The Journey to Alaska {Days 13-16}

Whew, we finally made it to the last installment of these posts!

I took notes on my phone of the highlights of each day of traveling along the way to help me remember all the little details until I had the time to blog. I had a sneaky suspicion that 16 days of travel would all kind of blur together by the time it was all said and done. I was really diligent with my note-taking {and picture-taking!} until things got a little rough on the AlCan, so my notes completely stopped on Day #11 & the photos definitely started to dwindle as well. We'll see how much I can remember on my own!

On day #13 of our trip, we woke up in our Airbnb in Ft. Nelson that morning and couldn't get on the road fast enough.

To explain the picture below, you need some context. One of Shelby's favorite cereals is the brown sugar flavored Frosted Mini Wheats, but we haven't been able to find those in stores for about a year {or maybe longer?!} now. Well, on the previous night we stopped by the "grocery store" in Ft. Nelson, and we saw a variation of the brown sugar mini wheats...it was pretty exciting as all of the other options were very limited.

{Canadian temporary tattoos were one of Brady's prized souvenirs from this trip}

After a quick breakfast in our room, we hit the road! I would say for 95% of this trip, we were driving on a two lane divided highway. The AlCan was more of the same, just even more remote and in very poor conditions in parts.

We ended up finding a random campground to make a quick pit stop for lunch near Muncho Lake. The signage at the campground specifically indicated that day use was prohibited, but there literally had been nowhere else to stop. The scenery was beautiful, but it was very breezy & chilly by the water...and our rule-following selves got back in the car as fast as we could! 

Thankfully, we were able to use the campground's outhouse before continuing our drive. The fact that I used the word "thankfully" and "outhouse" in the same sentence is very telling of the AlCan. ;) The upside of the rest of the drive was lots of wildlife sightings!

We arrived in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory that evening, and there simply aren't adequate words to describe our stay in this town. This hotel was the worst of our trip. It reeked of cigarette smoke {even though we were in a non-smoking room}, and this was the only stop along our route from Texas to Alaska that didn't have enough bed space for us {we couldn't get an additional room either}. Thankfully we had our air mattresses, so we were able to make it work. The mosquitoes were UNREAL here. I have never seen anything like it. They were just swarming everywhere. We would get in our cars and close the doors as quickly as we could, and they would still be flying all over our car. There was a sketchy laundromat in the hotel {with random old couches & mattresses stored in it}, so we were able to catch up on our laundry. There was one Chinese restaurant in this "town" as well as a "restaurant" attached to a gas station called Tag's where we were able to eat dinner. The picture below is of Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, which kind of its claim to fame. People from all over the world bring signs from where they are from to proudly display. Apparently this started in 1942 by a homesick soldier from Danville, Illinois. The kids really wanted to get out & walk around to see all of the signs, but the mosquitoes {and my attitude} were too horrendous to let that happen. So we settled on a quick drive-by, and then we stopped at the Northern Lights Centre in town before calling it a night.

On Day #14, we were able to eat breakfast in our hotel restaurant {it hadn't been open the night before when we arrived} before starting our next leg of the drive. We filled our cars with gas and picked up some pre-packaged sandwiches from Tag's on our way out of Watson Lake. 

There was a random dock at Teslin Lake along the way around lunchtime with a couple of portapotties. We stopped here for lunch. Hadley & Brady had the best time playing on the dock. The view was amazing! In the picture below, we were trying to see how much Shelby had caught up to me in height! It's getting pretty close!

That evening we arrived in Whitehorse, and we had an Airbnb waiting for us.  Whitehorse was a much bigger town with restaurants and stores, and I cannot tell you how luxurious this one-night stay felt! Brady had his own bed and room for the first night of the trip in this Airbnb, and Derek & I had our own room, too! It was so nice to spread out and actually be able to relax. We had Domino's pizza delivered to us {we were in a town where food could be delivered again!!!} for dinner, and it seemed like the best meal of our lives. Then we went into town and loaded up on some groceries before calling it a night. We all slept so good! Oh, a random tidbit I just remembered! We hadn't been able to find Lunchables for the kids since we crossed into Canada, but since this grocery store was pretty nice and well-stocked we decided to ask just in case they might have them somewhere in the store we hadn't checked. This ended up being a very entertaining conversation for 2 reasons. #1 Canadians do not know what Lunchables are. Have you ever tried to explain a Lunchable to a person before?! It was too funny. #2 Once they finally understood what we were asking for, we heard our first authentic "Sorry about that" in a Canadian accent & it made my whole day!

On Day #15, we took advantage of our spacious Airbnb {with a laundry room!!!} and slept in. We got a slow start to our day, but we would eventually cross the border into Alaska!! The stretch of the drive between Deconstruction Bay in Yukon, Canada to Tok, Alaska was riddled with potholes. It was unreal. I think this was the worst driving conditions of the trip.

{Hadley loved getting all of the little newspapers at the Welcome Centers we passed along the way}

It felt so momentous to pull up to the international border to cross back into the United States again. It felt like the beginning of the end of this journey! We all thought it was so cool how the land was completely cleared along the border as far as the eye could see.

{the bench Hadley is standing on says "Alaska" on one side and "Yukon" on the other, so cool to be standing in two countries at once!}

We stayed in a treehouse in Tok, Alaska that evening, and it was the coolest place ever! Before checking into our treehouse, we stopped for dinner at the one & only restaurant in Tok called Fast Eddie's. I was a little apprehensive about what to expect since we had our fair share of less than pleasant dining experiences along the way, but our dinner was amazing! After a looong day of travel {my hunger + all of the potholes gave me the worst carsickness!}, it felt so good to sit down at a real restaurant and eat a good meal. We even got chocolate milkshakes to go for dessert, it felt like we were really living right!

The next morning was our sixteenth and FINAL day of our trip! We woke up in Tok, filled up with gas, and stopped off at a local handmade souvenir shop before heading to Palmer, Alaska, which would be our final stop {for the time being} of this journey! I purchased an ornament that said "I Survived the Alaska Highway," and it just couldn't have been more perfect. I typically think things that say "I Survived ____" are kind of chintzy and laughable, but I felt like we legit earned that ornament! ;) 

We thought road conditions might improve somewhat once we crossed onto American soil again, but we were wrong! The views were spectacular despite the plentiful potholes.

And that was it! We did it! Sixteen long days of driving took us 4,000 miles from Texas to New Mexico to Colorado to Wyoming to Montana to Alberta to British Columbia to Yukon Territory to Alaska with stops at 7 national parks along the way. I don't think we had any idea just how arduous that trek {ahem, we're looking at you Western Canada!} would be, but we honestly couldn't have asked for anything better. Logistically, the trip went off without a single hitch. Derek had this trip planned to a T, and it went so smoothly as a result. We were blessed with amazing weather, zero car troubles {Praise God! Derek got a nail in his tire in Yellowstone & a little nick in his windshield, but considering how far we went and how much weight we were hauling...that seems like nothing short of a miracle!}, and ideal traffic & road conditions {considering the circumstances, ha! There had actually been a mudslide and part of the Alcan had completely washed out about 2 weeks before our trip closing a large section of the road. Thankfully, that was completely resolved before we were on our way}. I'm not sure you'll ever be able to convince us to brave the AlCan again, but we did it! And our kids were amazing from start to finish. I think this trip is something we will remember & talk about for the rest of our lives.