LONG POST - DIARY OF OUR JOURNEY

I am finally getting to post. My nephew got our internet working on our lap top so I no longer need to share with Jenna - yippi ai aye! Though I've posted tid bits I decided to post from the beginning here...if you don't have the time, don't start, because it's a long one *smile*

An Experience of a Life Time

DAY 1
After driving through the night Sunday from our general assembly in Tennessee, where we received such a refreshing from the Lord, we picked up our trailer. We found it was 7,000 pounds overweight. OUCH! What do I leave behind? Chest freezer, dressers, pots and pans, T.V., a Gander mountain tent, the list goes on. I’m numb but not as much as Jody is as we leave almost ALL his books as wells as the girls and my books. The furniture is left with a friend to sell and get what he can out of and he’ll send us the money. All the books will be shipped up by another dear friend, Larry Doupnik, a little at a time. Matthew Peter also stopped into help and took a few things of Jessa’s and will try to ship them out when he can. How can we thank these? God will bless them we know. We take off still being about 3,000 lbs over but everything is looking good. We go to my brother’s house in MN for the night (3 hours away).

DAY 2
We head out at 6 am the trailer wheel is constantly hot. We call the trailer place, and they say it’s possible the bearing or the brake is tight and needs to loosen up. We continue on but we’re concerned and disconnect the brake to that wheel. It’s still hot. Pulling into a station for a restroom break in Steele, ND someone yells out to the guys that they heard grinding of the wheel-bearings (?) and there’s an auto repair 3 blocks away. The guys there were great. The brake had hung up and hadn’t released. When they removed the brake using gloves, it was so hot the metal was literally white hot! Thank the Lord, we we’re there 1 1//2 hours and they only charged us $42.50. The rest of the day goes on uneventful and nothing but flat lands as far as the sights. The first night we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express with a family suite (remember my brother and nephew are traveling with us) at about 9 pm. They had a pool and whirlpool. The pool had an awesome slide but the water was running down it so fast it literally threw you down the slide. I hit my head the second (and last time) going down. The whirlpool felt good for the ending of our second day.

DAY 3

We leave out from ND at 6 am and our first sights of the day are the Painted Canyons of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Awesome! Jenna gets some pictures, but dumb me forgot to get the video camera out. We then cross into Montana and I feel like I’m in one of Western books I’ve read. Prairie grass everywhere along with bales of hay, golden fields, and dried up sunflower fields. Even saw some cowboys (but no Indians *smile*). We met up with our friends Caleb and Mandie Alexander and baby Emily, in Havre, MT at A&W for supper and a short visit which was nice. We then travel on across the Canadian border to be sent back around to the US border to register Jody’s fire arms. Canada had no problem with them but said that the US may not let us back in if they’re not registered. Oops, I checked into what we needed to do to get them across the Canadian border but totally forgot that we would have to enter back into the states. We then go on to Lethbridge AB for the night. It’s about 8 pm but by the time we find a rooms that fairly reasonable it’s 10 pm. Our precious friends from Kalispell, MT the Dorans, (Matthew Peter’s sister and her family) meet us there. Unfortunately Jody and I are exhausted, Jody’s sick (yes, Tammy Jody not me ~smile), we’ve been frustrated trying to find a hotel, starving we say hi and bye to them (Jessa stays and visits with them as they get a room the same place as we do) and get subs at subway and go to bed. This ends day 3 (oh we got a dent in the trailer a dumpster hit our trailer ~smile~ oh well, we’ll fix it).

DAY 4

We take off again at 6 am. We spend a good hour or more getting our money exchanged at a bank and getting some groceries at Walmart (where the prices are outrageous even though the exchange is $1.07 to our $1). We’re missing our Caribou but we find a coffee shop when we’re looking for a restroom (I mean “washroom” in Canada they didn’t know what we meant by a restroom). Alberta doesn’t look much different then Montana and ND. There was lots of wilderness, flat lands, and truckers. We cross over to Grand Prairie, BC for the night. It’s a large city so it shouldn’t be difficult to find a hotel. Yeah right. Everyone’s full. So we finally pull into a gas station and using my brother’s calling card I call around and find one (and I mean just one – price can’t matter), family suite at Super 8 that has 3 rooms, 1 double bed, a pull out sofa, and bunk beds for 3. Price is outrageous but we have to sleep! And sleep we did. Our heads hit the pillows and we’re out at about11:00 p.m. The beds are soooo comfortable that we sleep so hard the rooster on cell-phone actually wakes us up this time.

