Oh no! This isn’t another this-is-our-dream-vacation-that-we’ve-been-waiting-years-and-years-to-begin story, is it??? Yep. I’m afraid so. And although it sounds sappy and trite, I’m afraid that I have to write it anyway.

You see, the truth is that we are actually just like all those other people. Although we’ve tried to fool you (and ourselves?) into thinking that we are somehow different, that we like to forge our own path, to stand out from the crowd, to be unique, individual and original, the reality is that we are really just a couple of bubbly kids who can hardly contain our enthusiasm as we begin this exciting adventure.

As many of you know, we’ve had our eyes on Alaska for at least 15 years and we actually proposed taking our children there about 10 years ago. Despite all that anticipation and planning, the evolution of this trip proves we do not own our destiny. Nope. All we can claim is that we are just plain lucky and very blessed.

About a year ago, Susi began to sketch out some trip details. We estimated the cost to fly northwest, rent an RV in someplace like Seattle or Vancouver, drive through British Columbia and Alaska, drop the RV in Anchorage, cruise the Alaska Marine Highway, and fly back home. Whew! Were we ever happy we’d been building our savings! The best we could hope to afford would be about four to six weeks in the RV and 10 days on the ship.

Of course, Alaska would not have been our focus were it not for a Habitat for Humanity re-organization that caused postponement our next Global Village trip. (Yes, we have already tentatively applied to lead trips to Africa and South America in 2010, but that’s for another blog.) With no overseas travel in 2009, we decided to spend the winter working with Habitat in the USA — which opened up the summer for a trip north. We have always wanted to help out the people who were displaced by Katrina, and of the seven HFH affiliates doing recovery work along the Gulf Coast, we were most impressed with the potential fit in Bay St Louis, Mississippi.

Would you be surprised to learn that there are no suitable places for volunteers to live for several months in Bay St. Louis? You shouldn’t be, since the hurricane wiped out over 90% of the city’s buildings. Our options were either an expensive casino or bunks in a dorm. “You mean that we would be spending 10 weeks apart?” we asked. “Yes,” they replied, “We have separate dorms for men and women. If you want something different, you’ll just have to bring your own housing,” they chuckled.

The ugly cloud of $3.50 a gallon gas that hung over the summer of 2008 actually had a silver lining for us. With the economy slowing and RV sales down motor home dealers were cutting prices to make room for 2009 models, so we found a great deal on a brand new 2008 Sunseeker.

Just look at how our lucky stars aligned. We own an RV, so the marginal price per additional week of vacation is “almost nothing”. Gas is now about $2.00 a gallon, so fuel costs have been cut by nearly half. President Obama is telling everyone to spend money to help the economic recovery, so we feel we just have to do our part. With all these factors lined up on our side, we extended our trip from 2 to 5 months. No wonder we are jumping around like a couple of excited kids!

We have so many people to thank. Our family and friends have all been so encouraging and supportive, and many of you have helped us with logistics, planning, watching the house, great ideas and so much more. We owe a debt of gratitude to all of you, and that’s the reason that this trite YATIODVTWBWYAYTBP (yet another this is our dream vacation that we’ve been waiting years and years to begin post) had to be written: so that we can express our heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us make our dream possible.

So, as we head off on our adventure, we thank the Lord for this idyllic life we’ve been given and we wish each of you the very best in all that you do this summer. Bon voyage to us and bonne chance to all of you!