The Drive to Alaska!!

Day 1: Tuesday, May 24th 2011:  Pocatello, ID to Great Falls, MT...or I guess Helena, MT

Just the night before Pam, Roxy, Joanna & Kory had helped us clean our apartment and pack our 6x10' trailer and the back of our Ford truck. We were all so tired and thankful to stay in a hotel that night with a nice hot tub, them muscles were sore! Our day didn't start early like planned and we had several errands to run before we left, like turn in our keys and so on. We had the goal to leave around 11:00am and we were already behind on our "schedule"...we said our goodbyes (not fun) and then off we went. Everything went smoothly until, POP! The trailer tire blew! We had been driving in rain for an entire 6 hours, 315 miles, before it blew. We were about 15 miles from Helena, MT and so not really close to a nice stop. We were lucky to be safe. Kacy was outside for at least an hour trying to figure out what the owner to the trailer had done to get the spare tire on the ramp we bought w/the trailer...it was rusted and screwed so tight that with both of us out there we couldn't get it to budge for a while until finally it gave way. Luckily the rain had stopped just enough to let us get the spare and start with the repair. Kacy needed Ashley's help who was taking care of crying-hungry kids, as it was dinner time. Ashley came out to try to help but muscles were needed. So Ashley got in the car and said a quick prayer to send someone with "Big Muscles." Soon a small guy pulls up and asks if we could use the help, and oh yes we do! Turns out he has several kids, is Mormon, and felt like stopping cause he just always feels guilty when he doesn't and he sees someone on the side of the road. His name was Alan Grover and he was a great help. He followed us into town to the repair shop they ended up being all closed. Well Wal-marts was open for another 5 minutes but they wouldn't help us because they wanted to take off...we hate Wal-Mart...and even more now. So we were stuck in Helena.

We are off!

Napping children= happy parents

We did gifts 2-4 everyday full of $1 items for the kids to keep them occupied and happy, and to persuade them to stop screaming. This is Katy playing with her first gift- a practice letter book with colored pencils...she liked pens better.

Thankfully Konrad is sleeping

Now Konrad is awake and whining....la la la, I can't hear you!

Rough day, yay it is over. Made it to the Days Inn. Good thing Kacy had on his bright shirt for the tire change!

Day 2: Wednesday, May 25th: Helena, MT to Calgary, Alberta, Canada

We woke up late and had a continental breakfast and went to Lech Schwab...it just happened to be by Wal-mart, so this time we used the store toys to entertain our kids. We bought 2 new tires and new rims, we wanted to make sure we were extra prepared. Then we were off again and really worried about the border crossing. Oh the insanity of preparations to go through the border, like writing down every weight of every food we were taking. We got to the border: Hello why are you going to Canada? uh uh uh I have a job in Alaska and we are moving, How long do you plan to be in Canada? 5-6 days, Can I see your passports and registration? yes (scramble, scramble), Do you have any food with you? yes, Any raw meat or produce, no. Ok- Welcome to Canada! We both drove away and said...that was easy. We took a break and saw the temple in Cardston and met some very friendly American temple workers who told us all about there families and what we should see in Canada. The problem was all we could see was rain. We stopped at a little tiny town and drove around and found a local restaurant and were pleased to know that all chefs in Canada have to be licensed...so at least good enough to keep a restaurant and educated enough to have decent food. Yay! and it was good Chinese food. We pricelined a room in Calgary at a Hotel 8 that had a swimming pool and slide! It ended up only being a one bed so we put the kids on the floor...they weren't sleeping anyway.

A small park we found along the way...we ate lunch there & kids got out their energy

Canada likes Konrad

Cardston Alberta Temple





They got whiteboard markers today!

