B+M=Baked Beans: I feel more like an Alaskan after that trip

Two weeks ago, right after all of Russel's birthday festivities, we went on what I think was an

Ultimate Alaskan Experience

So right now, I'm sure you're all thinking something like, "Oh wow, they must have taken a float plane to a remote cabin on a mountain lake" or maybe, "Did they scale a glacial peak and live with the big-horn sheep?" or even, "They must have won a lottery spot to go see grizzlies feeding on salmon at McNeil River"

No, no... I'm talking about if you have a family and are living in Alaska under ordinary circumstances, this might be what you would do!

We met up with our friends the Berry's and piled 11 people in this rig and drove 8 hours straight through to this house in Nenana (60 miles south of Fairbanks) arriving at 2 a.m.

Now let me tell you all a little bit of the details that make this all so Alaskan. This RV is the cab of a 4-wheel drive truck with the back cut out, jimmy-rigged to the RV part with the front cut out of it. The house is in the middle of NO-WHERE with NOTHING to do even close to it.

So we pulled in at 2 a.m. and the crazies were asleep, so Ben and I decided to spend the night out in the camper. We were soon joined by all 4 youngest Berry children because there was only wood floors to sleep on in the house. Ben and I laid up in the top bunk sweating and staring at the ceiling vent illimunated by a dusk-like light, sung to by a chorus of giant mosquitoes with the backdrop of hands slapping against skin. Also, a random 4 a.m. "SHHHHH, everyone can hear you!!" Everyone can hear who? Hilarious.

At 5 a.m. Tannen, the Berry's 15 yr old cracks the silence announcing he got 20 minutes of sleep. I roll over and hold up a big zero with my hand and everyone starts laughing in their sleep deprived, delirious, mosqito driven paranoia. Soo funny. Well, the kids moved inside the house and we bug-bombed the camper (setting off a hidden smoke detector we never could find) and ended up getting 4 hours of sleep.

Ok, now check this out:

Have you seen Into the Wild? Yeah, there really are old busses all over the place in Alaska. We ate hot-dogs and s'mores by the fire right next to this bus. Later we heard stories about their family's many trips down the Al-can (Alaska-Canada highway) with that bus.

We also went to Fairbanks... hmm.. hot, dry, not much to see!

We stopped by the location of the off-the-grid cabin the Berry's lived in for 3 years. We hiked the 2 mile trail back to see it and the owners even gave us a tour of the inside. That was really neat because we've heard so much about their struggle to survive out there with 6 and then 7 kids and no money.

Really, most of the trip was just driving in the RV. That's just life in Alaska, you have to drive and drive to get anywhere. But it was SO fun.