What's Left After the Last Great Road Trip?

At every stop along the AlCan, we kept seeing these free publications called "The Last Great Road Trip." It's essentially a mini-version of the Milepost with lots of factoids about the places you'd see on the AlCan.

You'll note that the cover image is of two retirees and their dog, with their recreational vehicle behind them.










My problem is this: I'm 30 and Christina is 29. If we've already done the AlCan, what's left for us to do when we're a pair of retirees with nothing but an RV, lots of free time, and a little dog? Maybe we'll drive Route 66...

Mile 2112

It occurred to me that we crossed mile 2,112 of our trip today. The number is important purely because 2112 is also the name of one of Rush's early songs. How appropriate, since Rush is one of the best musical talents to ever come out of Canada. (I have a certain fondness for Alanis Morisette, but I own none of her albums and probably 10 of Rush's, so that should tell you where my loyalties lie.)

I love these guys. I keep telling my Canadian-born wife that she should appreciate the fact that my favorite rock band is from her country. She shrugs and tells me that all their songs sound the same. (Bah...so do Charlotte Church's.) I actually saw Rush perform on Bastille Day several years ago. Man, they're even more awesome in concert than they are on an album.

Anyway, when you're traveling the AlCan through the heart of Canada, be sure to celebrate mile 2,112 by listening to a Rush album.

Hey Jessica, Nathan, Gracie, and Emmy...

Kiersten keeps asking if she can drive to your house. She misses you guys! (Sorry Nick, she hasn't asked for you yet.)

P.S.: Kiersten has also asked to see the following people: Coral, Miss Angela, Declan & Zachary (but not Brandon), and her cousin Caitlyn (who was just born last week). She may have also asked for "Miss Connie," still not understanding that a) "Connie" is actually named John, and b) John ain't no "Miss."

Day Nine: Dawson Creek, BC to Edmonton, AB

This was a half-and-half day. I woke up at 6 to get an early start on breakfast, which let Christina get Kiersten dressed and get some packing done. (Wait...that sounds like I wasn't doing anything.) I got the car packed early, and we left at 8 a.m., which quickly turned into 9 a.m. when the time zone changed 1/2 hour later. (Funny thing...turns out Dawson Creek doesn't observe daylight savings time, so it was an hour earlier all along anyway.)

The first half of the drive went fine; we made great time and Kiersten was very well-behaved. For the second half, she was a little cranky (she didn't have her afternoon nap) and it rained fairly hard. We made it to the hotel around 4 after a quick stop for some groceries. The hotel is pretty decent, right near the mall, and has a swimming pool which Kiersten will enjoy. (Actually, she's been begging to go in it all evening.)

Tomorrow should have decent weather, and plenty to do. Kiersten and I will be having our Daddy-Daughter lunch, seeing the aquarium, and stopping at the Build-a-Bear Workshop. Christina will...I don't know...be found under a pile of H&M and Gap bags at the end of the day.

Update: We had a good time at the pool.














Results: Good morning; pathetic afternoon; decent hotel. Grade: B.

Distance traveled to date: 2,379 miles.

Day Eight: Fort Nelson to Dawson Creek, BC

Nothing significant to report for Tuesday, 29 July. The drive was a relatively short 4 1/2 hours, and Kiersten was so well-behaved that we did it in one straight shot. She's starting to eat more normally, which may be helping her behavior. Plus, we think she may be getting used to the concept of being in a car for hours at a time. She's begun self-directing her play again, rather than requiring us to entertain her-- seems to be a pattern every time her life is disrupted.

According to Google Maps, we've driven 2,010 miles so far, which puts us at about 2/5 through our trip. We're pleasantly burning gas (I spent $60 filling the tank today), but the price is coming down the further south we travel. We're also one week into our trip as of today.

Tomorrow, we're moving on to Edmonton, AB, where we'll be spending two nights. Christina hopes to visit a friend, and we'll also spend a day at the West Edmonton Mall. (Any mall with its own amusement park and aquarium is worth spending a day in.) Tomorrow's drive will be a little over 300 miles, or about 6 hours. We're also switching from the Pacific to the Central time zone; since we'll be losing an hour, we may leave an hour or two earlier to catch up.

Tomorrow should be tiring, but the trip will be worth it!

Distance traveled to date: 2,012 miles.

