Captain’s Log, Stardate 43987.1. WE DIDN’T DIE! We made it to Juneau. Safe and sound. Well ok, in all fairness, I’m pretty sure someone put a big dent in the side of our pickup truck on the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry terminal) but that’s beside the point here.
In my previous post, I was worried about the road conditions from Palmer Alaska to Haines Alaska and what it would be like driving through such vicious winter weather. I even went as far as to tell the husband that if I died he would need to work ASAP on finding bottles/nipples/formula for the baby and she would not take kindly to it since she’s never had a bottle…. to which he responded by looking at me as if I’d just grown a third eyeball. Hey…it’s all about being prepared! But as it turned out, things weren’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be.
Last week, when we moved here to Capital City (AKA Juneau, Alaska) we hired a moving company to take about 90% of our belongings, while we took about 10% of it ourselves. That lovely 90% is going to take 4-5 weeks to get here since it has a long ways to travel so we get to live on the bare necessities for a month. Sleeping on air mattresses, eating on lawn chairs in the living room, laying in sleeping bags on the floor to watch tv…. that’s the kind of living we’re doing right now because that’s the stuff dreams are made of! (Or maybe that’s the stuff Rednecks are made of? Don’t answer that.) It’ll be a long 4 – 5 weeks but it was worth it to not have the headache (and heart attacks) of trying to haul that crap ourselves.
Here’s the story of our trip:
Our plan was to have the movers pack up the house and then we would clean it, spend the night there and then leave early the next morning. But of course things never go according to plan. We got a wild hair and decided to do it all in one day (because we are geniuses). Well, the movers didn’t leave until 5 or 6pm and we weren’t able to finish cleaning everything until 9:45pm, upon which time the boys were starving and cranky, I was starving and cranky, and we were left in a house with zero to sleep on, zero food in the spick and span fridge, and zero toilet paper. (Again, because we are geniuses because we did the same thing back in August when we were leaving Oklahoma.) So we did what anybody would do…. grabbed some Mickey D’s on the fly for a little artery cloggage and rented a motel for the night.
The next morning, we hit the road bright and early. (Read: 10am) We were making great time and the roads were snowy but actually not bad. We stopped at our favorite place to eat in Tok –actually it’s possibly the only place open in the off season — Fast Eddy’s. Unfortunately, it was not fast…but it did satisfy our second “hot” so we hit the road to try and to find our “cot”.
You have to cross through Canada in order to get to Haines (Alaska) which is where the ferry terminal is located. The border crossing into Canada was a breeze. Yes, I birthed this gaggle of kids! Yes, that’s baby daddy sitting beside me! No, the dog is not rabid because she’s had her shots! We had all of our paperwork in order and had no issues. The border crossing guard gave us his blessing and sent us on our merry way.
We stopped for the night in Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada at a place called Buckshot Betty’s around 7pm. The little cabin was super tiny but it was a pet room so we didn’t have to leave the dog in the truck to freeze. Funny thing about temperatures that low… when I went back to the truck just an hour later to get some cleaning supplies (don’t ask) and baby wipes, I found that even cleaning supplies can freeze and wipes turn into ice cubes. I also found that the dog didn’t like to potty outside in super cold weather. (This is why you shouldn’t ask.)
The next morning we had breakfast at Buckshot Betty’s and got on our way after I guzzled as much coffee as was humanly possible. (Thank God that Canadians believe in coffee) The roads from Beaver Creek to the American border got worse and worse with each mile…. but the views were just incredible.
Oh, the views! And I would love to tell the rest of the story but you’re going to have to come back tomorrow. I have a sleeping infant and an air mattress calling my name. Stay tuned tomorrow to hear about the flat tire in the middle of nowhereland Canada with no cell signal and a spare tire we weren’t supposed to have.
