Through Canada

We came into Canada late last night (it was so dark I didn't get a picture of the sign so I had to borrow on from the internet as well as the Dawson Creek sign). The plan had been to camp out at Hell's Gate and catch the airtram to over look the river. However, the tram is closed for the season and won't open until this Friday!! So close but we will have to be in Anchorage this Friday so we won't get to see the Gate. We continued driving until we got to the next town then camped out.

The drive today has been very interesting. We have crossed under and over trains and passed old buildings cemetary and bridges.

S was very interested in machine. Coming off a mountain curve we caught sight of construction up the road. The only thing that was in the road was this contraption. The pictures are alittle difficult to follow however it is all the same machine. The frist part eats the road the middle melts it down and the end repaves it. It moves along atthe pace of a snail but did the whole half of the road at once. Figured the guys might find that interesting. It reminds me of the contraption on Cars.

The higher up we went the more snow and ice we also saw. The frozen lakes and half frozen streams were the best. They looked like frozen winter lands!!

HI! We couldn't resist this little pullout with a trail next to a half frozen river. There was a flock of ducks that flew in and then back out as we were leaving the river.

S also made the first snow angel!! Thats his snow angel next to it incase you can't tell :)

As the battery was dieing on the camara we saw an amazing rainbow in a circle over a pond. It wasn't the normal arch of a rainbow and the skies weren't overcast so it really surprising to look up and see it. The camara didn't do a very good job of capturing it however in the middle of the picture is a vertical line that was a part of the rainbow. Another arch went around the other side of the sun.

The sun didn't set until after 9 casting a beautiful twlight over the mountains.

We are now in Dawson Creek British Columbia, Canada. We are staying the night here then hitting the road on the Alcan. We have approximately 1800miles from Dawson Creek to Anchorage and hopefully will be there by Friday. The journey will take us down highways 1 and 2 through Toad River and finally Tok at the boarder. It has felt like we are making much slower process since being in Canada. Between the mountains and having to translate Kilometers into miles it is starting to feel like we are taking forever. Friday will be here berfore we know it and we will get to see the girls again!!

Into Canada

We have completed our trip through the "lower 48". We will be entering Canada through a town called Sumus, around midnight tonight and sleeping at Hells Gate to catch a tram in the morning. Washington has been a beautiful state to finish this portion of our trip with.

There were more georgous snow covered mountains, waterfalls and even our first ski resort, at least that still had snow on it. We haven't seen as much wildlife just mountains and snow.



Coming into Seattle we had several interesting tunnels. The city actaully surprised me as I wasn't expecting it to be so pretty. I've always just heard about the rain and fog. It was pretty clear when we drove through with the sun just starting to set.



We had wanted to have dinner at the space needle and check out the historic fish market. However with the size of the truck and not knowing our way around we opted to just keep driving. Maybe one day we can take a trip just to check out the city.

Tonight we drive to Hell's Gate, which is a river with a tram over it that S insist I experience. This will be our first sightseeing spot since leaving Las Vegas. After leaving Hell's Gate we will take Canada highway 1 up to Dawson Creek. Hopefully, we will be there early tomorrow evening and can get a good night rest before starting the real adventure.

24 hours of Driving

We have been on the road just over 24 hours now since leaving Las Vegas yesterday morning. We have made it through three states and are almost to Washington which will be our last state before crossing into Canada. We reached Utah just before supper yesterday.

The views were gorgeous with snow covered mountains that followed the road.

There were a few times that we weren’t sure how the road cut a path through the mountains, so we took turns guessing where we would pass through. Even with the snow it hasn’t been that cold. When we stopped for supper we decided it was probably right around 60degrees. It was a little chilly but with a jacket on it wasn’t bad.

We had hoped to have supper with one of S friends from junior high, however he was sick and couldn’t make it. We did eat with his friend’s parents though who were able to catch S up on how things had been going. His friend also has two children now close to age of our girls. It is also neat to me, when friends grow up and have kids at the same time.

