Monday, May 24, 2010

Journey North


I graduated college April 30th, 2010 and started to make my way north and the beginning of a new adventure. So far the plan is to live and work in Alaska for the summer season (into September), hopefully be able to take a road trip across the united states and then fly to Ireland and WWOOF followed by random travelings in Europe to hopefully return by the hollidays and see the fam. Whatever follows after is tbd.



After moving out of school I spent one last night with some dear friends and headed up to Tulsa to have dinner with the fam and spend a few days with the sisters, brother-in-law and new little niece. We had a few ice-cream and movie nights, trips to vintage stores, watched Tabitha do roller derby, went on walks, and were together.


Tabitha and I has the same flight out but at our lay over she boarded a plane that took her to Rhode Island and I boarded one that took me to Seattle where my friend Laura met me and drove me to Bellingham.



Once at the house she is living in with our friend Hillary and Hillary's grandpa, we discarded my bags, jumped on her scooter and went and grabbed thai food. They rest of my days spent there consisted of walks on the board walk, breakfasts with friends, time spent in book stores, dinner on the deck overlooking the bellingham bay, two trips to REI a day, a trip to trader joes, and rides in a convertable with the top down even though it was slightly cold for it (we turned the seat warmers on) and much laughter!





From there I boarded the ferry Matanuska and began my 2 1/2 day journey to Juneau. I slept under the salarium (sp?) on a lawn chair and read "Redeeming Love". The sky was clear the first night and the stars were bright and abundant. The whole first day was spent on the water and the second day we started making stops.




The first stop was in Ketchikan where I took a taxi to the Pioneer cafe for breakfast and got a small tour from my 80-year-old drive for free on the way back. He just wanted me to get my picture taken by a totem pole, too bad the shadows didn't help his photography much.



Our second stop was in Wrangel. The whole town was closed and the only people I saw were kids on the shore selling rocks to those of us who got off the ferry. I really liked Wrangel, its was really small and seemed community oriented.



Our third stop was in Petersburg but I didn't have time to get off so I bought myself some clam chouder (a nice change after a stict diet of nutella, bagels, and dried green beans) in the cafeteria on board.



That afternoon a younger native man sat by me in the salarium and asked me if I was interested in different cultures. When I said that I was he started telling me some history of the migration of his people through the very mountains that we were drifting passed. Then he took out his native american flutes and began playing and teaching others how to play. It was so perfect to lay back and listen to the native music float through the hillsides where it was once abundant. It was like an old friend had come back to visit home.



I woke up at 3:30 the next morning to get all my stuff together and prepare for our landing.


My dear friend Greg drove out to the ferry terminal at 4 AM to pick me up and take me home. Once I spotted his all too familiar beamer I realized my journey was complete, I was where I needed to be, at least for a few months.

2 comments:

Kelsey Dawn said...

Ooh Deborah! I miss you!
Your niece is beautiful and I hope you're having an amazing time so far.

tabitha jane said...

have fun! wish i could be in juneau too!!