I suppose I should give a bit of background. Earlier this year I stopped to see B., a church member, at her office in the Mendenhall Mall. She began telling me about her grand plans to sell most of what she owned, pack and ship the rest, and then with her dog V. in the sidecar, ride her big red Honda Gold Wing motorcycle from Juneau to a small town in Northern Maine where she had decided to take up residence.

Now, I grew up riding motorcycles with my Dad and so the trip sounded like a wonderful adventure to me and I communicated as much. When B. saw me the next week at church she informed me that she was praying that I would go along with the dog in the sidecar on this great journey at least as far as Colorado where my family lives. I laughed, but knew that if she was praying that prayer I might as well pack my saddlebags and suit-up.

Sure enough when I discussed the timeline with our Head of Staff, the two weeks in question were the only two I could have had off during this Summer since he was traveling most of the rest of the season. So I talked with my parents about it and my Dad thought it sounded like a great trip, and what developed from that was that he rode up the highway on his big yellow Honda Gold Wing last week and is here helping me do laundry and pack my saddlebags and weed my garden and get ready to leave on the 14th for Skagway and then off down the highway.

Well, today is the 14th and we are still in Juneau. B. had been off hiking the Chilkoot Trail last week when she developed severe dizziness and high blood pressure--after being helicoptered off the trail and medivaced to Juneau the Docs found nothing wrong with any of the tests they ran and sent her home to rest and be ready to leave today. We chatted yesterday and she zoomed off to finish up the last minute preparations.

She called this morning to say she was headed back to the ER with the same symptoms she had expereinced on the trail. Needless to say we did not go today. We will check in with B. tomorrow and see what the new plan entails but for now the Doc sent her home with the express written instruction, "no motorcycle driving."

What is more, things became even more complex when I pulled out my passport and happened to notice that it expired this past March. As many of you know it is simply not possible to renew a passport in one day--though people on the internet will tell you it is, it isn't, at least not from Juneau, AK. So the adventure begins, but not the adventure we expected and the departure turns out not to be from the Auke Bay Terminal, but a departure from the plans we had made. We shall see what the Good Lord has in store tomorrow, and I will do my best to keep up with this and provide some pictures of whatever happens for all interested parties.
Please keep B. in your prayers.