British Columbia, Canada
North Pole, Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska
We ended up finding an incredible campsite in Pike Lake in British Columbia last night. Even though we drove until around 11:30P.M. it was still broad daylight when we pulled into camp. During the summer months in British Columbia and Alaska daylight typically lasts about 22 hours a day, and even the darkest hours are still fairly visible. We woke up and headed down the final stretch of about 6 hours into Alaska.
About 2 hours in and just before heading into the “no-mans-land” section of the drive, in which civilization is few and far between, things took a turn for the worst. We rolled down the window to snap a photo of a passing coyote and noticed the most horrid screeching noise coming from our rear right wheel. We turned around and headed back to the last small town we’d passed. Mind you this consisted of no more than 7 businesses, including the gas station we stopped at.
Now if you have been following the blog thus far, you’ve heard just how packed our car is. Unfortunately our best alternative was the full size spare tire buried underneath the trunk…the filled to the brim trunk. We unloaded the majority of our inventory in the gas station parking lot under the close supervision of Peter, the gas station attendant who was simply enthralled with the action that we’d brought to him on this particular day. Even though the spare tire eliminated the sound, which we suspect was a rock stuck in the brakes, Peter was insistent we take the Jetta on down to his friend Charlie the mechanic for a look. We couldn’t turn down an opportunity to meet someone else from this wonderful town so we went. Charlie was a character in him-self and didn’t particularly tell us anything of use so 15 minutes later we were off again.
Just before hitting our destination of Fairbanks we made an obligatory stop in North Pole, Alaska. Yes folks, North Pole, Alaska. The light poles look like gigantic candy canes and the main attraction is the Santa Clause House, which features 4 distraught real-life reindeer. Our experience in the North Pole took about 17 minutes. We got into Fairbanks around 9:00P.M. to the house of a close friend of Lisl’s family’s, Chris. He had been born in Michigan but moved to Alaska a long time ago and knew a lot about the state and its wildlife. Chris was once asked what his ideal age was and he said 12. Naturally it was like adding a fourth to the road trip trio.
As soon as we arrived Chris served us a phenomenal meal of moose ribs he’d been slow roasting in the crock-pot all day. It was extremely tender and has a flavor unlike any other meat but was delicious, especially after so much driving. After dinner we sat around and Lisl and Chris caught up and we all exchanged crazy stories of our travels and aspirations of further adventures. We discussed what our plans were going to be moving forward with our week in Alaska, but exhausted ended up passing out relatively early. We finally made it into the final state of our trip and had big plans for the days to come.
Camping at Pike Lake in British Columbia. Notice how light outside it was - it was 12:30A.M.
Driving in British Columbia.
A huge Santa Clause welcoming us into North Pole, Alaska. We are in his sleigh at the bottom if you look closely.
Unpacking the Hotel Jetta at Peter's gas station in the middle of no-where British Columbia.
Somehow I got the job of watching over the stuff at Peter's gas station in the middle of no-where British Columbia while Lisl and Dan test drove to see if the noise was gone. I know they were thinking about leaving me there for a laugh.
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