Day Seven: Watson Lake, YT to Fort Nelson, BC

We've successfully made it to Fort Nelson, putting us within 300 miles of the end of the AlCan. It's pretty late, so I'll update tomorrow with today's highlights. However, we DID finally see wildlife today, and lots of it. We'll have plenty of pictures of bison, moose, caribou, bighorn sheep and goats to post when we get to Dawson Creek tomorrow. Goodnight!

Update: The Watson Lake-Fort Nelson drive wasn't that bad. Kiersten was a little demanding for the first half of the drive, but she calmed down considerably after lunch and was a very good girl until the end of the day.

I've been complaining all week about how we haven't seen any wildlife, but today's drive more than made up for it. (N.B.: AlCan drivers need to be extra cautious, as these animals DO walk in the road. Thank God many of them are dark and easily visible from a distance.)

• First, we saw a number of Bison. Some were by themselves, but others grazed in large herds.

• Later, we foundsome beautiful bighorn sheep.

• One of Kiersten's favorite stories is the Three Billy Goats Gruff, so that's who we told her these fellows were.

• We're not quite sure what this fellow is. He could be a moose, but he looks somewhat deer-like as well.

• I took the quintessential mountain goat picture somewhere in one of B.C.'s provincial parks.

We also spotted moose, deer, and horses on the road, but we drove by them too quickly to get a decent photo. Our only big disappointment was having not seen ANY bears this trip, or even in the two years we lived in Alaska. I don't want to get eaten; I just want to see one doing something cute. Is that too much to ask?

Distance traveled to date: 1,731 miles.

Day Six: Whitehorse to Watson Lake, YT

Highlights from Sunday, July 27:

• Kiersten is...a little wild today, to put it mildly. We take her to the 9 a.m. Mass and she begins misbehaving immediately. We're unable to enjoy services at all and have to confine her to the crying room. She misbehaves except for maybe the last 10 minutes of Mass. She tends to act odd when she's not at her home parish, so we suspect that she doesn't recognize other churches as "her" church. Maybe she's feeling liberated since we normally have her strapped into a carseat for 6 hours at a time. Maybe she's just a normal two-year old.
  
• We head back to the hotel and finish packing up our things. We then head to the Real Canadian Superstore to buy some food for lunch and dinner. (Dinner in particular is critical--we recall that Watson Lake has lousy restaurants.) On the way, Christina is surprised at how much modern stuff is in Whitehorse--it has Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and a bunch of other Canadian brand-name stores. Whitehorse does have 20,000 people, and it's a large tourist spot, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised.
  
• We stop at Whitehorse's Beringia Museum. It's an exhibit hall dedicated to ice age relics and fossils found in the Alaska-Yukon region. They've got a full Woolly Mammoth skeleton, and skeletons from other animals as well. It's a small museum, but its quality is on par with what you'd see at the Smithsonian.
• Kiersten largely enjoys the museum, but it's close to her nap time and she starts acting punch drunk. Everything is funny to her, and she's running around in circles screaming. After several time outs, we put her down for her nap and hit the road. Christina also takes a nap for a few hours while I drive for awhile.
• This stretch of highway actually weaves between the Yukon Territory and British Columbia, so we're all over the map today.
• Kiersten is somewhat well-behaved after her nap, although she's still addicted to her Disney CDs. How many times will we hear "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" on this trip? The sound of it is really quite atrocious...
• After having dinner on the road, we arrive at Watson Lake in the early evening. We're staying in the Air Force Lodge, which is completely unconnected with the U.S. Air Force. It's a wonderful hotel which was apparently used by the U.S. Army Air Corps back in World War II. Today, it's run by a very nice German couple who actually remember us from our stay two years ago. It's honestly the nicest hotel in Watson Lake, and believe me, the other hotels are not much to look at. We're quite comfortable in this place.
  
• We take Kiersten for a little walk to get some energy out of her. The lodge owners have horses in the back, so she enjoys a good look at them. Unfortunately, she's still not ready to go to bed, and we have a hard time getting her to go down. She finally goes out by 11, and unfortunately, we haven't gotten any packing done. We're going to be scrambling tomorrow...
• Results: Nice lodging at both ends, and a nice museum in the middle. However, Kiersten's behavior needs significant improvement. Either she sees a child psychologist, or we'll need to go to an adult one....(Just kidding, we still love her.) Grade: C.

