A simple question

It started out simple enough. Sarah had a work related trip to Anchorage in April. When she got back, she called Ken and said "how would you like to go to Alaska this summer?" She knew full well that he really wanted to go gold prospecting there and she had an extra week of vacation thanks to working for an agency that implemented mandatory furlough days this year!

After several "are you serious" queries from Ken, the planning began. As word spread though, more people wanted to go and had enough time off from their various jobs to make it work.What was originally a one-week trip for Ken is now going to last nearly a month, with various people swapping in and out to accompany him on the journey. Sarah cleaned out her frequent flyer account on Alaska Airlines (they rock!) to get everybody up there.  The itinerary now looks like this:

• Saturday, August 7: Ken flies from Portland to Seattle, where he meets up with Sarah at the airport and they continue on to Anchorage. Jana will pick them up from the airport and deliver them, and their stuff, to the designated base camp on the Kenai Peninsula. 
• Saturday, August 14:  Jeff boards a plane in Pasco, makes a connection in Seattle, then goes on to Anchorage. He will be met there by Ken and Sarah and Sarah will board a plane for Seattle.
• Saturday, August 21: Patte boards a plane in Missoula and heads for Seattle, where she spends the night with Sarah. 
• Sunday, August 22: Patte flies from Seattle to Anchorage, where she is met by Ken and Jeff. Jeff hangs out in the airport for several hours before boarding a flight to Seattle and then on to Pasco. He's slated to arrive home at 11:15 PM and yes, he has to work the next day. 
• Friday, September 3 (or sometime thereabouts): Ken and Patte roll into Seattle to offload stuff at Sarah's, and load up other stuff that is continuing on to Oregon. 

Ken quickly found us a place to stay. His buddy Cliff lives in Kasilof, down on the Kenai Peninsula, only about an hour from Cooper Landing, where most of the prospecting is supposed to take place. Turns out Cliff's not going to be there when we are, but he was happy to let us stay in his house. Not only that, he was happy to let us drive his truck, which he then needed brought back down to the mainland. So, lodging and transportation were covered.

So  now, here we are, 6 days out from the Doran Family Alaska Expedition. It's sure to be entertaining, as are all Doran Family events. Most just don't involve planes! Ken's already shipped 3 boxes of stuff to the post office near where we'll be staying. He somehow convinced Cliff's daughter to pick it up for us and deposit it at Cliff's house. Hopefully she doesn't end up with a hernia! Ken has 3 more boxes at home to take with him on the plane, and sent another for Sarah to take with her, along with her own stuff. Free wi-fi locations have been identified in Soldatna and Ken is taking his laptop, so updates should be somewhat regular.

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment!