Marathon!

Monday July 29th, we were waiting to hear from the parts place in Oregon so we would know when and where the part would be shipped. It seemed like it took about half the day to figure out that the radiator would be overnight shipped to Anchorage, AK where we would drive to pick it up. We left Whitehorse around 3pm Pacific time and booked it to Anchorage. Of course, right outside of town, we saw a very large grizzly bear having a snack in the ditch. We had people to see and places to go, so no pictures of this one! Considering we had about 700 miles to drive (one-way, and we weren't looking forward to it) we managed to make it into Palmer, AK around 2am Alaska time. The drive, although mostly done in the dusky darkness, was beautiful! We had to stop before the US border crossing to get a photo of the actual border marker. Who knew you could be in 2 different countries at once? You can see in the photos where they keep the border marked by bull-dozing a 20' wide section. I'm not sure if this is done throughout the entire length of the Alaska-Canada border...

Palmer, AK is where we decided to get a motel room and stay the night. It took us about 15 minutes driving from motel to motel to find a place with a vacancy, but finally we find Pioneer Inn with a vacancy and woke up the manager for a room. He sleepily handed us a key after payment and we hurried to go and sneak Molly into the room (shhhh, don't tell ;p ). Poor Molly wasn't sure what was going on, but sniffed the room top to bottom until we were finished showering and ready for bed. Once in bed I looked over to see if Molly had found a spot to rest, only to see her right in front of my face staring at me. I then realized she has a designated place to sleep at home, so she is probably wondering where her spot was in the motel room. I placed a hand-towel from the bathroom on the floor next to the bed and she promptly curled herself to fit on the tiny towel, haha! We all were fast asleep after that.

Later in the morning, around 10am, we got up and sneakily got Molly back into the Jeep, then went straight to the Taco Bell we had seen during our motel finding adventure (also, the first Taco Bell we have seen for a few weeks). Yum! After eating and letting Molly out to do her business, we were Anchorage bound and searching for the address of the place the radiator was to be held. The business was very helpful and soon we located the crate that was our radiator. Now the problem was, how to fit it in the Jeep...once we took apart the crate, we got a good look at exactly how big the radiator was. Of course we had looked at it in the back of the motorhome, but until you see it standing alone you don't realize how large it actually is! After staring back and forth from the Jeep to the radiator for a time, we came up with a plan to fit it behind the front seats and in front of the folded down back seat. There was just enough room. Poor Molly would just have to lay on the back of the folded seat. She had been a great sport during the entire trip! I think she was just happy to be with us during the journey, haha!

About 12pm we were loaded up and ready for the highway bound for Whitehorse, and this time around we could actually see all the mountains and pretty scenery we had missed during the night. Wow!

We were treated with a triple, yes TRIPLE, rainbow between Glenallen and Tok!

And, we were witness to a moose having a snack in a small pond/lake!

Then, Canada's Yukon showed us this beautiful sunset. At dusk, we also saw a medium size black bear standing on the left shoulder of the road looking at us in the Burwash Landing, YT area. No pictures of this one either, we were tired and ready to get back.

At 0330am Wednesday, we were finally back in Whitehorse, ending our marathon drive to Anchorage and back. It took us a bit longer to get back to Whitehorse because we were afraid of jarring the radiator on the various awful frost heaves and potholes located on the Canadian side. Surprisingly, this was the cheapest and fastest way to get the radiator. Once back at the motorhome, we went straight to bed!


Wildlife Counts we have seen so far: - No Petting Zoos or other containment, all wild and free animals

Grizzy Bears - 2
Black Bears  6
Moose - 6
Caribou - 2
Elk - 3
Stone Sheep 2
Buffalo/Bison - Too many to count
Eagles - Too many to count
Humpback Whales - Too many to count
Porpoise/Dolphin - Too many to count
Sea Lion - Too many to count
Harbor Seal - Too many to count
So far, we are just missing the elusive Orca Whale that we really want to see. They say we may see them around Valdez.