Distance traveled to date: 1,412 miles.

You know you're in Canada when...

...you end up buying your kid one of these.

Day Five: Destruction Bay to Whitehorse, YT

Highlights from Saturday, July 26:

• Woke up on time as usual. Breakfast wasn't as great as I'd hoped--just a set of pancakes and some tea. I otherwise liked this B&B, but I'm used to getting larger breakfasts and this was rather small by comparison.
• Kiersten is feeling MUCH better. We don't hear a wheeze, and she's acting normal, so we think our planned hike is a go.
• We stop at Kluane's north visitor center first to check with a park ranger about recommended trails and bear sightings. We're told that a mother bear and its cubs were sighted a week ago, but nothing more recently. We're also told that the Sheep Creek trail should be pretty enjoyable. The ranger also shows us some bighorn sheep high up on the mountain range through her telescope. There's also some sheep skulls and volcanic ash on display, and she lets Kiersten play with them for awhile.
• We get to the Sheep Creek trail around 10:30 and set off with Kiersten loaded in our backpack. On the way, we encounter a memorial sign for a young hiker who was killed by a bear several years ago. It's rather sobering and scary all at once.
• The hike is fairly steep, even though it's only a few miles. We find ourselves taking a lot of rest stops, because we're not used to working out our ankles this way. Much to our dismay, the mosquitos use our rest breaks as an opportunity to chew us. Even repeated sprays don't seem to keep them away. The only positive we note is that the mosquitos seem to keep away from areas with no trees.
• We meet a lot of foreign hikers, including one group from Germany. We seem to be meeting a lot of Germans in this part of Canada, so we curiously ask what brings them here. They reply that they've seen pretty much everything else there is to see, so the Yukon is all that's left for them.
• We estimate that we've hiked maybe 2 miles; it's a lot less than we'd have liked, but the hill is VERY steep. The weather is also variable: it's cold when cloudy, but we're roasting when the sun comes out. We finally take a break for lunch in an open area. Kiersten's been a little upset, so lunch cheers her up.
• We continue hiking, and Kiersten takes it upon herself to walk. We think she's crazy, but she actually manages to make a little distance. Plus, it helps tire her out for her afternoon nap. (By the way, isn't my beard coming in nicely? It's not often I can go a week--much less three--without shaving. Bless those military regulations.)
• This hill goes on forever! We finally decide to turn back around 12:30 p.m. If it were just Christina and I, we'd probably keep going (and have gone a lot farther). However, Kiersten's needs are more important, so we decide that we're content with what we've seen. We've gotten some excellent views so far anyway.
• Kiersten goes down around 2 p.m., and we head back to Whitehorse. Nothing to report on this leg; it's largely the same drive we did for the last part of yesterday.
• We get to Whitehorse around 5 p.m. and hit the Wal-Mart (civilization!) to stock up on supplies. We get to our hotel (a fairly modern facility) around 6.
• We make dinner and give Kiersten her bath. After we unpack tomorrow's needs, I put luggage back in the car. We'll need to get going fairly early tomorrow, since we need to get to church (it's Sunday!) and we'd like to take in at least one sight before we drive on. Kiersten and I find "Peter Pan" on TV and watch a little (she' s now curious about Tinkerbell) before we put her to bed.
• Results: Good hike, even if it wasn't as far as we originally planned. So-so for the rest of the day. Grade: B.

Distance traveled to date: 1,140 miles.

Day Four: Stewart Crossing to Destruction Bay, YT

Highlights from Friday, 25 July:

• We wake up around 7:30. We seem to be getting pretty good about getting up in the morning, even though we really should go to bed sooner. The showers have mercifully warm water. This being the middle of the Yukon, we worried that we'd be taking an ice bath.
• We pack the car. Our strategy of packing as much as we can the night before seems to help get us moving sooner. Unfortunately, I packed the car incorrectly today, so Christina has to do a quick re-pack so that I can see out the rear window.
• Breakfast is actually pretty good, although Kiersten eats less than we’d like. The restaurant inside the lodge is very cute, almost diner-like. We notice that all their food seems to be homemade--the bread is very fresh, and the ham has an unprocessed taste to it. Since the owners are in the middle of nowhere, it must be cheaper to make their own food than to have it shipped in.
  
