Currently driving through the desert south of Kingman, Arizona. We surprised ourselves with how well we slept and how easily we woke up in the morning. We passed on the $6.50 all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet (though there were at least 50 people in line who were waiting to partake) and got on the road. Traffic sucked in Las Vegas, with our loaded down car making it tough to see blind spots and fight the wind as crazy drivers passed us left and right.

My uncle had left for work early, so we said goodbye to my aunt and headed into town. Since I lived in Pocatello when I was young, we drove by one of my old houses and the empty lot where another had been. I was surprised at how well I could get around town, since I had not lived there since 4th grade, had not been back in years, had never driven through town. Driving south, we were able to enjoy how green everything is with springtime through hills and mountains and lava rock south of Pocatello.

We packed up our last camp of our adventure, feeling a bit nostalgic about the last month. We wanted to hurry to the Old Faithful Inn to grab the 9:30am tour (which we had heard about the prior day). The Inn is quite impressive, built at the turn of the century of log, like a huge, fancy log cabin.

The remoteness of the Alaskan Highway (as well as Alaska, the Yukon, and northern BC) really sunk in when we realized that Northern Montana seemed densely populated.

Banff and Jasper National Park were pretty amazing. What shocked us is that each has a town within the National Park, bearing the parks name. Both towns are so very cute and whimsical filled with summer homes and tourist traps...yet also containing year round residents in a beautiful setting.

Not much of our trek the last few days has been new. Except for a stretch between Fairbanks and Tok, then again just today from Dawson Creek, BC to Grande Prarie, Alberta. We've mostly been backtracking back down the Alaska Highway.

this picture was taken at 11:45, nearly an hour after sunset. note the blue sky

Another cold morning made waking up at a decent hour prohibitive. I won't say how long we slept in, but the tent was just so much warmer than outside. We packed up camp to head to Fairbanks, stopping to take a picture in front of the Denali National Park sign on our way out.

pre-season = free

We started our day by packing up our stuff and talking a walk down to the river. This was followed by a phenomenal breakfast at the Roadhouse. The Roadhouse looks like it is two hundred years old, but it was actually built only in 1942. In Alaska-years, however, this is around 200 years old, seeing as how the nearby highway wasn't built until 1971 and Talkeetna didn't even have a paved road until the mid-70s. The breakfast was great... biscuits and gravy (with reindeer sausage) for Justin and a single sourdough hotcake (from a 1902 starter) for Cara. Not a bad way to start a day.