Road Trip: Are We There Yet?

Day 7 on the road began, like most of the others, with the alarm clock going off at 6:00 a.m.  Not only was it dark, it was, yep, you guessed it, raining.  We were so tired of traveling at this point.  Nobody wanted to get out of bed, let alone get up in the rainy dark and get in the car yet again.

BUT, this was supposed to be our last day on the road. Day 7 was slotted to be the day we actually arrived in Alaska!  We were so nearly there, the little town we'd slept in was just a bit over 200 miles from the Alcan border.  This was it!  This was the day we would end our crazy driving marathon journey.

So we got up with only a little grumbling, and hit the road.  Almost immediately, we spotted wildlife, a coyote right in town.  About an hour later, a very large bear ambled across the road in front of us.  Not sure if it was a grizzly or a brown bear but it was very tall. Looks black in the picture, but in real life you could tell it wasn't a black bear, the body shape was different.

That was exciting.  We kept our eyes out, but this was the last bear we would see on our trip.  Further down the road, we did spot something we'd never seen before.

 A very recent wildfire.  In fact, the air smelled like charred wood, and as we drove between Snag Junction and Beaver Creek, the air got smokier.  Then we spotted flames moving lazily along the ground.  This was the Snag Junction wildfire that had begun back in July and was apparently still burning.  Being an unpopulated area, the fire was being allowed to die out naturally (I'm sure the wet weather was helpful).

I confess, it was rather creepy driving along a road where you could see fire on the ground on both sides of you.  This definitely doesn't happen in Michigan!  I also confess I later did some research on wildfires in northern Canada and Alaska, and was amazed at how prevalent they can be. Also amazed that they can continue to burn underground for months.  Learn something new every day.

Just before crossing the border between the Yukon Territory and Alaska, we spotted these, which (with  her binoculars) DD2 identified as tundra swans.

Finally, finally, we had made it to Alaska!!

THE END


Nope, not really.  For, as the guard at the border crossing informed us, handing back our passports and wishing us a good day, we still had 90 miles to go before we would regain cell service (which we would lose, and gain, and lose repeatedly), and 400 miles to go to reach Anchorage.

So. We. Drove. On.

And on.

And on. We were in higher elevation, still climbing, and as we climbed the temperature dropped. It was still raining.  Until, around a curve, it wasn't.

Instead of raining, it was snowing!  That lasted for about 20 miles, until we were heading downhill again.  We learned the next day, that this snow has a special name.  Apparently the first snow of the season in  the higher altitudes is called Termination Dust, because it 'terminates' summer. 

We drove and drove, through the snow, through the rain, getting closer and closer to Anchorage.  There was more wildlife the see (a red fox, a trumpeter swan, a moose calf on the shoulder of the road!) as well as more scenery.

Finally, about the time we were all ready for dinner, we made it to Anchorage!  Hooray!  I'd love to say much rejoicing commenced, but really, we were all tired and just anxious to get out of the car and eat a hot meal.  Speaking of hot meal, if you're ever in Anchorage and have a craving for Mexican food (road trip crazies? I mean, who thinks "I'm in Alaska, let's eat Mexican tonight"?!?), I highly recommend El Dorado.  Their enchiladas mole were excellent, and thanks to their horchata, I have a new favorite drink.

After a really good night's sleep, in which we didn't set the alarm for six a.m. (YAY for sleeping in!), the next day we set out for DD2's new home, which is roughly an hour outside of Anchorage, on the Turnagain Arm. And for once, it wasn't raining, although the sky sure was gray and heavy with clouds.

It just so happened that that day was the annual beluga whale count in the Turnagain Arm, and at every turnout along the highway there were people watching the water for signs of the small whales.  DD2 was eager to get to her new place of employment (and home, since they offered her onsite housing through the winter), so we didn't stop. But we kept an eye in the Arm as we drove, and actually spotted a few beluga ourselves!  That was really an unexpected experience; when you're from Michigan you don't think about spotting whales, let alone from a car!

