Alaskan Girl Trip

This summer we were able to purchase a truck and camper. The problem was that it was located in Anchorage 900 miles away. We were planning to wait several weeks for Ben to be able to go and pick up the truck but we started to feel impatient and I volunteered to go and get it. My friend Erin heard my bold statement and as I was beginning to think through my idea with some trepidation, she volunteered to go with me. What a friend!! As I was describing my adventure to my mother in law, (not one to be afraid of an adventure) she volunteered to come along as well. I now felt very excited to have a group come with me because honestly I think my show of bravery would have wilted quickly as I learned about the pitfalls that could befall me on the historic and rustic Al-Can Highway. We all flew to anchorage on a Monday evening. Then we spent the day in Anchorage and bought way too much stuff at Target and had a fun time eating dessert in the parking lot of an Outback Steakhouse. The next day, Erin, my friend Chris and I went to the temple. Then we were on our way (after we got a leak fixed on one of the tires.) The first day of our trip was beautiful. We drove through the mountains outside of Palmer and were amazed with the views. We'd stop every fews hours so that I could feed Haley and we would walk around the camper and stretch our legs.

And although we were in a camper with a bathroom, I didn't know how it worked and how to empty the holding tank so I became quite a toilet Nazi and made everyone do their business outside.

When the light began to fade we found one of the many pull off along the road and parked the rig and settled in for the night. We turned the generator on and popped some popcorn and watched a movie then fell asleep. The stars were beautiful that night.

The next day (Thursday) we got up and soon crossed the border into the Yukon of Canada. That was when the road got bad. There were not just pot holes, there were parts where the earth just heaved up or dropped out. This meant that for 4 or 5 hours, we didn't go more than 40 miles an hour. (Sometimes no more than 25 for long stretches). We finally got to Haines Junction and we had breakfast food for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We headed down to Haines for our early Friday morning ferry. We all took turns driving and had a great time. The camper is such fun. To be able to visit places and not have to have to worry about where to find a Hotel is very exciting. I plan on many more trips to come. Thank you ladies for coming with me and for the good memories of driving through the interior of Alaska.