O.k., o.k., so I'm finally getting around to the next blog. We've been so busy and exhausted just trying to get settled, that I just didn't have the mental energy to get it done before now. Sorry, but here it goes.
We got into Anchorage early evening on a Friday, and on Monday I contacted a relocation associate to find a real estate agent for us. We have been really blessed by Ben and Heather letting us stay here, but I am more than ready to have my own house and get my kids settled again. I'm afraid that they've been allowed to get away with sooooo much stuff that they're normally not allowed to, that I may never get them under control again! Late Monday morning a realtor contacted me and she emailed over some properties that I might be interested in and we set up a time first thing the next morning to start looking at the houses that I was interested in. There was one in particular that we had already seen online that just happened to be on the same street as Ben and Heather, but we found out that it had a sale pending, so we were kind of bummed about that. Prices here are WAY more than in Texas, but I keep telling myself that Texas has got to be the cheapest market in the entire U.S. and that these prices are probably more reflective of the rest of the country. I've been following the market here for about 2 years getting ready for us to make this move, and I haven't really noticed any change, so I feel pretty good that they're not in a bubble, and that we should be safe buying. On top of that, I really don't think that we'll be looking to move for a long, long time, if ever.
First thing Tuesday morning, I meet the realtor with 2 children in tow, to start looking at about 9 houses that I was interested in and that were in the towns that we wanted to be in. John is having to work on this day, so I thought that I would scout the houses out, and if there were any that we were interested in, then I could make appointments for second showings on Wednesday or Friday. This is Thanksgiving week that all of this is going on. Keep in mind that the ground is covered in snow here, and that everytime we enter a house, we all must take our shoes off before looking around to keep from tracking filth into all of these homes. So much fun with an almost 4 year old who now loves the snow and marches through the deepest areas that he can find, and an 18 month old. Good times! The first house that I look at is one that is higher than what we are wanting to spend, but it's been on the market for a few months and is a relocation home, so if it turns out that we're interested, more than likely, the company that owns it will be willing to accept lower offers. Not that it mattered, the house needed soooooo much work, that even if we were able to get it at a lower price, we still wouldn't have enough money to get the house up to standards. It had been horribly taken care of and was a massive mess. John's weekends would be spent doing projects instead of enjoying the outdoors here. The next couple of houses were just as big of a mess, though more in our price range, but incredibly disappointing. There wasn't even potential in these homes. Also, they had the steepest driveways that I've ever seen, and all I can think of is how on earth am I ever going to be able to teach Jensen to ride a bike.
Finally, we end up at a house that had only been on the market for 2 or 3 days. In fact, it didn't even have the For Sale sign up in front of the house yet. It was definetly worth looking at from outside appearances, but it was at the top of our price range. Also, it had a nice big driveway that was flat (total bonus). The minute we enter the front door, I instantly feel as if I'm in MY home. I instantly fall in love with the feel of this house. As we continue to walk through, I get more and more excited about this place. Most of the homes here are a split level design, which means that for the most part 2 bedrooms are on one floor, and the other bedroom is normally on the lower level. I had major problems with trying to decide which child I would have on a completely other level of the home than where the rest of the family was at night. This house though is a tri-level which means that the main level is the living room and kitchen, the upper level is where all of the bedrooms are located plus the main bathroom, and the bottom level is the entrance to the garage, has another room and a bathroom and laundry room off of this room. This is also a big bonus as a lot of the homes had the washer and dryers in the garage which means lots of being cold while doing laundry. Finally, a house where the entire family can go to sleep on the same level. Also, this home is painted to match all of our stuff. The only repainting that I will have to do is in Molly's room (I can't wait to do a girly room) and our room. I've never had a house that I didn't have to repaint everything as soon as I moved in. It's had all kinds of updates done and there is very little that we would have to do, leaving our weekends free to do fun things. The backyard is a great size and also has a HUGE shed with an attatched lean-to that will be perfect for John to keep his 4 wheeler and all the other toys that he plans on owning, plus give him a private place to tinker on the cars like he enjoys doing. The shed also comes equipped with a heater. I have found my home! As we leave this house to continue looking at the last 3, I tell the realtor that I for sure need to set up a second showing and that I want John to see it that night. It was just too good of a house to sit on. As we drive to next showings, I call John to tell him what a fabulous house I have found for us and that he needs to let me know when he plans on getting off work, because he has to see this house tonight. He agrees to meet me there as soon as he gets off. When the realtor and I arrive at the next house, she tells me that she has good and bad news. Good news is that she has set up the second showing on "my house" but the bad news is that they had just gotten an offer in on it. Talk about feeling my blood pressure rise and my stomach sink! She said that the other realtor had agreed to hold off until we had shown the home to John because my realtor had convinced him that she was pretty sure that we too would have an offer for him that night.
