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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Traveling the Al-Can Highway



When you drive to Alaska, the Alaska-Canada Highway is the only way to get there.  This is some highway and one you’ll never forget.



 The Alcan Highway
 
When we got the wild hair to go to Alaska we didn’t know what we were in for back in the seventies.  This one-thousand mile road is dirt and not even paved, at least it wasn’t back then.  Of course, we found this out later because when we went in March the road was covered in snow.  Someone told us that it was worse to travel it in the summer when you ate dust the entire way.

The highway weaves in and out, around mountains, and across flatland's.  There was so much snow that the road was like a trench with great walls of snow above six-feet high on each side in lots of places.  Picture driving in the kind of trenches you see in the Olympics for the bobsleds.  Thankfully, you seldom meet another vehicle, but on the downside, this can be a bad thing if you are sucked into the snow bank.  That did happen to us and finally a large truck came along to pull us out.  A person could freeze to death out there in the wilderness.  For March it was cold, no need to worry about food spoiling.

Alaska Landscape

We (there were three of us) slept in the truck.  There are very few motels or gas stations between the long stretches of wilderness. 

It took us about six days to make this trip from Texas.  What a drastic change.  We left the eighty-degree temps for the low twenties.  In Montana, we ran into a blizzard and had to stop for the night because of whiteout conditions.

It’s a good thing we bought several pounds of smoked sausage to take along on the trip because we literally lived on that almost the entire time.  Everything was expensive, so we only got a motel room once on the road.

We had stopped somewhere along the way and were going to try to grill something on a small pit we had in the back of the truck.  What a joke that was.  It was too damn cold to hang around outside.  We crawled back in the truck and broke out the sausage. 

Later, we were sucking fumes so we pulled into a gas station and had to stay there until daybreak when the guy came to work so we could fill up and get on the road.  We ran the motor just enough to take the chill off the truck so we could dose off during the night.  There was nothing else around, just this small gas station in the middle of nowhere.



 Alaska Landscape
 
The night we did have a room, we decided to cook hamburgers. All of us were tired of sausage at that point, although it did hold up well.  We just passed the brown paper bag around and got some out when were hungry.  It was quick and easy eating, but that sausage was getting a bit hard and chewy, more like jerky.

We stopped at a tiny market close by the motel and got the stuff we needed for burgers.  We had the hamburger with us already.  It stayed frozen in the back of the truck since our escapade of grilling it on the side of the road a few days earlier hadn’t worked out.  I think we probably got some produce.  It’s been so long ago I really don’t remember.

Once back at the motel, we had to do what we could in the tiny room with just enough room for two beds.  There was a small bath to the side so we set the mini-Weber grill on the toilet seat.  I know this sounds bad, but you do what you have to do.  We had a good laugh about it all and I’m sure anyone would have thought we were nuts if they could see us cooking food in a bathroom, not exactly the most sanitary place in the world.  Those were the best burgers though and our only real meal since leaving Texas.  Heck, maybe anything would’ve been good.  We were probably just starved for any kind of food besides sausage.

We were all pretty scroungy looking by that time.  It did feel good to take an actual shower that night and get on some cleaner clothes.

That was one long trip.  When we finally arrived at the Alaska state line, we found better roads even if the snow was about the same.  We drove into Anchorage, another few hours away, and ended up in a commune where another friend was staying.  I’ll end this here because life in the commune is a completely different story.

Have you ever endured such conditions or lived in a commune?

12 comments:

  1. All I can say is you can write a book on this stuff like me. You also know I have been through the wringer through the years. Of course I didn't travel as far as you.
    http://enchantedfantasies.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thea,

      Yes, someday I'll write my memoirs. I already have a lot of notes in a file. Going to Alaska isn't for sissies. I would never do it again to live, but I'm glad I saw it.

      Thanks for writing.
      Sunni

      Delete
  2. Never lived in a commune, never had to drive so far on a snow road. I guess the snow drive is better than the dusty road.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peaches,

      Living in a commune is a whole story by itself. LOL

      They say that driving on the ice is better than the dirt because all the dust swirls around like a cloud.

      Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment.

      Sunni

      Delete
  3. I have never been to Alaska, if I could handle the cold it looks like it would be a neat experience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chrys,

      It is an experience and I'm glad I did it when I was younger. I could never stand the cold today and that much of it all in one stretch, not to mention the lack the sunlight.

      Thanks for reading.

      Sunni

      Delete
  4. Wow, what a trip. Sounds like an adventure. I guess you had to be young to enjoy it.

    Liz A. from Laws of Gravity

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Liz,

      You definitely have to be young to enjoy that trip. I was in my twenties then and you know what people in their twenties are like.

      Thanks for reading and leaving a comment.

      Sunni

      Delete
  5. Oh my gosh what an adventure you had! I'm not sure I could have endured it, even if the scenery in Alaska would have been worth it :)

    I can definitely say I haven't been through such conditions. I do know when we used to travel in winter conditions hubby always made sure we had blankets, emergency food, etc. I'm sure this is something you talk about and wonder how you survived it all.

    betty

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    Replies
    1. Betty,

      When you're young and in your twenties you don't do as much planning as older folks. We just took off expecting adventure and uncharted territory and that's what we got.

      I couldn't do that now and have to laugh at some of this stuff when I think back to those days. I'm just glad I survived it all.

      Thanks for commenting.

      Sunni

      Delete
  6. That sounds like more of an adventure for the younger me and not something I'd want to undertake now. It makes for great stories though. I've always been pretty much in preference for softer living though I did a fair share of roughing it camping in my younger days.

    I've never stayed in a commune or been around one. I guess that would be kind of interesting, but once again that would be for the younger me.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lee,

    Definitely that's an adventure for the younger person. I was in my twenties then. I don't think there is any way I would undertake that trip today, but it was fun then and it's fun to look back on.

    Thanks for reading and leaving a comment.

    Sunni

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by to read and
comment on my posts. I appreciate it.
Sunni