We Came, We Drove, We Kicked the Alaskan Highway's Butt (Barely!)

We had a very relaxing evening in Glenallen. We ordered dinner in and then sat around and played cards all evening. The next morning, the men had bought supplies to make breakfast burritos, and we all enjoyed a great breakfast. This is pretty much the end of the niceness for awhile. When we awoke, the temperatures had dropped to -39 overnight, and both of our vehicles were literally frozen up. Neither would start! Beau had put a block heater on his before leaving Texas, so he was able to plug it in and get his car to turn over after about 30 min. We one the other hand, had no such luck. The motel had this contraption that you could rent for $25 an hour that you put up under the bottom of the car, so that it blows warm air up into the hood of the car. It took 2 hours and a jump from Beau before our car would turn over. It was not very happy with us at all. Then, the check engine light came on and wouldn't go off and when we went to drive out of the parking lot, the tires were frozen and it felt like you were driving on square tires. Not a good start for the last leg of the trip. We were finally on the road though, and today was supposed to be a short day. Of course, with all the time we had to waste getting the cars going, we could have already been to Anchorage! Hallelujah, we did actually make it early in the afternoon and the check engine light finally turned itself off!

Ben met us at the billeting office and we went in to check in and get our temporary homes for the next couple of months, until we can get a house bought. John had called ahead and made reservations and we were under the impression that we would be getting a 2 bedroom apartment like thing with a washer and dryer. Wrong! Their family housing units were all under renovation at the same time and when we walked into what we thought was going to be family housing, it was in fact a one room suite with the washer and dryer in a completely seperate unit down the street. I'm not real sure at this point how I'm going to get laundry down there with 2 small children, Molly who has to be carried most of the time because her footings not really good enough for the ice and snow, and Jensen who just refuses to get snow on his shoes. Things are not looking good at this point. Plus, how on earth am I ever going to get this kids to go to sleep. Jensen will have to sleep on the pull out sofa and I'm thinking that the mini walk-in closet in the bedroom is where I'm going to set Molly's bed up. I'm crossing my fingers that this won't cause psychological problems for her in the future! We are totally on top of each other, hungry because we haven't eaten since breakfast, and now, totally stressed out too. We decide to just deal with what we've been given (really what other choice do we have) and go get some dinner. I tell John that first thing in the morning, we will be house hunting, and putting an offer in on whatever there is, to get out of here as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Ben suggests that we come and stay with him for the next couple of weeks. He and his wife will be heading back home from Christmas for a couple of weeks, and they have a dog that they were going to have to board, so it really works for both sides. I'm pretty sure that's what we're going to do. Thank the Lord for good friends!!!!! It really would be quite difficult to have to stay in this room for up to 3 months.

We're so excited to be here and are now looking forward to finding somewhere to make our new home. It was a great trip here and we've made some great memories. Stay tuned as the house hunting and settling process begin.........

P.S. Jensen and I had made a deal that we would go shopping for special shoes that were o.k. to get snow on. After dinner, there was a Target across the parking lot, so I suggested that we go ahead and get him so snow boots. One small problem......he absolutely refused to try the boots on! This could become quite a challenge to get him walking on the snow.........