Driving to Alaska, April 30, 2009

Day 1 - San Diego to Santa Nella, CA; 6 miles from Los Banos.

Favorite motel at Santa Nella...   End of Day one...

Day 2....  From Santa Nella, CA,  ended in Grants Pass, OR...  but on the way we visited Don's aunt and uncle in Redding, CA....

 
Ann and Don  with Uncle Scotty and Aunt Dottie.

John Denning in white van,  Don in gold moving truck way ahead....Ann driving Todd's Windstar Ford;  
lots of rain in CA and OR mtns.
We are moving Son Todd's family's things back up to Alaska....

Day THREE  Started out in Grants Pass, OR and ended in Mt. Vernon, WA

Saturday, day three,  rain....  we delivered the white van in Portland,
and Ann jumped in with Don in the moving truck... John driving the blue Ford now.

THEN.... hit the worst rain we've ever driven in, in our lives.   Blind driving in heavy traffic,
between Portland and Seattle.  

It was coming down so hard the wipers couldn't handle it!    BUCKETS.....
and the cars on the road were spraying the standing water.  

We're shooting for someplace just before the border and will go thru tomorrow.

Taillights!  We  thought maybe a wreck, but pretty soon they just started going again.  HORRIBLE TRAFFIC!

ahhhh.... later... a 7 car pileup, going the other way.  Then we had a four car pileup going our way.

Look at the hood on the 2nd car...   the rest were mashed in the rear mostly.    Stayed overnight
in Mt. Vernon, Washington.

Mt. Vernon, WA to Quesnel, BC - Canada

Day 4, Sunday May 3 - raining in Washington, crossed the border with no problems, and the sun came out. 
It has been 68 degrees and like a summer day in British Columbia.  
Just stopped at Don's fav restaurant in Cache Creek for Almond Chicken... 

LOTS of tunnels today - and gorgeous, beautiful scenery...

My Dad used to toot the horn when we went thru a tunnel.   I always think of that when we go up this road. 
They are still fun...  haven't outgrown that!!

$3.57 per gallon, or 93.9 per liter for gas... this is the
cheapest gas we'll find on the trip....today.

You have to love a town named "100 Mile House".     In the old days it was
probably a major mileage marker!      The mileage above is in kilometers  (take them
X6 to approximately figure it out in miles).

4pm... drove thru a forest fire - just at the edge of it.   At the restaurant they'd
said they'd lost their elec earlier "from the fire"....

Then...  a little rain cleaned the air....

You felt like you could reach out and touch the rainbow... never had the
"POT 'o GOLD"  that close before!

We'll stay in Quesnel, BC tonight.

Day FIVE    From Quesnel to Ft. Nelson, BC

The Lakes are still frozen.

Constant waterfalls by the road as it is just now breakup, this far North.
A waterfall had formed a glacier to the left... and a new spot to the right.

Forecast was for 90% rain, but it has been a gorgeous day so far.....  passing through
Hudson's Hope right now, 2pm.  No animals, except for deer.  Temp in the 60's!!

6pm... nearly to Fort Nelson where we'll spend the night.   The only thing unusual about
this trip is the number of fires alongside the road.    We even are speculating that one
person may  be setting them all...    dozens of little fires all along the highway.
(John heard on radio that there were 30 fires along that stretch).

The beautiful Peace River Valley ....  even a fire there to the right.

All different fires.... an amazing number of small fires!

Another of my favorite little stops.   This is pronounced "101"..   Wonowon!
Gas and Sandwiches here.

No snow anywhere, the farther North we go.    Must have had a very early
breakup....  thus the dry conditions for the fires.   

We will spend the night in Fort Nelson.

Day 6  From Fort Nelson BC to Haines Junction, YT

Woke up to COLD and windy weather - snowing....   about 300 miles of this in BC and then we hit Yukon
Territory.

Caribou going across the road

Big Buck Caribou

Snowing pretty hard.

When there is an ice shelf under the trees, they never get very big....   
 

Heavy Snow ahead...

Really snowed hard for awhile

We drove out of the snow.....  Rugged, beautiful country!   The road is DRY!!!!!

