I'm going to back up a little and give you an idea of what happened before we left.
So after three long, yet very short weeks of packing, painting, repairing, cleaning, more packing and purging, we got the trailer on the afternoon of the 26th. The next day was still more packing and repairing (Thank you to Karl and Matt who came down to help yet again!). Alexander finished up his workday at noon, but had to do a bunch of errands around town, so we didn't actually start packing the trailer until Friday night.
Saturday was a whirlwind of the final boxes being packed, making sure everything was clean, keeping the boys happy and occupied. It's hard to believe, but we downsized from a 3 bedroom, one and a half garage house to what fit into the 5x8 trailer, the back of the pickup, and the back seats of the two vehicles! Did a final walk-through about 5pm, got up to Grandpa and Grandma's house about 8pm. Had to do some rearranging of the vehicles, and Great-Grandma Esther made a cake to celebrate Christopher's 2nd birthday early.
Saturday morning we were up early, made it up to Perkins in N. Mankato a little after 8am, and found quite a party waiting for us! Thanks to everyone who came - sorry if we didn't get a chance to talk with everyone, but we appreciated you coming to see us off!
And again, Congratulations to Jesse and Kristan, who kept their engagement a secret until we were leaving!
We got up to the cities shortly before noon, and were surprised to find Christmas presents waiting for us! Thank you Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Bloedel; the boys absolutely love the Semi-trucks you made for them! They were very sad to give them up to the depths of the pickup for the trip.
Ten or so hours later, we pulled into Bismark, ND and found a hotel for the night. The boys decided it was more fun to jump on the bed than sleep, but eventually agreed it was time to settle down.
Sunday the 28th, we woke up to fog, had muffins on the run for breakfast (Thank you Grandma Esther!) and got on the road. The sun came out and burned off the fog, and we had great weather all the way to Bozeman. The boys had fun looking for all of the cows and horses, and we even spotted a few antelope. Oh yes, and they even saw a lion! (There was a statue of a lion in front of the hotel that they saw earlier that morning!)
Got to Belgrade about 6:30pm, and got Karl and Kathy checked into their hotel, then headed down the road to my sister, Jessica's house. Jessica and her husband, Brett, graciously opened their house to have yet another little get together with Alexander's cousin Joe and his wife Nikki, and friends Paul and Debbi and their little girl. My dad was also able to drive up from Island Park to spend a little time with us too. Thank you Dad, for driving over 4 hours round trip to see us!
A big thanks to Jess for the great supper you made for everyone! Noah and Christopher spied the toys as soon as they got in the door, and didn't even want to eat! But eventually pried them away to get to bed.
Left Belgrade shortly after 7am the next morning. The sun was shining and road conditions were great. Stopped in Conrad, MT for gas, food, and a postcard or two to send to Great-Grandpa Conrad! Made it up to the border a little after that. Was a little nerve-wracking since we didn't really know what to expect. Other than having to go through Immigration, everything went well.
The scenery was very flat, with the Rocky mountains off to the west. Had to adjust to Canadian road signs and speed limits in Kilometers. One of the things we noticed right away was that there were only access roads every 5-8 miles apart. Very much looked to be farm land dealing in grains. Stopped at the welcome center only to find it closed. We got the boys out to let them run for a while and to get a closer look at the T-Rex dinosaur statue.
We got up to Calgary, AB around suppertime - and after calling around, eventually found a hotel that was both reasonable and easy to get to! Relaxed for a while, but we all crashed fairly early.
Tuesday: This was the shortest drive of the trip - 6 hrs to Grande Prairie, AB. So we got in pretty early and went swimming with the boys. Wasn't sure how Christopher would handle it, because he had developed a fear of the bathtub right after the new year. He was a little scared at first, but by the time we were done was laughing and splashing his brother. Of COURSE, Noah just wanted to be in the "hot cool" but he liked the bigger pool better when Daddy had him! :)
Wednesday: Destination - Fort Nelson, BC. We stopped in Dawson Creek. BC and got a picture of the 0 milepost of the Alaska Hwy. Also stopped in at the local cafe for a really good breakfast. We found a bank to exchange some money, since we really didn't know the situation with gas stations the rest of the way (turned out there was a gas station about every hour that was year-round).