When John gets off, he heads straight to "my house" and I meet him there with the kids. When I arrive, John and Ben have beaten me there and are already stomping around the back of the house and the huge shed that they have already named the "man cave." Just from the outside and the shed, John is in love. When the realtor arrives and lets us in and he gets to look around the inside, he too loves the house just as much as I had (thank goodness). The other thing about this house is that it is just down the street from Ben and Heather, which we are really happy about. Ben says that he can't believe that this house is for sale and for the price that it is (even though it is at the top of our price range). He says that he wouldn't have even thought twice about putting an offer in on this property if it had been for sale last year when he was looking. This makes John feel a bit better about the price, and now we have to decide what kind of offer we are going to make since we know that they already have one offer in. Now the irony in all of this is that we were blown away when our home in Weatherford ended up in a bidding war and we actually got over the asking price. Like how often does that happen in this current economy. We were so pleased for ourselves, and now, here we are in a similar position. John and I are so in love with this house, and I have literally looked at everything in our price range in the areas that we want to be in and there is NOTHING else. We decide to offer full price and will go $500 over any higher offer up until a certain amount. All we can do is hope that this will be enough. Talk about a sleepless night! Hallelujah, we find out the next afternoon, that we beat out the other bid, and we got the house. On top of that, we got it for the asking price and not over. The seller's just felt that we were more reliable as we had owned other homes and had money to put down on the house, and the other offer was from first time home buyers. Woo hoo for us!
We had the inspection done last Monday and it went really well. The inspector found lots and lots of things (as he's supposed to do) but many of them are minor things that I couldn't care less about. For instance, I guess they passed some sort of ordinace here that EVERY room in the house must have a smoke detector. I guarantee that I am not putting one in all of our bedrooms. As long as there's one on every level, I feel pretty secure. There were some questions with some plumbing and electrical, but John went around with the inspector the entire time, and knew that many of the things were things that he's capable of fixing without having to pay an electrician or plumber, and the things that he's not, he'd rather we get someone to fix it ourselves so that it could be done to our standards, instead of the sellers just bringing someone in to get it fixed and over with. We decided to be a little cheeky and we presented to the sellers that if they dropped the sales price by $9000, then they could just walk and we would take care of everything ourselves. Unbelievably, they were trying to get out of town for the next couple of days, and when they get back it will be right before Christmas and they have family coming in for the holidays, so they said that it was totally worth it for them to not have to bother with any of it. Once again, woo hoo for us!!!!
We will be closing on Jan. 6 and will have our househould goods delivered on the 7th. It will be a great way to start the new year. We are soooo excited about the home that we have found, the location, and the price that we ended up getting it for. Plus, it does have that spare room downstairs and we are very hopeful that our family and friends are going to take advantage and come visit us (hint hint)! There probably will not be anymore updates until after we move in. Thankfully, life is starting to slow down and my days are getting to be boring and routine again. I've never been so thrilled to be bored! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas..........
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
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.........
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.........
Thursday, November 19, 2009
It'll Burn Off........
This post was supposed to be done last night.....but the wi-fi in our hotel was awful and I couldn't get a good connection.
We awoke this morning at 7am and got up to start another day. Funny thing was that today it was still pitch black outside. In fact, it stayed dark until almost 9:30. We got off a little bit later than usual. Beau popped the hood of his car this morning to check things out like he does every morning, only this morning it was cold enough that when he pulled the cable to pop the hood, it froze! It took a little while for Beau, Grandad and John to get it to slide back, but they finally succeded. We went and ate a good breakfast because we had heard that the roads were going to be slow going this morning and we weren't sure when we would reach somewhere we could have lunch. All during breakfast, Beau kept saying (sarcastically) it'll burn off, but that wasn't looking very likely!
At dinner the night before, we had overheard another couple talking about them and some other vehicles that were in the process of traveling to Anchorage and Fairbanks. This morning after we had ordered breakfast, we saw about 5 vehicles, one a truck pulling a trailer, pull out of the parking lot. We recognized some of the people from the evening before and knew they were getting on the road to Anchorage. We took our time eating breakfast and started loading the kids in the car. One of the guys parked next to us, said that he was with the group that had left earlier, but he had 3 small kids and had told them he would catch up later. We wished him safe travels and took off to find a gas station to top our tanks off. After filling up and finding some sunflower seeds for Beau (he's addicted) we finally got on the road. It was definetly the latest start we've had and the roads were the worst we'd traveled on so far. It was also still snowing outside. It wasn't long before we caught up to the guy with the 3 small kids that we had spoke to earlier and 2 other vehicles that we noticed from the motel parking lot. Because of the road conditions, we were pretty much stuck behind them. We were going a lot slower than we had until this point, but these people were going really slow. The guy in the lead was from Virginia and I highly doubt that he had snow tires on, so they just weren't as prepared for these conditions. After about an hour, the snow had stopped and the road conditions were getting much better. I look up in shock to see the 1st caravan of cars, including the truck pulling the trailer, coming up in front of us. Now, they had left a good hour before us, so if we were now catching on them, then they were going REALLY slow!
As the roads clear up a bit, we realize that we need to get around this caravan for 2 reasons. First, they are going way too slow and secondily, chances are they will be stopping in the same town we are for the night because there are very few towns that are even open at this time of year, meaning that there very few rooms available for people to stay in and I'm going to make dang sure that we will be able to find a room where we plan to stop as opposed to having to drive another couple of hours to the next town that's open, and I don't really need a caravan of 8 or so cars in front of us! We do get in front of the caravan and feel that we make up some really good time and pull away from the pack. We get to the halfway point of the leg of the trip and there is literally only one store open, so we stop for bathroom breaks and to get some lunch.
