(written on the 27th)
I spent part of the morning doing a little bit of JustAnswer work.
Spent some time cleaning the house.
Chase’s brother ordered Taco Bell breakfast, so I ate while cleaning and what not.
After cleaning and breakfast and getting ourselves out before checkout time, we headed back to Chase’s place.
It was awkward again for me, being a visitor and not really knowing anybody. Well, I guess I’ve come to be at least acquaintance friends with Chase’s family, brother, friends, etc. They’re all cool people, so it’s not too bad, but it still is pretty awkward just because… inside… I’m anxious.
Anyway, I hung around for a while with everyone until we headed over to Chena Hot Springs. It’s about an hour drive east into the gently rolling hills.
We probably only stayed a couple hours. The weather had warmed up significantly since I got to Fairbanks. I think the high today was actually above freezing.
Because of that, the hot springs weren’t quite as enjoyable for many in the company because it was harder to regulate body temperature because it wasn’t cold enough outside.
It’s a bit easier when the temperature is way below freezing so that your hair and eyelashes and whatnot freeze well your body remains plenty warm.
So it was a lot a lot like just being in a hot tub, having to periodically get out to cool off.
And I overheat easily, though I think I didn’t overheat as easily as some of the others in the group. Usually, I seem to be one of the ones who overheats the quickest, but not this time.
Anyway, drove out there with one of Chase’s friends and his mom and came back with those two, as well as Chase’s sister.
Spent most of the trip back talking to one of Chase’s friends about life stuff. It was another opportunity for me to be a support, and I think I was able to be a real blessing.
Good little trip. 😊
After getting back, we all headed out to a local Mexican restaurant, where Chase’s brother and I had a little friendly competition.
They had a supposedly 5 lb burrito (though I highly doubt it actually weighed that much). If you ate the whole thing, they would give you a free fried ice cream dessert.
Against my better judgment, I initiated the friendly competition, and Chase’s brother and I dug in.
Now, Chase’s brother is much much bigger than I am. I think he’s got me I think both by height and strength and size, maybe by as much as 100 lbs?
So the odds of me winning in a race weren’t in my favor, but we didn’t really bet on who could finish first, we just bet to finish.
Good thing we didn’t have a race to see who would finish first, because I think he finished the entire thing and probably 10 or 15 minutes. Each bite of his was probably three or four times the size of each of my bites. 😆
Honestly, I figured I was going to feel awful if I ate the whole thing, probably end up with the farts something fierce, and all that just a few hours before I was supposed to get on a plane.
Not one of my better choices… and I knew it. 😅
But digging I did, and slowly but surely, and amazingly, I managed to finish, our little party chanting lick, lick, lick at the end, because that was part of the stipulation that I imposed on the competition, not just eat everything, but lick the plate.
So Ray kicked my trash in terms of timing, but I did eventually finish, so we both got the free fried ice cream which, amazingly, I ate as well.
😶
The ice cream wasn’t just a small serving either. It was a good-sized serving. 🙃
So much for my weight loss 😆
Anyway, amazingly, I wasn’t super duper stuffed and uncomfortable. I’m not even sure how that’s possible, but I wasn’t. And incredibly, I didn’t have crazy awful Mexican food gas either.
I had this sort of warning feeling to not go through with the challenge, even though I was the one who initiated it, and I ignored the little warning, and oddly, I didn’t pay any immediate consequences.
🤷
🥳
From the restaurant, it was back to the house, where I dried my clothes in the dryer. Gratefully, they already had some clothes in the dryer that were already dry, so my damp clothes dried pretty darn quickly.
I spent probably an hour or so cleaning out and organizing all the crap in my rental car, needing to be back to the airport around 11:30ish.
Cleaning out my car doubled as a way to run away from social anxiety for a bit.
Eventually, it was time to say goodbye to everyone who was still there. So I gave everybody a hug, loaded the last of my stuff in the car, and headed out, giving a ride to one of Chase’s friends to the airport as well, as our flights back to the lower 48 left only 6 minutes apart from each other.
We first stopped off to get gas, and then we stopped off at a hotel near the airport to drop off a pair of headphones that Chase’s sister had accidentally left. I dropped those off at the front desk, we dropped off the rental car, and we headed for the gates.
Chase’s friend hung out with me at my gate for a while before heading off to his gate.
Unfortunately, unlike both flight legs to Alaska, they didn’t ask for volunteers to check their bags for free this time.
😶
So not only did I have everything that I had on the first two legs to Alaska, my very large backpacking pack was probably stuffed 50% more than it was on the first two legs because I bought so many clothes while in Alaska.
So I ended up needing to use a different strategy to get on the plane without having to check a bag (I had both a large 85 l backpackers pack stuffed full, as well as a regular school sized backpack stuffed full.
And I was the last boarding group as well, meaning I was likely to find that the overhead bins were full.
😅
But I got myself in line such that I was the very first of the last group to board, and I swung my regular backpack over my right shoulder while I carried my huge backpackers pack over my left shoulder.
The gate ticket checker didn’t say a word, and I got on the plane without any issues, pack storage safely up top, with my regular backpack stored underneath the seat in front of me.
🥳
Success!!!
I boarded the plane I think somewhere around 1:00? with the plane scheduled to leave I think at 1:36 a.m.
Generally, I can’t sleep very well at all on planes, but gratefully, I started to doze off a bit very shortly after boarding, I think hearing a message before falling asleep about getting the wings de-iced in 10 minutes or so.
(It was snowing as we were heading to the airport)
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 