• We get moving around 9:30, which is close to on-time for us. We do our best to keep Kiersten entertained, although she's become addicted to the Disney CDs we bought her (we've played "Bippity Boppity Boo" over and over and over...). The drive is a little long, but there’s lots of nice scenery. However, we still don't see any wildlife other than a small creature which might have been a fox.
• We reach the small Yukon town of Carmacks around noon and stop at their small visitor center for lunch. I take Kiersten inside for a look around. The lady manning the center has a little girl with her who's a year older than Kiersten. She seems happy to make a friend, so both girls play for ½ hour while Christina makes lunch. We later learn that the girl doesn’t have many friends in this small town (many of them are native children who are on different schedules), so she's thrilled to see another little girl her age. Sadly, she's also really reluctant to let Kiersten leave when it's time to go.
  
• We gas up again--$75 to fill the tank! I buy a “bear bell,” since bears have been spotted in the area and we're going hiking tomorrow. The idea is that it generates constant noise, so a bear will know that humans are in the area and steer clear of them.
• We leave town around 1, and Kiersten goes down for her afternoon nap. We listen to the last disc of "Airframe." The overall story and mystery were pretty good, although Crichton goes into this weird anti-media rant at the end of the story. It's not a bad story point, but the obvious social commentary is rather distracting from the overall direction of the story.
• We're within an hour of Whitehorse when we have to stop for construction. We don't have to wait terribly long, although Kiersten does wake up at this point. Back to the Disney CDs! I let Christina take over the drive around this point, so it's my turn to entertain Kiersten until our next stop.
  
• We drive for another 90 minutes to Haines Junction. Technically, we're driving back towards Alaska for this leg. It's a little sobering, because our inclination is to drive south and east, not north and west. We have to remind ourselves that we're vacationing.
• We arrive in Haines Junction around 5:30 and stop at the visitor center for Kluane National Park. When we drove from Florida to Alaska two years ago, we discovered Kluane when we stopped at their visitor center for a comfort break. We were so impressed by the park that we swore to come back on our way out and hike up Sheep Mountain. Anyway, their larger visitor center in Haines Junction is impressive, although I was hoping to see more stuffed animals to impress Kiersten. (She really liked the ones at Denali National Park, which we went to twice while in Alaska.)
• We watch Kluane's video on bear safety, and see footage of bears destroying campsites and chasing people up trees. We really wish we'd bought some bear spray....
  
• Kiersten starts coughing a lot and acting very sick. She also keeps filling her diaper; I change her three times in an hour. This is not a good sign.
  
• We continue on to our next B&B, the Kluane Base Camp (about 10 minutes from the park). Although in a rustic setting, the cabins are VERY new and much cozier than the ones we slept in last night. (N.B.: yesterday's cabins weren't bad, just not very modern.) There's also a full kitchen for guest use. We cook some dried soup, although Kiersten is extremely cranky and doesn't want to eat. She later throws up and develops a wheeze, so we quickly rush her to bed.
• Will our hiking trip for tomorrow be canceled on account of sick baby? Stay tuned....
• Results: Long drive, and we didn’t do anything or see any wildlife. It took forever to get between destinations, and Kiersten got sick. Not a bad day, but nothing we're impressed with either. However, our cabins are very cute and cozy, and we think we'll enjoy the night. Grade: C-.

Distance traveled to date: 978 miles.

Day Three: Dawson City to Stewart Crossing, YT

Highlights from Thursday, July 24:

• We woke up around 7:30 (deciding to sleep in just that little extra bit). Our B&B had a great breakfast, although Kiersten didn’t really want to eat. She's being finicky, so we put her leftovers in a container knowing she'll need it later.
  
• We go to Dawson City's old theater (now a historic site run by Canada's National Parks service) just in time for the start of the 9:30 tour. Our tour guide gave us a historical tour of the city and showed us the sights, including old bars, brothels (yes, brothels), banks, riverboat docks, and anything else you'd expect to see in an old mining town. Much of the town is a restored and preserved artifact; they really go to great lengths to give it that old-town feel (although the dusty streets and wooden sidewalks look very odd with modern automobiles). The tour is very interesting, although we only hear it in pieces. Kiersten wasn’t interested, so we had to take turns watching her and had to relay the parts we missed to each other.
• We go food shopping around 11 at the local supermarket. We've been buying food to make our meals instead of going out to lunch at restaurants. Although it's a little more work, it probably saves us 25% over the cost of meals out twice a day.
• After lunch, we drive out of town to the historic site where gold was discovered. It’s now just a little stream where people can try panning. Kiersten found a stick and pretended she was hiking, which looked adorable.
  
