Phil Takes On Alaska & Cody Takes On Phil

Unsure of how to preface this entry any other way, I'll begin here:

In August - after several conversations - husband Cody decided to do what no man on the face of the Earth has ever done before in documented history:

He traveled with my Dad to Alaska. 

And while that may not sound like much of a feat - or even blogworthy - let me give you a little background on traveling with Dad and also he and Cody's relationship:

1. I remember a "vacation" once when we never stopped for lunches. Dad packed a gallon of milk and some cherries (with pits) in a cooler and we ate that. 
2. I remember thinking as a little girl that we were rich because our towels had an embroidered "H" on them. "Howman"????.......nope, Holiday Inn. 

Did you know I grew up rich? Read more here. 

3. I remember "vacationing" in Turnip Hole,PA for goodness sake. 

Every trip with my Dad is a lesson. Or a series thereof. 

Dad made our childhood amazing. 

Click here to read fully about our "family vacations"

(Doing so will make you feel better about yours.)

4. Cody and Dad have been alone together very seldom since since we met. Generally, their conversations include Luke and cattle, both in words and presence. My initial thought when Cody told me he was going to invite Dad to the Last Frontier: 

"What on earth could Cody and Dad talk about 

for 6 days in the land of reindeer and rouge??"

Good news: 

They both survived. 

Cody and I are still married. 

I'm still in Dad's will (premature assumption).

Through the duration of this entry, understand this:

• I will refer to Phil (Dad) and Cody as "Phody". 
• I will also document this as told by Cody. 
• I will use real screen shots. 

August 12:
Phody flies from Indianapolis to Anchorage, then rents this deal:

August 13:
Cody spent the day facilitating a showmanship clinic in Palmer with Alaska's youth. Phil disappeared with a guy named Rayne (pronounced "rain") to see the sites around the city. 

Mid-afternoon Phody headed to the Kenai Peninsula, where Cody would eventually judge the stock (beef, sheep, goats, hogs, yak and reindeer). At some point, Rayne told Phil to stop at the Portage Glacier. As true adventurists, they decided to do so along their trek and came upon the path to Whittier: a one-way tunnel shared with a  freight train. 

As Phody pulled up to pay their toll, the toll gate guy took their money.
Dad: What's on the other side?
Toll gate guy: Nothing. 
Dad: Then what the hell are we paying for?
Toll gate guy : I have no idea.........

Turns out, at the end of the tunnel they found a blue-collar-fish-town which may be Phody's personal version of Alaskan Heaven. Phil made friends with locals and Cody made sure they could continue their trek...which eventually turned into a bar crawl southbound on the Kenai Peninsula. 

They saw an Eagle snatch salmon, and Phil got a better look:

Phody arrives at the Captian's Retreat for the duration of their stay. (<- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

August 14:
Phody headed south to Homer for the day where Cody put on fitting clinic. Halfway through the clinic Cody realized Phil had disappeared. He found him off the fairgrounds at American Legion Post 18, making friends and telling stories of raising cattle in beautiful Indiana to the local men and women. Phody spent the evening at the Inlet Bar, continuing that story-telling. Can you imagine the number and extent of fishing stories?

August 15:
 It was on this day that Cody called me asking if I'd heard from Dad. 

Jean: What? No. You're with him in Alaska. I'm at home. Why are you asking me that?

Cody: Well....because I  judged the stock all day and Phil was with me, but now it's over and I can't find him anywhere.

Jean: ...........hesitation. Do they have that big beer garden like they have the last two years? Right by the turnip display. To the left of the reindeer meat sausage deal. Did you check there?

Cody: ................I'm walking there now.............Oh boy...

Jean: What?? I asked, maybe now a bit worried that Dad went on a self-guided tour of the Last Frontier

Cody: Found him.... in the beer garden.......with, actually, the most attractive women I have ever seen in Alaska, sitting around him......
Yeah, Phil! I'll take one - Thanks!

In the same breath that Cody had found Dad, he was ordering a beer with him - and the prettiest women of the Last Frontier. 
It was it that moment that I knew all was right with the world; and that I'd sleep better if I hung up now.

