Thankful Thursday... What a day!

A momentous day. A day of accomplishments and gratitude.

First, we drove 50-some miles through horrible road conditions including bucking-bronco-bumps and roller-coaster-dips and cavernous potholes - as well as sitting for large chunks of time waiting for the pilot car to come and lead us through the muddy yucky construction zones. I'm thankful that nothing in (or on) our rig seems to have been damaged through the turbulence.

Then we made it to the American border and were welcomed by a very cheerful and friendly border official. Once we had cleared customs, we were immediately thankful for the improved road conditions. Smooth pavement. Bona fide guard rails. How comforting.

Next we made it to the official end point of the Alaska Highway, Delta Junction. What an accomplishment. Mostly I am just thankful to have survived that. So much of it is breathtakingly beautiful, but so much is also just plain breathtaking scary and downright dangerous. I really wish I never had to go on that highway again. *Sigh.* I guess we'll have to see about that.

Last but not least, this day is momentous because it marks 43 years of marriage. I'm thankful for my amazing man and for the adventure of these years together. By the way, it doesn't always have to be fun to be an adventure so I am all the more grateful that so many of these have been wonderful and fun.

One evening during college Bob told me he thought he could be happy with me in Alaska. To my ears that seemed like a significant moment in our relationship - because it seemed to imply that we could be happy anywhere. Well, here we are. Celebrating 43 years together. In Alaska. And he says he is happy with me in Alaska. I guess he was right those many years ago. And I'm happy about that.

And so very thankful.