• We then drove to the top of Dawson City's "Midnight Dome." I get the impression that it's so named because it's high enough (in elevation and in latitude) that it doesn't get dark there in the summer. The Dome gave us an excellent view of Dawson City and the whole valley. Kiersten is very tired by this point.
• We drive back to Dawson City to visit its main museum. Kiersten goes down for a nap, so we're able to enjoy the museum in peace. We learn about life in the Klondike days, and we see recreations of old Klondike cabins (barely enough comfort room for two people...turns out tempers were short and fights were frequent). We also see a demonstration of a “rocker box,” which is a simple machine which uses water and motion to extract gold from a pile of dirt. Finally, we check out the train museum next door and learn about the short-lived railroad which ran through the Klondike until 1913.
• We gas up and drive out of town around 5 p.m. It costs about $50 to fill half a tank of gas.
  
• It only takes us 2 to 3 hours to drive to Stewart Crossing. (There's not much here, but since it's pretty far to our next destination, we wanted to get at least some of the next drive knocked out early.) Kiersten wakes up, but she's easily entertained for the short drive. There's some rain, but not enough to impair the drive.
  
• Still no wildlife anywhere. Very disappointing.
• We get to our cabins around 7 or 7:30. We're a little intimidated, because the place looks a little more rustic than we expected. The cabins do have some interesting made to look like a mosquito, moose, and a person, so I show them to Kiersten. We also see chickens in the back, which reminds Kiersten of the ones at her grandmother's house.
  
• I note that our cabin is a few steps above what the Klondike settlers lived in 100 years ago. We're in much better shape than those people, however, since it's summer and we're only there for one night.
  
• Kiersten has trouble getting to sleep, but eventually goes out. All this travel is warping her, and she doesn't appear to know how to handle it.
  
• Results: B+; good breakfast, good tour, good drive. We're a little put off by the cabins, so that keeps Day 3 from being a perfect day.

Distance traveled to date: 615 miles.

Day Two: Tok, AK to Dawson City, YT

Highlights from Wednesday, July 23:

• Kiersten wakes us up really early, asking to use the restroom. We attempt to sleep until around 7 a.m. We take turns showering, packing, and taking Kiersten to breakfast. Later, Adam takes Kiersten for another walk to see the puppies one last time while Christina finishes packing. Christina also buys a lovely hand-painted Christmas ornament from the B&B's gift shop, making it our last Alaska souvenir.
  
• We hit the road by 10 a.m.--later than we’d like, but earlier than yesterday.
• We juggle entertaining Kiersten by giving her various coloring books. She does OK until she eats the tip of a marker--bleah!
• We notice dead trees along Alaska Route 5--they go as far as the eye can see. We check the Milepost and learn that there was a large forest fire in 2004. It goes on for miles, so the book's description doesn't do it justice.
• The road conditions are terrible on Route 5; they're only occasionally paved. The Milepost tells us it's 40% paved, 60% gravel, but it feels like that ratio is severely off. One very slow RV driver slows us down for awhile.
• We don't see wildlife anywhere. We're hoping for a moose or bear, but nothing's showing up. We do hit some brief construction, but again, we get by it quickly.
  
• We arrive in Chicken, AK around noon. Chicken is as small a town as they come--it has 21 people in the summer and only 6 in the winter (many go back to Fairbanks). We stop at “Beautiful Downtown Chicken,” a restaurant and shop which has a facade to make it look like an old saloon town. Kiersten plays with two dogs, and gets to see--what else--a live chicken in a cage. We also meet Downtown Chicken's owner. It turns out she grew up in South Jersey and lived near Adam's hometown in Pennsylvania for awhile. She and Adam chat about home. She 's nice, and gives Kiersten a free doll-sized inflatable raft which she says aren’t selling. We buy some gas since the owner warns us gas is up to $7 per gallon in the Yukon. It’s around $5.40 in Chicken, although she says the guy up the road is charging $5.80. We eat lunch, and Kiersten goes to sleep.
• The road gets very steep and is in much worse condition at this point. It’s only 60 miles to the Canadian border, but the remaining trip takes us 2 hours. We listen to another disc of "Airframe" while Kiersten is quiet. The landscape is impressive, but there's no shoulder on the road and we're really worried about going over a cliff.
  