That evening Phody dined at Patty's Fish House (A FAVORITE) then bought beer. They enjoyed the local brews as the waves rolled in during the Alaskan sunset. Phil, 63, got his feet wet and cold. 

August 16:
Phody drove to Seward for a much-anticipated whale-watching boat trip. 

But the waters didn't cooperate and the pair was forced back to beautiful Anchorage early to shop for their wives.  

Legend tells that it took Phil 45 minutes to find something for his wife of 36 years.

Turns out, he may have found several things in that time:

After shopping, Phody enjoyed world-famous Moose's Tooth Pizza. As it turns out, there were leftovers. And - as you may have caught onto - Phil doesn't take leftovers lightly (one of twelve kids). He had the leftover awesomeness packed in a cardboard box, the night before Phody arose at 3:30 AM to fly back Indianapolis. 

(OOC = Out Of Control)

There is more...

Dad just really liked the pizza in Alaska. 

Cody says that he showed Phil the stuffed moose that he bought niece Bayler, and Phil may have felt a bit guilty that he didn't pick up anything for baby Oscar back home. So, as a last-minute souvenir, Phil packed a Delta blanket in his pizza box for his grandson. 

In August - after several conversations - husband Cody decided to do what no man on the face of the Earth has ever done before in documented history:

He traveled with my Dad to Alaska.

It was an adventure.
...One that is over. 
I'm grateful that, at 63, Dad was able to check one major thing off his bucket list. 

They've been home for a month and Cody still stays up late, telling me stories like he has just returned from summer camp. 

Also, he has yet to ask why we're still eating two-week-old leftovers. After six days "vacationing" with Dad, I think cody now 

gets it. 

Holding On To Letting Go

Have you ever been to the point in your life when you say firmly and aloud, "It's time for me to let go."

I have.

But unfortunately that tiny, yet persuasive, voice inside me decides to run her mouth and the next thing I know I'm still holding on to letting go. 

And the letting go never happens. 

I once heard of a gal who others called a "minimalist" - I had to look up that term. Turns out they do exist. 

I'm not one of them. 

Anyhow, she kept only one of everything in her kitchen. 

One spatula. 

One dishrag. 

One skillet. 

One pie plate. 

One mixing bowl. 

I had to look her up on Facebook. 

She appeared happy and real. 

But Manti Teʻo's girlfriend apeared happy and real on the internet once too, so...

Her motto seemed to be, "Use what I have, find what I need"

Rather than "Overwhelm with excess and hope to survive"

A real photo from my kitchen. 

Monday it finally happened.

Cody and I had our first Come To Jesus meeting in our kitchen, and it was regarding plastic cups. 

I believe that the 41 plastic cups that we have left over from our reception are plenty to keep around. 

He, on the other hand, has collected a plastic cup from every livestock sale or show, trip to Eskimo Joe's, Alaskan fishing adventure, Michigan Sate, Detroit Pistons/Lions, Oklahoma State, or Lansing Lug Nuts game. And he passionately wants to keep them. All of them. 

This is only the stack he washed and put in the cupboard Monday night. 

I will admit, 

using all and any grace that I have left over from my mid-cold-kitchen-floor-rant,

I have learned so much from these darn plastic cups. 

We discussed the cups. 

The meaning behind each. 

The function behind few (there were just a lot of cracks). 

The memories tied to each. 

The tossing, possibly. 

And moving forward. 

We stood in the kitchen two nights ago and had a conversation that reached far beyond plastic cups with more stories dripping from the sides of them that I care to hear.
We even talked about several of my things that have stuck around - come hell or high snow - from one house to the next. 
I was far more guilty than he. 

The truth is, we each have a tendency to hold on to things that hold us back. 

Or snag our progress.

Or regress our time. 

Or move us flat backwards. 

Sometimes we hold on to things because they bring back a certain memory in our own timeline and we feel like clinching that physical thing ensures we'll never forget. 
Sometimes we hold on to things because we're not ready to let go. 
Sometimes we hold on to things because we shoved them under the bed five years prior and have no recollect of doing so. 

