He. Is. A. Freakin'. Champ!
Day 7--Cody, Wyoming to Great Falls, Montana (5 hrs 8 minutes = 310 miles)
*Beautiful yellow and pink flowers in the fields. Help us out---is this some type of crop flower?
*Walmart run in Great Falls at 915pm. Here's our selfie at 10pm that night! This "sunset at 955pm" thing isn't easy to adjust to!
Day 8--Great Falls, Montana to near Canmore, Alberta Canada (5 hrs 33 minutes drive time not including the 5 hours in Calgary = 356 miles)
*Had to ship Jeff's pistol back to TX. Our research was wrong and we didn't have the correct paperwork (which takes at least a week), so we had to call 1 of 3 places and pray they were open on a Saturday.
*Crossed into Canada (but didn't get a passport stamp 😢)
*Made an appointment for an oil change for the motorcoach in Calgary (didn't want to take a chance that we could push the limits on that and since we left Yellowstone early, it gave us a chance to take care of it without delaying our travels)
*The boys and I started a Farkle game that we decided to keep going until Valdez
*Went to downtown Calgary to find a very late lunch (330pm) and realized we'd never really taken our boys downtown to any large city before! I mean, we lived in Houston, but never took them downtown to anything besides an Astros game or the rodeo. They immediately noticed there was a lot of art, people everywhere, and asked lots of questions. That's what made us realize!
*Saw some of the MOST handsome policemen in downtown Calgary--wowza!
Day 9--near Canmore, Alberta Canada to Fort St. John, BC, Canada (time weird b/c we switched routes and took our time = 607 miles)
*Icefields Parkway (see other post).
*Gas/grocery/Starbucks stop.--saw the biggest yams we've ever seen!
*Boys were *forced* to start their summer reading novels--cue the excitement!
*Drove the Scenic Highway to Alaska
*Saw our first coal mine
*Got on the official Alaska Highway at Mile 0 (Dawson Creek, BC)
Day 10--Fort St. John, BC, Canada to Watson Lake, BC, Canada (9 hrs 46 minutes = 555 miles)
This was a relatively boring day. No one's mood was amazing but we kept pushing. Looking at the same thing for 10 hours gets old. The Alaska Highway is not highly traveled except for people like us, truckers, and a few locals. Although it was pretty, here's our view of a section hit by wildfire:
Finally, our luck changed! After about 4pm we began seeing animals! We think the sheep are called stone sheep because they luck some nutrients from the rocks. A bobcat jogged down the road in front of us. We saw 2 bison herds right off the road. And.....Jeff spotted 5 bears as the boys and I were playing Farkle!
Day 11--Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada to Beaver Creek, Yukon, Canada (9 hrs 39 minutes = 548 miles)
Another long day of not much. The Yukon is the least populated area of Canada so if we passed a community it only took a minute or two.
Watson Lake (where we stayed last night) is home to the Signpost Forest so we hit it before leaving. Riley was too comfy in bed so he missed it completely. Jeff remembered he had an old license plate for a work trailer inside the truck so we put our names on it and nailed it up!
The Signpost Forest and 5 brown bears were our excitement for the day!
The last 3 hours of our drive were on horrible roads. It definitely to look over 3 hours and our mental status drained quickly with every bump, dip, etc.
Day 12-Beaver Creek, Yukon, Canada to Valdez, Alaska (6 hrs 24 minutes = 362 miles)
We were dreading getting back on the horrible roads but we also REALLY wanted to get to Valdez at a good time so we could chill, settle in to our full hookups, do some laundry, etc.
As soon as we crossed into Alaska the roads got WAY better (until they were under construction or had "road damage".
Bridal Veil Falls on the way into Valdez
Prayers for continued safe travels!!! And ignore the same outer clothing....we do laundry daily in the coach and everything is clean!!!
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