Our Journey from Alaska to Texas Begins!

On July 9th, we began our journey from Alaska back to Texas. Derek expertly planned our route & all of our stops along the way, and so far everything has gone so smoothly! The mission of our first leg of the trip was to get through Canada as quickly as possible, ha! The Alcan was the longest/most arduous & primitive stretch of our journey three years ago, so we tried to expedite it this time around! While it is a hard part of the drive, the scenery is absolutely stunning!

There are many stretches of the Alcan that are completely unpaved & unmarked..and where it is paved, you can expect potholes. ;) There were several sections of the Alcan under construction as well, so lots of the drive was slow-going. At one point we had to follow a pilot car {for only one-way traffic} for sixteen miles! The Alcan is quite the adventure!

{there is no cell phone reception or even a radio signal for almost the entirety of the Alcan, so we use walkie talkies to communicate between cars and listen to lots of audiobooks/downloaded music}

We had lots of wildlife sightings along the Alcan--free roaming horses, elk, and bison.

We tried to switch up some of the towns we stayed at along the Alcan this time around to improve our overall experience. So we drove straight through Watson Lake this time around & stayed at Muncho Lake. Muncho Lake was gorgeous and our accommodations were 1000% better..but still soooo many mosquitoes! I have never seen more mosquitoes in my life than when we stayed at Watson Lake though, so this was still a vast improvement!

{Muncho Lake, British Columbia}

We got to eat dinner at a McDonald's in Fort Saint John & we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express with a pool and water slide....we felt like we were really living large on the Alcan!!!

Whenever we stayed in a hotel with a fitness center, the kids set an alarm for 7 to work out/allow Shelby to run on the treadmill before breakfast. It helped us get our mornings started so we could get on the road at a good time each day!

{our hotel in Prince George, British Columbia had a piano in the lobby, which Shelby thoroughly enjoyed!}

{I haven't filled a gas tank or cleaned a windshield a single time on this trip yet!}

We were incredibly delighted to find our beloved Alaskan Franz sandwich bread at a grocery store in Washington. This may seem wildly random & insignificant, but each time we move finding our new regular sandwich bread is an ordeal for us. We love-love-loved Franz bread in Alaska, and we were genuinely sad about not being able to have it anymore! So this was a really happy find on the first night we had crossed the border out of Canada!

Another highlight of re-entering the lower 48: Panera!

{we had a picnic lunch one day in Hope, British Columbia...it was the cutest little town}

{picnic lunch at McLeese Lake, British Columbia}

We stayed one night in Kamloops, British Columbia, which wasn't on our route three years ago. It felt and looked a lot like Vegas or New Mexico to us--it was beautiful and so unlike any other part of Canada's topography & landscape that we drove through. Unfortunately, I got exactly zero pictures of Kamloops. ;) 

On July 16th, we crossed the border out of Canada. We have now crossed the Canada/USA border four times, and on not one single occasion were we verbally welcomed into the USA or Canada by the border agent. I feel like these people are really missing the mark!! But nonetheless, we were thrilled to be back in the lower 48! As soon as we crossed the border, Shelby said "I forgot how big the sky is!" And she was so right, going through the Alcan the mountains are always right out your window...and suddenly the sky kind of opens up as the mountains fade into the background in Washington.