Sometimes - and all too often - the things we hold on to have greater significance - and take up greater space - than plastic cups. 

Moving forward I'll be evaluating things around me and the significance they hold. 

Not just the "stuff" that fills my kitchen

but also the "stuff" that fills my time

and also the "things" that occupy my mind. 

Consider those things in your life taking up "extra space" - there is a lot you can toss, huh?

And just so we're clear, I wasn't even mad when I decided to toss my Farm Credit insulated mug with a broken lid. I think eventually I'll earn another one?

It's amazing what a person can see by the light of a burning bridge.

Twelve Mares and a Gelding

Welp, safe to say the honeymoon is over. 

One day not long ago, Cody and I gathered crowbars and dust masks after church and headed to the great unknown. 
Nope. 
Not Alaska, again. 
Our new (old) house. 

We knew what we bought. 
We knew what we wanted for our home. 
We (kind of?) knew how to get there. 
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. 

I guess...I may have had an inkling?
Growing up, Dad called this "building character" - we called it tearing down the very house we lived in with tools we could barely lift. 
It's where we learned how to play 52-pick-up. 
And also extract nails from one another's shoes without telling Momma. 

Fast forward 25 years and I realized that love makes one do funny things, like repeat history. 

Once we ripped through the dreaded plaster and lath (several days later), we found the old frame of the the home that we've already grown to love. Round pegs and all. 

It's all fun and games until you have to restore these puppies. 

Three walls down in this old homestead, 

we found more horse hair than a barn housing twelve mares and a gelding. 

Like, more than the Quarter Horse Congress. 

Just, a lot of horse hair. 

Trapped in the Dirt Devil filter.

I'm no stranger to the horsehair 
I'm a friend of sheet rock
Friend, is it any wonder plaster chokes me
I've fought the Dirt Devil
Got down on it's level
But I never gave in, so it blew up on me
I'm no stranger to the horsehair

Nearly a week after re-writing Whitley's classic during deconstruction time, the work got a bit less meticulous and the urge to put a FOR SALE sign in the yard drifted into the wind. Along with approximately 200 lbs. of ancient insulation. 

Friends and family alike were kind enough to comment about how much they enjoyed seeing the interior of our home throw up on our front yard. What can we say? We've never been great at landscaping and the guts had to go somewhere. 

As I type this, the ancient rafters have been coupled with new to stand the test of time for the next 100 years. 
Same with the electric, insulation and windows.

Using heavy duty tools to demolish the very thing you've spent your combined life savings on has been a great teacher in early marriage. 

I've learned you can't can't kiss in dust masks and strangely, while wearing those masks, you have absolutely no desire to. 

I've learned a whole new vocabulary from Cody. 

And he's learned of a side of me I'm fairly certain he prayed he'd never encounter. 

Can't always get what you want, cowboy. 

You think I wanted to purchase an old fixer-upper and invest every last dime and second of free time into it?

You're right - It's Genetic

Until next time, a preview of our progress:

Why I Don't Do Drugs

Monday morning at 6:10 Cody and I loaded into my Escapé (that's French for Escape) and headed to the hospital where I was having a procedure done.
Nothing to worry about. 
Seriously. 
I'm healthy as an ox but have a throat like a chicken. It's genetic. 

By 6:50 AM they had me on a gurney and were giving me oxygen. Then, they told me they were giving me something that may make me sleepy. 

Understatement of the year. 

The following is just a brief glimpse of the hours that followed, as told by Cody Sankey, my patient, kind fiancé. I've cut his stories down to about half, for the sake of my reputation. Of all that is to follow, there is only one moment that I remember: the elves. 

When they wheeled me back to my room the first thing I announced to the floor was that I wanted an elephant ear. No, I needed an elephant ear. Fried, sugary, fair food goodness: not too far off from reality. Cody lied to me and told me we would get one when we left. I believed him. Thirty seconds later I forgot my own request. 

