Chapter 2

"Mommy, are you awake?" a little voice said that brought me out of my slumber.

"hrmm?" Ashlee said next to me.

"Mommy." the little voice said a little more urgently.

"What?" my lovely wife said sleepily.

"Can i go outside and pet the bear?"

"Your teddy bear is in your bed."

"No! Not 'Webster', the one outside! See."

Well that got me awake, "honey did you say there is a bear outside?" I rolled over and gave her a look to get confirmation of what she was saying.

"Ya daddy. Look, there is a big brown bear outside." Jessica walked over to the window and opened the shade and pointed outside. I got down from my bunk and looked outside to where Jessica was pointing. Sure enough, a brown bear was outside walking around sniffing here and there.

I left the window and pulled the walkey-talkey out of the cabinet. "Tony, Megan, you guys awake over there?"

I waited a good 30 seconds, then call again. "Tony, Megan, guys I need you for a minute."

"What, we're here." Megan finally came back to me sounding very groggy and not yet awake.

"Are you guys still inside?"

"Ya, we're still in bed warm and safe. why?"

"There is a brown bear outside sniffing around..."

"A WHAT?!?!" Tony said interrupting me.

"There is a brown bear sniffing around outside and I wanted to warn you before you opened your door."

"Holy crap." Megan said "What are we going to do about it?"

"That I'm going to leave up to my favorite veteran. Tony? Any thoughts?"

"Hang on."

Ashlee was now up and moving. She moved over near the window and looked outside. "Look at it mommy. Can I go outside and pet it?"

"Paul, we need to scare it away. I've got my shotgun and guess what I brought. Noisemakers."

"Good. Let me get dressed and I'll meet you outside."

"Don't bother. I'm going to do it through the hatch over here. I don't want to go outside."

Ashlee and now all of the kids were looking outside. Ashlee looked at me, "Is he really going to shoot it?" That got the kids interested and all three of them whined at me 'daaaaaaaaaady!'

I started explaining it to my kids. "Don't you kids worry about it. Tony isn't going to shoot it, he is going to shoot some noise makers at it and scare it away."

"Really daddy?" Brynn asked.

"Yes honey." I kissed her and the other two and looked out the window with them.

Bang

POP

Bang

POP

The bear ran off back into the woods quickly moving away from the noise that Tony made.

"Can we go out and see the tracks now dad?" Justin asked.

"Sure. Let's get dressed then we can go out and see what was left behind." The kids rush off to the bathroom then rush around finding clothes and boots and Kaitlyn was right behind them doing the exact same thing. I got back on my bunk and stayed out of the way. Ashlee being the excellent mom she is, managed to get her outside clothes on and move outside with the others.

Once they were out the door, I got myself ready.

Tony and Megan were outside, he with his shotgun and she with her pistol. The kids were looking around at the tracks on the ground and talking excitedly. I moved back behind the truck and found more tracks at the back of our truck. I followed them and saw that they were also at the back of Tony's vehicle. Yup, it looks like that bear was looking for something to eat and luckily didn't find anything at our campsite.

After looking around some more, making sure that everything was still secure, I joined the family. I got next to Tony and whispered to him, "The bear was sniffing around the back of both of our trucks. There are tracks all over the campsite."

He looked at me with his eyebrows up. I nodded my head confirming what he was asking with his eyebrows. His shoulders fell and he turned toward the back of our trucks. I followed behind. "See here, and there and back here." I pointed out the tracks I found and he looked around confirming what I found.

"Good thing we put the food and trash away last night." He said.

"Yes good thing. Should we move on?" I asked him.

"Yes we should. Let's get breakfast eaten then we can move on. I don't want that bear sniffing around here again."

So, that's what we did. We got the kids fed, everyone else got fed and dressed and we pulled up stakes and moved on.

I know what you are thinking, how do you get three kids and three adults traveling safely in a four door truck with a big old camper shell on the back traveling? Well, I made darn sure that we had six seat belts installed in the cab. the kids had their booster seats in the back and we adults sat three across in the front. The seats were custom made to allow all three of us comfort and safety. I put Ashlee behind the wheel, Kaitlyn in the middle and me near the door.

The person in the middle was responsible for navigation since the tablets were in the middle of the dashboard along with the GPS units and the cool little video cameras. I thought it would be cool to record our travels when something interesting happened. So far, the only thing we got were awesome sunsets and beautiful landscapes. All of us forgot to get the camera when the bear showed up. Figures.

The road was gravel. The views were amazing and the next town down the road was several hours away. We got to the next town and piled out. Tony and I pulled up to the pumps and started to top off the gas tanks while the girls and kids went inside and scoped out the store for food.

"Tony, have you seen anywhere to empty our tanks?"

"Nope. Let's check the map."

We went to his truck and pulled the maps out and found the town we were in. Nothing was listed on the map so we would have to ask around to see if something was available. "Dang. Nothing on the map." We turned away from the map and looked around the area. Nothing obvious.

We finished with the gas and went inside. The ladies and kids had gathered up provisions and we happen to meet up at the counter. Everything was paid for and we all worked together to stash it between the two vehicles.

I told you about our Ford F-550, well Tony and Megan are driving a 4x4 Ford van with a camper conversion on top. It was pretty nice if you ask me. Since it was just the two of them, they have all the room that they needed and could haul more stuff while I hauled more people. So far, so good.

"Excuse me, but do you have an outlet where we can dump our tanks from the RV?" I ask the lady behind the counter.

"Sure, I can walk you around back once we are done here."

Tony and I walked with the lady while our ladies drove the trucks and the nasty job of dumping our tanks were done in short order. We also allowed to buy some water from them. Once it was all said and done, both of us were full of water and fuel and empty of our waste water.

Our trip continued for another week until we arrived at the Arctic Circle public park where Alaska has set up a public visitor center and a big sign announcing the sight of the arctic circle. We all got out and had our pictures taken. I was thrilled. I got another thing to check off my bucket list. How sweet is that?

After leaving the visitor center, it was another long day of driving and then we arrived at Deadhorse, Alaska. North of Deadhorse, the Arctic Ocean and ultimately the North Pole. We were as far north as we were going to go during the summer. During the winter, this would all be snow and ice covered, but now, all water.