We started to get some more hills, and were on the lookout for moose and bison, but didn't see anything. It was a very long drive, but we had a lot of fun just looking out the window.
Thursday:Got up and on the road early. Had about and 11 hour drive to get to Whitehorse. Roads were great, winding through a lot of hills. I think this was the morning we spotted two moose, but they were too fast to get the camera out. As the day progressed, so did the hills! Had lots of "watch for wildlife" signs, including horses! We didn't see any though.
Got into Whitehorse about 8pm. Found an awesome restaurant called Ricky's. They served a combination of classic American BBQ and burgers and Oriental dishes that actually came with cheater chopsticks. Noah had a blast eating his noodles with them!
Found a place to stay for the night, gave the boys a quick bath while Grandpa and Grandma made up sandwiches for the next day, and got to bed at 10pm since we planed to be up at 5:30am. Right at midnight, Christopher woke us up getting sick. We still don't know what caused him to get sick, but finally got him cleaned up and back to bed.
Friday:Our last day on the road! We left while it was still dark, so we we extra alert for moose and caribou. It was pretty much all mountain driving, lots of steep grades and winding roads. Got to Haines Junction fairly early, and finally turned North again! From there to the Alaskan border was nothing but permafrost heaves! The adults got tired of it pretty quickly, but Noah thought it was fun - "like a roller coaster, Mama!"
We finally saw some Dall Sheep, ironically right next to Sheep Mountain. This stretch of highway follows along Kluane Lake, which is the largest lake in the Yukon. Stopped in Beaver Creek to get some sandwiches, etc. out of the cooler, switch drivers, and get out our passports again. Continued on, and had planned to stop at the "Welcome to Alaska" sign, but the entrance was hard to see and we wound up going right past it with no place to turn around. I think I got a picture of it - I'll try to find it later.
Cleared the border with no problems - didn't even have to get out of the car. Went about 4 miles up the road to fill up the gas tanks.
The drive was uneventful up until we were only two hours away from Wasilla. We hit the snow storm that had been in the valley earlier that afternoon. Thankfully, Alexander's boss, John, had warned us about the highway being very winding, with a lot of switchbacks. It was not easy driving after it got dark, esp. for Alexander in the Chevy pulling the U-Haul. And then to complicate matters, Alexander radioed (Karl brought along his walkie talkies) that he was on fire! Of course, Karl and I looked at each other like "Did you hear what I did?" and thinking the engine was flaming. We were going down a pretty steep grade, and apparently the wiring for the fog lights went haywire, smoking up the cab pretty good. Alexander wound up pulling the whole dash cover off and disconnecting the wiring. A few tense moments later and they radioed that everything was ok!
We finally drove into Wasilla about 8pm. Found the Grandview and checked into our "apartment." John had left a smoked salmon and crackers at the front desk for us, and we thoroughly enjoyed that for our supper!
Brought only what we needed for the night in - made up some beds and slept great.
Saturday-Tuesday was pretty much relaxing and unpacking. Thank you, Kathy, for unpacking and setting up the kitchen for me! Sunday we drove down to Eagle River to attend church at Peace. Noah got to go to Sunday School, and Christopher missed him, so the teacher let Christopher come into the class too! Other than getting marker all over his shirt, he did really well for only 2! It was at Peace that we learned that there was a church actually
in Wasilla.
On Monday, we did take a late afternoon drive. The weather had cleared enough to see the mountains. The joke between us was that we had prayed for and received good weather for the trip, but we hadn't prayed for good weather once we arrived! Saw some incredible views, and had fun just looking until the boys got tired of being in the car.
Tuesday consisted of just spending time with Grandpa and Grandma. Because of the impending weather, Alexander, Karl, and Kathy headed to Anchorage around 3pm. Many, many thanks to them for taking the time out of their busy lives to help us drive the Alcan.
Last night it was still about 45* at 7pm, and the sun was shining, so we decided to go for a walk. It was pretty slushy in places and Noah had fun jumping in all the puddles he could find!
So it's now Tuesday, March 16th, and things are starting to calm down. We're still not completely unpacked or organized, but it's functional!
I think it's also BIL Matt's birthday today (forgive me if I'm wrong!) so Happy Birthday Matt!
