March 5, 2009

We got into the United States on Monday and were greeted with wide open highways where it all came together. We made excellent time from there stopping in Springfield, IL to see Aunt Sue (Dad’s oldest and wisest sister). We completed the 4,289 mile / 75 hours drive arriving into Wakefield, Ohio at 2145 (945) on Thursday night.

Dad isn’t one to stop except for gas so before we left Alaska I purchased a lot of caffeine drinks and made sandwiches to sustain us on our trip. The following is just what I kept track of: 15 ham sandwiches, 14 turkey sandwiches, 18 24oz Monsters (sugar free), 4 24oz Rock Stars (sugar free), 6 Red Bulls (sugar free), and numerous cups of coffee.

Thanks for all the emails and questions and following along on our little adventure. Here in a few hours Scarlett and I drive to TN for a baptism on Saturday and then were off to Nolan Lake in Kentucky to meet up with family at Gale (Dad’s youngest sister) and Steve’s Lake House. Scarlett and I should be back to Ohio on Sunday Night to visit with more family until the following Sunday when we will head back to “Mother” Rucker for the next 3 months. Keep this blogsite address and check it from time to time for updates.
The complete trip

Dad, Sally, and I

Sue's baby, "Bob"

Aunt Sue

Day 3-4

How to start things; Well, the intent was to drive from Fort Wainwright, Alaska to Wakefield, Ohio without driving any more that 600 miles a day ( 12 hours of driving ) and completing the drive in 9 days. Well as dad and I were getting closer to Edmonton, Canada I decided to call “My Love” and tell her about my day. What I intended to be a 2 minute phone call with nothing but good intentions became a long day. Long story short (the way dad and I understood) we needed to be in Wakefield by Friday morning supposed to Sunday evening. After the conversation I hung up the phone, a little perturbed, later to find out that dad had already adjusted the route in his head. We were supposed to stop in Edmonton ( 648 miles 11 hours and 24 minutes )but in actuality we just stopped our drive in Saint Joseph, MO ( 2,356 miles 1 day 13 hours and 48 minutes )
The drive: Dad and I went out to the car at Fort Nelson and look everything over and discovered that we needed to add some antifreeze and then we were on our way. Within a few minutes of the drive the roads were covered in a fresh layer of snow which didn’t bother me since dad was driving the first few hours. In the few days that dad and I have been driving we have found that we both are excellent drivers but are having hard times watching each other drive. Dad seems to be pedal to the medal at all times and I seem to be the cautious one since he already used our first life line in Canada with the Statey. Since being in the United States I consider the slate to be clean and my driving speeds have increased. My personal technique is to just pull my hat over my eyes and try to not watch the road while catching up on sleep while dad is driving. We started out changing out every two hours but later refined by now changing out at every fill up giving us both about 3 hours of driving or 290 miles per turn. Once we left Fort Nelson the roads were covered in snow but everything from there became pretty boring with not much sites to be seen and we didn’t see another animal until Montanna.
Tomorrow we are departing the hotel when we wake up to meet up with Dad’s sister and my aunt, “Sue” for lunch and then we will depart to Wakefield arriving in the late night.

The start of our day

But what a view

Roads were a solid sheet of ice

Day 3-4 continued

Road Conditions

Canada view

Canada view

Canada Roads

Montanna Sunrise

Day 3-4 continued...

View of Montanna from a car window

Sunrise

Little Bighorn

Montanna Deer, we don't know the real name.

Dad and I have found that wearing ear plugs and my flight helmet not only eliminates all sound but also the shade keeps the light our of our eyes for power naps. This is a picture of dad ready for the drive, no joke, it works.

Caribou

Day 2

Arrival at Fort Nelson was a success. All and all everything was smooth sailing with an on time departure time of 0700. Within the first 10 miles we seen our first four moose and once I was able to get dad to slow down to let me get out to take a picture I found it was still a little early (dark) to be taking pictures. Dad is very motivated early in the morning, so motivated we were pulled over in the 1st hour by an Canadian State Trooper (A) for going what we were told at least 25 kph over the speed limit. Luckily we were given a warning and we were on our way. The total trip took was about 602 miles with a drive time of 11 hours. The roads were good all in all with a few ice patches but mostly well scraped up from the city trucks. Were now staying at a hotel called the Woodlands Inn at Fort Nelson, Canada; and the internet is even slower here than it was in Iraq so uploading pictures seems almost impossible. I have 10 pictures set aside for me to post throughout the night and worse case if I can’t post them then I will take care of it at our next stop. Along the trip we saw 5 moose, 54 wild buffalo, and amazing views. Day three’s route will take us from Fort Nelson to Edmonton; it’s about a 611 mile truck and I figure will take us another 11 and half hours to complete.

