I’m Keri Riley, a backwoods mom in Ninilchik, Alaska where I shuttle 8 kids around, fighting off moose, mosquitos and middle age. My husband is an ice road trucker…that’s right, just like the show…and gone from our lives six months of the year, so more often than not I’m edgy, tired, and going it alone.
We live in a fishing village an hour from anything. We buy toilet paper and cereal by the case, haven’t had television channels for eight years, and are regularly chased by moose. We live life on the edge of civilization where we teeter between our love of modern convenience and the yearning for something long past, a world where neighbors knew your name and a “Friend Request” was eye contact and a smile.
Our kids come to us from other woman’s wombs, carrying baggage most people don’t want to deal with, and plop themselves into our lives every couple of years. Some are lifers; many have moved on, all of them are ours.There’s a lot of ‘em, so I drive the biggest truck around…there’s no mistaking the Rilymobile.
Here in Ninilchik, Alaska, we live life as it comes, take each day by the horns and ride it till the sun sets, which in the summer time, makes for a long damn day. Our kids are workers, just like their folks, and there’s not a lot of sitting around here.
So come along on this trip…and look at life, through my lens.
