THE JACKPACK

Albert here.  We pulled into Fairbanks recently, and our crate stinks of wet cheetohs and fried electronics.  Camille was supposed to update us on the family's whereabouts, and you see how that worked out.  We got nuthin!  She was a lousy operative and typical of Grace's doll clan -- completely unreliable.  Ludendorff has lost his mind and has been in his corner of the crate singing one line from Johnny Horton's "North to Alaska" for days on end.  "North to Alaska, we go north, the rush is on!  NORTH to AK, we GO NORTH, the rush is on!"  Locke tries to begin the actual song, "Big Sam left Seattle...."  But, Ludendorff just continues in a loop.  UNFORTUNATELY, we haven't found his plug, any duct tape, or Benadryl.   FORTUNATELY, however, we did find a copy of the Moose Chronicles .  As our semi-truck cruised out of Anchorage and onto the highway to Fairbanks, Locke stuck his paw out of the crate to feel the temperature and comme...

Ludendorff, the hippo here.  Locke and Albert, once again, underestimate my intellect and technological abilities.  While they debate whether they have enough rations in our crate to last five weeks, I have been unboxing the Apple computer that Jack's dad so meticulously packed.  It's a bit cramped in this crate, but I managed.  Grace chose to take her doll Camille with her, and unlike Samantha and Sally who tend to argue with me about everything, Camille actually respects my genius.  Before the great separation, I explained to Camille that I might be able to establish some form of electronic communication between crate and Jack -- a cloud of sorts.  Bingo.  She just sent me an update on their latest adventures.  They've been in Cedar City, Utah -- biking, hiking, eating bbq.