The Great Escape

We finally made it home! Of course, it was not without one more bit of unexpected excitement. And yes, it’s already been pointed out to us several times that we seem to have the most amazing travel luck. We won’t take it personally if nobody ever wants to travel with us. But, if you want some excitement and lessons in flexibility, you know whom to vacation with.

So back to the Excitement Part 2.

In the wee hours just before the wee hour that we were supposed to board a shuttle to go to the airport to return home, Rob got sick. This despite our constant hand-washing and Purelling and general germaphobic paranoia. Having walked The Walk once already, we decided it was best to stay put despite our longing to return to Woodhaven. So, one more day in Fairbanks it was. On the bright side, Rob’s bout was faster and less complicated than mine was. AND we now can say we were in Fairbanks, Alaska on the Summer Solstice. Always searching for a silver lining.

I wanted to give Rob as much quiet and darkness as I could, so I spent a fair amount of time wandering around our hotel’s lobby, no longer caring how I looked. Good thing since my contacts and make-up were packed and I was left with a t-shirt, shorts, and uncoordinating socks.

During my aimless wanders, I overheard lots of conversations. It became increasingly clear that our hotel was experiencing something of a Norwalk outbreak. There were suspicions of a restaurant in Denali that seemed to be a common link. There were stories of people canceling huge portions of their trips. The tour company’s local manager was noticeably frazzled with all the reservation juggling that was going on. There was some hand-wringing by tour directors that the Walk had hit land. It’s much easier to contain on a ship.

I ran into Shelly, the tour director for a group that was traveling tandem with us. She had seen me while I was Walking and had made the official diagnosis. We chatted a bit about the wave that seemed to be hitting the hotel. Then she revealed that Josiah, our tour director, had gotten sick the night before. Just hours after he hugged and shook hands with just about everyone on our tour. I don’t want to think how many people returned home with an unexpected souvenir.

As the hours dragged on, I became paranoid of everything in the hotel. Rob eventually got hungry – and I was starving – but I refused to eat at the hotel’s buffet. Instead, I got some food to go and we barricaded ourselves in our room.

It truly felt like an escape yesterday morning as we snuck into a small van in the bright 4:30am sunlight and sped away from the Petri dish our hotel had become. We dragged ourselves home and got a fair amount of sleep last night despite a very happy, purring, heavy cat who insisted on being veryclose all night. Then at about 10:00 this morning, the phone rang. The wife of the couple we traveled with called to report that she was feeling much better…now. Hours after they got home, she took a Walk, too.

But you know the most amazing thing? Despite this tale, we all agreed it was an absolutely spectacular trip. Crazy, huh? More on that later.

Back to laundry.