I know everyone is dying to see the pictures… We are working on it!

I also wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped out with this project/trip, especially our families. I know we could not have done it without you!

Today did have some high points though. We stopped at the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn. For those of you who are a bit rusty on your history, this is the site of Custard’s Last Stand against the Indian Chief Sitting Bull. Unfortunately, to even enter the parking lot you are faced with a $10 fee before you can even evaulate if its worth it. Luckly (in my humble opinion) it was a worth while stop. The primary focus of the park was this 5 mile drive-through tour of the battle site. It was a self guided tour in which we stayed in the van and followed along with the posters of each important marker along the way. It was a powerful presentation between the realism of actually standing there and the military style graves.

Our next stop along the way took us to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. We made our way up Route 16 to the carved out mountain side, to be greeted yet again by a pay-to-park type of deal. This time the fee was $8.00, but we decided not to pay as we could see very well from the road and took a few pictures there. The most astonishing part of the area is how OVER-CAPITALIZED it is. There are more shops and places to eat than Ocean City. I could have never fathomed that a National Park could spawn such a town. The town was nearly deserted because most of the “activities” do not reopen until May 1st. Which wasnt a bad thing, after all I came to see Mount Rushmore not play mini-golf .

I just got out of the shower here and Jason is already asleep. At the very least I got the basics of the day here and should probably head of to bed myself. Busy day of driving ahead!! Stay tuned…

[This next part was dictated to me while Jay drives] SUBJ: DOG!

We have been driving the past few days. ALOT. I dont know about Chris, but I’m “done”! I think I have developed a cold of sorts and of course I have lost all my medicine (You know how I am about my meds).. So things are good now though, because the wintery mix has stopped and visibility is good. We have this cinnibun from Toad river, YT and we are about to ROCK IT! Seldon were passing some cow farms, but the lighting is not that great for pics… so you will just have to deal.

We have not had mobile internet for some time, but now that we are back in BC it has returned… Some updates are definately in order!! The past couple days has been a real adventure. After staying in Edmonton we did not stop again until we reached Ft. Nelson in BC. We stayed at some generic motel called the Ft. Nelson Motor Inn. The next day we drove all the way until we reached Whitehorse, YT (Yukon). Departing Whitehorse, we pushed onward to the Alaska border. This is where things got interesting… We pulled off on a side road called ‘Craig River Trail’ and to make a long story short, ended up getting ourselves stuck (The full story will be posted when we return!) after a 6 hour digging session with the help of a local Alaskan named Mark, the van was free to roam the country again! The removing of the van entailed digging and being pulled by Mark’s 1989 Dodge pickup with chains (33+ inch tires, a real beast). Not to frown upon the van though, the only reason it was stuck was due to the fact that the snow was higher than its ground clearance (We took pictures of the whole thing, so you can see all the action!) This was something that neither us nor Mark ever dreamed was in our future.

Finally back on the road, completely drained both mentally and physically from the incident, we checked into Kelly’s Alaska Country Inn (Delta Junction, Alaska. 38 Miles up the Al-Can from the Craig River Trail adventure). This was BY FAR the nicest room we had stayed in thus far, we slept very well. The town of Delta Junction was very friendly, the locals were eager to chat with us and offer their advice/comments on the trip. Before we checked into the room we filled up with gas and met a local named Andrew. He was a cool guy and chatted with us a bit about the hunting/game situation in the area. I had no idea there was a issue in the community about rules regarding hunting of certain game etc. It also gave me a chance to hear/understand the towns opinion about it. In particular the owner of the inn and her sister were extremely kind and provided us with alot of good information on the conditions that were to come. Her son owned the Texaco next door and we met him as well. We stopped into that Texaco in the morning before we left to have a coffee. When we pulled up the parking lot was fairly full and there were alot of people inside. When we entered the Texaco, we were greeted by all and to our suprise knew most of the people there already from the night before. This really gave me the feeling like we were part of the their community, atleast in a small way. It was a nice feeling and raised our spirits a bit before we set off for Fairbanks.

Reaching Fairbanks, we stopped at the gas station refueled and filled the reserve tank we braught. Strapping the reserve tank to the roof, we were north bound for the Dalton. The Dalton highway is an extremely difficult road to drive on, full of big rigs, narrow bridges, and ice. While on the Dalton we passed through the Artic circle, this was truely an amazing expirence and gave us a real sense of accomplishment. We ended up deciding that Cold Foot, Alaska would be the final destination. This is around 200 miles south of Prudhoe Bay, but without a previously obtained permit we could not go to Prudhoe. We expireneced temperatures around -31F degrees *burr* !!! All I can say is, DAMN IT WAS COLD

We are on the return journey now, and have decided to take a slightly different route home which will bring us through Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Iowa. We are expecting some great scenery on the altered route!

The van has become so dirty on the outside you can hardly see through the backwindow! Thats OK though because with all the mud, salt, and dirty snow comes a sense of accomplishment. Not to mention it looks pretty hardcore! From this point forward we should have little if ANY interruption in mobile internet service, so stay tuned!

I’m not sure how long Chris is going to want to continue driving but our destination, White Horse, may end up eluding us this evening. In some ways that might be a good thing because that will give us the day tomorrow to see the rockies — something I really am looking forward to.

This is my first time actually on the mobile Internet, till now I’ve been stuck writing in my personal journal because I’ve been unlucky to get stuck with no service while I’m not driving. We just passed some really great overlook. Stupid sun. Come back!

* NEW PICS IN THE GALLERY *

It is warmer today. 40 Degrees, instead of the single digits, which makes a tremendous difference.

I am hoping that the mountain terrain continues and that our drive will be increasingly more interesting. The scenery is truely breath-taking and makes for a very enjoyable drive. I do hope though, that the mountains do not slow us down nor hurt our time.

We spliced some extra cabling we baught and properly installed the new 700Watt power inverter. Everything seems to be working well and the laptop is charging. At the current time we are lucky enough to have strong cell/mobile internet signal and should be able to post a few pictures. We are most likely going to be back out of service when we left the great province of Alberta.

Last night was more of a laid-back evening, we had a delicious feast at the Edmonton Red Lobster and relaxed. After dinner we checked-in to the Super-8 Motel…

So much for signal, it is fading in the mountains right now…. so this post is ending a bit sudden!

Unfortunately the battery in our laptop has died. We can not make any more updates from the road until we recharge.

Last night we drove through North Dakota and through the Canadian border and continued straigt up to Winnipeg!

There was a rather severe storm that hit us just as we went through the Canadian border with winds gusting upwards of 50 mph and snow that had visibility at 10 feet. The temperature was approximately 4 degrees and considering it was 2 AM and we had been driving all day, it was rough.

We took a couple-hour break waiting for sunrise and have been driving since then towards Edmonton, Alberta. Once we arrive we plan to get a hotel, a good dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Photos, updates and more are coming!