• We make it to the Canadian border without incident. We get past customs with no problem, although the border guard has a hard time figuring out who's a Canadian (Christina) and who's an American (Adam and Kiersten).
• The road is considerably smoother in Canada, but now we have to convert miles to kilometers. Fortunately, the Milepost is written in both kilometers and miles, so we have no problem finding our way. Kiersten eventually wakes up, but isn't too cranky.
  
• We completely forgot that there's no bridge from the highway to Dawson City. Instead, we have to load our car onto a ferry which takes us across the Yukon River. It’s a small craft which can carry maybe up to 8 cars. We get there just as the ferry is boarding and have no trouble. The trip is free and takes maybe 10 minutes.
• Our first stop is the Dawson City visitor center, conveniently just after the ferry landing. Christina inquires about the town while Adam takes Kiersten to meet a friendly St. Bernard across the street. It’s a puppy but still huge--Kiersten is a little nervous of it.
• The weather is very rainy, and it starts pouring by the time we get to our B&B. (At least it cleans off the mud which we picked up driving AK Route 5.) Anyway, the B&B is a very quaint place run by a nice young couple. Kiersten runs a little wild, but maybe less so than yesterday. Christina takes her outside to let her splash in puddles while Adam updates our trip log. After Kiersten goes to bed, we talk to some other guests--an older couple from British Columbia, but originally from New Zealand, They're traveling to Eagle, AK to see their son.
• Today’s assessment: weather and driving are lousy, but Kiersten is well-behaved. We make very good time. Lodging is nice. Rating: B.

Distance traveled to date: 509 miles.

Day One: Elmendorf to Tok, AK

Highlights from Tuesday, 22 July:

• We woke up around 7 a.m. and tried to use up what breakfast items we could. We haven't yet figured out the fine art of balancing food before a move (use too little, the car is overloaded; use too much, and you have nothing for the road), so we had lots leftover to throw in the trunk and whatever other places we could find.
• Adam took Kiersten for a walk (one of her last for the next few hours) while Christina masterfully packed the car. Unlike our last trip, we don't need to put anything on the roof. This is a huge improvement, since items on the roof can add to a car's wind resistance, and consequently its gas useage.
• We checked out of lodging around 9 a.m. We then drove back to our old town of Eagle River (it's on the way), sent some mail, took out some cash from the bank, made some final purchases for the road, gassed up, and finally got moving by 11 a.m.
• We have a quick pit stop in Palmer, AK. We also find some dried eggs which will work great for our upcoming camping.
  
• Alaska's highways are usually replete with construction in the summer, but we only run into one 20 minute delay.Saw several glaciers from the road. We’d seen them 2 years ago but didn’t understand what they were. The Matanuska Glacier is really, really long. There’s another glacier further on which is not the Matanuska.
• We don't see many cars on the road. Maybe it’s a slow travel day (it’s Tuesday), maybe the road trippers aren’t fleeing Alaska yet (we saw plenty when we drove up here, but that was in August), or maybe it’s the high gas prices. Maybe it's all three.
  
• We get to Glennallen, AK around 3 p.m. We remember it being a bit of a hole the last time we were here, but it's not as bad as we remember. It has a natural history museum with stuffed animals, and we hoped to take Kiersten, but it isn’t open on Tuesdays. We're left with taking her to the Welcome Center, which really just has brochures and ads for tourist locations in Alaska. Kiersten is changed and fed, though.
• We hit the road again, and Kiersten finally goes down for her nap after ½ an hour. It’s way past her bedtime at this point, so we expect her to be a mess tonight.
  
• We don’t recognize the drive up to Tok, although it was two years ago and we were pretty exhausted that time. Since Kiersten is sleeping, we decide to listen to our audiobook of Michael Crichton’s “Airframe.” It’s an interesting story about an airplane that nearly crashes, and how one of the aircraft builder’s employees investigates the accident.
• We arrive in Tok sometime before 7 p.m, and pull into our lodging, the Burnt Paw cabins. It's a cute B&B with puppies, Alaska sleds on display, and other things Kiersten seems to enjoy. There's a playground across the street, so we take her there to exhaust herself. She's up pretty late, though, as her late afternoon nap really messed up her schedule.
• Results: We spent too long traveling, and everyone’s too tired. Grade: C-. Good lodging, but a long day.

