Some catching up to do...
Sorry to have not posted in a few days. We had some long travel days and no internet access. Boy, are we glad to be back in the land of civilization. We are here in Lynnwood, WA which is the town just north of Edmonds, where our new house (rental) is. This La Quinta is so nice. What a difference being in civilization makes. Aaahhh...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I already wrote about the drive from hell. Now, on to the neverending drive. The drive from Whitehorse to Fort Nelson, Canada was neverending. It was supposed to be an 11 hour drive, which is long enough as it is. It took forever!! We drove for over 12 hours. It was a wildlife kind of day though. We came upon a huge bull moose right in the middle of the road. He didn't care that we were pulling up on him. We got some great pictures from really close before we were able to pull around him. We saw two black bears, but weren't able to get pictures of them. We saw a porcupine waddling by the side of the road, but also passed by too quickly to get a picture. We also saw mountain goats and caribou. There were bison that crossed the road right in front of and behind us. We also had horses right along the side of the road. It was really cool. Then, we got to our hotel around midnight. We found out that we were down a flight of stairs, which was a big problem because of all the stuff that we had to carry to the room. Plus, the bank of rooms that we were in were the only ones that didn't have air conditioning in the whole hotel. We were aggravated, but there's not much you can do. We stopped at the only place still open in the tiny town and ordered some food. We found out after we got to the hotel and had unpacked the car that they had screwed up our order and put all kinds of junk on our burgers. We ate them because we had no choice, but it didn't improve our evening. We got some sleep and packed up the car and continued on the next day. We almost had a delay though. Because of forest fires, they had closed the road south of Fort Nelson. Luckily the roads were re-opened the next day. We drove through lots of smoke though. You could smell the fires, which were hundreds of miles away, even in the car.
Last night's hotel was not very good either. We got in late again (close to midnight) and then they couldn't find our reservation or figure out how to work the computer. The lady got snippy with me and I was getting aggravated. They finally figured it out and we found out that we had to haul everything up two flights of stairs. It was hot and the air conditioning hadn't been turned on in the room. It was close to 200 degrees. Luckily, it cooled off relatively quickly. Paul is such a good husband. He did, for the whole trip, virtually all the carrying of stuff and loading/unloading of the car. He hauled most of our stuff up the two flights of stairs both that night and the next morning. The bed was lumpy and so were the pillows. We got back on the road the next morning around 11am.
We were, at last, on the last leg of the journey, heading towards Seattle. The time passed by much more quickly. What we thought was going to be an 11 hour drive turned out to be only 9 hours. Well, actually 10 hours because we drove around trying to find our hotel. We passed by the general area where it was only 4 times before finding the phone number (which was the only one I had forgotten to write down) and calling the desk for directions. Much to our delight, when we got there they had both luggage carts as well as elevators. We brought the cats and piggies up to the room. Then, I walked the dogs while Paul began loading up a luggage cart. We (well, actually Paul) got all our stuff up to the room in 1 trip (excluding the trip up with the mammimals). The room is large with a king sized bed and sitting/desk area with some open floor space. It was nice and cool when we got in and is very comfortable. Not a bad ending to the cross-continental trip. We are going to meet our new landlord tommorow at our new place to do a walk-through and start moving in. We're hoping that everything will be all right. As we were driving around tonight, we saw a bunch of really cute neighborhoods. We have relatively high hopes that everything will turn out all right. We just don't have good luck with hotels. Maybe it's just Alaska and Canada...We enjoyed three books on CD for the drive. We listened to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Night Fall, which is a semi-fictional story about the TWA Flight 800 crash, and The Da Vinci Code (an abridged version). We really enjoyed all the books (though we both had actually read Harry Potter). Books on tape or CD really are the way to go for long trips.
I do have one huge complaint about this trip. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON ASKED FOR THE PET HEALTH CERTIFICATES!!! I SPENT $200 AND GOT HALF-ASSED EXAMS WHICH WERE CHARGED FULL PRICE ALONG WITH THE HEALTH CERTIFICATE CHARGES AND I DIDN'T NEED THEM ONCE!!! NOT ON THE FERRY, LEAVING ALASKA , ENTERING CANADA, or RE-ENTERING THE USA!!! Sorry, but it's extremely aggravating to be told that you HAVE to have them and then you spend the money and they are never checked. But, we know that if we didn't get them then they would have asked for them and it would have been a big problem. Oh well... what are you gonna do?
We will be updating the blog with more photos of the trip in the upcoming week. It's too late to do it now. We do want people to be able to see the trip. So...we're here in Washington safe and sound. WE MADE IT!!! The animals are doing fine. They handled the trip much better than I could ever have hoped for. I'm sure they will be relieved to stay in one place for longer than 1 night (actually only a few hours in most of the cases). The dogs will have a yard to play in and no one will have to go in the car for hours at a time.
I must add that I handled this trip really well also. The last trip, I spent most of the time sleeping and didn't see much in the car. This trip, I hardly slept in the car at all. When I did take a nap, it was usually because I had taken a benadryl to help forestall an allergic reaction to the food I ate. I had been worried about eating on the trip because of my allergic reactions (not life threatening, but I get sick enough sometimes), but it went pretty well. I pretty much stuck to burgers and fries or onion rings (I know Mom, batter... :0) ) but I did pretty well. No major reactions and I felt relatively good, all things considered. I'm going to pay for it now that I'm here though. I'm not looking forward to the withdrawl I'm going to go through once I re-start my food plan. I feel so much better when I'm off my allergens, that it makes the week or two of feeling crummy well worth it. I am excited to find the health food stores and start grocery shopping. VARIETY...YEA!!!!
