Day 1

Hello All. Dad and I made it safe and sound to Whitehorse, Canada and pretty much on Schedule as well. I’ll try to describe the day as best I can. Things started off with dad making coffee at 0400 in the morning, he felt the need to wake me up since he couldn’t sleep and I kindly let him know that I wasn’t getting out of bed until 0530 at the earliest. Sooo, he woke me up again at 0525 and I broke down and gave in. Prior to going to bed we had checked the weather channel and was expecting about an inch of snow on the ground but came to find at least three when loading the vehicle. We started our drive at 0700 as we hope to do everyday while here. The drive took exactly what we had palled at 11 hours and 46 minutes. We stopped three times for gas and each time the mileage was averaging 30 mpg which surprised us both. The roads started out with fresh snow on the ground and about 100 miles out from Fairbanks cleared up nicely. The drive was pretty standard with only a few funny moment; one being when arriving at the Canadian border ( pretty much a drive in window ) and was asked for our idea and where we were coming from. Without hesitation I said, “Alaska” and before I could correct myself she gave me the ( Carlos Mencia look, de, de, deeeee or for you old timers Jeff Foxworthy if I were a redneck ) and then after correcting and getting things back online again she handed us our passports and then said have a great day. Of coarse I then screwed that up and said, “Wow, that’s it!” and she said, “Do you want to pool in an have me search your car?) Well, continuing on… Once on Canadian roads things got a bit interesting, the city/state people use a special snow plow that not only pushes the snow to the side but also cuts grooves into the snow as well. Well the snow then freezes with the groves and with Sallies (my car) 14 inch wheels the car seems to never feel secure on the road but all over the place. In total dad and I drank a total of 2 Rockstars and 4 monsters with our periodic coffee’s. Along the ride we seen 4 Caribou, 2 Moose, Hawk, Fox, and one unknown crossing the road. Tomorrow the temps are supposed to be at the low -4 degrees and with a high of 14 degrees; woo hoo. Take care all and will talk at you tomorrow.

What Sallie looked like after I cleaned her off and packed for the ride.

We stopped at the North Pole to fill up our first tank of gas.

Picture of the road as we drove.

Some Caribou