Roadtrip to Alaska

SUMMER 2014 ALASKA ADVENTURE

WEDNESDAY JUNE 11th 2014 

Jesse and I loaded up his Subaru in Klamath before leaving for Springfield on the 11th of June. After getting it all packed and ready to go, we hit the road. Less than 5 miles later he says "I think my struts are shot... I knew about two years ago they might have been but I've just been too busy to fix it..." I'll skip the Megan dialog part... But lets just say after getting a quote of $450 to have it fixed, we went back to the house, unloaded his car and took my car to Springfield. We finally made it home to see our families that night.

The following day we went to my baby sisters 8th grade graduation, did some last minute shopping, had our going away party (THANK YOU to everyone one who came!), loaded my Honda, went grocery shopping and made it back to my parents house by 2am to get some sleep before we hit the road bright and early the next (well, same) day :)

FRIDAY JUNE 13TH 2014 

Due to the late night we didn't end up getting out of my parents house till 10am but we also were too tired to be in any hurry to care. Plus I was DREADING leaving Buddy behind.. :(

After the hard "See ya laters", we had the car loaded, bikes on the roof and hearts ready to begin making our way to Alaska :)

Portland, Oregon

It took us almost 10 hours just to get from Eugene through Seattle!! It was the worse traffic I have ever been in.



Seattle, Washington

More traffic....

The last town we entered in the United States till we got to Alaska:)

The BOARDER!! I had never left the country before this moment so it was a little more exciting for me than what might be considered normal... ;)

We turned off our phones before crossing the boarder to avoid any international fees. So once we crossed we were officially technology free which in America, means navigation free.. :/ Haha... Let me just tell you how lost we felt... We instantly went stupid without our phones for the first hour or so. It was truly pathetic. We got lost the second we got into Abbotsford (the town on the other side of the boarder). I think I was so excited to be in Canada and Jesse was talking with me that we weren't paying attention to the signs and missed the Highway 1 turn off. So after driving around the town for a half hour, where suddenly there were no street lights, the stop lights were just blinking green (whatever that means), and everything was now in kilometers.. we finally made it back to the 1 and continued on our way. I was reminded pretty quickly how to navigate with a real map :)

Because it took us so long to get to the boarder it was almost midnight by the time we got into Canada. Our goal was to make it to Cache Creek B.C. which at the boarder was still 140 miles away. Jesse was driving but pulled over after a while cause he was so tired. I began driving around 1am but after an hour I was so tired too I began hallucinating.. Literally. I thought I saw a little boy run out in the street in front of me so I slammed on my breaks which scared the living daylights out of Jesse. When he asked what the heck I was doing, I told him what I thought I saw and he said "PULL OVER! We're done for the night." Thankfully just a couple more miles up the road we found a rest stop and pulled over. We slept in the car that night. Seats straight up. We didn't think we were going to be able to sleep well at all because of that so figured we would catch a couple hours of rest and get back on the road. We didn't set any alarms though and next thing we knew it was 8am :) That's how I know how tired we were... However, I decided that night that I have watched way too many horror movies growing up and that movie producers need to stop making the movies be filmed at rest stops. Every time I closed my eyes, I opened them no more than 30 seconds later just to make sure no murderer was staring in my window at me!! ;) But really... 

SATURDAY JUNE 14TH 2014

The view we woke up to the next morning at the rest stop. 

Where we slept the first night. Now that it's over it feels even more adventurous to say "oh yeah, we just slept in our car.." :)

Beautiful canyon area we drove through.

Pull over to eat? Ha... Nope. This is how we roll :)

However that's not to say we didn't stop for coffee.. 

Oh Canada.. Oh Canada... That's what Jesse sang the whole way through... 

Chips ey? ;)

Prince George, British Columbia

This area is right before Smithers B.C. where the BIG mountains began to appear :)

US money... Canadian money...

Riverside campground. The only night the whole drive where we arrived in the early evening and had time to relax. It was so much needed! The campsite was only $17 and it came with showers, WiFi and free firewood! Plus the camp host was extremely nice and friendly. 

I'm so blessed to have him in my life ♥

SUNDAY JUNE 15TH 2014

All showered up and ready to hit the road the next morning :)

It's hard to tell but these were huge rapids!