Leaving Salt Lake City we took a slight detour through Brigham City, which is where S and his friend lived when they were younger. S showed me some areas that he remembered from his childhood and areas that had changed drastically over the years.

We reached Idaho around midnight last night.

S woke me up in time to take the picture of the sign however with as dark as it was I missed all the scenery and slept through most of the state. We stopped around 5am just outside of Boise. Scott got a few hours of sleep and by the time the sun started coming through the windows in the van we were awake again and getting ready to hit the road. We were only about 45min from the state line.

Oregon has had the same beautiful snow covered mountain views.


We have seen more livestock wandering free range across the mountains. There have been peaceful lakes on top of mountains and old buildings that are starting to fall apart.

As I started this post S even got my attention and I almost missed a herd of horses that were running across the mountain next to us. The pictures didn’t quite capture them jumping and running as well as I would have liked but I was in a hurry to just get some pictures before they passed.

You can almost see the white finishing a jump.

Then one of the brown ones was starting a jump. Trees blocked my view after that.

We just passed a sign that said, “45th parallel, half point between the equator and north pole.” I wish I had gotten a picture but I was typing. So we are still in Oregon about 7hours from Seattle. We still haven’t decided if we will stop there for the night or try to continue on to Dawson Creek, Canada. Dawson Creek should be just over 800miles or about 13hours from Seattle.

On the Road Again

We started the second leg of our trip this morning and I can't get the song "On the Road again" out of my head!! We had a couple of relaxing days with my sister-in-law at their house in Las Vegas. I know most would not consider a house with 12 people (6 of whom are under the age of 5) to be very relaxing, however, I can do family, meals and visiting. Sitting in the car for hours on end stresses me more. I think its the boredom that gets to me as well as the cramped position, which makes me want to sleep which makes S pick on me for missing the trip!! Its just a vicious cycle!

So the last few days have been very busy. Thursday night after Chuck E Cheese B took her first steps!! I was worried I wouldn't be there when she did it. Even though the first step was to Aunt D (:P) She did take 3 steps to me.

Yesterday was our last full day with the family so we took the opportunity to take some family pictures. I didn't realize how big this side of the family was until I looked at the pictures.

B didn't like the feel of the grass on her knees so she did the Mogli crawl and it was just too cute not to share!

After the pictures my sister-in-law and her husband took the opportunity to go on a date and spend some time together since they will most likely not get another chance next week with so many kids in the house. So S and I took the opportunity to give the older kids extra dessert.

We stopped by a Cheesecake Factory on the way back from taking pictures and picked up a pie. Our oldest nephew was allowed to have as much as he wanted.

OK, so he didn't really eat that BIG slice and S may have helped him with the icing on the face. His parents have taught him very well and he informed Uncle S that too much pie would make him sick to his stomach so he only wanted a little piece. So much for spoiling him, he's too smart for that!

This morning we said our goodbyes and played with the kids one last time. They had a blast turning Uncle S into a porcupine.

Our girls were much clingier than they were when we left Ga. B even had a serious temper tantrum and A started trying to bite the other kids. It amazes me how much even little kids pick up on things. This also made leaving this time much harder than when we left Ga. Hopefully we will make Anchorage in record time and may be able to move their flight up!! Until then we will be praying they behave and we have a safe swift journey.

Finally Here!!

We made Nevada and my sister-in-laws at lunch time yesterday. It seemed to take forever to get through the rest of New Mexico, which is a very wide state. However we made Arizona late Tuesday night then stopped very early in the morning Wednesday to get a little sleep before finishing the trip to Nevada.

When we got up we saw our first snow fall of the trip. We had been driving through some hills and small mountains but we haven't really made it to the Rocky's yet, those we will probably hit after leaving my sister-in-laws.

The mountains and snow that we saw first were from the Kaibab National Forest. The picture didn't really catch how pretty the forest was. It looked more like something that would be in a book or something with just a light blanket of snow around the trees. Coming out of the mountains we were back in the dessert.