It turns out to be a disastrous stop though as Jensen couldn't get his pants down quick enough with this big winter coat on and ended up peeing all over his undies and jeans, and Molly ended up having 2 poopie diapers with the second one escaping out and onto her jeans. Beau was lucky enough to discover the 2nd one! With both kiddos now in fresh clothes, you'd think that we'd be ready to enjoy a nice lunch, but no such luck. Pretty much all they had to offer were premade cold cut sandwiches sold by 2 of the grumpiest ladies in all of Canada! We eat quickly and just as we finish we are amazed to see the caravan pull in. We quickly pile into our cars and take off in order to keep our lead. All of a sudden, it's like we're in one of the Cannonball Run movies, only with snow. Just a half hour down the road, we hit a major milestone and cross the border into Alaska. We have arrived!!! We now just have to make our way to Anchorage, but we'll only have 2 days of really short travel left.
When we get to our stopping point of Tok, we stop at a hotel recommended by John's best friend Ben. Ben made this trek last year, and out of all of the places he stayed, this is the only motel that he said we must stop at. All I have to say is that Ben must have one twisted sense of humor as even though this is far from the worst place we've stayed, it definetly wouldn't top the list. Just think 70's flashback. Definetly going to have to have a word with that Benjamin! Not long after we get checked in we see the caravan pull into the parking lot. Good news is there is a plethora of rooms available for all.
It was a cold day. At noon the temperature was -21, but by the end of the day, a mini heat wave hit and the temp raised to -6! All I can say is it's pretty darn cold outside!!
Today, the temperature is at -24 with the low expected to hit -30 tonight. I have never felt cold like it before. We had a good breakfast this morning, and just a short 3 hour drive to the town of Glenallen. We've called it a night here because it's still 3 hours to Anchorage, and we don't want to be on the roads after dark. There's just way too much wildlife, and it's nearly impossible to see them at night. We saw some beautiful scenery again today. As the sun was trying to break through the clouds, it would make small rainbows in the sky that looked like prisms casting rainbows in a room. It was really awesome and beautiful! Tomorrow we will make it to Anchorage, and we are all looking forward to it. I'm going to get off of this computer now, and enjoy our early evening!
We awoke this morning at 7am and got up to start another day. Funny thing was that today it was still pitch black outside. In fact, it stayed dark until almost 9:30. We got off a little bit later than usual. Beau popped the hood of his car this morning to check things out like he does every morning, only this morning it was cold enough that when he pulled the cable to pop the hood, it froze! It took a little while for Beau, Grandad and John to get it to slide back, but they finally succeded. We went and ate a good breakfast because we had heard that the roads were going to be slow going this morning and we weren't sure when we would reach somewhere we could have lunch. All during breakfast, Beau kept saying (sarcastically) it'll burn off, but that wasn't looking very likely!
At dinner the night before, we had overheard another couple talking about them and some other vehicles that were in the process of traveling to Anchorage and Fairbanks. This morning after we had ordered breakfast, we saw about 5 vehicles, one a truck pulling a trailer, pull out of the parking lot. We recognized some of the people from the evening before and knew they were getting on the road to Anchorage. We took our time eating breakfast and started loading the kids in the car. One of the guys parked next to us, said that he was with the group that had left earlier, but he had 3 small kids and had told them he would catch up later. We wished him safe travels and took off to find a gas station to top our tanks off. After filling up and finding some sunflower seeds for Beau (he's addicted) we finally got on the road. It was definetly the latest start we've had and the roads were the worst we'd traveled on so far. It was also still snowing outside. It wasn't long before we caught up to the guy with the 3 small kids that we had spoke to earlier and 2 other vehicles that we noticed from the motel parking lot. Because of the road conditions, we were pretty much stuck behind them. We were going a lot slower than we had until this point, but these people were going really slow. The guy in the lead was from Virginia and I highly doubt that he had snow tires on, so they just weren't as prepared for these conditions. After about an hour, the snow had stopped and the road conditions were getting much better. I look up in shock to see the 1st caravan of cars, including the truck pulling the trailer, coming up in front of us. Now, they had left a good hour before us, so if we were now catching on them, then they were going REALLY slow!
As the roads clear up a bit, we realize that we need to get around this caravan for 2 reasons. First, they are going way too slow and secondily, chances are they will be stopping in the same town we are for the night because there are very few towns that are even open at this time of year, meaning that there very few rooms available for people to stay in and I'm going to make dang sure that we will be able to find a room where we plan to stop as opposed to having to drive another couple of hours to the next town that's open, and I don't really need a caravan of 8 or so cars in front of us! We do get in front of the caravan and feel that we make up some really good time and pull away from the pack. We get to the halfway point of the leg of the trip and there is literally only one store open, so we stop for bathroom breaks and to get some lunch.
It turns out to be a disastrous stop though as Jensen couldn't get his pants down quick enough with this big winter coat on and ended up peeing all over his undies and jeans, and Molly ended up having 2 poopie diapers with the second one escaping out and onto her jeans. Beau was lucky enough to discover the 2nd one! With both kiddos now in fresh clothes, you'd think that we'd be ready to enjoy a nice lunch, but no such luck. Pretty much all they had to offer were premade cold cut sandwiches sold by 2 of the grumpiest ladies in all of Canada! We eat quickly and just as we finish we are amazed to see the caravan pull in. We quickly pile into our cars and take off in order to keep our lead. All of a sudden, it's like we're in one of the Cannonball Run movies, only with snow. Just a half hour down the road, we hit a major milestone and cross the border into Alaska. We have arrived!!! We now just have to make our way to Anchorage, but we'll only have 2 days of really short travel left.
