Alaska Highway Deja Vu

So here we are again, about to leave on a journey across Canada.  This time though, we're going back to the lower 48 from Alaska.  It's almost exactly one year to the day from when we first rolled in to town (April 1st, 2015).  We didn't think we'd be leaving here so soon.  It's kind of a bummer, because AK is an absolutely amazing place and there is so much that we didn't even scratch the surface of doing up here.  But I am fortunate to be one of the lucky ones who got reassigned instead of laid off when our project up here was shut down.  So it's hard to be too bummed, knowing the alternative was unemployment.

Our next adventure will be moving the whole crew down to our new homestead in Rogers, Ohio.  It's cool that we know a little bit of what to expect on the trip this time.  It takes some of the pressure off and we also know a few places we definitely want to allow some time to visit (Liard Hot Springs!!).  However, there are a couple of important differences between this trip and the last.  Other than the obvious North-to-South direction,

1. We will be driving 2 vehicles and pulling 2 trailers
2. We will have the horses the whole way, not just half

The two vehicles thing is going to be a big deal.  We won't be able to switch drivers if we get tired, I won't be able to read the guidebook & plan our next stop while we're on the road, and I don't have a lot of confidence pulling a trailer.  Our progress will probably be a lot slower this time because of all that.  But that's what makes it an adventure, right??  

I've been sitting in our former bedroom all day going over the Milepost guidebook and sending emails.  All of our stuff is gone so it's just me on the floor with my laptop and a few sleeping bags.  We've been sleeping on the floor the last 2 nights.  I think I've made some progress though.  The rough outline of our Alcan stops is looking like this:

Palmer, AK --> Tok, AK --> Beaver Creek, YT --> Whitehorse, YT --> Watson Lake, YT --> Fort Nelson, BC --> Dawson Creek, BC

Subject to change based on our rate of progress and/or finding something cool to stop at along the way.  Any suggestions??

Alaska Highway, Part 4: Back in the U S of A!

So as many of you may have already guessed, we did in fact make it to Alaska.  We've been making the most of our first Alaskan summer, which means I haven't been sitting at my computer very much.  But before we get to what's going on here, the rest of the journey story:

Monday morning we packed up our little traveling circus and left Whitehorse.  As we made our way through the Yukon, the scenery got better and the roads got worse.  We were traveling around 25 mph for much of the day.  It was tough on the truck, tough on the horses, and tough on Rich.  We were also starting to get nervous about the border crossing.  We had all our paperwork in order- vet certificates, Coggins tests, rabies shot records, bills of sale for the horses- but with that many moving parts, who knows what could happen.  And as we found out in Portal, North Dakota, the rules don't necessarily matter depending on which border guard you get and how their day happens to be going.

We had heard that the roads would improve once we crossed the border so we were definitely looking forward to that.  When we approached the border crossing, we first had to stop at a zillion-foot-high tower where the guard had to shout down to us.  We gave him our passports, answered his questions (I had to get out of the truck, for him to watch me I guess?  Make sure our stories matched?  I just remember it was cold).  He said we had to go talk to someone else.  "Here we go", we thought.  We pulled up to another zillion-foot-high tower, this time with a female border agent.  When we told her we were moving to Alaska, her face lit up and she got all excited for us.  She was telling us how she had just moved there not long before, she loved it, and welcome to the state, and all that.  She saw the dogs and asked for their paperwork.  We handed her the folder, she glanced over it, handed it back, told us again that she was happy for us and best of luck, and.... that was it.

Wait, really?  That's all?  Like, we can go now?  She didn't even ask about the horses.  Their window was on the other side of the trailer, so she probably didn't even know we HAD horses!  A positive, upbeat, welcoming SHORT conversation with the border agent wasn't exactly what we had expected.  But we weren't going to stick around and let them change their minds!  We hightailed it outta there and got back on the road.

Back in the USA!  Where the road signs are in miles and gas is sold by the gallon!  We had already gone farther than we thought we would that day and I was trying to find a good place for us to stop.  There's really not much going on in that part of Alaska though so options were limited.  The best chance was to go to Tok, which is a decently sized town but was also another few hours away.  Rich said he could make it, and we didn't have much other choice, so onward to Tok it was.

Now that I could use my phone again, I called ahead to a BB&B I had read about in one of our brochures.  The ad said they were closed in wintertime but again, not much choice.  The lady answered and was really nice.  She said their cabins were closed but we were welcome to park the trailer in front of the barn & the horses could stay in the pasture.  Perfect!

Tok was another town that I would've liked to explore if we had had more time.  That was definitely out of the question at this point though.  Everyone was exhausted and a little stir-crazy.  The BB&B was pretty easy to find.  It was a little eerie pulling up to the cabins all covered with snow and looking abandoned.  The owner and her husband pulled in a few minutes later and showed us around.  We were welcome to use the bathroom in the barn which at that point felt extremely luxurious (Running water! Toilet!  HOT water!!).  The turnout area for the horses was a decent size, in good shape, and they had access to a run-in stall in the barn.  There seemed to be a difference of opinion among her horses as to whether these two interlopers should be allowed to stay in the paddock adjacent to theirs.  But after a few minutes of tough talk (and Stormy pretending to be manly) everyone settled down.  We ran an extension cord to the barn for our heater (another luxury!) and everyone turned in for the night.

Next day, back on the road.  We were so close now we could almost smell it.  There was a decision to make- do we go all the way to Palmer today (our destination!), or do we stop one more time?  We were borderline between one long day to Palmer or two short days with a stop.  We were still traveling pretty slowly- the roads had improved but not a lot- so we decided to play it safe and make a stop in Glennallen.  The plus side was that we got there early enough to have a decent meal and figure out accommodations.  Turns out it was a good thing we got there early, because it took a long time and a lot of effort to figure out where to stay.  There were no BB&B accommodations that we could find, so I asked someone working at the gas station if they knew of a place.  That started a whole chain of she knew a guy, who knew a guy, who couldn't reach that guy but had heard that someone else in town might be able to help, who couldn't but she referred us to someone else, and on and on.  By the end it seemed like the whole town was trying to help us.  I was starting to get really nervous because nothing was panning out and at this point it was too late to get back on the road to get to Palmer.  Not to mention the fact that we didn't even know where we were going to stay when we got there- the deal on the house hadn't closed yet and we didn't even know if they were still living there or not.

What followed was easily the most "creative" solution of the whole trip.  Even more so than the makeshift paddock in Fireside.  Instead of a few trucks, the trailer, and some plywood, this enclosure consisted of the truck, trailer, some trees, a snowbank, and a bunch of ratchet straps in the back corner of the school bus barn parking lot.  Oh yes we did.

It didn't give the horses a ton of room, but they could walk around a little and at least they were out of the trailer.  They seemed fine with that deal.  And with that, we spend our last night on the road.  Huge thank yous to everyone in Glennallen who helped us out.  We'd only been in Alaska for a day and already we were experiencing the helpfulness and "we're in this together" mentality of Alaskans.  Pretty nice welcome.

And then, finally, on April 1st 2015 we rolled in to Palmer, AK.  "Alaska Highway" adventure- complete!  "Living in Alaska" adventure- let's get started!