A new Beginning,

  Well its been a long time since we've visited but it looks like your still coming here,  So lets catch up.  Melissa, Christopher and I have moved to a nice little town in Northern Ontario.  We came here for the opportunity to get Christopher the medical attention he needed and to move back closer to family and friends.  I had accepted a job as a store manager in town with a national chain (Bargain Shop), however the job did not work out as planned ... at all.  
   We arrived and I joined my new store in April of 2012 and the store certainly was a wake up call, after two years of not having a manager the store was in poor shape and the company had made no efforts to clean it up or help in doing so.  The managerial neglect had left the staff without a clue of what should be done or how to do it and poor work habits had become so ingrained that they were insurmountable in many cases.  That combined with the 'helpful' guidance of Home office made the situation a complete nightmare.  First my sleep went away, then my eating, then my sanity.  I have never been so desperate to succeed that it was literally killing me.  I failed and eventually decided the only was I could avoid going completely nuts was to leave the position.
  I've never really had any trouble finding a job in the past and remained optimistic based on my last interactions with the south of a decade previous, if I had known what the last year would bring I might have made some very different decisions.
   Christopher is doing well and has been assessed and is being provided with many of the helping services he needs, so ultimately we made the right decision, however when you struggle to feed yourself everyday it is hard to accept this justification as being true in all accounts.

  When we realized just how bad the local economy was for our future employment, we needed to think outside the box.  We looked to our talents and how we could make work for ourselves.  Melissa fell into her artwork to distract herself from our troubles, and I found inspiration in her talents to move forward.  We decided to create a company that would create artworks based on our travels and the many things we saw and experienced to try and make our own living.  Here are some of the pieces that inspired me to trust in us.

  I'll share more of our tale of woe tomorrow,  Oddly enough writing this down is neither easy or cathartic at this point,
Take Care,
   Curtis

The long way home

   Hello,

   We're home and settled into our new house, but first the photo's of the long trip here.  I had to leave 24 hours early (but  still 3 hours late as the road closed due to storms just as we entered the difficult part).  I left early when I saw the weather report which was apparently a good move as the road closed while we were on it and remained closed for the next 7 days.  When we arrived in Eagle plains, we were met by Ice road Truckers film crew who were filming the closed gate and Duboski was going on how the conditions were deadly.  Then in the middle of the shot I pull up to the closed gate in my Subie and with trailer in tow, get out in my short sleeve's open the gate drive through and then close the gate behind me, somehow I think they reshot that particular scene though.

  I'd like to give a special shout out to Albert, who we met on the road out of town,  I guess he was just parked waiting for us, but it really meant a lot to us to see him waiting there.

  So far so good as we head into the Richardson mountains for the last time, this particular valley has been several times on the blog but never during the heat of winter.  We didn't realize the Dempster was so bad at this point.  Little did we realize we had already passed the last vehicle we would see in the next two days of travel.

   We paused here at James creek, trying to figure out if we should push on,  we talked to the gatekeeper who explained that if you were on the road before they closed it you could continue,  with aprehension we decided if we could just get to Eagle plains everything would be smooth sailing from there on in  (we were wrong).

   Crossing into the Yukon for the last time (I will never again drive the Dempster highway unless they pave the god-forsaken road) ,  this is also traditionally where the road and environment step up and kick your ass.  Still nice weather though, so we reamined optimistic that this was just another storm made up by truckers who wanted to stay at Eagle Plains for a few beers and a snooze.

  Our first sign of trouble shortly after the border as the winds started to pick up into the 100 kph range,  I can always tell when the trailer starts to off track, at this point it was about 2 feet out of line.  Which is a brutal amount for a 12 foot trailer.

    The conditions and wind keep picking up,  real hard to tell where the road ends and the plains begin.   And three seconds later...

  Luckily the wind died for a split second, but both the trucker and my heart's leapt into our mouths for a second,  neither of us knew where the road was or who was on the right side or the left.  BTW I know I lied earlier about the last vehicle we would see but this is the last one I promise.

     Not the most vista filled trip through the mountains we ever had but oddly enough I was afraid to blink.   Oddly enough I'm going to skip the rest of the photo's for the rest of this day as they all resemble this one.

   Whenever you arrive at Eagle it always seems as if the weather is perfect, must be why they chose the location.  Our three hour jaunt to Eagle Plains took seven hours and all thoughts of pushing through to Dawson city were dashed after the stress of this leg.

   And finally the view from our fortress of solitude at the Eagle Plains hotel Yukon Canada.  Day one completed with the most honest belief the worst is behind us,  I was wrong.

  CG

On the road again

   Hello,
    Our northern Adventure ends on March 17 2012,  we're going home :D.

Skagway To Prince Rupert (Sorry for the delay)

Hello everyone,
   After much delay and procrastination Here is the section of our vacation that involved our ferry journey from Skagway Alaska to Prince Rupert BC.   This is a trip I would recommend everyone take, it was absolutely amazing.