ALASKA OR BUST!

We would prefer not the bust part, but definitely the Alaska part.

Alabama was pretty, and so was Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Missouri is just Missouri, I have spent my fair share of time in Missouri so there is nothing special other than the ARCH in St. Louis. Our GPS navagator (TomTom) we named "Tilly" was kind enough to route us through downtown St. Louis at sunset so it was really pretty!

We stopped briefly in Louisville, Kentucky to visit with some dear friends of ours, Will and Rachel Lundy and their beautiful children. Some stops along the way make the trip very memorable and seeing them was definitey at the top of my list!!!

Our goal is to make it to North Dakota to see my brother Jerry and his family. I HAVE to put my arms around my niece Callie! We are also going to back track a bit and head south after ND to go to South Dakota to see a friend of my fathers, Dave. (he has new baby horses that were born recently!) Going back to South Dakota after ND will put us on the road to see Mt. Rushmore. Then we are planning to go NORTH! Straight up and out of Montana into Canada..

It was really nice to get up this morning to 76 degrees instead of 96 by 8:30 am! We can definitely appreciate the cold!

Maureen, thank you so much for the offer, your plants may have to suffer as we are not planning on going through Colorado.... now if you were there it would have given us a reason to go through there, but nope, you aren't so we are on route to ND!

Becky

Alabama!

750 miles later, laughter, fun and games in the car keep us occupied. Boy am I glad I don't live in this traffic all the time. The countryside is so beautiful down here and the farms and homes. The Alabama sunset tonight was fantastic, the heat and humidity are still stupid, but that just keeps us wanting to travel north!

We decided to bunk down just north of Birmingham? (spelling) and get a good nights sleep. Hopefully we will trek though Tennessee and then to Kentucky and visit some dear friends to Shelbe and I, The LUNDYS!

Jimmy called me today and first words out of his mouth: "You are in trouble! I see you going 72 miles an hour!" I laughed and had to explain that the speed limit is 70 and I was passing someone. We also learned that on the GPS tracking site you can push a button on the upper left corner by the direction arrows that is labeled BIRDS EYE VIEW and you can see EXACT locations and buildings and cars! There is no hiding with that thing in the car!

Well off to bed and early to rise to hit the pavement again!

Becky

Goodbye Florida!

Well, Plans change over and over when there is unexpected things that arise... We are on the road from Boca Raton and almost to Orlando while I type this...

We being, Cheryle, Shelbe and myself. We left Jerry in the capable hands of Denny and Lisa. Denny and Jerry will fly out to Alaska on Friday!

We have the motorcycle in the trailer behind us and we are trekking up Florida. I don't know where we are going to stop, I don't know if we are going to. I DO know that we are going to see Mt. Rushmore. I didn't want to go past it a second time and not get a look.

YOU CAN TRACK US!

We took the GPS tracker and put it in the van, so you can see where we are at and where we have been.

I will try to post pictures if we aren't too tired...

HOMEWARD BOUND!!! (we all will be so happy to be out of Florida's heat. Well maybe not the heat but definitely the humidity!

JERRY IS HEALING! He is surprising his Dr. Lisa Kelso with his wonderful healing. 24 hours makes all the world of difference in his wounds. He now has skin growing back on the injury on the back of the knee...

Track us home!

BECKY

Latest...CAUTION.. Not for the faint of heart...

Here are the injuries.. His arm and side are road rashed as well as a piece of his calf on the left leg. The left leg sustained most of the injury, (HE IS LAYING SO THE LEFT LEG IS STICKING OUT, WITH THE RIGHT CROSSED OVER IT SO WE COULD SEE THE BACK OF THE KNEE) the stapled picture is his left calf. The muscle was hanging out and they had to put it back. The laceration on the back side of the knee is REALLY deep. It is called a "dirty wound" because it was dirty for one, and secondly it is sooo deep and so long. There is a piece of skin flat out missing which is what made it a hard "sew". The muscles here were hanging out also.

He is in pain. Lisa got him to take a pain reliever finally. I think the cleaning of the wounds took it out of him and it is a lot of pain to bare..

He is going to be flying out on Friday back to Alaska. That is the ONLY confirmed plan as of now. The rest (Mom, Shelbe and Cheryle)of us are awaiting to hear from insurance company about the bike and from there we will make plans.

I am really sorry that I didn't provide an update before now, but it is a really stressful time for all of us. It is not easy for me to see my father in pain, he is usually really good about hiding it but this was a very tramatic event and he is coping the best he can, as well as the rest of us.

I spent the morning chasing down prescriptions for antibiotics, prescriptions for contacts and etc.. He lost his "diddy" bag (shower kit) in the crash and only has his really old pair of glasses and the contacts that were in his eyes.

The bike is totalled. (Well we will see if insurance totals it or not) But it looked pretty bad to me.

WHAT HAPPENED:

As you may know there was 2 separate wrecks 15 minutes apart on the same stretch of road.

The road was new and sand on it. Not a good combo. The men that wrecked before my dad, one of the men lost his leg. We are really fortunate that Wildman is alive. His injuries are serious, if he doesn't take good care of the back of the knee he could loose the leg. NURSE LISA, is doing a fabulous job taking care of him and cleaning. I have been doing all I can to relieve some of Moms stress while she tends to dad.

We are all doing well and he does like hearing from all of you, but if you could give him some time and space with the calls, or call Cheryle it would help. He isn't quite all there in concentration as he is trying to subdue the pain. Thank you all so much for caring so much and taking the time to check on him. I will try to keep you all updated...

BECKY

Check it out!

Thank you Maureen for the link to this article.. You are awesome!

This is a local paper in Alaska that did a little article..

Thank you Susanna LaRock!

http://www.turnagaintimes.com/current%20issue/2010-06-17/cooper-landing-news.html

Link to Hoka Hey start on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtoBhH0iJKQ

This is an amature filming of the start of the race.. enjoy

UPDATE

The latest:

THE LEG IS NOT BROKEN!!! YAY!!!

I don't know the status of the bike yet, but we are in the process of tracking it down and finding out if it is driveable.

He has road rash, he has a laceration on his leg and is getting windshield out of the cut, and they are stitching it as we speak.

Denny and Lisa our secondary support crew made it there to him and he is doing well and wants to get the status on his bike to find out if he can continue on!!! We are heading south to see him.

The checkpoint is in Daytona Beach so cross your fingers that we will be able to head north once again with the wildman on the bike.

:)

Will post more later when we can and know more!

Becky