Revelation 12:11: Buffalo, moose, and bears! Oh my!

Truly a different day today than yesterday. We left our hotel this morning at 7:30 and hit the open road. Well, first we stopped to get gas. Then we stopped at a place to get our oil changed, but it was closed. But then we noticed one of the headlights was out, and thankfully we had a replacement bulb, so that took a few minutes for Jordan to figure out. Then we had to stop again because Layla’s head hit the light above her and we had to turn the light off. But seriously, after all of that, at 7:36 we really did hit the open road.

Today as the first day of our travels that we didn’t have an exact destination and reservation planned. Since we had no idea what the Alaska Highway was going to look like, we didn’t want to plan too much and then not make it to where we hoped we would. After driving for the past couple days and seeing what the conditions were, we decided to try getting to Watson Lake tonight, about 650 miles from Chetwynd. It was ambitious, but we did it! Twelve hours later, we were road weary and hungry, and just praying that the only hotel in town that allowed pets had a room left. God was really with us, as they had just ONE room left! Score!

But you don’t think I’d just leave you with that, do you? Of course not! There are always good road-tripping stories to tell, right? Well, I’ll tell ya, for about the first 6 hours today, I really thought the only exciting thing to write about tonight was going to be the fact that I actually heard a real, live Canadian say to us “Have a good one, eh?” That’s right, he actually said “eh!”. Ahhhhhh, I didn’t think it was actually true until I heard it. And it was glorious.

However, the stereotypical Canadian was not the only great thing that happened today! We saw mucho wildlife on our drive! Ok, so remember how we were totally shocked that we were encountered not once, but twice by herds of buffalo in Yellowstone? We thought we were pretty lucky to see that much, but apparently not! We almost ran in to two MORE herds today! Let’s recap what those conversations were like:

“HOOOOOOOLY crap! Again?! No really? Again?!”

“Slowdownslowdownslowdownslowdown!”

“Get back there and hold her mouth shut so she can’t bark! They’re coming at us!”

“Layla, don’t you say a word”

“Seriously, this RV is tailgating us right now? I’m not charging through these beasts!”

Later on at dinner tonight Jordan shared with me that while I was turned around holding Layla’s mouth shut, about 15 large buffalo were staring the car down and one of them was actually shuffling his back leg looking ready to charge. He didn’t want to scare me, so he decided not to say anything. But he did get pictures!

On top of those two encounters, we actually saw three moose, five bears, and a caribou! I think what made today’s sights better was that we knew they truly were wildlife, and not just in a park.

So we’re staying in this hotel tonight, as it really did rain ALL DAY on the road, and we didn’t want to camp in wet weather. Remember the goal! No getting stuck in rain! After doing some research tonight, I think we’re going to try to make it to Tok, AK tomorrow (REALLY excited to be back in the US and turn our cell phones back on!), and then just one more day to Anchorage! That puts us there on Sunday, about four days sooner than we expected. I’m excited, Jordan’s excited, and we know Layla is excited. Although I think she’s really going to miss sleeping on beds with us, as that’s certainly coming to an end in our new home.

Time to catch some quick shut-eye before we clock another 12-hour day tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

(pics didn't post so I'll put them up later)