6/18/2009 HELLO ALASKA!

We got an early start this morning but we needed bread so we stopped at the local market. Now this store was not the supermarket that most of us know. There was no bakery, no floral shop, not even an entire aisle devoted to nothing but cereal. Think small. Four aisles tops. This is the only store for this area. Of course I had to check out prices. Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Last December I was buying this for 99 cents an 8 oz. block. No fancy flavors, just plain Philly Cream Cheese. You'll never guess how much it was here. How about $5.79? Yes, you read that right. $5.79! I even called the clerk over so that I could make sure I was reading the price right. Cereal, every kind, even more expensive than the last store I checked. $6.99 per box. Ragu, not the big, giant jar, the feed a family of four size. $4.89 Bread, plain white bread, a brand I never heard of, $4.29 a loaf. This better be tasty bread!

We were taken with these mountains with cloud covered peaks.

We pretty much had the road to ourselves and when we started out the roads were nice and smooth.

We followed the mountain range above for quite awhile.

I don't know the name of this range but if it was up to me I would name them The Zebra Mountains.

We finally saw another rig on the road.

This looks like a painting doesn't it?

The scenery was just breathtaking!

As is happening everywhere, the water levels were way down in sections of this lake.

I don't know if we slowed down because we were appreciating the scenery or the these rigs were really speeding down the road, but all of a sudden we had company which was unusual for us.

As we were driving around this huge lake we changed over to the dirt roads.

Of course we're all going pretty slow so that we don't kick up dust for the ones following behind us in this line of six rigs. I could say a lot about the lack of courtesy from the driver of this rig coming from the opposite direction, but I'll be nice.

These purple wild flowers lined the roadway for a pretty long ways. Just another aspect of the beautiful scenery.

Bob and I had no sooner talked about the nice road conditions when we hit WASHBOARD! Now we thought the washboardy roads from the other day were bad. They were a piece of cake compared to these. These mini ruts were deep making for an extremely rough ride. I thought for sure that when I went into the fridge I would find our milk had churned itself to butter because of the constant vibration.

You can only drive these conditions for so long, especially when they go on for miles and miles. We pulled over to take a break and couldn't help but notice how dirty the truck and rig are. This is just killing Bob because he takes such good care of them.

I guess we shouldn't feel too bad cause everyone else's is just as dirty.

We have to give the highway department a lot of credit. They mark the roadways very well where the frost heaves are giving warning to slow down.

A Goin' Down the Road picture.

We saw our first roadside moose! Bob was taking a look out the window and the next thing I know we're pulling over and Bob's yelling, "Give me the camera".

Soon we saw the sign we were watching for!

Of course there was a much nicer sign welcoming everyone to Alaska.

A park bench that straddles the border.

We got to our stop for the night and weren't there 20 minutes when this was noticed right outside.

It took us 14 days to get here, but we have arrived!

Wildlife Count:

2 Bear

2 Marmot

2 Moose

and a Dead Porcupine