The end is in sight!

Here we are on our last day at the airport in Anchorage.  I know it has been long enough given the entertainment I get out of the littlest things.  Lynn had the lap top and was sitting to my left trying to get it hooked up to the internet at the terminal. Unbeknownst to her I had the mouse hidden down by my right leg.  I got such a kick out of watching her try to figure out what was wrong with the little arrow...she said "Randy, look what this is doing!"  Sure enough the little arrow was going round and round much to my amusement.

Last day today, we fly out in a few hours; our flight is at about 8 pm and we got here about 2...is there a message?  Reflections of our trip might be appropriate:
We started out about a month ago and I had grand ideas of fishing a lot and catching a bunch of this and that, all big and many of them.  As it turned out I only dipped a line a couple times and caught a few fish.  I did catch a very large
Dolly Vardan, probably 5 or 6 pounds which is very big for this specie.  I didn't know what it was, and was sure it wasn't a Dolly because of the size but Patsy Wiseman called it and later I discovered it indeed was a Dolly.  Fishing just didn't work on this trip.

We saw so much fantastic scenery comprised of everything from endless fields of hay in Montana and Alberta to snow capped mountains, mountains, mountains, mountains and mountains.  If you can get scenery overload, we got it.  Scary drives on the Cassiar Highway, the  Icefield Highway between Jasper and Banff, the badlands in North Dakota, the Canadian badlands, ferry rides to Haines and Whittier and most importantly Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump.

Our best fun was staying overnight in some RV park in the middle of a field, and sleeping in the van.  We got so we could dissemble the tent and pack the van in 1 hour flat...and just so you know, we could put it up faster than that.

Would I do it again? In a minute.  Would Lynn do it again?  She said it was a week too long, and if it were a week shorter she still would never consider doing it again...I think mostly she didn't like the sleeping in the van part or maybe the bathroom/shower arrangements.  She very much liked several of the places we stayed like the ranch in British Columbia, the cabin on the Tok cutoff, the Hilton in Calgary and the cottage in Homer.  Incidentally, Homer provided the best meal we could find anywhere at the Homestead Restaurant.

So, 6,406 miles in a 1994 rusty old conversion van with a broken exhaust manifold and only 2 issues the entire way; broken break line and one flat tire.  10 nights sleeping in the van...it just doesn't get any better!

And so we say good-bye to Edna:

She's just sitting there waiting now in the Park, Ride & Fly lot for Bert and Carrie Partello to pick her up and take her on their own adventures.

Anybody know what a road trip in Chile would be like?