Day three's route

1 hour into day twos route, dads run in with Canadian State Troopers. I thought all was going well with the officer until dad started disagreeing with him on how fast he was going. Thank goodness he gave us a warning. Feel free to click on any pictures for close ups.

another road view

Usually every hundred miles or so you will see a sign to a gas station and think, "Great, I can use some gas" to come and find that the store is closed for the season and the next hopefull station is another 100 kilometers. We've made it a habit to stop at the next gas station when we are at half tank. The highest we've seen gas so far was at our last stop in Canada; $1.90 a liter.

Day 2 continued

Driving around a lake

Beautiful view

Three buffalo just sleeping next to the road

Driving into the valley

Sunset

Day 2 continued

This was the best view he was going to give me.

Caribou on the road ahead

Unfortunately this was the best I could do with a moose picture

Early morning view of the road ahead

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

Day 1 continued

What the roads look like

picture of the mountains and lake along the road

Up close and personal.

Another picture while driving.

Day twos agenda.

February 27, 2009

For those of you that may not know; my father and I are about to take the adventurous trip from Fairbanks, Alaska to Piketon, Ohio. I’ll be updating this site after each day of driving and let all of you know what is going on from day to day. Along the way I’ll be including pictures as well of what we see along the way with what I can best remember of the drive. Dad arrived in Fairbanks today at 0100 with snow showers and warm temperature of 19 degrees. Today we’ve been out-processing / clearing Fort Wainwright and if all goes well leave around 0700 tomorrow morning ( Friday, 27th ) for Whitehorse, YT, Canada. If there are questions feel free to send them to my email ( tonysiraqemail@gmail.com )and I’ll try to answer them at our next stop. Also, please feel free to send this link to all that would want to follow along. Weather is telling us that the temperature will be around 10 degrees F so that shouldn’t be all that bad with the temps warming up throughout ( 17 degrees F, woo hoo ). The route looks to be 601 miles with a total en-route time of 11 hours and 46 minutes.

Above is "Day 1" driving agenda. 601 miles and 11 hours and 46 minutes

Dad sitting on the couch watching Babylon A.D.

This is a view from our hotel window.

Kristen Blakes Butt....

Game on....

.

Strider at -40 below on his potty break

Ice Fishing 2008

Well I can truthfully say that Scarlett and I have attempted to do everything Alaska has to offer and Ice fishing was last on our list. So to accomplish this small feat this is what we did. First you should know Scarlett and I have never done anything like this and of course we didn’t really put as much thought into it as we should have. We started with going to the military recreation center and picking up our gear on Wednesday, for our Saturday Ice Fishing Trip. These are the items we picked up: Key (I’ll mention more later) to the ice hut, bucket, 5 fishing poles, gas powered ice drill, and ice spoon totaling $65. Then we went to Wal-Mart and purchased our other needed items: bait, fire logs, hooks, weights, lighter, and fishing licenses totaling $65. Once Saturday came along we slept in, as usual to about 10 a.m. (hey it’s the weekend), watched some T.V., and then Scarlett started getting ready around 12. We left at 1 p.m. for our one hour drive to Birch Lake.

Striders ears started getting cold so what does any loving wife do (she takes my hat off and puts it on the dog)

Continued

Arriving at Birch Lake
Well this is where the putting not much thought into the whole process starts showing up. We set out to find our ice hut, the good old guys at the rec center gave us a number 1 key and you would think that all the huts would be numbered in big numbers 1, 2, 3 etc. but noooooo. Our ice hut was actually numbered F174, along with every other hut, 20 were spread out on the lake. This is a picture of Scarlett walking back from her search for the right hut.

She is still walking and she's saying "Don't! as in Don't take a picture cause she aint happy!"

A picture of the some of the shacks, huts, whatever you want to call it.

Here is our $65 Ice Hut, located at around 3:20. I suppose this is a good time to say Sunrise is 1058 a.m. and sunset is 2:47 p.m. Sooooo, basically we stayed home and watched the tube at the best time or better say, “warmest time” of the day, arriving at our hut 33 minutes after the sun had set.