my travels in pixels

Haines to Fairbanks The road between Haines Junction and Port Alcan was probably the worst we have had on the whole trip. It’s the end of the Canadian section of the Alcan and I guess they just give up on it. It has a number of gravel sections with a couple of 15km stretches, lots of potholes in the bitumen and permafrost which sinks, tilts or raises the bitumen that makes it very hard to go at a reasonable speed when you are towing as you can end up all over the place. As soon as you go over the border, even the gravel bits are better! Back through US customs again. We thought we’d get off lightly as we had a bit of traffic behind us as we had just been through roadworks. But we couldn’t fit under the overhang above the normal vehicles section and had to go around the side to the commercial vehicles, so there was no-one behind us. Because we now have all the answers to the usual questions down pat with direct specific answers and no extra information, he had to come up with som...

Haines, AK Haines is actually in Alaska. We didn’t realise we would be crossing the border today, so we weren’t really prepared food wise. The officer at the border control gave us a bit of a hard time with questions like who owned our car, did we own property in South Dakota, did we pay taxes to the US etc. Pity you have to hold your tongue. Imagine what they could put on their computer about you if you pissed them off? We had to go back to Canada and get rid of all of our firewood because of beetles. We couldn’t take in our tomatoes, apples and capsicums because of their seeds. No citrus or potatoes because of the skin. We now have a list, so will be better prepared next time. After about 10 minutes he decided we were okay and changed his attitude and told us about all the things to do in the area. The road into Haines is in excellent condition. There were hundreds of prairie dogs all the way along the roadside, which are like squirrels that have been to meerkat school. When t...

Whitehorse is the largest city of the Yukon where three quarters of the population of the province (state) of the Yukon live, but it’s still just a small country town, with a population of 25,000. One of the first things we did when we arrived was find a car wash to clean the truck and trailer. The height of the opening was 13’11” and we nearly didn’t fit in. Just in case, we reversed out as I didn’t think the second air conditioner would fit under the swinging arm of the sprayer and I wouldn’t be able to let Lindsay know to stop in time. So now we know that we really can’t fit under any bridge less than 14’. It took forever to clean both the car and the truck, the guy estimated that it would cost about $50 to clean but we cheated a little and I helped with the car sponge while Lindsay used the broom. We bought some tar and bug cleaner to clean both those suckers off from the previous drive, which helped a bit. Just as well it was a nice sunny warm day as we got very dirty and wet...

Liard Hot Springs, Summit Lake, BC Canada The girl at the information desk in Fort Nelson suggested that we stay at Summit Lake on Stone Mountain. We got a campsite with a million dollar view, right on the lake and it was stunning. Talking to a couple from Fort St John, they told us they had seen some moose just up the road. So we went to investigate to find our own, but unfortunately we didn’t see any moose. They came for drinks that night; our first Canadian visitors and hopefully we inspired them with some travel stories. They want to travel but just don’t have the confidence, it seems to be a common concern amongst Americans and Canadians.  Summit Lake campground The following day we got up at 6am and went in search of our quest again, it was very foggy so the photos wouldn’t have been great, but still nothing. Later that day we went out again and saw our first Caribou. At first I didn’t know if it was a moose or a Caribou – truth be known, I still don’t really know....

Driving to Grande Cache the weather definitely improved. Sunny and low 20’s C. When we got to Grand Prairie it was 29C. The Australian sheepskin boots I got from Costco can go back into the cupboard for a while longer. We are back in shorts and t-shirts. We did our washing and stocked up on groceries as we know it’s going to get more expensive as we go north. I have read that Alaska will be fifty to a hundred percent more expensive than the states. When Lindsay said the sewer hose was going to live in the back of the truck I expressed my concerns. No-one is going to take a sewer line I was told. No? well, they either did, or it was left behind somewhere. Luckily John from Queensland was with Lindsay when he was dumping, so he was able to use his hose. His wife and I were in the Visitor centre using the internet. I had a bill to pay, some money to transfer and emails to reply to.  As Kay said, you might be on holidays but you still have work to do. We f...