Snags

Messing around at the home store of Cabelas

Canola fields covered the Canadian landscape for the
first two days of the trip.

We made it into Alaska last night!!  Overall, the trip has gone very smoothly, but we’ve hit our share of snags along the way.  Mike drove most of the first day because our trailer wanted to get very squirrelly on us.  We tried to avoid packing much in the front of the trailer because that’s where the Harley is and we definitely can’t risk getting a scratch on it.  After the trailer trying to drive us, we had to flirt with disaster and rearrange to move more weight to the front of the trailer.  So, between shifting weight, finding room for our Cabelas purchases (we stopped by the home store on our way through Nebraska - suggested by me because I am an awesome wife!), and digging for stuff at the Canadian border, we’ve rearranged the trailer three times since leaving the house.



We also lost our trailer brakes for a day - during which I was forced to drive the lake of death.  We hit a really big bump in the road that bounced the trailer enough to pull lose and/or cut the wires to 3 of the 4 wheels on the trailer.  But we are the ultimate do-it-yourselfers so we have the skills to do those repairs on the fly - and I am small enough to fit under the trailer.  That proved to be very useful, even if it’s not really a skill.  So with some contortionist maneuvering and some electrical tape from our hotel owner we were able to get the brakes working before we hit the really big mountain driving - particularly the cliff of death.



We’ve had a few technical difficulties along the trip too.  My IPad isn’t communicating with the blog well, so I’ll have to wait to load pictures and I won’t even get started on auto correct.  We also lost use of our cell phones in Canada.  This made getting reservations in Canada a little more difficult, but we had built in WiFi in the truck . . . until we didn’t.  We eventually lost our Onstar satellite signal.  Fortunately I was able to get most of our rooms reserved through the internet or e-mail before we lost satellite signal.  We weren’t able to get a room on our last night before Anchorage, though, so we had to make use of our little sleeping quarters in the truck.

Despite our snags, I’m still agreeing with myself that driving is more pleasant than flying. And I say that after having the extremely traumatizing experience of using a port-a-potty for the first time (I knew I should have risked an indescent exposure charge and gone to the bushes out back).  We got to visit the Cabelas home store, which is like a life goal for my husband.  They did not search our vehicles at the Canadian border and we found the items they wanted without unpacking everything.  Unlike our last trip, we got a room in a really nice place in Watson Lake with the friendliest owners.  We’ve played leap frog with and met some really nice people along the highway.  And we couldn’t find a room last night so we had to spend it camped out in the truck in our mini lap of luxury.  That might seem like a snag for some, but it will probably end up being my favorite part of this entire trip.

 

Pipeline running across the river

 

This is a bridge, that is a metal grate as the "road", and yes,

you can seethe water through it as you drive across!

Bison - he was shy, or a snob.  Either way he wouldn't look at us.



Like Johnny Horton - we crossed the Yukon River!

This is the mama lake of death (I got to drive the scary
part so no pictures of that section).  One of the towns along
this never-ending lake is Destruction Bay, named as a result
of all the damage done by the winds this lake generates.

Why are there no guard rails?!