On The Road To Alaska Day 9

Recap and update:

For those who just tuned in, we left Tucson AZ on Thursday May 15th traveling to Alaska, it’s now Friday May 23rd and we just arrived in Dawson Creek BC Canada some 2,326 miles later. We’ve driven through high winds, rain, some fog, overcast, and sickness to get here. We took an involuntary day off in McCammon ID due to stomach flu/food poisoning and a voluntary day off in St Mary MT to just rest and goof off.

What it looked like in St Mary the morning we left:

We crossed into Canada at the Piegon port of entry; it actually has taken longer to write about the event than the actual event took. Needless to say, the crossing was great. No weapons, smokes, or alcohol and we were granted entry.

We drove from St Mary MT to a little casino just outside of Whitecloud AB called Eagle River Casino. No, we didn’t enter the casino we just used their parking lot much like a couple other travelers did. We left the casino this morning (May 23rd) and after driving through Grande Prairie AB arrived here in Dawson Creek BC a little after 1 p.m. It’s been raining since St Mary with the temps in the mid to lower 40’s and absolutely no sun.

The plan is to stay here for a day and visit the sites. We’re in the “Mile 0 Campground” which is actually located at the 1 mile marker of the Alaskan Highway so technically we’re “on the way”. It’s still something like 1,400 miles to Fairbanks but a quick check of the weather shows a clearing with sunny skies and temps in the 60’s.

We’re both feeling great and looking forward to the next leg. Not too sure when the next update will be but we should be in Fairbanks June 1st.

See ya in Alaska!


Sandy & Don

On the road to Alaska! Day 7

There’s a lot of catching up to do…

We had said that we had experienced an uneventful day back in day 2 that was to change at the end of the following day. Saturday evening Don came down with a stomach flu which put us on the sidelines for 2 nights. Thankfully we had stopped at a rest area/ truck stop for the night and just stayed there until Monday morning. Guess it was a very wise move in leaving a day early! Monday we drove into Great Falls MT and treated ourselves to a hotel room and drove into St Mary MT Tuesday morning. We had decided to spend two nights here so we’re right on schedule.

After resting up Monday in Great Falls we drove the 178 miles (3 1/2 hours) to St Mary stopping first in Browning to visit the Museum Of The Planes Indians (great place to visit); while there we saw the folks that drive the old red tour buses into Glacier National Park undergo drivers training.

We arrived in St Mary early afternoon with temps in the 70’s with little to no wind. Last night we got rain, thunderstorms, and cold wind. Today the clouds are all around us with cold gusty winds with temps around 40 and gusts 35+.

We cross into Canada in the morning (Day 8) and should be in Dawson Creek Day 9 where we’ll do another update. So far we’ve traveled 1,572 miles from Tucson. Fuel is expensive but we’re getting better than planned fuel economy and paying less than budgeted.

The entire area is rich in history of both the Blackfoot Nation and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

We’re both feeling fine and looking forward to the next leg of the trip.

Thank you for all the email and support.....




Sandy & Don

On the road to Alaska Day 2

It’s the end of day two and we’ve seen temps ranging from 54 to 87 degrees. Total mileage from Tucson is 571 so we are getting closer to Alaska!

Drove 9 ½ hrs today which turns out about 2 hours longer than we anticipated. The original goal was to drive from Camp Verde to Jacobs Lake (North Rim Grand Canyon) only to find the camp ground closed til the 20th. We kept driving and are now sitting in Cedar City UT, across the street from a carnival where a bag of cotton candy is $3.00 (please don’t ask how we know).

So we’re 2 hours ahead of our informal schedule for tomorrow which should work out great as we plan on stopping at Cabalas tomorrow.

All in all an uneventful day which if you think about it is just what we wanted.

Next update will be from St Mary MT which we should get to Monday or Tuesday latest.

Kaibab Nat'l Forest

Vermillion Cliffs

Hope you enjoy the videos!

Sandy & Don