Merry Christmas Eve!!
3600 miles so far, and we have yet to make it to our new home. 1500 miles to go. But that's okay because we are spending the holidays with family in Henderson and Mesa. This is a nice break. I've been really surprised at how smooth our road trip of 7 days in the car went. No flat tires. No accidents. Wonderful scenery. Big Skies. Wildlife. I am so grateful for the chance we have had to drive the Alaskan Highway. Below I have written a rough sketch of our journey.
 |
| British Columbia is truly beautiful. This doesn't even capture it. |
Tuesday: Departed Fairbanks at 1:45 PM and drove to Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory by about 9 PM (PST). We stayed the night at 1202 Motor Inn.
Wednesday: Woke up without an alarm clock at 7 AM and drove 12 hours to Watson Creek, Yukon Territory and stayed at the Big Horn Hotel. I took a lot of cat naps this day, and I soon came to realize how much these cat naps saved my sanity during the week.
Highlights of the day: seeing 5 mountain goats run across the highway!
 |
| Sunrise through Yukon Territory |
Thursday: Another 12 hour day through British Columbia. We stayed the night in Fort St. John, BC at the Super 8, after driving through some super thick fog for about an hour. That was the worst.
 |
| That bison looking at the camera makes me laugh! |
Highlights of the day: Liard River Hot Springs, getting stopped in the middle of the road by a herd of bison, and seeing some beautiful mountains.
 |
| I didn't take any pictures of the hot springs, but Oh it felt great! It was so beautiful too. The changing rooms were not heated, so we changed super fast because it was about -5 degrees F. :) Source |
 |
| We slowed down for the herd, but a semi came barreling through, honking his horn to get by. It was funny. |
 |
| Eventually, they started to go across again. We followed the truck's way and honked our horn to get through. |
 |
| Sitting in the car for days causes silliness |
Friday: Today was our "grumpy" day, and that was only because we woke up with an alarm clock. Every other day during the trip we woke up when our bodies were ready, which made for really nice drives. This was the only day we awoke with an alarm clock. I have sworn off alarm clocks now. We drove to Calgary, Alberta today and stayed at Comfort Inn for 2 nights.
Saturday: We made up for yesterday's lack of sleep and slept in until 9 AM! It was amazing. Today was our day off.
 |
| Beautiful Calgary Temple |
Highlights: Attending the Calgary Temple, hiking in Banff, and eating out for the one and only time of the trip at Earl's Restaurant.
We hiked the tunnel mountain overlook in Banff. IT FELT SO GOOD TO BE OUTSIDE AND WALKING! It was only a 4.8 Km hike, but after being in the car for four days, I woke up tired and sore on Sunday. My body was like, "do you think you can sit on my for four days and then just get up and climb a mountain? I don't think so." haha.
 |
| The Rockies are amazing. It made me really miss and love my home of Alaska. It was so much fun to wear my AWG Team Alaska jacket in Canada. I received a lot of comments about it and living in AK, which was lots of fun. |
Sunday: Drove 12 hours to Pocotello, Idaho. Marshall really wanted to push on to Utah, but it was getting to be 9 PM and I knew we needed to stay on schedule with our sleep so we stopped 90 minutes early and got a great night's sleep. Worth it.
 |
| Outside the Cardston, Alberta Temple, right before the US-Canada Boarder. |
Highlights: Walking to church in Calgary, Seeing the Big Sky Country of Montana, Enjoying the great display of stars through Montana and North East Idaho, and getting a newly renovated room at the Super 8 for $55.
Monday: Drove 8 hours to Henderson, Nevada to stay with my brother and sister-in-law for three days!
Highlights: Stopping in West Point, Utah to see my aunt and cousins, driving through The Gorge through the boarder of Utah and Arizona, and feeling 60 degrees F and sunshine, thus switching to my flip flops.
One of my most proud "accidents" of the trip is that we didn't have to buy any food along the road, except for Saturday night where we chose to eat out after our hike in Banff, even though we didn't really need to. I had packed and made enough food for the entire 7 days. This was made possible because it was below freezing the entire time all the way to Calgary, so we were able to keep some of our food on the roof of the car in a cooler, only pulling out food to thaw in the car when we needed it. We used the microwaves in our hotel for dinner and those found at truck stops along the way, and kept our food cold in the hotel fridges.
How we kept ourselves fed for 7 days:
- single serving baggies of shredded cooked turkey
- chopped & cooked "rainbow" veggies
- cooked navy beans
- Spaghetti squash (cooked in microwave)
- egg "crepes"
- moose summer sausage
- raw cheddar cheese
- sourdough crackers
- trail mix: coconut flakes, dried currants, walnuts
- almonds
- goat milk (frozen and then thawed when needed)
- homemade granola
This wouldn't have been as possible if we were traveling during the summer or with lots of kids, but I am grateful we were able to save some money and not shock our systems by eating out for each and every meal.
Our journey down the Alaskan Highway has been mind-blowing. It has really made me appreciate the vast diversity of the beautiful earth our Creator has given to us. On Christmas we will drive to my parent's home in Arizona and then head on to Kansas after the new year. Thank you to everyone who has made this trip possible so far, especially my husband. He has been a trooper as he was the one who has taken care of me throughout the journey. He has never complained about driving and has done all of the driving, minus the one hour where I took my turn. He is amazing.
Comments
Post a Comment