8 State, 2 Province Road Trip

My little sister and I embarked on a very long road trip this month.  Her husband will soon be back in the US after being gone a year with the US Army.  Since he is stationed at Fort Hood, we needed to get her and their car back to Texas from it's little spot in Alaska.

So, we drove.  I mean, what else would you do? 



Thus embarking on a long, snowy, hot, fun trip in a car driving 12-14 hours a day. 



Starting in Anchorage, AK, we drove with their baby up to Fairbanks so she (Rea, aka Noodle) could go spend a few weeks with her grandparents in Fort Yukon while we drove, and Elsa got her and Zach's house ready for his homecoming. 





From there we left to Canada.  The weather in CA was inclement to say the least.  It snowed and snowed and snowed on us.  Luckily, we are both from Northern Alaska so the 26 inches it snowed on us over the 24 hour period was just a minor hiccup in our otherwise well thought out trip.



We really only saw snow in the Yukon.  Snow, slush and accidents.  Although we did catch a moose here and there.



British Columbia weather was a bit more manageable, but the windy roads on the sides of cliffs was not fun for us.  Wind up a mountain, wind down a mountain.  No thanks!  Not even the sun beating down on us made us feel better.



Especially when we saw things like this. 



The border crossing into the US took a little time, but once back in the USA, we were ready to rock and roll.  And drive fast.



Except that I-5 won't allow you to do that on a Friday afternoon heading into Seattle.



So we took in the sights instead and made a customary stop to the Space Needle.  Elsa and I were both 1. too scared to ride the elevator up, and 2. too broke to pay the fee, so we got a starbucks and took outside photos waiting for traffic to die down.



On our way down we were able to stop at a friends house in Portland, do some laundry and visit a blue eyed Eskimo baby.  Wet kisses, hugs and dirty diapers allowed us both to have our baby fix so we could head on down.



Idaho, Utah and Colorado were pretty much the same.  Drive all day, sleep at night.  We did get to see another friend in both Vernal, UT and Denver, CO which broke up the long drives. 

We passed several fun towns with cool names like Rifle and Dinosaur.



And eventually, after surviving the town where Texas Chainsaw Massacre was made (FOR REAL), and sleeping in some sketchy motels, we made it to Texas.



I literally jumped out of bed in Kileen at 2:00 a.m. and drove back up to Dallas to catch the 7:00 a.m. flight back to Alaska.  It took us nine days to drive from AK to Texas, thanks largely in part to a two day wait due to severe snow storms.  And it took me just one day to fly back from Dallas to Seattle to Anchorage to Kotzebue.

 

My sister turned 22 on the trip and we celebrated with flowers from her husband (WHO literally found our hotel, called a flower shop and had them deliver to our hotel room) and a shopping spree at the Round Rock Premium Outlets. 

And my OTHER sister got married right before we left, but more on that later!  :)