DAY 5
NO ELECTRICITY, NO CELL PHONES, NO INTERNET SERVICE. As we hit the Alaska highway in Dawson Creek, BC God's awesomeness comes forth. Around every curve is breathtaking views. From foliage colored covered mountains, to stone mountains, to lakes, to caribou, to sheep, to buffalo, to bears. Everything is gorgeous. The day went by fast as we saw the the beauty before us. With those mountains come steep grades to climb and go down. The truck was already giving us whip lash as it crossed bumpy roads with it's heavy load but add the climbs to it and it was worse yet. Going down the first incline left our brakes smoking and Jody a bundle of nerves. He asks Kelly to take over driving, so we go from the jerking truck to the cramped car but it still feels good. Jody especially was relieved as he felt a migrane coming on. The next climb left the engine hot so we had to pull over again but we got to take some beautiful pictures that will be on Jenna's blog and ringo. After that Kelly gets the right gear for climbing and the right tension for the brakes and no problems from there. We stopped at a small station for gas and they have no electricity, phones, etc. Everything is ran from a generator but they have awesome homemade ice cream. When we stop again we decide we better make hotel reservations for us in Liard River as we don't know what time we'll get in. We got in at 10 pm after driving in pitch black around Muncha Lake (which was cool even in the dark when the moon broke though the clouds, although earie at the same time). It was the neatest logged lodge. We had a room that had 2 double beds, and 2 singles. It reminded me of the perfect place to have a retreat. It was by the hot springs but we didn't get to see them as it was raining and it would've been a long hike. Once again there was electricity, t.v., cell phone, etc. all by generator. It had it's own restraunt of home cooking. Both the room and the food was very expensive. By the way gas ran as high $4.99.9. At Watson Lake we also saw the sign forest. Street signs and signs of all kinds from around the world were on post filling acres of land. It was really cool.

DAY 6

We leave out at 8 am today as the gas station and restraunt didn't open until 7 pm and after driving in the dark last night we decided we best wait until daylight any way. We are now in the Yukon and it too is gorgeous. We stopped at the Cutless Falls and did a 10 minute hike back to the falls. It felt good to be out hiking and the falls were pretty. Nothing like the Gooseberry Falls up the North Shores of MN but pretty. The best thing was the trail was prepared for the physically challenged (they had a sign that even said that). We then get in to White Horse for the night and we can't find a hotel that has parking big enough for the truck and trailer. We got in about 7:30 pm but didn't find a room until 9 pm at the Yukon Inn. White Horse is a rough town. Beautiful mountains surrounding it but the town itself seemed really rough. One of the deciding factors for the Yukon Inn was they had a security guard. The rooms were out rageous in price so we wound up taking one room with 2 double beds, and 2 cots. We were wall to wall people, but it worked.

DAY 7

Oops, I thought my alarm was set for 5:30 a.m. but because we haven't had cell service our time didn't change over so the rooster crowed at 4:30 p.m. I reset the alarm, so I thought but forgot to set to "on" and I just happened to wake up at 5:50 a.m. Anyway we were on the road by 7 a.m. and expienced more of God's beauty but some horrible roads. Gravel, rocks, dips, dirt, construction but beautiful snowcapped mountains with a lake around the base, The Kluane Mountain range and Lake left us awestruck for miles. We also see an Elk Buck today. Jody made noises at him and he started bucking and Jenna and I thought he was going to come at the little Nissan and we would have been goners. At Beaver Creek we change vehicles to cross the border. God is soooo good it took less then 10 minutes at the border. The lady was laughing with us as she asked if we we're coming in with more than $10,000 and Jody said no but we were definitely coming in with less than we had left with. We then called for hotel reservation from the border pay phone for Tok Alaska. Finally reasonably prices and two rooms. It was great seeing miles instead of kilometers. MPH instead of km. I started singing "I'm glad to be an American". Best of all we are now in our home state, Alaska. How wierd does that sound. Any way the roads were much better and we actually pull in at 6 pm (although we gained another hour which helped). We pull into Tok and Jody tells Joleesa to check her cell and a scream comes forth. We all have messages and we're all standing outside on our phones. Jody calls his mom and I call my mom and dad. It's mom's birthday so Kelly and I wish her happy birthday.

We have traveled about 3200 miles and I know we have 328 miles but I am soooo thankful to God for a safe and beautiful trip thus far. He didn't bring us this far to leave us before we get to Anchorage. It's been more expensive then we planned but the Lord has been good He'll see us through.

Thank you all for your prayers. Please keep them coming for the last stretch. We'll let you know as soon as we get there.