 2012. I had no idea what I was doing when we first cobbled it together and after renting it out for the past 7 years it needed some tender loving care.
July 19th – 21th – Juneau Pre-departure chaos and Portland Arrival
We finished up final touches on the Mother of Pearl, camped in the yard, got lease papers signed, rent and security deposit gathered, drank some beer at Forbidden Peak brewery, got a game of frisbee golf in and then packed all our mountain of gear and bikes – so there. I want to just add here that Colin, a good friend of ours, stayed up until 2 AM in the morning with me packing our bikes. There were no bike boxes in town, so we had to get creative with random cardboard boxes, zip ties, and tape, lots and lots of tape. While drinking whiskey, we managed to pack the bikes and not lose a single part.
We bought our tickets on miles so we had a 6 hour layover in Sitka and a 4 hour layover in Seattle, meaning we didn’t arrive in Portland until about midnight. An Uber driver named Roy took pity on us at 1 AM and crammed all of our crap into his mid-size van and had the kids sit on our laps for the ride over to the super classy Studio 6 hotel. After a few hours of sleep, we put our bikes together in the hotel lawn and headed over Derek and Asia’s who graciously hosted us in their backyard thanks to a hookup from a Juneau buddy (thanks Isaac!).
July 22nd – Portland to Champoeg
We decided to go big on the first day of real cycling – mostly because Portland is a city that seems to never end. 40 some odd miles and we were beat by the end of the day. At some point my front rack fell off my bike – rack, bag, and all – some shotty machanic at studio 6 had a screw loose. We’d actually stopped into Champoeg (pronounced sham-poo-eee, go ahead, laugh) on our first cycling trip down to El Salvador. This time we actually have a little money and could actually stay (officially) at the hiker/biker campsites. Augustine powered through all the miles with a smile and some can-do spirit – I’ve not the slightest clue where it came from. We slept like bricks.
July 23rd – Champoeg to Willamette Mission
After the long day out of Portland, we opted for a short 20 mile stint over to Willamette mission state park. It only has a hiker/biker campground and we had it all to ourselves. With the oppressive 90+ degree heat since we’ve gotten here, the Willamette river was a pleasant respite. We played some games late into the evening, all of which I lost.
July 24th & 25th – Willamette Mission, Ankeny National Wildlife Reserve, Enchanted Forest and back to Ankeny
We camped at Ankeny last trip and found ourselves there again as a base camp. It happens to sit just 8 miles from the Enchanted Forest amusement park where we plan to hit up for fun for the girls and for Ance’s name’s day. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Enchanted Forest, we strongly recommend that you do. Roger Tofte and his family have had crafted some pretty amazing stuff that I dare say rivals anything Disney is pushing.
July 26th – Ankeny NWR to Independence, Oregon
For Ance’s actual name’s day we fell into the wonderland that is Independence, Oregon. A small little town on the banks of the Willamette river with an exclusive bicycle / boater campground right on the river – with showers! We had planned to head into Corvallis to meet up with an old friend / professor of mine from UAS, but opted for a short cycle and long day on the river. We went to the Tap Station for beer and lunch and the cooks ended up deep frying some oreos and twinkies for the kids – their first time. Big fans of the oreos, for sure.
July 27th & 28th – Independence to Corvallis, Oregon
Once upon a time I went to university and met a crotchety old professor named Clive Thomas. His dry wit and humor won me over from the get go over 13 years ago – so we opted for a visit. The 22 mile ride was fairly easy and painless. Clive and Susan took us in and fed us and have been the most gracious of people. We’ve stayed an extra day to fix up Ance’s bike (having a skipping issue) at Corvallis Cyclery. Also, for all the NPR nerds out there, just next door Meghna Chakrabarti, host of On Point, is visiting her parents with her kids. Our kids and Meghna’s spent pretty much the whole day making mischief, and Clive hosted a pizza party for them. Small world.
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