2,400 miles is a really long way to drive

I mean REALLY long. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad my friend Ross came up to do it with me. We had a blast and I'm glad I had someone else in the car with me. I would have been going a little stir crazy by about the middle of the third day. We had some unreal conversations. Some philosophical; How do we deal with immigration or should kids have to take music lessons until they leave the house. Some not so much; How many Nilla Wafers can you stuff in your mouth at one time? (he won with 12) And my personal favorite, How many midgets could you fight at the same time? We saw an amazing amount of wild life.

I'll post more pics later but here's a basic list:
6 Moose
7 Black Bears
10+ Mountain Sheep (The bighorn kind)
50+ Bison
10+ Caribou
10+ Elk
20+ Deer
1 Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle was flying right at us while we driving. He sort of dive bombed us and then pulled up and over to the right. It was so fast and sudden that we didn't get a chance for pictures.

Seeing all the bears was kind of funny. On the drive up to Alaska, Jennifer and I only saw one. I told Ross that seeing a bear was going to be sketchy. Then, on the afternoon of the second day, we saw two within 5-10 minutes of each other. A few hours later, we saw our third. The seventh one was just 60-70 miles north of Vancouver on the drive out down from Whistler on day 4. By that time, we were just kind of "Eh, another bear." Thank goodness for good camera lenses. This pic was taken from about 30 feet away as we stayed in the car for safety sake.

Definitely the coolest thing I saw were the bison herds. I had never seen a bison in person. When we drove through Wyoming and Montana in 2004, I was hoping to see one of the private herds that roam around there. In 2006, I drove up Richardson Highway from Glenallen back to Fairbanks but never saw the heard that lives near Delta Junction.

We first saw a group of three but there might have been more in the trees. A few miles down the road, there was a larger group of 10-12. The biggest pack we saw was around 15-18 about 20 miles away from the second group. There were probably more in the tree line. Bison were the least skittish animals that we saw. They just stood there and ate the grass. They hardly paid any attention to the cars and trucks that were (sometimes) flying right by them. We slowed down because we wanted to take pictures and we also didn't want any horns or hooves impaled on the front of the Dadmobile. The only other animals that even approached the non-chalant manner of the bison were the bighorn sheep. Those little daredevils would stand right on the side of the road and eat the small flora that was growing. They would stand there while traffic buzzed by but tended to move away when we slowed to take pics. Not sure why, but they were not phased by fast moving traffic, just the slow moving ones.

A couple of things about the stops we made along the way:

Whitehorse: A pretty town set along the Yukon river. But get there early if you ever go. EVERYTHING except McDonald's and KFC shuts down at 9:00. We got seated at a restaurant and then got told that they were closing when we left. Our waitress all but kicked us out shortly after our food came. Matter of fact, she left before we did and she peeled out as she did.

Liard Hot Springs: About halfway between Whitehorse and Ft. Nelson. It's well worth the stop. It was 70 degrees outside and when we got out of the water, we were both a bit chilly. The water is amazing.

Ft. Nelson: There is NOTHING to do there. It's an oil patch town with a few hotels, some gas stations and not much else. It's kind of a necessary stop unless you want to try one of the roadside motels either before or after it but that's a total crap shoot. Not to mention that lot of them look permanently closed.

Prince George: It's a lot bigger than I remembered it being in 2004. We stayed at the Treasure Cove. The restaurant next door (called Publik) had great food and was showing the Spurs/Suns game.

Vancouver Area: We took a detour and drove down through Whistler instead of the farther eastern route. It was well worth it. The mountains are beautiful and the drive is breathtaking. Just remember to follow the road signs regarding speed. We did and our breaks still smelled burnt after the final switchback descent into the valley where the Whistler and Blackcombe ski areas are. BTW, they're still skiing up there this time of the year. Our waiter told us that they will ski until at least mid June. They stop for a few months and then start back up again in September or October. I really hope we can get up there this winter. It's a pretty town and I can only imagine what it looks like with snow all over. Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics in 2010 and Whistler will handle the skiing events. We ended up staying a little bit to the east of Vancouver and I regret not staying downtown. Like most Canadian cities, it was clean and full of people, even at nearly 9:00 pm when we drove through.

Well, I'll post some more pictures once I sort through them. But I really want to thank my buddy Ross for making this a memorable and fun trip.