We are hoping Toad River services have opened for the summer.  The truck can't make it all the way to
Watson Lake without gas...  
we filled up some cans of gas just in case, before leaving this morning

In kilometers...    (roughly X 60% to estimate how far)

The moment of truth... Toad River.... will there be gas?

1.169 a liter = $4.44 a gallon and WHO CARES!

cold wind blowing!    But the vehicles are full of gas and we could make it
now....

Wild Buffalo along the road for about 50 miles... a few, then a bunch, then a couple.... Miles of Buffalo!

Sign says "Welcome to North of 60"
Yukon Territory

Herd of Mountain Sheep eating salt off the road

Beautiful Ram with a big curl of horn.
 

Baby  and others...  They are totally unafraid of cars.    A couple of big
trucks rolled by as we photographed, and they moved for them,   but
otherwise, walk right up to the cars!       We saw a large group of snowy
white dahl sheep farther down, but they were up in the hills and we
didn't stop to photograph them.

Gorgeous Scenery all day,  after that initial snow it has been clear and the roads are perfect!

Running Moose

Buffalo lying in snow

Passed a lodge that was open now - their gas was 1.499 per liter... $5.70 per gallon!!   Drove
on by and filled up for 96.5 at Teslin!  (3.67 per gallon).  

Filled up at Whitehorse, 98.9.   7:30 pm

It is about 90 miles to Haines Jct, and then shut down for the night.  

      Will they have internet??   One doesn't know!

Day SEVEN...  Haines Junction, Yukon Territory to Fairbanks

We not only didn't have internet, we couldn't find a room to rent.    Haines Jct was full of construction crews and every hotel had a NO vacancy sign.  (Their hotels look like the old Dupree hotel, before they tore it down...  wood boxes..)    It was 9pm... we went to the one little restaurant and the Asian lady said she'd open her closed motel and rent us two rooms.     No heat, no internet, no tv... but we had beds.  We found a little electric heater but poor John didn't, he told us this morning, and his room was 38 degrees.   We would have shared, had we known!!!  Got ready quickly and on the road for the CAR HEATERS!     Feels good.     We are 200 miles from the border and then once in Alaska we are 300 from Fairbanks.    Should get in late afternoon.

The YT roads today were just horrible...    Totally messed up from frost heaves.  The pictures
don't begin to show the ups and downs where they have fallen in 6 inches, or raised that much!
We had to drive so slowly for about 150 miles, and hope Todd's furniture etc in the truck
hasn't turned to dust from bouncing!    We heard the floor of the hauling area hit the tops of
the tires a few times..........!  

Stopped in Beaver Creek YT for some food...  a nice roadhouse.  They have
a few tables, and you just sit down with whomever else is there, and eat!
You don't order, you take what they have made.   A "cheap"  snack or sandwich
runs about 12.98, Canadian.    If you want a dinner, it runs 17.98 on up.   Most
places wouldn't do the exchange, they make you pay 12.98 in US... so we use
a credit card anywhere we can as they do the exchange for you.

The incredible Kluane Lake - it runs beside the road for a good 50 miles...or more.
Just gorgeous!

THEN...the border and ALASKA!  

And the snow started - still going.   We are about 165 miles
from Fairbanks now and how I hope it isn't snowing THERE!  
What an unwelcome greeting!!!!      The roads are really good though... rebuilt
last year, and very few bad spots here.

We played 50's tunes all day and have had such a fun time.   The whole trip was wonderful.  
I hate to see it come to an end!!!!

Very typical scene near Fairbanks.... Moose eating in the bogs.

   
And, the signs are finally in MILES, not kilometers!

At the end of a LONG ROAD...  civilization -  entering Fairbanks

 
The ballpark!

THE HOUSE!  Fairbanks!

4:50 pm... just rolled up to the house.  NO SNOW!   I am so glad.

We stayed in Fairbanks until the first of July when we left to travel with the barnstorming Midnight Sun Goldpanners, the story below in pages of pictures.     
After the baseball trip we put everyone on planes to go home, drove to San Diego to regroup 3-4 days, then drove back up to Fairbanks until about the first of October,
shutting down the ballpark and getting ready to leave for the winter and will drive back to San Diego.  (October - back to San Diego for the winter.  
We had driven just under 20,000 miles this summer).

2009