When we get to our stopping point of Tok, we stop at a hotel recommended by John's best friend Ben. Ben made this trek last year, and out of all of the places he stayed, this is the only motel that he said we must stop at. All I have to say is that Ben must have one twisted sense of humor as even though this is far from the worst place we've stayed, it definetly wouldn't top the list. Just think 70's flashback. Definetly going to have to have a word with that Benjamin! Not long after we get checked in we see the caravan pull into the parking lot. Good news is there is a plethora of rooms available for all.
It was a cold day. At noon the temperature was -21, but by the end of the day, a mini heat wave hit and the temp raised to -6! All I can say is it's pretty darn cold outside!!
Today, the temperature is at -24 with the low expected to hit -30 tonight. I have never felt cold like it before. We had a good breakfast this morning, and just a short 3 hour drive to the town of Glenallen. We've called it a night here because it's still 3 hours to Anchorage, and we don't want to be on the roads after dark. There's just way too much wildlife, and it's nearly impossible to see them at night. We saw some beautiful scenery again today. As the sun was trying to break through the clouds, it would make small rainbows in the sky that looked like prisms casting rainbows in a room. It was really awesome and beautiful! Tomorrow we will make it to Anchorage, and we are all looking forward to it. I'm going to get off of this computer now, and enjoy our early evening!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
4 More Days To Go.......
So, it turned out to be a rough night in the rough motel. Molly woke up 3 times which is really unusual, Jensen had a very restless night and I heard him wimpering or calling out twice in the night, and I fought to actually stay on the bed all night. Not only did the mattress angle to the side trying to dump you on the floor, but the entire motel leaned to the side. Understand, I spent many years in England and in older homes that had personalty with creaky and uneven floors, but this place could not be defined as having personality, unless that personality was crappy. The place was literally starting to fall over. It really was a bit of a dump, but the fella that ran it, Dennis, was worth the stay. He was a great guy with lots of stories, and just as nice as could be. He even made the kiddos Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast. Because of him, I will not say that the place was worthless. Also, the best thing of the stay was that Dennis has a big old German Shepard that chose Beau's car to pee all over :-) Made me laugh out loud!
We started out our drive at -6 degrees this morning, and I swear it took an hour for the car to warm up inside. It was cold!!! Of course, I've been told by Beau that this morning in Eagle River, which is just north of Anchorage and where we are considering living, that they awoke to
-20 degrees. I seriously need to buy some long underwear! Once again, we really had good driving conditions. There was snow on the sides of the road and a bit of a covering on the roads, but nothing too slick at all. We made it to Whitehorse for lunch and also were glad to find that it was a big enough town to have a Walmart. We were getting seriously low on snack food for the kiddos, and that would be a MAJOR catastrophy to run out of. We reloaded on some supplies, got Jensen a McDonald's cheeseburger, which he inhaled and was to date the best meal he has eaten since this adventure started, saw a Starbucks across the parking lot and refueled John and Beau with that, almost got rear-ended by Beau when we originally pulled into town because the back of our car was soooo filthy he couldn't see our brake lights, washed the car off so that that wouldn't happen again, and headed out of town for our next destination for the evening.
On the way to Haines Junction, our stop of the night, we saw a red fox, which was the first one of those that we had seen. He was really cute, from a distance obviously. The road did seem to get a little bit more packed with snow and ice as we pulled into town, and we found one of the two hotels available at this time of the year and got checked in. We have a great suite tonight, and it totally makes up for the crummy room last night. After dinner, we noticed that the no vacancy sign was lit up, so we were thankful that we had gotten into town when we did. Tomorrow will be our final day in Canada and then we will be in Alaska on US soil. We still aren't planning on getting into Anchorage until sometime Friday, but it's nice to know that we're getting close to the end of the journey. The kids are loving spending time with Grandad and have adopted Beau as one of their favs. It's probably a good thing because Grandad let slip today that the "Hutch and Beau Show" were dicussing recipes last night........just let the wierdness of that sink in for a moment! Good thing this trip is almost over, I think they've spent too much time together :-)
We started out our drive at -6 degrees this morning, and I swear it took an hour for the car to warm up inside. It was cold!!! Of course, I've been told by Beau that this morning in Eagle River, which is just north of Anchorage and where we are considering living, that they awoke to
-20 degrees. I seriously need to buy some long underwear! Once again, we really had good driving conditions. There was snow on the sides of the road and a bit of a covering on the roads, but nothing too slick at all. We made it to Whitehorse for lunch and also were glad to find that it was a big enough town to have a Walmart. We were getting seriously low on snack food for the kiddos, and that would be a MAJOR catastrophy to run out of. We reloaded on some supplies, got Jensen a McDonald's cheeseburger, which he inhaled and was to date the best meal he has eaten since this adventure started, saw a Starbucks across the parking lot and refueled John and Beau with that, almost got rear-ended by Beau when we originally pulled into town because the back of our car was soooo filthy he couldn't see our brake lights, washed the car off so that that wouldn't happen again, and headed out of town for our next destination for the evening.