Welcome to the city of Calgary




Day 3: Thursday, May 26th: Calgary, Alberta Canada to Jasper National Park

In the morning we ate a nice continental breakfast and then went swimming! The slide was awesome! The kids had a great time and the water was nice and warm. We got all cleaned up and prepared for another rainy day. We went to the Walmart in Calgary to get some snacks and noticed that my goodness there are normal people employed here, the check out lanes are open, the place is clean...the foods have different names but they look the same (like Doritos looks the same but is called something else), it was strange.  We drove through the city of Calgary, hello-would be so nice to stay and enjoy you but by by, we got to go! We noticed the roads in Canada are very very straight and the signs are relatively easy to read, they mowed about 50-100 feet of lawn on each side of the highway, this was about the entire trip and they have tunnels and walkways for the animals to get from one side of the road to the other. We stopped and ate in a town a lot like Sun Valley called Banff and ate a lunch at a park. Then we started our way through the national parks and it was awesome, by far better than Yellowstone. Ashley didn't quite press the button all the way to video a whole herd of sheep right next to us jumping from rock to rock and herding past us...boy was she disappointed! We saw beautiful mountains and glaciers and lakes, the scenery was jaw dropping. We saw buffalo, black bear, Canadian geese, mountain goats and lots of  Big horn sheep. We ended our night at the Pocahontas Cabins at Jasper national Park. It was a nice cozy cabin with a little picnic table and swing set outside.

Lunch & park in Banff

Glaciers like this everywhere

q

Pocahontas Cabins

Day 4: Friday, May 27th: Jasper, Alberta, Canada to Fort St. John, British Columbia

We are still behind schedule, and getting used to the fact that we like to sleep in when our kids don't sleep until 11:00pm. The nights are getting a lot lighter too. We had a sink in our cabin and so we made some oatmeal for the morning and started another day of rain. It did start to clear up. We ate lunch in Grand Cache with the rest of the town at a Subway. This town didn't look different from any other. The Canadians are really friendly and like to smile, say hi, or nod there head at you. When we got to Dawson Creek we went to the grain elevators and art gallery, we also entered onto the Alaska Highway. When we got to Fort St. John we stayed at Charlie Lake Provincial Park and camped. It was finally not raining so we could camp as planned. We got the last open spot, few. The kids stayed up forever....

Was that just a giant beaver on the side of the road?

Look dad we found an Office Plus!

The true 0 mile post, start of the Alaska Highway

One of the gifts today was balloons...oh they were life savers.

Somewhere around this area- historical mile 21-22 the Meservys homesteaded this land, near Kiskatinaw River

I think the Canadians like giant wood animals...we do too. The GIANT Squirrel.

Playground at camp

Day 5: Saturday, May 28th: Fort St. John to Liard Hot Springs, British Columbia

Many mosquito bites we found in the am. We were in a hurry to leave that morning and get on the road, but yes we were behind schedule, that happens when we don't get any sleep! I told Katy to make her happy that we would be getting to Pink Mountain, we came and passed pink mountain...its a brown hill. Sorry Katy. We were beginning to push longer before breaks. It was a windier road, skinny road, and not a lot of places to stop.  Ashley only got a tiny bit car sick- Yay! The scenery was great and we saw a lot of animals. We ended up pushing all the way to Liard Hot Springs before eating food, we were starving! We set up camp quick, ate Indian food in pouches...it was surprisingly good, and soaked in the hot springs. The hot springs was not like Lava or anywhere else we have been. The ground was gravel and the vegetation was right near the water, so dirty. It was very raw and natural...not made into a pool. There was a little waterfall where it went from extremely hot...too hot for the kids to luke warm. They had one huge open room for the boys and girls to dress...well hello everyone, I have weird underwear...holy mosquitoes!!! No not you, the actual mosquitoes were everywhere biting you. In the water your head was being swarmed. We did have fun tho even with drunk people surrounding us...and trash shoved into the beautiful foliage around us...Ashley was pretty mad at the peoples lack of respect in all parts that came to this hot springs and ended with a 14ish old boy puking in the boys room because he was drunk. Despite it we managed to have fun and walked on the longest doc across marsh land to get there and back, we were eaten alive by....mosquitoes!! The kids slept great, it was late to bed so they were out. Did I mention we got the last spot to camp here too.

lunch, just at some random place...doesn't it look a lot like Idaho?

Bear on the Road!!

How Ashley spent most of the drive

Konrad is going to be a GREAT driver.



Camp



Marsh on our way to the hot springs, it was a beautiful walk.

This is what we walked on for about a mile to get to the hot springs.

The kids loved the hot springs, sorry this is all the pictures...people were drinking to the left...to the right. ok we were surrounded by drunk people, but it was still fun!

Fast asleep, yes it is still sunny and time to go to bed