Okay, I think I should probably finish out the story of us getting to Alaska. When we left off last, Skippy and I had made it into the Yukon Territory, and were spending the night at Sebastian’s place, just outside of Whitehorse.

First, a little about Whitehorse. We arrived in Whitehorse just before sunset, and by the time we decided what to do for food, I had run out of light to take pictures. But, Whitehorse was not what I expected. What did I expect? Well, I thought we were going to be driving into something more akin to Dodge City in Wyatt Erp: Saloons, people shooting guns in the air, horses tied out in front of brothels…

Why, I don’t know. I guess because it seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere, and the name “Whitehorse” just sounds like the kind of place a person could get shot for looking at a man the wrong way.

Anyway, our first loop through town pretty much shattered all those preconceptions. There were a lot of modern buildings, including some really cool looking apartment complexes. I kind of felt like we were driving through a modern, small seaside town in Sweden, not a town in the middle of the Yukon. Too bad I didn’t get any pictures.

After spending the night at Sebastian’s, I hiked up a big hill behind his property and took some of the pictures found in this post: Yukon Hilltop I also took this picture, which I didn’t get edited until recently:

After saying goodbye to Sebastian as he was hooking up his sled dogs for training, we left and drove towards Alaska. Along the way, we drove around the edge of Kluane National Park, which looks amazing. We encountered construction while going around Lake Kluane, so we got out and I took a couple of pictures. Okay, I took a lot of pictures, but these two were the good ones.

The construction apparently involved dynamite, though we didn’t get to see anything that cool. There were large trucks and bulldozers on narrow cliffs above us though, so that was exciting.

As we continued to get closer to the Alaskan border, the road condition progressively deteriorated. The 5 miles between the Canadian border crossing and the US customs gate were some of the most dangerous miles we drove the entire trip. I was constantly swerving to avoid car-swallowing pot holes, and almost ramping off of buckles in the road.

However, we also saw more wildlife in those 5 miles than anywhere else! We passed a brown bear romping in a field beside the road, and another fishing in a creek. We saw dozens of swans and cranes, and several eagles in flight. I probably would have seen more, but I had to keep my eyes on the road for fear of hitting a road defect and dying.

We reached the border intact, and crossing back into the US was fairly painless. We handed over our passports and documentation for Macgee and the rifle, answered a few questions, and we were let through.

Tomorrow I’ll finish up with our drive through Alaska.

My battery is about to die, and I can’t find my power adapter in the mess of my car, but we’re safely in Bellingham, visiting my cousins. We’ll be here until Tuesday morning, so I’ll find my adapter and make a complete update tomorrow.

We made it! 17 hours after leaving Bloomington, we arrived in Eau Claire. Tomorrow we head across Minnesota and into North Dakota. I’m going to sleep now, hopefully I’ll be able to post tomorrow.

I’m sitting at a Panera in Madison, WI. We’re about 180 miles away from our final destination tonight, Eau Claire, WI. So far today, we’ve had delicious pancakes made by Sarah P. after staying the night at her apartment, said goodbye to my grandfather and great aunt in Indianapolis, visited Tyra in Chicago, and driven about 400 miles.

Macgee is doing great, he’s been sleeping off his stint at Canine Companions and generally being cute.

No pictures yet, I forgot to get out my camera. We haven’t really stopped anywhere worth taking pictures of, except Tyra, and I wish I’d remembered to take it out while we were with her.

More later, from the hotel in Eau Claire.