On the way to Haines Junction, our stop of the night, we saw a red fox, which was the first one of those that we had seen. He was really cute, from a distance obviously. The road did seem to get a little bit more packed with snow and ice as we pulled into town, and we found one of the two hotels available at this time of the year and got checked in. We have a great suite tonight, and it totally makes up for the crummy room last night. After dinner, we noticed that the no vacancy sign was lit up, so we were thankful that we had gotten into town when we did. Tomorrow will be our final day in Canada and then we will be in Alaska on US soil. We still aren't planning on getting into Anchorage until sometime Friday, but it's nice to know that we're getting close to the end of the journey. The kids are loving spending time with Grandad and have adopted Beau as one of their favs. It's probably a good thing because Grandad let slip today that the "Hutch and Beau Show" were dicussing recipes last night........just let the wierdness of that sink in for a moment! Good thing this trip is almost over, I think they've spent too much time together :-)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Lions & Tigers & Bears.....or is it Deer & Moose & Goats....
We stayed in Fort St. John in British Columbia two nights ago. When we awoke in the morning, the sky was grey and it wasn't long before huge snow flakes started falling. Once we got on the road, the snow didn't really last too long. It sure helped make the roads a filthy, slushy mess though. Our cars are absolutely trashed! Jensen also informed us yesterday that he was ready to go home. Bad luck for him! From here on out, we'll be on the Alaskan Highway and about an hour into yesterday's trip, the scenery became quite breath-taking. The road conditions were constantly changing from the slush mess, to completely clear, to just a bit of snow, with a few icy places. It's really been quite an easy drive, especially considering that we're so far into the mountains at this phase. Even though the road conditions really aren't that bad, for some reason they don't seem to have heard of guard rails as there are very few of them. This makes us even more thankful for the road conditions.
We saw so much wildlife just chillin' on the side of the road, or in the road itself, it was unbelievable. Of course, there were countless bucks and deers, we saw several goats on the side of a mountain, several herds of caribou and a couple of moose. At one point, John decided to pull over and check out one of the moose. Grandad and Beau followed and the kids and I thought it best to stay put in the car. I hear this ridiculous noise and it turns out to be Grandad trying to "call" the moose back. Shockingly, it didn't work.
Just as it started getting dark outside, we pulled into the "town" where we had planned to stay the night. It's a place called Muncho Lake. As we pull in, we only notice one motel to the right and it looks like one of those motel's that if you stay the night, you may not live to see morning! Our GPS wasn't showing that there were any other lodgings, so we pulled over to consult with the "Hutch and Beau Show." Their GPS showed that a few miles further up, there should be another place and thankfully, it turned out to be a really charming log cabin type hotel with most importantly, vacancies! I wasn't able to blog last night because being as we're in literally the middle of nowhere, they didn't have wi-fi and they only had one computer for guests to use that not only was it super slow, but you also had to pay every several minutes that you were on it. We all went to bed exhausted, but were unable to get much sleep. Sometime right after we had gone to bed, another family must have checked in. They were given the room above ours and we knew for sure that there were at least 2 children who were currently letting off A LOT of steam. They sounded as if they were going to crash through our ceiling at any moment! It went on and on and on and on. Needless to say, John and I are pretty wiped out this morning. When we went out for breakfast this morning, it was immediately obvious who our upstairs neighbors had been. There was a family of 2 heftier parents and 4 small kids. But here's the kicker, those dang kids made not one peep during breakfast. You would have thought them to be completely mute. I was ready to start throwing my french toast at them!! It was so irritating, especially in my sleep deprived state, to watch them sit there so calm and good.
We start to load up and it is BRRRR cold this morning. Definetly the coldest it's been so far. We see huge buffalo feeding on the side of snow covered mountains. It's so awesome to see them standing there. I don't know how they don't slide down. Further up, there's a huge herd of them feeding at the side of the road. Amazing! We had been told that there are some natural hot springs that we would be passing today and that we must stop at them. So, this morning I put bathing suits on the kids and myself, under our clothes, before knowing how frigid it actually was outside. When we get to where the springs are, you must walk down this trail to even get to them. Molly is sound asleep and Jensen says that he doesn't want to get out of the car. I end up sitting with the kids in the car, all of us in swimsuits, while John goes down to check it out. Realizing that there is no one around (everyone else must have more common sense than us) and not particularly wanting to wear a swimsuit top around all day, I figure what the heck, and change then and there in the car. Mike did come and trade off with me so that I could go down and see the springs. It was about a 10 minute walk down a trail and once I got there, there were several people in the water including John and Beau. I opted not to get in, but did put my hands in it and it was really nice and warm. It was really cool to experience the hot springs in the middle of all the snow and one degree temperature.
Our next stop was at a place where there is supposed to be a naturally forming whirpool. When we pulled off at the exit, we should have been clued in that this was going to be a lost cause as we couldn't even get down the exit road because of all the snow. Did this stop us though, oh no. We all get out of our nice warm vehicles and decide to walk to where you can see the whirlpool. Now, as hard as this may be to believe, there was no whirlpool. When it's only 3 degrees outside, water freezes! We could actually tell where the whirlpool was supposed to be had it not been frozen. It wasn't a totally wasted stop though as Molly had a yucky diaper that I was able to get changed. I put her on the heated front seat and had had her diaper bag on the floor so the wipes were actually really warm from the car heat. The funniest thing was when I pulled her yucky diaper off, there was actually steam rising from it because of how cold it was outside. I know it's kind of gross, but it cracked me up nonetheless.
