Trip to Alaska – Part 3

Sunday, July 5, was my day – the day of my one non-negotiable stop: St. Helens. We left the I-5 and headed out on the back roads from Portland to St. Helens. Those were the longest, most painful 30 miles of my life. My husband Dave seemed determined to prove that St. Helens was not a good idea because of the extreme difficulty of pulling a 16′ fully loaded trailer using poor quality electric brakes. With every turn down the side of a mountain (foothill really), Dave increasingly pumped the electric brakes which seemed to lock more and more, giving us the feeling of being rear-ended over and over again. I think he would’ve turned around had I caved; instead, I said a few prayers, held my tongue and braced myself against the whiplash!

When we reached St. Helens, I immediately saw to my top priority: getting a cup of coffee. We had already passed plenty of places with coffee; however, Dave was unable to stop at any of them. Spotting a McDonald’s with a big parking lot a quarter of a mile ahead, I asked Dave to pull over. McDonald’s was the perfect stopping point because it has good lattes and plenty of teenagers to ask about “Twilight.”

After my successful inquiry at McDonald’s, my husband drove and parked near (again, electric brakes!) the historic downtown of St. Helens and I walked the rest of the way. He was too embarrassed to go “stalk” some poor person’s house. He even tried to persuade me not to go – when I was so close!

Leaving Dave behind with the truck and trailer, I embarked on my treasure hunt. Down a quiet little lane, I found Bella’s house. It was cute and quaint and just like it was in the movie. I was actually surprised I was the only one there. Where were all the other fans?! Quiet as a mouse, I snapped a dozen shots of the house and tried to ingrain it in my memory. I pictured the characters in front of the house acting out scenes from the film. I was so afraid someone would come out and see me and say something!

From the house I walked to the historic downtown center where I believe some driving scenes of “Twilight” were filmed. It seemed familiar, if I imagined it at night from the inside of a speeding Volvo. “Twilight” aside, the town itself is actually very cute. Other points of interest include the town’s place on the Lewis and Clark trail and the associated exhibits plus antique shops and the Warrior Rock Lighthouse. It was a very pleasant stop and to top it off when I returned to the truck my brilliant husband had readjusted the brakes to provide smooth sailing from then on!

Here is a photo of a Washington man’s farm at the border of Washington and Canada. I thought it was very picturesque.

Once we crossed into Canada, we encountered A LOT of rain. Let’s just say Dave had to fix the multiple layers of tarps over the truck bed more than once. But the sweet dear let me stay dry in the car!

Below is a photo of Muncho Lake, just one of Canada’s plethora of big, gorgeous, UNINHABITED lakes surrounded by grand snow-peaked mountains. All I could think was that down in the lower 48, people would be clamoring and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to live on a lake like this!

The scenery wasn’t the only thing that amazed me in Canada – I couldn’t believe how many Dairy Queens there were! Maybe Dairy Queens in Canada sell hot treats also? Can anyone explain this mystery? Or why Canada does NOT have Netflix?!! It was a sad night when we realized that.

Thank goodness for the animals which lifted our spirits! We didn’t even have to get out of our truck to get close to them, like the stone sheep below. Animals were all over the Alaska Highway (previously or sometimes referred to as the Alcan).

We saw a total of 14 black bears – all from the safety of our truck of course. I couldn’t believe it! Although, we did see many a stupid tourist out of his/her car, camera in hand inching closer to a bear and motioning for us to follow suit. Haven’t those people seen any of the numerous horror videos of tourists being mauled by wildlife – usually bears!

Not to fear, we were never in danger as we had our guard cat Elphie with us! We had to hold our GROWLING cat back from leaping out the open window to attack the black bear. Was it a mother’s instinct? Meanwhile Eliot, our second cat, decided to have
a bite to eat and use the bathroom.

The big advantage of driving into the night was getting to see the animals which start coming out around dusk – remember the sun stays up longer as you head north. Even my husband, Mr. Alaska, was amazed by how many animals we saw – including 75 of the 250 endangered wood bison in the area!

The main DISadvantage of driving well into the night in Canada was having no place to stay the night! All the inns were full or closed, so we had to sleep in the cab of the truck! I insisted on changing out of my jeans into my thin cotton pajama pants and ended up shivering under my Northface jacket (and I think Dave’s jacket as well) all night long! But I did alright until Dave wanted to lie down on the bench seat next to me! That bench was not big enough for the both of us, but we were both too sleepy to figure out a better way.

The next morning, we visited Dave’s most anticipated destination: the signpost forest on Lake Watson. He is dieing to put this place in a movie! There are over 60,000 license plates and handmade signs left from people all over the world. It is quite a sight to behold. One could spend hours there perusing people’s handiwork and personal notes.

As we had only slept a rough 4 hours in our truck the night before, Dave wanted to take a nap in the middle of the day to recharge. Knowing that we would never make it to Fairbanks that night if we stopped, I hopped in the driver’s seat for the first time of the trip. Up until that point, I had happily knitted and played DJ to the Harry Potter audio books and my ipod. Dave made me pledge to drive extremely carefully – to take each turn wide and slow and to not go any more than 50 miles per hour! So I was!

Cut to an hour later, Dave is back behind the wheel speeding like a maniac down the bumpy half-gravel, half-paved road! “What happened to being extremely careful?” I asked. As we pulled up to the border station between Canada and Alaska, we were so thankful to be reentering America – the land of our compatriots! Unfortunately for us, the US border guard did not share our sentiments…

“How many cats do you have traveling with you?” Border Guard inquired.
“Two. (Aren’t they adorable?!)” we answered affectionately.
“I’ll need to see their vaccination records” Border Guard commanded.
“Huh?” we responded. “Uh…we didn’t know you’d need to see those. They are buried in our trailer somewhere. We’re moving from California to Alaska you see-“
“I can’t let you through without seeing those records.”
“Please, sir, is there any other way…?” We could only hope. I believe my eyes were starting to tear up! It took 4 men several hours to pack this trailer! How were my husband and I ever going to unload and reload everything?
“No! Canada didn’t make you show your records? I can’t believe it – they are way more strict than we are. You were lucky. Now show me those records!”
“Alright, relax…” Dave said.
“I am relaxed. Trust me, you’ll know when I’m not.”
Oh no, I knew this was not going to be good.
“Look, remember you work for me” Dave asserted.
“No, I do not. I’ll make you unload and reload that entire trailer and show you who you work for!” Border Guard retorted. “Now pull over and find those records.”

Dave and I were furious! Thankfully, I remembered in what box I had placed the vaccination record and it only took us half an hour to find it, during and after which I’m sure Border Guard and his friends had a good laugh. When Dave took the vaccination record to the Border Guard, he thanked him for doing his job and also took his business card so that he could report his disrespectful attitude!

As we neared Fairbanks, we somehow encountered both rain and heavy smoke from the forest fires! Below is the sign for the end of the Alaska Highway.

We pulled into Fairbanks around 1:00am. Although we were spending the night with his parents, my proud husband had to take me by our new house first. Even in the dark, I could tell my house was even more beautiful than I had thought!

That night, my mother-in-law’s Christmas cactus (it only blooms at Christmas), which didn’t bloom this past Christmas, finally bloomed, welcoming us to our new home.