"On The Road Again" - Willie Nelson

For a split second of sitting in the car, my butt almost missed the seat.  Almost.  We still weren't sure as we pulled out of the Haines dock parking lot at 1pm if we were driving the 10-11 hours straight to Fairbanks or if we were going to stop in Tok for the evening.

Not everyone was happy that the car was back on the road and moving, but he was happy to attempt to make himself comfortable in the arms of a toddler.

 
Marvin couldn't seem to appreciate that we were surrounded by beautiful white capped mountains!

The temperature in Haines as we left was 56 degrees, and gas was a whopping $4.96 a gallon-ouch.

We were quickly approaching Canada which got me sifting through our "Important Docs" folder for proof we needed to traverse through the great land of Canada.  The border patrol asked for Chad's ID and if he had ever been to Canada before.  The answer was no, the guard stepped into his office, was back about 4 min later and told us to have a safe drive.  He didn't even ask our final destination...huh.  So glad I busted my butt to pack all of our "Important documents" so neatly.

Our scenery through British Columbia quickly turned ugly and really blah.

The scenery turned a little sour, so we turned to pondering odd topics.  Like, do prairie dogs live in Canada?  Or turtles?  Or any other cold-blooded animal for that matter.  Answers to come...

The Yukon Territory brought some prettier scenery than what BC had to offer.  Some sunnier weather as well.

It's time to add to the "Things That Amaze Me List", #5

Rest stops in Canada:

They are ultimately slightly glorified out houses...they're glorified by being a bit larger...but they lock with the little hook and eye latch, some didn't have lids, and toilet paper was optional I guess...I craved a gas station bathroom after using two of these...Oh Canada...

And now I'm just going to list some beautiful scenery pictures for your eyes to feast on.

We thought a manual for all the signs we passed would have been nice.  Some of them were obvious, and just silly - have you ever seen a sign warning you of rams?  But some of the signs weren't as clear.  See for yourself:

We were pretty elated when we saw the first sign for customs into Alaska, we were very ready to be done driving through Canada.  We were ready to be done driving period. 

Customs this time around was a bit more inquisitive as to why we wanted to cross into Alaska.  I felt a little more validated for having all of the documents neatly organized.  About 10 min later we were finally on our last stretch of the trip.  On this leg of the drive we saw...

A bear family!!!

A couple hours later, when we got closer to North Pole (about 30 miles from our final destination) we saw a moose on the side of the road but I wasn't quick enough to grab a picture...thanks Alaskan wildlife for giving us such a warm greeting on our first day in your state :)


We arrived in Tok, Ak around 11pm.  There was a restaurant that happened to be still serving food so we were able to get real food (we had been munching on cold hot dogs and gold fish crackers).  I called the hotel on Post to make sure if we showed up 12 hours prior to check-in if they would have a room for us, and they did, so we decided to keep on trucking.  This is how light it still was at midnight thirty.  Kinda cool, it actually made the drive a little easier. 

We arrived at North Lights Inn around 2:30am and promptly collapsed in the hotel.

One journey down, just in time for another one to start!  Welcome to Fairbanks, AK/ Fort Wainwright!