Distance traveled to date: 319 miles.

Finally, internet access!

They don't have much internet in the Yukon, or at least you have to go looking for it. Anyway, we have internet for tonight. I'll be updating with a single post from each day's travel, even though it's actually several days later. Got it?

In Dawson City, Yukon

We're in Dawson City, Yukon, and are about to go exploring all the Gold Rush history here. The drive up here was partially on a dirt/gravel road that looked like a farm driveway leading back to an old barn. We're heading for remoter parts of the Yukon the next couple days so may not be able to post til Whitehorse on Saturday!

Moving Day!

The movers are coming in about an hour. We'll be offline for awhile.

Hotel booking is done!

I just made the last hotel reservation for our trip! We're all set through Denver. After Denver, we're not 100% sure of our route, as it depends on whether our other car has arrived in Dallas (in which case we'll take a detour there to pick it up), so we might have to make those hotel reservations on the road or just drive up off the highway.

I'm excited about the fact that we're a little more prepared hotel-wise than we were last time around. Being able to drive straight to our hotel rather than going place to place checking for availability (and cleanliness...did we see some filthy places last time!) is going to save us a lot of hassle. Plus we've been able to find some places which are a little more off the beaten path. It'll be interesting to experience a wide spectrum of hotels...from national chains to local hotels to bed and breakfasts to rustic cabins without running water to campsites!

For your next trip, a FANTASTIC resource when researching places to stay is tripadvisor.com. You can read reviews from real people-- not the hotel-selected rave reviews hotel owners post on their website--to help decide whether the hotel will work for you. After this trip is over, we're going to put up our own reviews of the places we stayed at. We owe it to the web community; tripadvisor.com has been a godsend for trying to preplan this long trip!

Our Itinerary

With a little over a week to go, some folks have been asking for our travel plans. So here they are:

• Elmendorf AFB, Alaska (17-21 Jul)
  
• Tok, Alaska (22 Jul)
• Dawson City, Yukon (23 Jul)
• Stewart Crossing, Yukon (24 Jul)
• Destruction Bay, Yukon (25 Jul)
• Whitehorse, Yukon (26 Jul)
• Watson Lake, Yukon (27 Jul)
• Fort Nelson, British Columbia (28 Jul)
• Dawson Creek, British Columbia (29 Jul)
• Edmonton, Alberta (30-31 Jul)
• Calgary, Alberta (1 Aug)
  
• Glacier National Park, Montana (2-3 Aug)
• Gardiner, Montana (4 Aug)
• Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (5-7 Aug)
• Casper, Wyoming (8 Aug)
• Denver, Colorado (9 Aug)
• McConnell AFB, Kansas (10 Aug)

We're not sure where we'll be after the 10th. We're shipping our other car to Dallas, and it may be there around that time. So after Kansas, we'll check on our car. If it's in Dallas, we'll head there next to pick it up. If not, we'll probably rest in Oklahoma before going to Louisiana. We'll be at Barksdale AFB by either 12 or 13 August.

Recommended Reading: Yellowstone Treasures

Coming with us in the car is Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler's Companion to the National Park. It details the park, mile by mile, so we don't miss anything. I've read (and enjoyed) the historical narrative; we're saving the mile-by-mile portion for our camp planning.

We got our car back!

This week has brought enough drama to last me a couple moves. Thank goodness the DEROS situation got resolved. Better still, our SUV is back in our driveway as of this evening, so unless someone else cuts a tree onto it, we really are good to go on the 22nd.

The one catch: dealing with drama (including destressing with popcorn and a funny movie instead of spending time packing) means we're a little behind on trip prep. We've got some stuff going on this weekend, but hopefully we can fit sorting and packing in. Only four full days til moving day, and still lots left undone. Eeeep!

Can anybody recommend some driving music?