We also had the opportunity to eat breakfast at the roadkill cafe on route 66. I was actually surprised at how good the food was. I had the "One Eyed Dog" hit that morning AKA French Toast with bacon. S had the Awesome Possum AKA eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast. Both were delicious and not something you would expect form a hole in the wall restaurant so far off the beaten path. Finally we came to Nevada.

We didn't have to drive long in Nevada as my sister-in-law and her family live just outside of Las Vegas, which isn't far from the Arizona state boarder. We got to their house with just enough time to say "hi" to the kids and then they all went down for a nap.

Once they got up JR helped S unload some things from the uhual and van then we went to wash the van. We actually had to run the van through twice because it was so dirty it didn't come clean the first time.

After a VERY long afternoon the girls finally arrived with Nana and Papa. They were all exhausted so we came home and went straight to bed. This morning we enjoyed catching up and ChuckeyCheeses.

The girls had a blast playing and riding the rides. Their favorites were the monster truck and the pony. While they were too little to steer the pony they enjoyed the "ride" and jumps. They were both so tired by the time we came back for lunch B didn't even make it through her bottle before passing out at the table.

Day Three

Having gotten our first hotel last night we got a late start this morning. Something about having a nice bed made it a little difficult to get back in the truck. So we have so far made it across the rest of Arkansas through Texas and are going through New Mexico now. Arkansas was not one of ma favorite states. It just didn't have much in the way of scenery. That made it a very flat boring drive that I thought would never end. Texas has been my favorite so far.

It still took a while to get through the state but we cut across the top section so it wasn't as long as it could've been. They also had the nicest rest areas and views so far. We stopped at the rest area at the second largest canyon in the nation.

This is a picture of the second largest canyon, that I don't remember the name of at the moment. It was a pretty view at the first rest stop and information center that we came to in Texas. It was a very interesting center that looked like it had been cut out of a hill.

There are also a lot of animals in Texas. We passed a cattle ranch or processing center, I'm not really sure what it was, but it was A LOT of cows. We also saw a coyote, horses, and some sort of deer or antelope mix, I'm not sure what it was. They also had wind mill farms that filled the horizon at one point and several dust storms.

New Mexico has also been a pretty ride. It's not my favorite state, as I don't think they believe in rest areas or gas stations, but it's a pretty state. We had our first experience with almost running out of gas after coming into New Mexico. It took an 1 1/2 to find a gas station during that time the gas needle stopped dropping, it got as low as it would go. New Mexico also held our first for a flat tire. A car waved us down about an hour outside of Albuquerque that something was wrong as they passed us we noticed sparks in our rear view mirror. The back tire on the car hauler was completely shredded with only a strip in the center holding on. Uhual arranged for someone to come from Albuquerque to change it. It took them an 1 1/2 to get to us and 5mins to change the tire.

We are now an 1 1/2 from Arizona and 2 1/2 hours behind where we wanted to be. But we have a new tire and will hopefully make Vegas by lunch time tomorrow.

Half Way There

We have been on the road for just over 24 hours now. Since leaving GA we have been through 6 states and are just under 16hours from Henderson and Scott's sister. Leaving Ga. the first state we went through was Alabama. Then Mississppi.

We spent the least amount of time in Tennessee however while going through Memphis we saw the beginning of a high speed Police chase. That was very interesting. We came up on what appeared to be a speed trap on the interstate then watch as a little red car next to us passed another car by going into the emergency lane. The red car was being followed by the 15-20 police we had just passed. We learned later that a men in the car had just robbed a bank and it was thought they were trying to get back into Arkansas. The chase ended when the bank robbers ran into the bumper of an 18wheeler.

After Tennesse we went through Arkansas, then Oklahoma.

We had hoped to make it into Texas by tonight. However, it got too late so we stopped about an 1 1/2 hours from the Texas. We should be just under 16hours from our final destination.