Day 10 (FINAL DRIVING DAY)

Last day!

Final day! Left Tok and hit the road. It always cracks me up that we turn from highway 2 to highway 1. Haha! There are no freeways in Alaska. And (if you haven’t noticed yet) there are ZERO billboards in Alaska! That is a favorite! I really think billboards are ugly and they clutter up the view.

The Hub

This part of the drive takes us through a small town called Glenallen. My mom used to live there when she was little, with her family. We stopped at the Alaska Hub, where they sell these huge cinnamon rolls. My mom wanted one because (1) they taste amazing and (2) my grandma used to make them when they lived up there. Sadly, they were out today. We’re decided to check at Eureka Lodge up the road a ways.

Alaskan girl

Oh it feels GOOD to be home! (I’ve been an Alaskan girl with an Utah drivers license for 19 years now. 😊)

Ok, this is dumb but it made Jessica and me laugh. We passed an AKDOT car working on painting the lines on the road. Right after, we noticed that all the lines are really REALLY blurry. We were thinking didn’t do a very good job. It’s the overspray but it just looks really funny - like a cute kiddo coloring outside the lines. So silly and the pictures I tried to get don’t really show it well. I don’t know why but Jessica and I just laughed and laughed. Now that I’m writing this it is sounding dumber yet funnier to me. You know, 10 days in a car and 4,100 miles later… 😂😂😂

TransAlaska Pipeline

There was a section of the road showing the pipeline. I don’t know why but I’ve always enjoyed seeing the pipeline. They did a great job having it rise and fall with the land. It was designed (when above ground) to provide wildlife plenty of room to graze and move around it. The part in this picture shows it going below ground because it comes back up the other side of the road. The pipeline is about 4 feet in diameter. At our family cabin, the fire pit is made from an old section of the pipeline that was replaced. My dad use to work out of the joint pipeline office when he worked for BLM.

Duct tape

Eureka Lodge - no cinnamon rolls. They sold out yesterday. I’m betting they sold out because of the 4th of July. Side note - I laughed REALLY hard at the sign in the lodge that read, “If you can’t fix it with duct tape, you aren’t using enough.” SO. ALASKAN! One time we had a garbage can at our house (the big outside rolling one) that had gotten a big huge hole in it. I mean, we could have called for a new one. But I decided to just break a cardboard box down and duct tape the crud out of it to the garbage can in order to plug the hole. I mean, I even used a pretty turquoise color. It was not only an acceptable Alaskan solution, it was a classy one. (Thank you turquoise duct tape!) It worked just fine. I was pretty proud of my solution. Lol!

Nilchina Glacier

Across from Eureka Lodge, you can see Nilchina Glacier. My favorite about this view we had today was the airplanes on the side of the road. Welcome to Alaska! I love it!

Gunshot Mountain

Just past Eureka (literally visible down the road) is Gunshot Mountain. If you can see it in the picture, they call it this because at the very top, there is this little notch that looks like you are sighting down a gun. Pretty fun. There is some good caribou hunting in the area around and across the mountain so that fits. This is also a good snow cave spot in the winter and a good snowmachining* spot.

Matanuska Glacier

This glacier is so pretty! I haven’t been on it in decades but I LOVE the view! The last time I hiked this glacier was when I went to 6th grade camp. Lol! It’s so expensive now to hike it. *sigh* It’s sad how the things that use to not be as accessible or well-known to tourists are becoming more and more overrun.

HOME!!!

We’re here!!! We made it! I am SO happy to be home! AND, we saw a mama moose with her baby calf on our road. The moose really do just wander the towns. It’s so fun!

*showmachining - this is an absolute MUST-know Alaskan term. In the Lower ’48** people call it snowmobiling. If you say this in Alaska, you might as well wear a sign saying, “I AM A CHEECHAKO!***” My husband has teased me about this term our entire marriage. I don’t care. It. Is. NOT. Snowmobiling. That’s just crazy talk.

**Lower ’48 - what Alaskans call the area of the United States below Canada. The contiguous states. ’48 because Hawaii (as the 50th state, Alaska being the 49th) is the sister-state to Alaska. Neither are connected to the rest of the U.S.

***Cheechako - historically meant a person newly arrived in the mining districts of Alaska or northwestern Canada. Today it means someone new to Alaska or the Yukon Territory of Canada who has not spent a full year (particularly a winter) up here. Once you have, THEN you can be called a Sourdough****.

****Sourdough - the opposite of Cheechako. Someone who has lived at least a full year in Alaska or the Yukon Territory of Canada. Often someone who has spent several winters in Alaska or the Yukon.

Interesting stats:

We took 10 days to drive 4,380 miles for a total of 72 driving hours. At least 5 of these hours were road construction-related delays.

We found every license plate in the U.S. (I was SO excited!)

We found every license plate in Canada EXCEPT for Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunevut.

We completed the alphabet game 24 times (finding a letter of the alphabet in order from road signs).

We still all like each other. HAHA!

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