We decided that it was now time to try and get some miles behind us. We have officially entered the Yukon Territory. John and I did have our first road kill. We had a bird fly straight into our windshield, and according to the "Hutch and Beau Show" it just looked like a cloud of black feathers dispersing as we drove through. Then, not 10 minutes later, we hit another bird. Couldn't believe it! We had a hotel plugged into the GPS in a village called Rancheria and as we entered the town, we passed a rather rough looking motel, but out GPS said that the one we had programed was still 2 miles ahead. Next thing we know, the GPS says that we're arriving at our destination on the right. Funny thing is, there is absolutely NOTHING to our right or left of anywhere, except for trees. We drive a little furter, and then pull over to consult with Beau and Grandad. They say that their GPS says that we still have a few more miles to go before we reach the hotel (that the Mile Post had suggested) that we were planning on staying at, so we tell them to take the lead and head off again. What do you know, there also is no hotel at their GPS destination. Bummer, because now we have to turn around and head back to the rough looking motel that we passed earlier because it's about another 2 hours before we would get to another village, it's already getting dark, and we have no idea if that village would even have a hotel or be open at this time in the season. So here I am, sitting in a rather rough motel (though it does have wi-fi), actually thankful that we have somewhere to stay tonight. Sorry for such a long blog, but in 2 days, a lot has happened. Until next time.......
We saw so much wildlife just chillin' on the side of the road, or in the road itself, it was unbelievable. Of course, there were countless bucks and deers, we saw several goats on the side of a mountain, several herds of caribou and a couple of moose. At one point, John decided to pull over and check out one of the moose. Grandad and Beau followed and the kids and I thought it best to stay put in the car. I hear this ridiculous noise and it turns out to be Grandad trying to "call" the moose back. Shockingly, it didn't work.
Just as it started getting dark outside, we pulled into the "town" where we had planned to stay the night. It's a place called Muncho Lake. As we pull in, we only notice one motel to the right and it looks like one of those motel's that if you stay the night, you may not live to see morning! Our GPS wasn't showing that there were any other lodgings, so we pulled over to consult with the "Hutch and Beau Show." Their GPS showed that a few miles further up, there should be another place and thankfully, it turned out to be a really charming log cabin type hotel with most importantly, vacancies! I wasn't able to blog last night because being as we're in literally the middle of nowhere, they didn't have wi-fi and they only had one computer for guests to use that not only was it super slow, but you also had to pay every several minutes that you were on it. We all went to bed exhausted, but were unable to get much sleep. Sometime right after we had gone to bed, another family must have checked in. They were given the room above ours and we knew for sure that there were at least 2 children who were currently letting off A LOT of steam. They sounded as if they were going to crash through our ceiling at any moment! It went on and on and on and on. Needless to say, John and I are pretty wiped out this morning. When we went out for breakfast this morning, it was immediately obvious who our upstairs neighbors had been. There was a family of 2 heftier parents and 4 small kids. But here's the kicker, those dang kids made not one peep during breakfast. You would have thought them to be completely mute. I was ready to start throwing my french toast at them!! It was so irritating, especially in my sleep deprived state, to watch them sit there so calm and good.
We start to load up and it is BRRRR cold this morning. Definetly the coldest it's been so far. We see huge buffalo feeding on the side of snow covered mountains. It's so awesome to see them standing there. I don't know how they don't slide down. Further up, there's a huge herd of them feeding at the side of the road. Amazing! We had been told that there are some natural hot springs that we would be passing today and that we must stop at them. So, this morning I put bathing suits on the kids and myself, under our clothes, before knowing how frigid it actually was outside. When we get to where the springs are, you must walk down this trail to even get to them. Molly is sound asleep and Jensen says that he doesn't want to get out of the car. I end up sitting with the kids in the car, all of us in swimsuits, while John goes down to check it out. Realizing that there is no one around (everyone else must have more common sense than us) and not particularly wanting to wear a swimsuit top around all day, I figure what the heck, and change then and there in the car. Mike did come and trade off with me so that I could go down and see the springs. It was about a 10 minute walk down a trail and once I got there, there were several people in the water including John and Beau. I opted not to get in, but did put my hands in it and it was really nice and warm. It was really cool to experience the hot springs in the middle of all the snow and one degree temperature.
Our next stop was at a place where there is supposed to be a naturally forming whirpool. When we pulled off at the exit, we should have been clued in that this was going to be a lost cause as we couldn't even get down the exit road because of all the snow. Did this stop us though, oh no. We all get out of our nice warm vehicles and decide to walk to where you can see the whirlpool. Now, as hard as this may be to believe, there was no whirlpool. When it's only 3 degrees outside, water freezes! We could actually tell where the whirlpool was supposed to be had it not been frozen. It wasn't a totally wasted stop though as Molly had a yucky diaper that I was able to get changed. I put her on the heated front seat and had had her diaper bag on the floor so the wipes were actually really warm from the car heat. The funniest thing was when I pulled her yucky diaper off, there was actually steam rising from it because of how cold it was outside. I know it's kind of gross, but it cracked me up nonetheless.