Well, we've come to the end. Many thanks to those who kept us in their thoughts and prayers as we made our journey. Talk to you soon.
I already wrote about the drive from hell. Now, on to the neverending drive. The drive from Whitehorse to Fort Nelson, Canada was neverending. It was supposed to be an 11 hour drive, which is long enough as it is. It took forever!! We drove for over 12 hours. It was a wildlife kind of day though. We came upon a huge bull moose right in the middle of the road. He didn't care that we were pulling up on him. We got some great pictures from really close before we were able to pull around him. We saw two black bears, but weren't able to get pictures of them. We saw a porcupine waddling by the side of the road, but also passed by too quickly to get a picture. We also saw mountain goats and caribou. There were bison that crossed the road right in front of and behind us. We also had horses right along the side of the road. It was really cool. Then, we got to our hotel around midnight. We found out that we were down a flight of stairs, which was a big problem because of all the stuff that we had to carry to the room. Plus, the bank of rooms that we were in were the only ones that didn't have air conditioning in the whole hotel. We were aggravated, but there's not much you can do. We stopped at the only place still open in the tiny town and ordered some food. We found out after we got to the hotel and had unpacked the car that they had screwed up our order and put all kinds of junk on our burgers. We ate them because we had no choice, but it didn't improve our evening. We got some sleep and packed up the car and continued on the next day. We almost had a delay though. Because of forest fires, they had closed the road south of Fort Nelson. Luckily the roads were re-opened the next day. We drove through lots of smoke though. You could smell the fires, which were hundreds of miles away, even in the car.
Last night's hotel was not very good either. We got in late again (close to midnight) and then they couldn't find our reservation or figure out how to work the computer. The lady got snippy with me and I was getting aggravated. They finally figured it out and we found out that we had to haul everything up two flights of stairs. It was hot and the air conditioning hadn't been turned on in the room. It was close to 200 degrees. Luckily, it cooled off relatively quickly. Paul is such a good husband. He did, for the whole trip, virtually all the carrying of stuff and loading/unloading of the car. He hauled most of our stuff up the two flights of stairs both that night and the next morning. The bed was lumpy and so were the pillows. We got back on the road the next morning around 11am.
We were, at last, on the last leg of the journey, heading towards Seattle. The time passed by much more quickly. What we thought was going to be an 11 hour drive turned out to be only 9 hours. Well, actually 10 hours because we drove around trying to find our hotel. We passed by the general area where it was only 4 times before finding the phone number (which was the only one I had forgotten to write down) and calling the desk for directions. Much to our delight, when we got there they had both luggage carts as well as elevators. We brought the cats and piggies up to the room. Then, I walked the dogs while Paul began loading up a luggage cart. We (well, actually Paul) got all our stuff up to the room in 1 trip (excluding the trip up with the mammimals). The room is large with a king sized bed and sitting/desk area with some open floor space. It was nice and cool when we got in and is very comfortable. Not a bad ending to the cross-continental trip. We are going to meet our new landlord tommorow at our new place to do a walk-through and start moving in. We're hoping that everything will be all right. As we were driving around tonight, we saw a bunch of really cute neighborhoods. We have relatively high hopes that everything will turn out all right. We just don't have good luck with hotels. Maybe it's just Alaska and Canada...We enjoyed three books on CD for the drive. We listened to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Night Fall, which is a semi-fictional story about the TWA Flight 800 crash, and The Da Vinci Code (an abridged version). We really enjoyed all the books (though we both had actually read Harry Potter). Books on tape or CD really are the way to go for long trips.
I do have one huge complaint about this trip. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON ASKED FOR THE PET HEALTH CERTIFICATES!!! I SPENT $200 AND GOT HALF-ASSED EXAMS WHICH WERE CHARGED FULL PRICE ALONG WITH THE HEALTH CERTIFICATE CHARGES AND I DIDN'T NEED THEM ONCE!!! NOT ON THE FERRY, LEAVING ALASKA , ENTERING CANADA, or RE-ENTERING THE USA!!! Sorry, but it's extremely aggravating to be told that you HAVE to have them and then you spend the money and they are never checked. But, we know that if we didn't get them then they would have asked for them and it would have been a big problem. Oh well... what are you gonna do?
We will be updating the blog with more photos of the trip in the upcoming week. It's too late to do it now. We do want people to be able to see the trip. So...we're here in Washington safe and sound. WE MADE IT!!! The animals are doing fine. They handled the trip much better than I could ever have hoped for. I'm sure they will be relieved to stay in one place for longer than 1 night (actually only a few hours in most of the cases). The dogs will have a yard to play in and no one will have to go in the car for hours at a time.
I must add that I handled this trip really well also. The last trip, I spent most of the time sleeping and didn't see much in the car. This trip, I hardly slept in the car at all. When I did take a nap, it was usually because I had taken a benadryl to help forestall an allergic reaction to the food I ate. I had been worried about eating on the trip because of my allergic reactions (not life threatening, but I get sick enough sometimes), but it went pretty well. I pretty much stuck to burgers and fries or onion rings (I know Mom, batter... :0) ) but I did pretty well. No major reactions and I felt relatively good, all things considered. I'm going to pay for it now that I'm here though. I'm not looking forward to the withdrawl I'm going to go through once I re-start my food plan. I feel so much better when I'm off my allergens, that it makes the week or two of feeling crummy well worth it. I am excited to find the health food stores and start grocery shopping. VARIETY...YEA!!!!
Well, we've come to the end. Many thanks to those who kept us in their thoughts and prayers as we made our journey. Talk to you soon.
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