Day 5: Teslin, YT to Glennallen, AK

Yay!! We made it to Alaska! It feels oh so good to be at least in the state of our new home. Both Grant and I hit our walls today. We knew it was going to be long but there's no way we could have imagined just how big everything is up here. Trees go on FOREVER!! And then a little more. Everything is so so beautiful but I'm pretty sure a human can only absorb so much in a short period of time and we maxed that about 10am this morning when we started singing any song we could think of, changing words to songs, and acting pretty darn close to crazy. One version  we had of John Cougar's "Jack and Diane" that summarizes today: Oh yeah, the drive goes on, long after the thrill of driving has gone. We are so so excited to get to our new home but it's unbelievable how far away everything is up here!

(Imagine a lot of pine & spruce trees. And then more. And then some more. And maybe about 5,000,000 more)

When we started the trip, I was expecting the road to be pretty rough. Prior to today, the worst patches of road were in Montana and between Calgary and Edmonton. The Alaska Highway seemed quite luxurious. That is until today. Due to the permafrost and extreme thawing and freezing of the soil in the Yukon, it is nearly impossible for a road to stay flat. They repair patches every year but hadn't quite got up this far north so we had quite the wild ride with giant frost heaves, long gravel patches, and surprise holes everywhere. We were stopped at one point by a construction crew which seemed to be made nearly entirely of teenage girls. Not sure if this is typical but they did not look like they knew much about road construction. The road was slightly smoother for a little ways in Alaska, but again turned into waves that made it feel more like we were on a ferry. We'll see how good of packing we actually did. Thank goodness my mom did the fragile stuff.

(Imagine one picture of Grant in a Buffs hat and orange flannel happily waving at the Welcome to Alaska sign with Hank looking happy and playful)

(Imagine another picture of Katie in a green down coat (new bday present!) with Hank looking miserable and trying to run away.)

Animal sitings of the day: 2 swans (I sure wasn't expecting that), our first official moose siting, and a grizzly was on the side of the road! Seeing that at 50 mph from inside the car was the perfect and only way I want to see one of those. Giant.

Due to the road issues, we did not make it nearly as far today as we had hoped. After driving 14 hours, we just couldn't take it anymore.  The camera battery had died and we were very grimy and greasy so we splurged on a hotel in Glennallen. There, we met a couple who was about 80 years old driving an Astro minivan from Colorado Springs. This was their 3rd time driving to Alaska since retirement they loved it so much. Impressive. There's no way I'm spending this much time in a car when I'm 80. 3,026 miles down, 374 to go!!