Celebrating Somewhere Between East And West 🧭 (Ooooh… Guess North!)

So we were heading North for the weekend of my birthday! The trip itself was going to be a bit different though; Laura and I were having to drive up two vehicles this time. We had received a recall notice from Toyota for our Tundra, stating that they needed to fix the airbag.

When I had called Toyota, they had offered to have someone come all the way down, pick up our truck, drive it 5 hours to Anchorage for repair, and bring it back! 😮 Though that was above and beyond, we had been planning this trip since August so I let them know we would be up anyway.

Still though- we would be riding apart. 😟 We would use the opportunity to listen to our favorite audio candies. Laura had her newest chapter of the Witcher audiobook she wanted to bite into, and I had plenty of music to demo for our ultimate playlist. 😉

So that Thursday afternoon, we hit the pavement. The neat part about this opportunity was that we could get some photos of The Ohana from outside of the cab. 😄

A few hours later, we had re-fueled in Kenai and were continuing on North. Here is where something cool finally went down, it was finally dark enough out at night that we were going to get to use the headlights! This would be the first night driving we would be doing since upgrading the headlights, and the fog lights, to LED. 🤩

So the LEDs looked great!

As I drove and evaluated the new lighting situation, it became abundantly clear I should reposition the fog lights. With the LED bulbs I had put in, they were super bright.

Having them pointed slightly down like regular fog lights gave a nice effect of light reflecting off of the road and casting light. Yet, they would be much more effective if I adjusted them up later and used them more for an add on to the high-beams. When we were in the right moment I would change it up.

We made a quick pit stop by Fred Meyers on the way to Cabelas, so we could all use the bathroom before settling in for the night.

This is when Laura sprung the fact on me that she didn’t think she was going to be able to hold it all all night. 😂 Even though I had discussed figuring something out prior to this moment, now the situation was coming to a “head”.

So… in a pinch at 9 ‘clock at night, we decided to line the toilet bowl with a trash bag- and tomorrow I would have to get to work problem solving.

On a brighter note, check out how the Toyota light came out! 🤷

The next morning we up and at ’em, going through our paces and getting the Tundra over to the Toyota dealer.

Now let me tell you a fact: I may stare at a lot of new board games but I never stare at brand new cars. Why? Too tempting! Now we were forced on to this magical car lot, full of the best vehicles on earth Toyotas!

The drop off was smooth, streamline, and professional. Our Toyota Representative was a super chill and friendly guy named Mojo. At this point, we had planned to wander Anchorage until the Tundra was ready, and then drive both vehicles up North to Wasilla. But in our conversation with Mojo, we found out that the dealership was open Sundays, and we could leave the Tundra there until then! Sweet, that made things much more simple. Since Midas had flaked out on ever calling us back and we had The Ohana work done locally, it wasn’t crucial to take the Tundra up to Wasilla with us.

While I waited in the showroom, I ended up geeking out over the newest Toyota models 😛, knowing that we were never going to go there. 🤐 And after a little bit we headed back out to the lot, where we found other people doing some geeking out!

The employees were standing in the parking lot staring at The Ohana, totally amazed by that it even existed!

So of course we had to give a tour! 😉 After some great conversations with fellow enthusiasts, we gave our well wishes and wandered off into Anchorage for the day.

We had been getting signs last night of the coach battery being weak, so I decided to swing by O’Reillys and have them put there tester on it. The results came back that the battery was toast.

We were not in the situation to purchase a lithium, so I decided to go with the next best thing and by a AGM (Gel) battery.

They had a marine model that would suit our situation perfectly.

We traded the old one in for the core charge, and not much later we were ready to get moving again.

While we had been installing the battery, there was a flock of geese that were just happily wandering around the back streets right by us!

Laura was in love with this moment in time. 😍

Speaking of Laura, we had stopped at a few stores and I had made some calls on her behalf. Thus far none of the camping or RV stores in Anchorage had toilet seat bucket lids. Yep, that was my most simple solution for our current dilemma. After no success, I decided to try the camping area at the closest Walmart.

We were in luck! They had everything we needed. bucket and seat for less than $20. Laura would now have a secure place to sit for her midnight needs, and lining the bucket with a trash bag and emptying it should be a lot easier than the situation we had dealt with that morning. 🤫

Before we left Anchorage, Laura wanted to get down to starting my B-Day fun! So she called an old sushi joint I used to love going to years ago: Ronnie Sushi. 😋 Such good memories of cheap and tasty sushi!

We called in and ordered a pickup. When we arrived our jaws nearly hit the floor, the restaurant was fully of people! Sure, they were socially distanced with every other table shut down, but they were all in there nonetheless! Anchorage had been on a mandatory shut-down for eating out in restaurants, so we were shocked. As we asked the restaurant attendant what was going on, she explained things had just re-opened as long as permits were filed and rules were followed. We weren’t sure if this was a good choice or not yet.

But anyhoo- we had our own private dining quarters we could retire to, so we did just that. Check out this spread!

Amazingly enough, we ate it all. Don’t know if that was the healthiest choice ever, but it was a tasty one!

After our shameless yet excellent meal, we wandered North to Wasilla.

We stopped at a few shops along the way and goofed off a bit…

… but eventually we landed in our destination of the Walmart parking lot in Wasilla.

The next morning we awoke to an absolutely (and unexpectedly) beautiful day.

We sat around and enjoyed our morning coffee, and discussed how we wanted the day to go.

Ultimately, I decided on what any child born in the 80’s seeking unhealthy birthday munchings and crunchings would decide; pizza for breakfast!

I placed an online pickup order and with the theme song from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ringing in my brain, I headed towards the closest Pizza Hut.

Not even 20 minutes later we were digging into some morning pie! 😆

Afterwards we cleaned up the RV and soaked in a bit of sun before we headed off for our day of play.

Since I just recently told you about our last journey to the Extreme Fun Center, I want go through all of the details of this epic time. This will just be a lot of pictures.

Long story short; we were supposed to meet people, nobody followed through in true Alaskan fashion, and they all missed out because Laura and I had a blast! It’s rough getting to play games all day with your best friend!

After a massive day of arcades and play, I had an impromptu whim to spend the night at a unplanned destination. Our original plan had been to sleep right here, but this new idea was much better!

Before we left, I re-aimed the fog lights to act a booster set of bright lights.

They were crazy strong! Then we were headed off into the night! Headed to the amazing destination of…

… the place you will have to find out next time! 🤣😂
😏

Geoff Murphy 11/13/2020