Day 1: Anchorage to Tok

Soo this is going to be a long one.  Sorry.  I will try to break it up into organized paragraphs to make it better :)

So I start the day waking up from a super realistic seeming dream.  Here it is:  I went to breakfast with my family (Like I was planning to do in real life, hence my confusion.) and decided for some reason that I really wanted beer with my breakfast.  (great idea dream Anna.....)  So I have my breakfast and beer and say goodbye to everyone and head out.  And then rear end someone in Wasilla. (Even though I should have been in Palmer...) Well, they were super cool about it and say "its all good, here, let's celebrate your trip, have some champagne!"  So I agree. While I am drinking the champagne, I decide I should call in the accident to the cops.  Which I attempted to do while drinking and choking on my champagne.  Soooo they show up. And immediately test us for alcohol.  And I am wayyy over the limit somehow.  Not just a little over, but like I should be dead or poisoned... though I am convinced I am not that drunk.  So I try to explain to them that I didn't get that drunk until after the accident.  Which they believed because they were super cool, but they still arrested me and charged me with a DUI.  With my DUI, I can no longer drive through Canada... which ruins my whole trip. So I beg them to believe me and the agree...if I will fill out evaluation forms for them that will get the promoted.  So I get the forms and they are the most confusing forms I have ever seen... anddd then I wake up, completely panicked because I thought it was real.

Sorry for all that. That was long.  Anyway.  So the real story.  I go to breakfast, have coffee (not beer) see my family, say goodbye and hit the road.  I get gas in Palmer and don't stop until I get to Tok.  I go to get gas and swipe my credit card and the thing starts beeping at me.  The display is broken so I assume it is an angry "go away use another one beep"  So I try to find another pump.  Half of the credit card scanners aren't working sooo I drive in crazy looking circles in the parking lot.  The manager of the store comes outside "uh, pump 7 did take your credit card...."  Oh.  All of that for nothing.  Long story short, I get gas.  And look like an idiot.  Sooo I drive next door to the motel.  I can't say I have ever showed up to a motel without a reservation.  So I did not know what to say.  I walk into the office, "Uhhhhhhh, can I stay here tonight???"  The lady looks at me funny and says yes. Special.  So I am now in a hotel, it's -9 out with some wind.  Ew.  It could be worse.  And T Rex is plugged in so he should be happy tomorrow morning for our adventure into Canada.

So that was the story part, now for the reflections!  For the most part, everything went as expected.  I did not expect the winds though.  They made driving interesting.  My truck got pulled all over and the blown snow made visibility bad. But overall, the weather was very very cooperative. Also, I wish that someone would read the guardrail handbook (like I had to as an intern!) and put some damn guardrail up.  It is scary in the summer and even moreso in the winter.  I had the thought "So, if my centripetal acceleration is greater than the coefficient of friction between my tires and the icy road, there is a nice 500 foot drop and no guardrail waiting for me"  multiple times on the road. On the plus side, I did not see any evidence in the snow of anyone going over.  So maybe the road has been perfectly engineered to prevent that and guardrail is just for everyone else's piece of mind.  I can't say I am convinced of that.

This whole trip is kind of emotionally weird.  I spent months stressing about it.  The days leading up to it lacked the apprehension that I usually feel about trips.  Aside from the feeling of forgetting something packed and being sad after saying goodbye to everyone, I have been pretty excited.  Which is weird to be experiencing without the usual apprehension that usually accompanies it.  At the moment I am just feeling bored.  Because I am in Tok and it is cold out.  And I am hoping tomorrow goes smoothly.

What did I learn?  A few things.  First, I need to keep my bed cover locked.  Not for the obvious reason to keep people from stealing my stuff, but because when driving on roads with wind and snow blowing all over and huge dips and bumps, the cover will open just enough to let snow in.  All of my stuff is snowy.  Luckily it will melt (and hopefully dry) on the ferry before I actually need any of it.  Second, it is great to put your shampoo in a bag to prevent it making a mess on everything in the case of an explosion.  However, the bag is useless if it comes open too.  I had shampoo all over everything.  All I had to clean it with was toilet paper and a towel.  I wanted to use the towel for a shower... So I found how how unideal toilet paper is as an explosion cleaning up device.  Last, I brought some canned food with me.  I was too lazy to go driving around looking for food.  So I pull a can out of the bed of my truck, take it inside, and open it. It is frozen.  Great.  So I got to thaw it in the sink.  At least it worked :)

Sorry for the length!  For reading this far (or not) here are some (kind of lame and not so exciting) pictures!!! (that you definitely won't see on Facebook as well...)

Well, at least there was guardrail here

The last 200 miles were mostly flat! :D

T Rec at the motel.

Thawing dinner.....