APPLES CHASE THE MORNING

Long Ride To Tennessee
West to East Makes For Long Night

Almosthome
Nashville,TN

"The 7 1/2 hour overnight flight comes with the territory" said Apple Patty Pender as she sat in a zombie like state at the Atlanta airport this morning following her long flight from Anchorage, Alaska in route back to Tennessee.

The flight was the beginning to the end of what turned out to be an amazing trip to Alaska as part of the Apples 2008 Summer Tour. The Apples boarded their flight at 8:00 p.m. local Alaska time ( 11:00 p.m. Nashville time )for the long flight east as they first headed towards the night skies of the western United States before finally chasing the rising sun over Atlanta and the eastern United States.

"That really sucked" said AGFHOF Don Bernitt as he waited in Atlanta for the Apples connector flight back to their familiar confines in Nashville. "But, it's pretty much been par for the course this last week" continued Bernitt as he tried to describe the feelings of constant daylight, lack of sleep and time zone jumping that were experienced during the 10 day Apple tour of Alaska.

The Apples trip can be best described as awesome. Along with visits to Eskimo villages over the Arctic Circle and hikes through the Grizzly Bear infested territory of Denali National Park, the Apples also had the very special pleasure to visit multiple glaciers while at Kenaji Fjords National Park as well as take a simply spectacular 4 plus hour train ride through the splendor of the Alaskan Mountain Range. In addition to the train trip, the Apples took several flightseeing trips including a flight that took them within a few hundred feet of the 20,000 ft summit of Mt. McKinley. "That was an amazing sight" said Bernitt when asked to describe the ride to the summit of North America's tallest mountain peak. Along with the flight to Denali, another highlight of the trip was without question a very rare visit to the Upper Falls of the Brooks River in the Aleutian Islands. It was at Brooks Camp that the Apples sat in awe as they watched Grizzly Bears sitting in the river as they waited on the King Salmon to swim up stream and jump into the falls in an effort to return to their breeding grounds. With 1.5 million salmon making the run each year, there were plenty of fish for the 15 Grizzlies that were in and along the shores of the river. "No words to describe this" said Pender as she watched the bears in the dance of life and death that they share each year with the salmon.

When asked for additional details on the Apples trip, an exhausted Pender said, "let me get home and decompress and then I'll get back to you on it. Bernitt added, "I heard it put this way and it sums everything up for me; the United States isn't 500 hundred or a thousand years old. We don't have pyramids or castles to look at in our country but without doubt we do have amazing natural beauty. From the Colorado Rockies to the Grand Canyon, from Yellowstone and Alaska. It's all around us, I encourage all to go, do and see whenever and wherever possible.

With that the call was made and the Apples headed to gate B-17 and the last leg of their trip, a quick 1 hour flight from Atlanta to Nashville. If nothing else, you can be sure that after a period to adjust back to their normal day to day in Tennessee, that we will soon likely hear again that now famous cheer.....

How bout them Apples!

The Apples would like to extend a special thanks to Christi Copous, Anne Moses and the Todd family for their kind efforts of taking care of team dog Bella and team cats O & Q during their trip to Alaska

Photos Below