"You know what I gotta do when I get home?" I asked Cody, serious Lindsay snapping right to it. 
"What Linds?"
"I gotta cut Dixie's tail off. Right off!" I announced, finger scissors cutting across the air. 
"Linds, I don't think you need to cut Dixie's tail off. She's too old for that now."
"Well, Cody," I talked to him as though I was a real veterinarian, putting my hands in front of me to convince. "That's an awfully big decision for such a little dog to make, so I'm making it for her." 

Dixie, I'm sorry. But, I really do get annoyed when your tail knocks over my wine on the coffee table. 

Then, according to Cody, the tears came. And note, there are few things I dislike more than dramatic girls.
Big, loud, sobbing tears - out of no where. 
"Elves! There are elves in my watch!" I screamed. And I sincerely remember this part; I remember looking down at my wrist where my 10th birthday present once rested - a Mickey Mouse watch with a red leather band. But in the face, where Mickey once was, were 1,000 tiny little elves and they were screaming to get out! 

They scared me...and I scared everyone one around.
Cody jumped up to console me and the nurses rushed to my side; I begged them to get the elves out of my watch. They grabbed both wrists and proved to me that I didn't even have on a watch. But I could see it - and the elves! - plain as day. 

Some time passed and a drive home from town took place as well as a McDonald's run. Those are details for neither here or there...
Wedding is still on even after another meltdown because McDonald's didn't have pineapple mango smoothies. Thank goodness that Cody has the patience of his father. 

Thirty minutes later and Cody was cleaning the McSmoothie off of my chin and escorting me out of the Escapé and into my house. Two eager, happy pups met us at the door. Rather than greeting them as cheerfully as they greeted me, like a hawk I reached down and try to yank poor Dixie's  tail right out of her body. 
I don't know why; I'm just glad she's even my friend today.
That's the beauty of a pup like Dixie; no matter the day, she is always going to love me more than I love myself. 

And if it's the hours when her owner is all hopped up on "Truth Serum" - as the doctor labeled it, due to it's ability to make all patients speak only the truth - those are some miserable hours for a little black mutt. 

Cody got me back to my bedroom and took off my shoes. For another forty-five minutes he consoled me and answered questions he didn't know the answers to. He watched me to make sure I didn't choke on my tongue or a coat hanger. 

Birdie and Dixie came back to visit. 

"We gotta get Birdie's tail off, too!" I announced. 
"No, Linds, Bird's tail came off when she was just a baby. All she as left is a nub."
Apparently I got more serious than anyone should ever get when discussing this. I cut Cody a look, "Well you get me a pair of channel locks and I bet I can get that nub off! Just get me the channel locks!" I demanded.

+ 1 for creative use of tools 
- 100 for even thinking in a drugged state that poor old Bird's tail needed removed, too. 

In the best interest of all parties involved, Cody escorted both pups to the front of the house and turned on ESPN so they could chase baseballs across the screen. Not always the best fun, but far better than a home tail removal demonstration. 

Cody came back to my room to find me on my phone.  I had called brother Luke (or he called me? Details quite fuzzy) and invited him down for Dixie's tail cutting, as though I was inviting him to a pitch-in or something. Immediately my phone was confiscated and not released again until around 8:00 PM Monday night. 

Over the span of time I removed classic livestock prints off of my walls because I "hated the Grand Canyon" (never been there, would love to go) and even let Cody know I'd meet him in Alaska for our honeymoon because I was going to ride a donkey up there. 

Even the Truth Serum can't cover up the fact that I love the scenic route to anywhere. 

"Donkey rides aren't so bad," I told Cody. "Mary and Joseph rode a donkey places."
"Yeah Linds, they did," Cody responded, exhausted after dealing with a 3-year-old since 7:00 AM. 
"But now people haul donkeys in trailers. Wait. Maybe they hauled baby Jesus in a stock trailer, Cody?"
"I don't know, Linds, I think you should probably call it quits for a while, all this thinking," he tried to convince/beg me. 
I paid no mind. 
"It would be like showing up to a stock show with baby Jesus in your trailer!!" I screamed, elated at the thought! I sat right up in bed. 
"Do you know Jesus?" I asked Cody, dead serious.
"Yeah, I know Jesus," he replied.
"He's a pretty goooooooooood guy," a drew it out as I laid back down in bed. 

