While Waiting...

Since I had no idea how this internet cafe thing would work, I only brought with me one day's worth of photos...they loaded so fast...so I have no more with me to post. To give a short synopsis of Alaska...

It is beautiful! (Short enough?) Really, the scenery is so magnificent that words and photos do not do it justice. The only way to understand Alaska is to be here. The state is one fifth the size of the entire lower 48 states. If you fit it inside the lower 48, the Aleutian Islands will go from the Mississippi River to California and more; the eastern panhandle, where Juneau is, stretches from the Mississippi to Florida. It is huge. Traveling from one spot to another actually requires a trip plan, as if you were taking a road trip from home to 3 states away. As we thought about returning home, (boo-hoo) we realized that the trip on the Alaska Highway alone is over 1500 miles! And we are at this moment about 450 miles from the Highway! The Alaska Highway goes from Delta Junction, AK to Dawson Creek in British Columbia. We didn't go that way on the way here but we are taking that way back. Everyone who travels by road to Alaska has to go to Dawson Creek, mile zero. There are then about 1500 miles through Canada to get to where we enter the states again.

The way back we're going into some national parks in Canada and then entering through Glacier national park in Montana. Going the North way back through the Great Lakes then into New York and Saranac Lake the end of August.

We have been in constant cool temperatures except for Fairbanks. The temperature now is in the high 50's (we actually got some sunshine today!) but the last few days it has been overcast, rainy and cool. We have to put the heat on at night, and we're wearing sweaters during the day. There is snow on many of the peaks (which are by the way awesome) and the weather can change from beautiful sun at sea level to cold and snowing just a few thousand feet up. Fairbanks, however, is in the interior where the summer temps can go into the 70's, but in the winter the temps are much more extreme, dropping well below zero most days.

Talk about days - they never end! The sun sets now, at the end of July, around 10:50 PM at this latitude. It rises again at about 4:45 AM. Joe and Joan went up to the Arctic Circle (they'll tell you about that trip!) where the sun set out their left windows and an hour or so later rose out their right windows. It's very hard to sleep with the daylight...it doesn't really get dark at all! When the sun sets it's like twilight all night until it rises again. We've had many fun evenings going out to the local pub and coming out at 11 PM and it's still light out...we get back to the trailer and bang the car doors closed, yell our good nights to each other - then wonder why no one is out, why is it quiet? DUH...because everyone is SLEEPING...!! Hard to get used to. But I can tell you it will be harder to get used to being dark at 7 PM when we get home!

More photos to come soon...my posts will pick up on July 5 and our trip to Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.