Headlamps and Baby Fish
Well, the car is getting a little stinkier, our eyes
droopier, and food supply is dwindling. It’s been a couple days on the road and
we are almost to Liard River Hotsprings, where we will hopefully get to relax
for a few hours.
We arrived in Whitehorse late last night, exhausted and
ready to crash. It took us over 13 hours to travel 390 miles yesterday, not to
mention our trek from Anchorage to Tok . A rough day for sure. Since we knew we
were going to be on the road an even longer day today, and probably traveling
through dinner time, I needed to come up with an idea for what we could eat
on-the-go that wasn’t stuck between two slices of bread.
So I made tortellini salad at 11:30 at night. In the dark
(because that’s a new reality now)…with my headlamp… while I swatted
mosquitos. I cut up a red and green bell
pepper and pepperoni while the water boiled, only managing to skin the tip of
my thumb with the knife once. After the
salad was complete, I washed dishes with the trickle of our 5-gallon
collapsible jug hanging off the picnic table.
And managed to be in bed by 12:15!
Jordan and I set our alarm for 6:30am this morning, hoping
to be on the road for 8:00. After 5
snoozes and 30 minutes passed, we rolled out of bed and got to work. God really gifted us with each other, as he
takes over where I leave off. Everything
I don’t know how to do (like camper mechanics, turning the fridge on and off,
etc.) he somehow manages to figure out with ease. I am so amazed at his patience and peace
after driving for hours and finding out something’s not working right. I love him!
Before hitting the road again, Jordan washed off the car and
camper and decided we’re buying a power washer when we get to VA. Whether that’s before or after I buy new
decorations and furniture for the new house is still up for discussionJ
Highlights from today:
1.
We saw four wild horses grazing on the side of
the road between Watson Lake and Liard River! Amazing!
2.
Layla freaked
out when we started driving by them. She
made it very clear horses are not welcome in this FJ. Noted.
3.
We also stopped at the signpost forest in Watson
Lake, where Layla chased the kids in and out of the posts.
4.
A herd of buffalo stopped us for a few minutes
and we even saw one of them rubbing his face in the sand… a little “National
Geographic” for us!
We decided to spend the night in Liard River, as there are
famous hotsprings we’ve been told to check out.
After we ate dinner, we drove across the street into the Liard River
Hotsprings Provincial Park and took the .4 mile walk back into the
springs. As soon as we started on the
trail we saw a moose eating in the marshy grass! The funniest part was that the kids were not
excited about the moose at all because they were too busy looking off the
boardwalk into the swamp. As the four
adults were admiring the beautiful moose eating her dinner, Jenna screams,
“Mom, is that a baby fish?!?!” Yup.
You know these kids were raised in Alaska when a tadpole is more exciting to
them than a huge moose.
The springs were awesome.
Just what we needed to soak our road-weary backs. I highly recommend stopping here. If you remember from our trip two years ago
when we stopped at Thermopolis Hotsprings in Wyoming, Liard is like a little
slice of heaven.
Off to bed we go to get an early night’s rest. Gonna be another long day tomorrow!
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| Jordan's washing off the car and camper after only one day on the road... Look at the difference! |
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| Hanging out at the Signpost Forest in Watson Lake, BC. |
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| Here's our old friends we met a couple summers ago! |
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| The Whitney's dog, Lilly is deciding whether or not she likes bison |
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| The Whitney's rig |
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| Sandra and Jenna admire Mrs. Moose in the background. |
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| On our walk out to the springs... can you tell I was on a mission to get there?! |
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| Clint and Jenna head out to the springs... while I cover myself from the mosquitoes! |
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| A little hot springs love! |
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| I'm so relaxed now!
Day 4- Road kill and Cinnabuns
Today has been the day of wildlife. We’ve seen about
two dozen stone sheep, a couple bison, a roadkill porcupine (RIP), a fox, a
hawk, and a partridge in a pear tree. Ok
maybe no partridges but certainly a great variety! The kids have been charting which animals
they see in their travel journals (Sandra’s an amazingly crafty person and put
together super cute journals for them), so we radioed to them about the fox we
saw run into the woods. Sandra radioed
back that the kids only have enough room to put live animals and animals they
actually saw into their charts. Ok,
guess that’s a good problem to have!
Another slow day on the road. I feel like I should stop saying that and
just say… we’ve been on the Alaska Highway, where you just never know what
you’re gonna get. Or is that for a box
of chocolates?
Anyways, last night the guys were supposed to be researching
where their gas stops would be for today, to determine whether or not they’d
need their gas cans. This morning I heard
nothing about which stops we were getting gas at, but I did hear an
enthusiastic plan to stop and get famous cinnamon buns in Tetsa. Nice guys, but I don’t think the trucks can
run off of sticky, gooey yumminess. Alas, we did stop in Tetsa, we ate the
buns, and they were yummy. And the
trucks got overpriced gas, too.
Today is our last day traveling with the Whitneys. What an awesome few days it’s been, to share
the roads with them, radio silly jokes to keep each other awake, and have
someone to eat dinner with at the end of the night. We are really going to miss them when we
depart tomorrow and the walkies get stored away. Sniff. Not time for goodbyes
yet!
  
Beautiful scenery along the way!
Lots of Stone sheep!
A single, young caribou decides being by the road is not such a good idea when scary yellow labs inside blue FJ Cruisers are barking at you.
Oops. Layla and I just didn't care. When a girl's gotta go, a girl's gotta go.
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