Cody took my glasses off of me and pulled the sheet up. He realized little Dixie had snuck back into the room and had crawled under my bed; the thumping of her tail gave her away. So Cody got down on his hands and knees and begged Dixie to come out; he did not trust her sleeping alone with me in the same room - even in broad daylight. 

Dixie reveled herself then pranced down the hallway. The noise awoke the sleeping, high-as-a-kite bear. 

"What are you doing in here?!" I yelled at Cody. 
"Just making sure you're OK, Linds" he calmly replied. 
"Well," I said, full of ungratefulness and very as-a-matter-of-factly, "I think you're creepy watching me like this!"
Cody was so, so patient. "I just want to make sure you're OK, Linds, just go to sleep."
Since the age of two, telling me to sleep rarely works; I popped up out of bed:
"Whatdya think I'm gonna do, blow this place up?!!?" I threw my arms to the heavens. 

WHAM!!

Cody recalls that my head hit the pillow like a ton of bricks. Eyes shut. Mouth open. Snoring within seconds. 

He checked on me every thirty minutes but said I didn't move for three hours. 
Almost an entire day of my life completely unaccounted for in my memory due to a few CCs of Truth Serum. 

It made me realize why in 28 years I've never touched a drug, or was never invited to the parties where that kind of stuff took place. Maybe everyone knew I'd be the idiot talking about elves in my watch and hauling baby Jesus around in a stock trailer. 

Long story longer, it's like a really good thing for me that Cody is locked into this "forever" deal. At least he knows what he's getting into? It was like a small marriage counseling session wrapped up......into 12 hours.

Lesson for the day: 

Let this be a reminder. 

Alaska III: Eagles and Ice

Per Cody's request, on day 5 of our Alaskan Adventure we took a boat tour to find and observe wildlife. 

Find and observe wildlife?? 

I just did that. 

Last fall. 

I found chipmunks in my attic. 

I observed the damage those crazy little squirrel-cousins can do. 

I never want to "find and observe" again.  

Originally, Cody wanted to go on the 9-hour tour. 

A NINE HOUR TOUR?!

I politely reminded him that even Gilligan barely survived a 3-hour tour. I just didn't think I had it in me.

So we compromised (I'm slowly learning this concept) and opted for the 6-hour boat tour. 

A SIX HOUR TOUR 

I spent the first ten minutes of the 6-hour tour half pouting/half wondering if I'd look anything like Mary Ann Summers from Gilligan's Island when this deal was all done and over with. 

Life Lesson:

If you aren't there at the beginning of the 6-hour tour, you sure as heck won't be there at the end of it. 

I survived. 

And truly enjoyed it.

Below are a few of the shots from that Saturday in Alaska. 

Seward, Alaska

Everything is larger than life in Alaska. 

Mountains so high the clouds don't allow you to see the peak. 

The original great divide?

These sea lions got spooked by the boat and launched themselves into the water!

When he wasn't outside leaning over the edge of the boat searching for whales, you could find Cody creeping on the captain, secretly hoping he would notice and invite CS to join him in the navigation. You would not believe the number of 9-year-olds Cody dominated for this poll position...

ORCA!

What an awesome little hide-away this would be.

One of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. 

This glacier is one mile wide. 

Ice, meet Rock. 

Rock, meet Ice. 

Together, you will change the world. 

Look at the contrast between the top of the rigid glacier and the green, snow-capped mountain behind it.

We were able to see the glacier "calve" - 

where ice chunks break off and fall into the ocean. The sound of the ice breaking, then hitting the freezing water sounded just like the loudest thunder ever to roll through Greens Fork, Indiana- it was incredible! 

Never again will I sit on my front porch swing and listen to the thunder 

and not think of this incredible trip to Alaska. 

Alaska Adventurists