We're in Alaska

We made it to Alaska on June 12, so 10 days of driving.  Not bad!  Most days we drove 8 hours, sometimes a bit more, sometimes less.  Interesting side note, we came to Alaska in 2010 and crossed into Alaska on June 12,2010.  Isn't that just ironic, to cross on exactly the same day?

Of course we had to stop at the border and have a family portrait!  The girls have been wonderful travelers.  Nika sleeps all day and Tisha watches the road and sleeps occasionally.  She is much like Chena in that regard, too busy to sleep.

Backing up a few days, this is what we saw on our way across Minnesota, North and  South Dakota and the Canadian plains.  Wow, the wind NEVER stops  blowing.  I thought we were going to be blown off the road a few times!

This was a really cool sight to see.  It's the 2nd longest RR trestle bridge in the world. (Just click on any photo to see a larger, more detailed view.)

Relaxing by the fire after a long day on the road in Whitehorse, YT.

Pardon the bad photo, it was taken thru the windshield while driving down the road, (as were most of my photos).  It's always exciting to see a Mom moose with twin calves!

We slowed down to take a better photo but she hustled her family into the woods.  I think that is just glare on her side rather than a white patch.

We were not yet in Alaska when I snapped this photo but I believe it is the Wrangall-St Elias mountain range in Alaska.

Returning to the US at the Alaska border.

 At the official end of the Alaska Highway in Delta Junction.

And finally the "homeward" stretch on the Richardson Highway heading to Fairbanks from Delta Junction.  That's the beautiful Alaska Range in the background.

Traveling from Delta Junction to Fairbanks, there are places where you can see the pipeline.  This is the pipeline crossing the Tanana River.  The pipeline stretches some 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska.  Fairbanks was a sleepy town until the pipeline construction began.  Then it was a boom town bursting at the seams.  There are lots of interesting stories and photos from the pipeline.  One of my fave photos that I've see is of a bear sitting in a worker's truck enjoying the worker's lunch!

When we lived in Fairbanks there were no big box stores.  I think there was a Kmart and there was a Sears but it closed while we were here.  Then there was a Penney's but that closed too.  So if we wanted to do any shopping, off we went to Anchorage,  That's just a short 360 miles from here, LOL!  We thought nothing of it really.  For serious shopping, especially for work clothes, I went "Outside" as the lower 48 is referred to by Alaskans.  I flew to Seattle a couple of times and of course everytime we went home to NC, I went shopping.  

There were local hardware and building supply stores but like everything here, they were expensive.  When we were building a garage,  (imagine no garage when it's 40 below! Yeah, we did that for one winter.) we drove to Anchorage to buy bulk building materials.  AND we were so EXCITED when Home Depot moved into Anchorage.  

Now Fairbanks is like many of the places in the lower 48 with chain stores.  There's Lowe's, Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Sportsman's Warehouse,  Ulta Beauty,  Pier 1, Old Navy, Michaels, and Costco.  When we lived here, we did have Sam's but they closed up shop in Alaska several years ago so Costco moved in. 

We are having a blast, the weather has been fabulous in Fairbanks, highs in the 70's lows in the 50's.  Doesn't get much better than that as far as I am concerned!