Horse Flies, No Extra Charge

We're talking horse flies the size of quarters - no exaggeration.  That little gem of reality a few weeks ago at our campsite at Watson Lake in the Yukon was by far the worst part. We got chewed up!

More like "Gateway to Horse Flies"

By the way, this is what happens if a horse fly bites you near your eye.  It's super sexy.

Of course, my joke is that I got a little mouthy and the hubby gave me a fresh one.  Calm down sensitive Nellies, it's just a joke.

I don't know if you can really tell from my picture, but my whole eye was blown up and swollen.  Like I had a full on brawl with someone.

Super itchy, full of fluid and weeping for a few days. I had this eye whopper, and 3 other bites on my arms and body.  The hubby was chewed up, too with half a dozen bites of his own.  It was awesome.  Freaking horse flies. 

But aside from the damn flies, the site itself was picturesque with a peaceful view of the pines.  We upped our camping game and got an indoor/outdoor rug to catch all the filth before dragging it into the Cricket.  Festive and practical.

Along with our uninvited flying guests, we had another unexpected scenario at old Watson Lake.  One of the trailer tires had a piece of shale lodged into it, which caused a flat.

Not too surprising considering the conditions of some of the roads.  We had a tire plug repair kit, so the hubby macho-ed it up and took care of business.

Oh, and another notable:  a 6 pack of Coors Light cans was about fifteen bucks out in the Yukon sticks!  Granted, it's Canadian dollars so really only about 11-12 U.S. dollars, but that's still ridiculously inflated.  Whatever, those frosty cold Coors Light were worth it!

Our theme for today's camp:  Coors Light & bug spray - with the mascots, of course

It was funny, at one point on the road we stopped to get gas at a combo cafe/gas/campground type spot, and got to talking with an old codger who was at the campsite.

He asks, "So, are you guys heading outside?"  Once he saw the looks of confusion on our faces, he clarified, "You know what outside means, right? It means you're traveling outside of Alaska and the Yukon."

Consider us schooled.  So, I guess that's exactly what we were doing.  Heading outside.

Onward we went on our journey to the outside - minus the horse flies!

Ta-ta for now.

Final Leg

"I'm going to let you through, even though both of your passports are invalid."  

That's what the U.S. customs agent said to us when we were at the border crossing back into the U.S. from Canada.  Why in the world would our passports be invalid, I'm sure you're wondering. (as I was at that moment)  Well, that's what happens when you don't actually SIGN the passport once you get it.  We'll chalk that one up to a little detail sliding amongst all the chaos of packing, traveling, and moving. - But we did kind of feel like dumb-asses!  The agent said that we were the 9th Coast Guard family that had crossed the border that day.  All PCS-ing.  Tis the season!  (But, I bet they all had valid passports)

This is the final leg of this massive road trip we've been on for what feels like a long time.  It's been an unbelievable experience, but really, Key West feels like it was a looong time ago.  Our final leg looks like this:

After we left Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, we crossed the border with our invalid passports and trekked on over to a small town in Alaska called Tok.  It was another truly beautiful drive, especially in the Yukon near Kluane Lake.  The reflection of the mountains and sky in the lake was so clear and glassy, it was incredible.  But, side bar - I'm sure that water was freezing-ass cold!

Stunning Kluane Lake in the Yukon

There was a fun little stop right after crossing the border with a Welcome to Alaska sign, and the official International Boundary marker between Canada and the U.S.  Of course, we had to stop and have some fun being in two places at once.  Cheety, too.  :)

Two paws in Canada and two paws in the U.S.

I think I like the Welcome to Alaska sign almost as much as the Minnesota Welcomes You sign.  I like when they have some oomph to them, not just a rinky dink little metal sign that you can easily overlook.  Now, this is a welcome sign:    (North Dakota should take a note!)

Our new home state!

We've got wood work, we've got carved moose and bison...craftmanship, I'm sayin'!  My point being, I liked the sign.  Moving on.

On our drive that day, we had our first Grizzly sighting.  It was so exciting. - They were completely unfazed by the drivers that were pulling over to check them out.  They just went about their business, eating dandelions and ambling around. Not even Cheety barking out the window bothered them!  I guess you can be nonchalant when you have no natural predators.  We saw moose the day after the bears, too.  Also a momma and baby, and then later a male by himself.  Enormous & very cool to see.