Yes.. This sign is real.. :(

Turning onto the Cassiar Highway

FIRST BEAR SPOTTING!!!!! :)

Second bear :)

The exaggeration behind how rural everything is driving to Alaska is not as bad as what most people made it sound like.. Except... For one spot on the Cassiar Highway. We made it to each gas station but this one was cutting it close. All I was thinking was, "I hope those big trucks and motor homes brought their own gas can." We actually ran into a guy and his friend who was stopped on the side of the highway when we saw the second bear and then we saw him again at the next gas station but he didn't have his trailer or his friend this time. I guess he was running so low on gas they had to detach the trailer about 30 miles back and left his friend with it while he drove just the truck (running on fumes he said) to get gas.

Cute little old gas station :) And cute boy!! ;)

Right here is about when the muffler started getting super loud on my car. The crack you can see in this picture is all we thought it was.. Until we got to anchorage and fixed it..

Third bear! This one looked hungry.. Not one I would want to run into in the woods!

We weren't sure if these were wild horses or where they came from. A couple had bells on them but there was no one around and no houses/farms near by... They were just trotting down the highway though :)

Homemade burritos made in the car for dinner :)

Most of the Cassiar highway looked like this, with no street lines.

BEAUTIFUL lake we stopped at for a stretching break.

 ♥ ♥ ♥

These were the "small" pot holes in the road...

Ice cream time!!! :)

My favorite part of the whole drive starts here ♥

Not the best picture but I saw my first porcupine!! They're soooooo cute and they waddle like a duck :)

It was midnight at this point. And STILL light out! :) It's awesome!

This was the longest day we had in the car. 17 hours straight. We left Smithers around 9am and though our goal was the junction for the 1, we continued driving and made it right outside of Whitehorse a little after 2am. We couldn't find a tent campground in the area or close enough to us so we pulled over at a rest stop and slept in the car again.

MONDAY JUNE 16TH 2014 

Less than 300 miles away from the boarder of Alaska!! :)

Another bear!! This one was RIGHT off the road and didn't mind us at all. Just minding it's own business eating the plants :)

It was the most beautiful bear I've seen yet too! It's coat is so full, thick and clean looking.

About 20 miles from the Alaska, we decided to pull over in a little town to take showers.The bugs were horrendous on my bumper! At one point there was a full size dragon fly wedged in between my license plate and bumper.

Gravel roads.. The frost heaves on the Alaska highway are a little crazy too! Jesse was the one driving but he said it was like playing a video game having to dodge the pot holes and not hit the frost heaves hard! 

WE MADE IT TO ALASKA!!!!!! 

My little trouper :)

We were nervous to take her seeing as how she pooped out on us on our last road trip in Cali. However, the more Jesse and I talked about it on the way here, the more we realized that everything truly does happen for a reason and God was only looking out for us. At that point we had no idea we would be spending our summer in Alaska. If the timing belt wouldn't have broke in Cali, where there were many people and places around to help; it easily could have broke on our way here, on the highways where nothing and no one exists... Now, i'm not going to play the what if game but it is just a perfect example of even though "bad" things happen or things that we see as "bad" at the time, we always need to remember that we can't see the big picture. Only HE can and as crazy as it sounds I am so thankful my timing belt broke when it did! We were defiantly taken care of by an amazing mechanic and my family and it assured that my car was fully prepped and ready for this road trip:)

Matanuska Glacier

This was midnight in Palmer, Alaska! I LOVE the midnight sun :) 

We stayed in Anchorage that night and got some good rest before finishing our final 100 miles of our 2700 mile trip!

TUESDAY JUNE 17TH 2014 

For breakfast we went to this adorable little 50's diner where I tried reindeer sausage for the first time... Mmmmm!!! :)

 ♥

After breakfast we went shopping and then to Mari's house!! She is from Anchorage and without planning it we ended up here the same day! It was so nice to meet her family and see her here. Felt like a little piece of home here in Alaska with us :)

Jesse took me to the view point of Flat Top to oversee the city. I would love to hike that trail before I leave here!

I don't know what I would do without him! He is seriously my other half! Without him there is no way all this traveling that I do would go as smooth as it does or be as fun. We make a pretty good team:)

We originally thought it was just the hole in the bottom of the exhaust until we took it off and realized the whole side was rusted out! Ha :/

Beginning our final 100 miles! The turnagain arm:)

Jesse took a minor detour and took me to see Alyeska Resort.

I was sooooooo excited when I saw this sign! I couldn't believe after all the driving we did that we were finally on the peninsula!

This was the view I had as we pulled into Cooper Landing.. It could not have been a more perfect day. By the end of the night it truly all felt like a dream though. We drove soooo many miles in such a short period of time. It still doesn't feel real. I'll let you know if it ever does ♥