After DD2 checked in and signed her housing agreement, we finally opened those two doors on the car that had been taboo the entire trip.  Surprisingly, nothing except a sheet came popping out as the door opened.  With DH running things from the car to the stairs, and me running things up the staircase to DD2, and DD2 taking things from the landing to her new bedroom, emptying the car took much less time than packing it had.  Probably only 10% as much time!  Of course, it took DD2 a few days to get all her boxes unpacked and arranged in her new home, but she did that later, after DH and I had returned to Michigan by plane.

We took some pictures of the scenery DD2 now gets to enjoy every day, all day, and then headed out for a brief jaunt down to Whittier, a place we'd wanted to go back in 2017 but hadn't had time to fit into that Alaska trip.

Wouldn't you like to see this from your yard?

Glaciers and wilderness?

Or have a view like this from your kitchen window?

We managed to hit the tunnel to Whittier at the perfect time; no waiting in line.  The very long, very narrow tunnel is one lane, two miles long, through the mountain.  Each direction of travel is slotted a time, either top or bottom of the hour, in which vehicles may pass through the tunnel.  It was kind of eerie driving through the murky darkness with water dripping down onto the car.

entrance to Whittier tunnel

In the tunnel.

Will we ever get to the other side?

We did, after a while, exit the tunnel into the town of Whittier on Prince William Sound.  We watched for more whales, but didn't see any, instead spotting several sea lions playing in the water.  As the clouds burned off a bit, we parked the car and went for a brief hike.

On the way back to our hotel in Anchorage (where DD2 was going to stay with us for one last night, then take us to the airport so DH & I could fly home) we spotted some white shapes up on a cliff near the road.  DH found a place to pull over, and, to DD2's complete enjoyment, we observed about six mountain goats just hanging out doing their wild goat thing.

l

It was a good wrap up to a long trip. We had made it. DD2 was in Alaska, her new state, with all the wildlife a recently graduated Wildlife Ecologist could ever imagine.

Road Trip Pt. 3

Day 5, we awoke to more rain. Rainy mornings had become (and stayed) the theme of our trip.

Not only was it raining, we had a lot of one-lane construction to drive through in the mountains.  The road was muddy.  Soon, the car was muddy.  It seemed like the day was going to be a challenge.  Despite our 'easy' tourist day on Day 4, Day 5 found us all tired of traveling, and really tired of getting up and hitting the road before the sun rose. The heavy gray skies and intermittent fog didn't help.

Our route took us to Grand Prairie, Alberta.  Since we'd pretty much eaten up, the day before, all the snacks and lunch food we'd brought with us from home, Grand Prairie became a restocking point.  DD2 and I hit the grocery store while DH hit the gas station to fill the tank.  You'd think that a grocery store is a grocery store, and basically, it is.  For the most part, we found Canadian grocery stores to be identical to the ones here in Michigan. The name might be different, but the offerings are the same.  A big difference we noticed is that the candy offerings (because we were looking to replace the bag of assorted bite sized candy bars we'd consumed since leaving home) are not nearly as vast as they are in the U.S.  Which is good news for Canadians (apparently they don't eat any where near the amount of candy as Americans) but was kind of frustrating for us chocoholics who were hoping to stock up on our happy pills for getting through the remainder of our journey. Even the trail mix offerings were markedly lacking in sweets. Two out of three of us don't really care for raisins, so that narrowed the choices further.

What we did manage to find though, was something definitely unseen in the US:

We didn't let the fact that we're not Canadian stop us from buying (and eating) these.

The other huge difference in the grocery stores is that they discourage the use of plastic bags, offering paper bags (for a fee) and encouraging shoppers to bring their own reusable bags.  Good for Canada!  This is something I really wish more stores in the US would do. 

Gas tank full, cooler and 'food bag' refilled, we got back on the road, heading for the Alberta/British Columbia line, and soon after that, Dawson Creek where the Alaska Highway begins.  Once we hit the Alaska Highway, we needn't worry about turns until we were actually in Alaska, more than 1700 miles away.