Momma and her cub

Our next stop was in Anchorage, where we spent a few nights for another road breather.  It was pretty cool to see the mountains right there while still being in a city environment.  We mostly walked around downtown and along some of the hiking trails with the Pugbull and checked out the REI store. 

The view from our room in downtown Anchorage

 
We hit the road again on our way to Homer, where we stayed for a few days before the ferry ride to Kodiak. The drive to Homer was nice and short, only 4 hours compared to some of our marathon 9 hour treks.  It was another beautiful one.  I keep repeating myself, but so many of the drives have been spectacular.  Maybe it's because I've lived in flat, flat Florida for so long, but those mountains...man.  Just gorgeous.

The lobby of The Hilton in Anchorage. - Frighteningly HUGE!!

Our hotel in Homer was really fun.  Our room was "ship's quarters" style, so it was super cute and cozy.  It felt like you were sleeping in a sail boat.  Hubby was in heaven.  It was definitely a tiny space, but it was unique and kind of fun compared to the standard hotel rooms we'd been staying in for most of the time.  (except that little shack in Iskut!)
  

Nautical, no?

It was right by the water and the town of Homer had a good vibe.  Like a little fishing community with a hippie/artsy undertone.  We only had one day to explore before leaving for Kodiak, and we desperately had to do some laundry, so part of Friday was fun with laundry day.  

The Driftwood Inn - Homer, Alaska

We're both kind of tired at this point, so we've been holed up in our little ship's quarters cabin relaxing for most of today.  Plus, it's kind of chilly out there & I have a  Pugbull heating pad keeping my feet warm.  We'll leave for the ferry at about 11:30PM tonight.  And the sun will just be setting.  Which I don't think I'll ever get used to!  Looking forward to my first glimpse of our new island home.  More to come after we dock in Kodiak... 

The beach in front of our hotel

It's hard to be Cheety.

Beware, Burrowing Rodents. Beware.

Sorry, prairie dog  :(

We crossed the border into Canada, and I immediately ran over a prairie dog.  I'd feel a lot worse if it was an American prairie dog.  Canadian prairie dog?  Eh, just not as important.  Obviously, I'm kidding.  

How else can I come to terms with my prairie dog murdering status besides making cringe worthy jokes about it?  It felt pretty crappy, but hey - we made it to Canada!  Now take that, Canadian prairie dog.  

Once we got settled at our first stop and Cheety discovered that prairie dogs were everywhere AND that they chirp at you to announce themselves, he wanted nothing more than to chase them and do possibly violent things if he caught one.  So, between me and the dog, Canadian prairie dogs better watch their backs.  

I'll stop now.  (but it really was terrible and I felt horrible about accidentally killing it)  Aside from the prairie dog debacle, the third leg of our trip has shaped up to look something like this:

That's kilometers per hour, people - not miles!

Canada was funny. It was sort of like the U.S....but just a little off.  It looked mostly the same as here, but you just couldn't put your finger on what wasn't quite right.  Like America in bizarro world.  

Just little differences. - Like the highway signs, weird chain stores, and that underlying something I just couldn't identify.  I've been to Canada before, but it was Montreal, which didn't have the same feel as where I was this time around.  

One thing that took getting used to was the whole "we use the metric system" nonsense.  Once I realized that if I take half of the kilometers per hour amount on all the speed limit signs and add ten, I'd have the miles per hour that I'm used to dealing with, it was much easier to get my bearings.  (I know, blah, blah, math, blah, blah)  I won't let on how long I had to do math in my head before that light bulb went off.  Came in handy. 

Invigorating 8 mile hike on Goat Creek Trail in Canmore

Policeman's Creek Trail in Canmore

Our first stop in Canada was in Canmore, Alberta and it was unbelievably picturesque in the whole area.  Canmore was a cool little ski town. - It was a great place to take a breather from the road for two days.  We strolled around downtown, explored the neighboring town of Banff, and went on a hike with Cheety in the Canadian Rockies.  Truly gorgeous scenery.

Our hairy driving day

The day we left Canmore to drive to our next destination in British Columbia was rainy and overcast.  Before too long, it turned in to what I can only say was an extremely HAIRY day of driving.  Honestly, I don't think we could have added any other hazardous road conditions into the mix.  