We decided that it was now time to try and get some miles behind us. We have officially entered the Yukon Territory. John and I did have our first road kill. We had a bird fly straight into our windshield, and according to the "Hutch and Beau Show" it just looked like a cloud of black feathers dispersing as we drove through. Then, not 10 minutes later, we hit another bird. Couldn't believe it! We had a hotel plugged into the GPS in a village called Rancheria and as we entered the town, we passed a rather rough looking motel, but out GPS said that the one we had programed was still 2 miles ahead. Next thing we know, the GPS says that we're arriving at our destination on the right. Funny thing is, there is absolutely NOTHING to our right or left of anywhere, except for trees. We drive a little furter, and then pull over to consult with Beau and Grandad. They say that their GPS says that we still have a few more miles to go before we reach the hotel (that the Mile Post had suggested) that we were planning on staying at, so we tell them to take the lead and head off again. What do you know, there also is no hotel at their GPS destination. Bummer, because now we have to turn around and head back to the rough looking motel that we passed earlier because it's about another 2 hours before we would get to another village, it's already getting dark, and we have no idea if that village would even have a hotel or be open at this time in the season. So here I am, sitting in a rather rough motel (though it does have wi-fi), actually thankful that we have somewhere to stay tonight. Sorry for such a long blog, but in 2 days, a lot has happened. Until next time.......
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Wildlife and the Alaskan Highway
I only have a short post today as we had a great day driving without many mishaps. We actually were able to make it further than we had originally planned as we have still been blessed with clear roads. We saw so much wildlife today on either side of the road. There were countless bucks and does, 2 moose and even a little mink scurrying around. Thankfully, they all stayed off to the sides and none made any mad dashes in front of us! We also officially made it onto the "Alaskan Highway." Mile 0 officially starts in a small town in British Columbia called Dawson Creek, and I was incredibly disappointed not to run into Pacey or Joey (I realize that only some of you will get my lame joke, but it had to be done). The temperatures aren't so bad, but the wind is horrible, and I hate wind! It really makes the cold cut right through you. John finally decided to "take a break" and let me drive. Of course, he spent roughly an hour and at least 15 min. of the finally 2 hour drive turned around backward trying to figure out what it is that the kids want, or handing things to them. I also heard a few sighs that I think might have been directed towards my driving, or maybe I was just imagining them (yeah right lol). In all honesty, we really are having a fantastic journey with the kids and each other up to this point. It really has been nothing but enjoyable and we're hopeful that the next 5 or 6 days continue that way. Hard to believe that we are only halfway through this trek! We had a really early night tonight and are looking forward to what tomorrow holds. We are hoping for the weather to stay on our side as we really are making great time with all of the clear roads.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Great Stamp Capade and the Beauty of Banff!
Oh what a beautiful morning! We all got a great nights rest and are ready to head to the beauty of Banff. There's snow at the tops of the mountains, but the roads seem to be nice and clear. Just as we get out of Calgary and start heading towards the mountains, we pass a gas station on the right with just a few vehicles, but a rather large bus that is just joining the highway. As we breeze past it, I look out the window and am dumbstruck as I realize that it's Gene Simmons (KISS) Family Jewels tour bus for his A&E show. So silly that I was so excited to see it, but I was.
For 2 days now, the "Hutch and Beau Show" have been on a hunt for Canadian stamps. Now you wouldn't expect this to be a very difficult thing to come across, but let me tell you, they were. Stamps could not be found at our hotel in Calgary, the gas station in Calgary, the gas station in Banff, some little store that we randomly stopped at in Banff, a store called Mac's in Banff that Beau was sent to by the people in the before mentioned random store, but hallelujah, success at the local Safeway. Now we can get back on the main road and continue covering miles for the day.
Jensen keeps repeating over and over again that he wants to stop and play in the snow. We keep telling him that as soon as we stop for lunch, he can play in the snow. Not more than 20 min. on the road and Jensen is complaining that he has to go potty and can't hold it. Luckily, there is a rest stop right up the road and we pull over. As soon as Jensen is done peeing, we tell him to go play in th snow while we wait for anyone else who is taking advantage of this stop. After, literally a few seconds of standing in the snow, Jensen starts whining that there is now snow on his shoes. If only he knew what his mom and dad had in store for his new life in Alaska!
We decide to have lunch at the Chateau at Lake Louise. Fancy would be an understatement and after trapping kids in the car for 5 straight days, when we stop, that tends to be their rowdy time. They managed to control themselves pretty well though and we had a very nice lunch with a great view. We spent a bit longer goofing around than we normally do, but thought nothing of it, as we had had such easy traveling so far. Also, at the visitors pull off before you get to the Chateau, what do we see, but the Gene Simmon's bus. Yes, I took a picture of it this time, but I have no idea if he was really on it or not. Doesn't really matter, I still thought it was awesome!
I must fill you in with a bit of history now. Before this trip even started, there was much debate about the way that we should go. Pretty much, all of the men wanted to go through the mountains of Banff (because they know of people with this destination on their bucket lists). I on the other hand, said that we would have to wait until we got to Canada to see what the weather and road conditions were at the time. Going through Banff means that you're in the mountains the entire leg of the trip, or we could go on the highway to Edmonton. Not as scenic, true, but a nice, clear highway where you can do 75 mph. Last night at dinner, I vetoed the Banff idea, as I just didn't think that it seemed the obvious choice. For some reason, I let the men convince me that they had spoken with several people and checked websites that said that the roads through Banff were clear and good. Supposedly, there was snow and ice on the shoulder's, but the roads were clear. Back to the present, the roads were all clear through Banff and Lake Louise. After lunch, we all load up ready to make some tracks. After about 5 min. of driving, we need to exit to start heading north to get out of the park and to our final destination in Hinton for the night. It's about 100 miles just to get out of the park. Just after the exit, we turn a bend that has a sign with flashing lights. The sign warns of road conditions: good, fair, poor and closed with a gate to put down for when the road is completely closed. Well don't ya know that the lights are flashing on poor and the road ahead of us in now COVERED in snow and ice. So much for trusting the websites that said all roads were clear! The worst part is, we are now so far into the park, that realistically because of time, we have no choice but to continue on this road. So instead of being on a nice, clear highway going 75, we are on snow and ice packed mountain roads going no more than 45. Let it be known now that his will be the last decision made by John and the "Hutch and Beau Show!" The good news, the snow tires are finally coming in handy and because of the roads being bumpy, Molly and Jensen both fell asleep for 3 hours of this part of the journey!