What we found in British Columbia was more prairie, then more mountains, trees changing colors, several steel bridges with metal grating for the deck (which were all preceded by a warning sign for motorcyclists about the bridge surface), more bears(!!) and some elk.

warning sign before bridges with metal grating;

we came to refer to these as "vibrating motorcycle" signs

As we traveled further into British Columbia (which, it seemed to DD2 and I, had an enjoyable 'spicy' scent we never could quite place--probably whatever flora was in season), towns became few and far between.  Gas stops, bathroom breaks, and even lodging had to be thought out hours in advance.  A far cry from the travels we've done in the U.S.  DD2's first choice of a stopping point for the night turned out to be booked full up when we called that morning, and we ended up having to drive nearly an hour further to get to a place with a vacancy.

Boy, was it a nice place, though.  So peaceful, and quiet.  We just might plan a future vacation in order to return there, the Northern Rockies Lodge in Muncho Lake, and spend more than just a night.  The on site restaurant had a varied and delicious breakfast buffet.

Gonna come back here someday

Day 6, on the road again. Drizzly at first, but no real rain.  It didn't take us long to see our first wildlife of the day. Coming around a curve, we saw up ahead what sort of looked like a bear, but sort of didn't.

As we slowed down and got closer, it definitely was not a bear.  It was a bison!  Just out for breakfast on the shoulder of the road.

That sighting turned into more, and more, and more.  If Saskatchewan had shown us lots of antelope, British Columbia was all about the bison!  That day we saw more than 125 of them along the highway.

DH was so excited every time we spotted some

Yes, I think someday DH and I will make a trip back to British Columbia to explore some more.

But, that day, we couldn't stay. Our goal was to cross into the Yukon before dinner time. And we did.

Even so, it was far from time to stop for the night.  We pit stopped in Whitehorse for dinner, then continued on.  The scenery got wilder.  We were definitely getting more remote.  Even the detour for construction was a bit surreal; let's just throw some gravel down through several miles of wilderness and make that a temporary road.

detour

We finally got to our stopping point as the sun was going down.  It was a small town, and the only town within hours.  Our resources said it had a handful of hotels and motels.  We found, however, that only one had vacancies.  DH paid for a room, but things were a bit, well, odd.  Starting with the note affixed to the inside of the door.

The bathroom, which was well stocked with towels, had a similar sign, complete with a list of towels and replacement prices should any of them go missing or become soiled by wiping vehicles.  I mean, it was a clean motel, just kind of old (decor reminiscent of the 70s) and just a little different from any place we'd slept thus far.  What was also odd was that the door to our room only locked from the outside.  That, and the owner didn't seem to have anything good to say about the locals.

We went to bed exhausted, but sort of wondering if we'd wake up alive in the morning!

(How's that for a cliff hanger?  Stay tuned, there's more to come. . . )

Yarn Along: October

It's hard to believe that October is here all ready.  September really sped by, and here it is time for another Yarn Along with Ginny.

I finished both the Sunday Sweater I was making for K3 and the Christmas Eve Socks for myself.  Well, they are off the needles, anyway.  Both need blocking yet, and I haven't sewn any buttons on the sweater.

the color is off in this picture, it is really a much brighter, 'girly' blue

oh how I love these socks!

Currently on the needles is a Little Shores Cardigan for Toad, in a very vibrant green (although not nearly as shiny as the photo makes the yarn look).  If these rainy fall evenings continue, I should be done with this sweater in no time. This is the same pattern I used about year an a half ago to make sweaters for both Toad and K3 (outgrown, now), and I remember it being a straight forward quick to knit pattern.

In the above photo, you can see the book I am going to read next.  Just picked it up from the library today, in fact.  It's Beverly Lewis's latest novel, and I've been waiting a few months for it to come in.

Since last month's edition of the Yarn Along, I read On Thin Icing, by Ellie Alexander (another bake shop mystery) and The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand.  I enjoyed both of them.