All at one time and for several hours I drove through driving rain on slick highways, winding, narrow, mountainous roads with ridiculously steep inclines and declines, fog - and sometimes driving through clouds due to the high altitude - roaring semis coming at me, & falling rock zones.  Oh, and potential large wild animal crossings.  Add in driving in unfamiliar territory and it was just peachy.  Let's just say we were both relieved to get to our destination.  Other than that day and one other rainy day early on in the trip, the weather hasn't interfered with our progress at all so far.  Let's hope we continue the trend.

Unbelievable scenery in Stewart, BC

Saw my first glacier.  Breath-taking!

We ended up having to change most of our itinerary through Canada because we couldn't get reservations in some of the places we had planned on staying originally.  There wasn't a single available dog-friendly hotel room in both Fort Nelson and Watson Lake for the days we would be there, so we had to figure out a new plan.  The original route took us on the Alaska-Canadian Highway for most of the trip, but when we had to revamp our plans, we ended up on a more secondary route.  

Dash Bistro in Stewart, BC

And man, was it a good change!  We spent one night in a town in British Columbia called One Hundred Mile House, and another night in Smithers. - But, we got to see some of the most memorable and spectacular scenery along the way that we never would have seen if we went the way we initially planned.  

On the way to Smithers, we took a side trip to Stewart, British Columbia for lunch & gas, and stumbled upon this gourmet food truck called Dash Bistro. It had absolutely phenomenal food.  I got a simple BLT, but the chef baked his own bread and had this tasty little sauce he put on the sandwich instead of just the standard mayo.  Not only was the food fantastic, you really couldn't beat the scenery.  Think of every positive adjective you can:  spectacular, magnificent, jaw-dropping, breath-taking.  Just pick one.  It describes those mountains!  What a memorable stop.

Well worth the side trip!

Iskut, British Columbia is another stop we won't soon forget.  It was certainly beautiful, but I think we'll remember the...ahem, rustic conditions of where we stayed more than the scenery.  Since we adjusted our schedule on the fly, we didn't have a whole lot of time to investigate the new places we'd be booking.  I'll put it this way, Tatogga Lake Resort was less resort and more campground.  Glad we were only there for one night, but it was fun in an off-the-grid, back-woodsy kind of way. 
 

"Resort" was kind of a bold statement

HUGE!

The lodge where we ate was decorated exactly as you might expect. - Lots of animal heads hanging on the walls and taxidermy galore.  They weren't kidding on their sign about the life-sized moose.  It really was enormous, and I think if I finally do get to see a live one in the wild, it'll be unforgettable to say the least.  I've had my eyes peeled for moose along the way, but nothing so far!

Beaver Lodge #1!  Our little cabin (shack?) in Iskut for the night

At the moment, we're taking another breather from the road in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.  I'm a little disappointed we haven't seen Yukon Cornelius yet.  (GOLD!...Nuthin')  We did the usual today. - Took the Cheets on a nice long walk and checked out the town.  It was an energizing walk on the Trans Canada Trail along the Yukon River.  It's funny, the Yukon River seems like one of those things you read about in a novel, not actually stroll alongside.  The Call of the Wild, anyone?  It was beautiful out. - Like winter weather in Key West.  Only it's June.  This is our last stop in Canada, so we HAD to try what some call the national dish of Canada:  poutine.  (pronounced "poo-teen")  It's a terrible word.  

It doesn't look like much, but it's deelish

But, I have to give it to them, it's pretty tasty.  It's basically french fries with gravy topped with cheese curds.  Not too far off from the french fries with mozzarella cheese and gravy I used to get in high school at the Massapequa Diner on Long Island.  I have to admit, I did have a little poutine regret a few hours later.  Wouldn't it be great if we could counteract questionable food choices with salad?  If only.

The Trans Canada Trail in Whitehorse - It's the longest network of recreational trails in the world

Tomorrow, we drive from Whitehorse to Tok, Alaska.  Back into the U.S. again.  It's actually pronounced "Toke."  Wonder if there's a lot of head shops there.  Looks like it'll be another scenic drive.  So far, we've seen a black bear, antelope, a beaver, bison, deer, and lots of bunnies.  And of course, the unfortunate prairie dog.  I'll try not to kill anything else on the trip.  Ta-ta for now.