In all honesty, the roads turned out to be not that terribly bad, but we did suffer our first casualty when a truck through up what could only be considered a small boulder, and took a huge chunk out of the front windshield. Then not long after we turned onto the main road after making it through the mountains, we were behind another truck and something fell off of the bed of his truck right in front of us. I don't know if it was a battery or some sort of work box or what, but it bounced and shattered right in front of us. Luckily, we didn't really suffer any collateral damage from that, but I have yet to figure out how we missed all of the flying pieces! John is now "relaxing" with Molly in the pool (they even have a waterslide) and Jensen and I are chilling in the room about to get ready for bed. It's been a day full of the most beautiful scenery and the most amazingly huge mountains that I have ever seen and I can only look forward to what tomorrow holds. Goodnight from Canada!
For 2 days now, the "Hutch and Beau Show" have been on a hunt for Canadian stamps. Now you wouldn't expect this to be a very difficult thing to come across, but let me tell you, they were. Stamps could not be found at our hotel in Calgary, the gas station in Calgary, the gas station in Banff, some little store that we randomly stopped at in Banff, a store called Mac's in Banff that Beau was sent to by the people in the before mentioned random store, but hallelujah, success at the local Safeway. Now we can get back on the main road and continue covering miles for the day.
Jensen keeps repeating over and over again that he wants to stop and play in the snow. We keep telling him that as soon as we stop for lunch, he can play in the snow. Not more than 20 min. on the road and Jensen is complaining that he has to go potty and can't hold it. Luckily, there is a rest stop right up the road and we pull over. As soon as Jensen is done peeing, we tell him to go play in th snow while we wait for anyone else who is taking advantage of this stop. After, literally a few seconds of standing in the snow, Jensen starts whining that there is now snow on his shoes. If only he knew what his mom and dad had in store for his new life in Alaska!
We decide to have lunch at the Chateau at Lake Louise. Fancy would be an understatement and after trapping kids in the car for 5 straight days, when we stop, that tends to be their rowdy time. They managed to control themselves pretty well though and we had a very nice lunch with a great view. We spent a bit longer goofing around than we normally do, but thought nothing of it, as we had had such easy traveling so far. Also, at the visitors pull off before you get to the Chateau, what do we see, but the Gene Simmon's bus. Yes, I took a picture of it this time, but I have no idea if he was really on it or not. Doesn't really matter, I still thought it was awesome!
I must fill you in with a bit of history now. Before this trip even started, there was much debate about the way that we should go. Pretty much, all of the men wanted to go through the mountains of Banff (because they know of people with this destination on their bucket lists). I on the other hand, said that we would have to wait until we got to Canada to see what the weather and road conditions were at the time. Going through Banff means that you're in the mountains the entire leg of the trip, or we could go on the highway to Edmonton. Not as scenic, true, but a nice, clear highway where you can do 75 mph. Last night at dinner, I vetoed the Banff idea, as I just didn't think that it seemed the obvious choice. For some reason, I let the men convince me that they had spoken with several people and checked websites that said that the roads through Banff were clear and good. Supposedly, there was snow and ice on the shoulder's, but the roads were clear. Back to the present, the roads were all clear through Banff and Lake Louise. After lunch, we all load up ready to make some tracks. After about 5 min. of driving, we need to exit to start heading north to get out of the park and to our final destination in Hinton for the night. It's about 100 miles just to get out of the park. Just after the exit, we turn a bend that has a sign with flashing lights. The sign warns of road conditions: good, fair, poor and closed with a gate to put down for when the road is completely closed. Well don't ya know that the lights are flashing on poor and the road ahead of us in now COVERED in snow and ice. So much for trusting the websites that said all roads were clear! The worst part is, we are now so far into the park, that realistically because of time, we have no choice but to continue on this road. So instead of being on a nice, clear highway going 75, we are on snow and ice packed mountain roads going no more than 45. Let it be known now that his will be the last decision made by John and the "Hutch and Beau Show!" The good news, the snow tires are finally coming in handy and because of the roads being bumpy, Molly and Jensen both fell asleep for 3 hours of this part of the journey!
In all honesty, the roads turned out to be not that terribly bad, but we did suffer our first casualty when a truck through up what could only be considered a small boulder, and took a huge chunk out of the front windshield. Then not long after we turned onto the main road after making it through the mountains, we were behind another truck and something fell off of the bed of his truck right in front of us. I don't know if it was a battery or some sort of work box or what, but it bounced and shattered right in front of us. Luckily, we didn't really suffer any collateral damage from that, but I have yet to figure out how we missed all of the flying pieces! John is now "relaxing" with Molly in the pool (they even have a waterslide) and Jensen and I are chilling in the room about to get ready for bed. It's been a day full of the most beautiful scenery and the most amazingly huge mountains that I have ever seen and I can only look forward to what tomorrow holds. Goodnight from Canada!
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