I'd like to have a healthy compilation of traditional driving songs for the trip. So far, I've got:

• "Life is a Highway" by Rascall Flats (I prefer their version to the original)
• "Open Road Song" by Eve 6
• "Route 66" by...um...the Cheetah Girls. It was the only version I could find on iTunes that I liked.
• "Everyday is a Winding Road" by Cheryl Crow
• "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna

I really think I need "I've Been Everywhere" by the late great, Johnny Cash as well. Any other recommendations out there? (Update: apparently, the original version was written by Geoff Mack with Australia-specific lyrics. Seems that Willie Nelson recorded a version as well. Regardless, I want the Johnny Cash version. Come to think of it, the PCS Wife and I should just get a best of Cash album.)

It's a 5,000+ mile drive...What should we fill the time with?

Ooops

That last post was mine, mistakenly signed in as the PCS Wife.

Problem Solved

Whew. I was able to convince the JAG personnel office in Washington, D.C. to change my DEROS to July. They really came through for us! So, yes, we're leaving on time (the car repairs notwithstanding).

Looks like it may be getting taken care of...

and we may be able to leave on time after all. But seriously, we did NOT need that stressor the week before the movers come, with everything we have left to do. Plus, our car is still in the shop. Saturn sent the auto body shop a banged-up replacement hood, so we're waiting to get another hood. In the meantime, this is all leaving me pretty stressed.

Screw packing. I think I'm going to spend the afternoon relaxing with a book instead!

PCS Wife's contribution

@#%#^@%!%#@*!@##*(@*&.

That's pretty much all I have to say about the situation.

Severe Setback

We may not be leaving on time now. I received an unexpected e-mail from my Military Personnel Flight around 3 p.m. today. It said, in short, that my DEROS (date eligible to return from overseas) was set for 15 August 2008, and that I'm only allowed to leave in my DEROS month. According to the sender, I'm not allowed to leave earlier than August 1.

Mind you, the Air Force only allows 13 travel days from Alaska to Louisiana. I think we could do the trip in that time, but we'd have to drive nonstop the whole way. Worse, we've already made the majority of our hotel reservations, spent several hundred dollars on camping equipment, arranged for our movers, and canceled our lease on our apartment. Until this point, everything's been planned with the expectation that we would leave on 22 July, and nobody's told me this was wrong until today. Unfortunately, the sender took a "there's nothing I can do" attitude when I asked if it could be changed.

I'm appealing this issue to the head personnel office to see if this can be fixed. I've also fired back a response to the original message sender with two questions. One, where in writing is the rule that I need to leave within my DEROS month? I don't doubt that it exists, but I'd like to see the source material so I can see if she's interpreting it correctly. Two, is she reading "leave within your DEROS month" too literally? Does "DEROS month" refer to that literal calendar month, or does it refer to the 30-day period around your DEROS date? What if my report date were August 2nd? Would I then only have one day to make the 5,000 mile trip from Alaska to Louisiana?

Between this incident and the tree falling on our car (which still isn't back from the shop), I'd swear the universe is trying to keep me from moving.

One week left!

Yes, the movers are coming one week from tomorrow. Major items on the to-do list include:

• Getting our excess goods (we always seem to have too many of those) to the bargain shop;
• Picking out what's going in the car;
• Picking out what should be released early while we're in temporary lodging;
  
• Choosing a place to stay in Dawson City, Calgary, and Casper;
• Getting pre-approved for a mortgage in Louisiana;
• Getting rid of our flammables (spray paints, propane, etc.) which the movers won't take;
  

Oh, and our car is STILL in the shop, so I can't even pre-load stuff in the car until it gets back. Presumably Thursday. God, we hope it's back on Thursday.

Two weeks til moving day

We're just over two weeks from moving day, and three weeks out from the day we leave the Anchorage area. It's only now starting to dawn on us how quickly it's coming up...and how much we have left to do to prepare for the movers and for our trip.

However, anything we do is better than last PCS. When we left town, our daughter was 5.5 weeks old. We were so busy figuring out the whole new parent thing that any moving business was secondary. We didn't sort our shipments until the night before the movers came! At least this time around, we know what we're about.

Cramming in Vacation

We'll be staying at Denali National Park on Thursday and Friday nights, trying to cram in just a little more vacation before we leave Alaska. It's not likely we'll be back here anytime soon.

Plus, the PCS Wife has become obsessed with collecting stamps for her National Park Passport book...which I agree, is addicting.