Well... Today was the last day of our trip. 500 miles to go. All of us are tired and are ready to be in Anchorage. After a long enough period of vacation, it feels like its time to get on with life and that is what it feels like to me right now.
We are all somewhat sleepy because of our graveyard undertaking from the night before. Waking up at 6:00am to pack and leave was challenging. All of us did however survive and we pulled away from Dawson City around 7:30am with no casualties.
The first stop was the ferry. I suppose if you count this in your time estimate, we did not leave DC till close to 8:00 because we had to wait in line for the ferry to cross the Yukon River before we even left DC as this city is built on the banks of this famous Canadian (and Alaskan) river. Dad and I contemplated letting Willow swim across, but after a moment of screams and shrieks from the girls in the back seats, we decided to let him continue to ride in the car. (I may have taken some artistic liberties in describing what really happened with the rabbit).
After conquering the fierce river within nearly an inch of our lives (I'm taking more liberties) we hit a gravel road heading over miles of insurmountable mountain ranges:) Like I have said in the previous posts, the entire trip was fairly tame and any freedoms I have taken in writing this were purely for the entertainment of not only myself but also for you - the reader.
A hour and a half flew by on the Top of the World Highway (yes it is really called that) before we reached the border crossing. That drive was BEAUTIFUL. The highway gets it's name because it is above the treeline and drops off on both sides of the road, to deep valleys below. The cloud layer was down in the valleys so we were up in the sunshine. It took us a whole 10 minutes to give the guard our passports and be cleared to cross. No complications whatsoever. Fortunately for this fatigued family fleeing for freedom from ferocious Canadians, the road leaving the boarder was paved for about 14 miles. Unfortunately it was not paved all the way to civilization:(
Another two hours led us to Chicken, Alaska. (I'm not kidding about the name!) Apparently the miners coming through this town wanted to name it Ptarmigan, because there were an excess amount of these birds in this place, but did not know how to spell it, so... They named it Chicken instead. For a town with such a filthy creature for its name (some of you know quite well what I'm talking about) it was fairly sanitary. We had lunch at a tiny little diner that served, surprise, surprise - Chicken dishes! I had chicken pot pie and it was pretty good for food in a town of about 15 permanent residents. Chicken is the townsite of the popular book Tisha, and her cabin is on one of the tours you can take there. That was the one thing Mom wanted from our stop in Chicken but the only tour for the day was several hours away and we couldn't wait.
Like always though, we would have liked to spend more time in this quaint town, but, we had places to go and things to do. From Chicken on, the roads were paved. Don't get me wrong, they were paved, but I never said well. For the next 100 miles or so, the roads were full of pot holes, random sections of gravel, no guard rails, bumps, curves and overall just poor driving conditions. It was a sunny day with little traffic so the driving was fine and we did not sustain any big catastrophes. They only major setback we had, was when we opened the back of the trailer and found that a bottle of sauce had dumped all over the floor. By the time we arrived in Anchorage, later on, what had been a puddle in Chicken had been thrown about so much it now covers the inside of the trailer. Major delay it was, not:)
On down the highway we went, passing through Tok and the Glenallen - both tiny Alaskan towns. A few times we had to stop due to construction but other wise we were unobstructed. At one such stop we had Willow on a leash hopping around in the grass while waiting for the pilot car, and another pet owner also had the same idea. Problem was, it was dog, NOT on a leash. It was quite a spectacle to watch the rabbit hopping three feet in the air, Maycie pulling on the leash, the dog chasing the rabbit and the owner yelling for the dog. Not sure if the rabbit thought he was famous because even the dog was coming to see him or if he completely terrified with the extra attention. Either way, I thought it was humorous.
I also spotted a mother moose and her two calves but by the time we turned around to get a picture, all I caught was their rear ends as they retreated into the bushes. Do you still want the picture? Vote today and I'll post tomorrow if you guys do. Vote, vote, vote.
Hours later we came to Anchorage after listening to several Mad Libs that had end results such as Maycie writing creepy love letters to an unknown sweetheart, and attempts at teaching us how to talk and act like a pirate. By this time we were groping for entertainment or I never would have helped complete a Mad Lib. This was the day we wanted to push through and really do a lot of driving, and be sick of the car when we arrived.12 hours on the road and we were finally home!
Ferry
Paddle Wheeler
Dawson City from across the Yukon River
Top of the World Highway
Willow burrowing in Mairyn's soft mink throw
Top of the World Highway again
We found snow!
Border Crossing
Cabin at border
Well paved section of highway
Chicken in Chicken
Dredge
Glenn Highway coming into Anchorage
