Prologue

How does one move two cars, a truck, a van and trailer Alaska to Colorado with only 2 drivers? This is the story of two people making a move on a shoestring, enduring everything from blizzards to breakdowns.

Moving day was arriving too, too quickly. We had decided to close our business and so my husband could take a position with a computer consulting firm in Colorado.

Let me introduce myself. I'm Virginia Bolzern. My husband is Mark. We lived about thirty miles north of Anchorage on family-owned acreage. This sounds all rosy. It wasn't bad at all except when we had to bring things in and out. We didn't have as regular road into the house. We normally parked our cars and walked a quarter of a mile down a path. We could drive the four wheel drive pickup in when necessary. There were two routes: 1) jumping over the railroad track and ditch and down the walking path or 2) through the neighbors' property on the road he was constructing. Our neighbors graciously allowed us access. However, we tried not to drive in and out too often because it could disturb them plus it was the longer route. As I said before, we usually walked.

In our area of Peters Creek, the residents constructed their own roads into their property. The Ruesches had been working on his section of the road during the summer. They built up their driveway area. We had wondered if we would be able to get our vehicles in and our when so heavily loaded since the incline was fairly steep at one point. We left on a long scheduled trip in September still wondering how our up-coming move would be executed. Upon our return, we discovered our neighbor had done more work on the road, extending the area down to the level part of his property. We really appreciated it for without that unexpected blessing, we probably would have been unable to get

our loaded vehicles up the hill.

Let me back up a moment. In planning to move, we had checked the options. To use a moving company was financially out of the question. Renting trucks might be a viable option for the average family with one car to tow, or multiple drivers. To get technical, Mark and I own three pickups, two cars, one van, a trailer and a camper, and a motorcycle. Obviously too many for only two people to drive to Colorado.

We finally opted to drive our own vehicles in hopes they didn't break down in route. It was decided for Mark to drive the van towing the trailer while I drove the 4 wheel drive pickup with the camper on it towing my car. Mark's car was already in Denver; he had driven it into Denver earlier that summer. The other two trucks were to stay on our property until a later date.

Packing to move is always lots of fun. We had been doing that for several weeks. We've got tons of stuff, not counting the furniture. It was agreed that we wouldn't try to take furniture, unless you count the filing cabinet, TV set and microwave. With the help of two wonderful friends, I had managed to pack the things we wanted to take with us. Mark packed his office and miscellaneous tools.

Wednesday, October 19

D-Day eve. One more day until time to leave. We were still scurrying around trying to get everything accomplished. We had taken the cat to get her health certificate on Oct. 10th. We had been taking her to the SPCA. For a small fee, they give shots and health certificates. To take an animal through Canada, we had to get a health certificate within 30 days traveling. That day at the SPCA, we met a woman trying to give away a lovely Husky dog. The dog was smaller than the rest of their dog team so wasn't able to keep up. Therefore, they needed to get rid of her. If we hadn't been leaving town, I think I would have adopted it. The woman even offered to pay moving fees if we would take her. It nearly killed me to so no. But we just couldn't see how it would be possible. Moving the dog would be difficult. And we were moving to the city. A country dog used to being able to run would be miserable cooped up in a small yard. Also our new yard is filled with a garden and lots of flower beds. I hope the woman was able to find a new owner for the dog.

By that Wednesday we mainly had to finish getting the cars ready with emission tests, insurance and registrations.

Mark had spent several days working on the van. The clutch didn't work well. We had truck with an automatic transmission. Mark decided to exchange the manual transmission in the van for the one out of the truck. It was interesting. First we had to pull the engine. Doing this in your yard is not the easiest way to remove an engine. Noel came over with his cat. He hooked chains to the engine and lifted the engine out of the truck. We were unable to maneuver the cat into a position from which we could swing the engine through the door into the house. It sat in front of our house for several days until Mark figured out how to drag it inside.

To make a long story short, Mark spent several days (and nights) working on the van. So by Wednesday, we were ready to start registering the vehicles. He went to get the emissions done of the van that day. Also the spare tire was being repaired. I had to go pick that up in the afternoon while Mark was seeing a client.

The last big thing we did that Wednesday evening was to drive into Anchorage to pick up the tow dolly for my car. That in itself was a pain. The hitch ball we'd bought to replace the old one on the truck didn't fit in the hole and the U-Haul shop didn't have the right size drill bit to make the hole larger. So we had to purchase an additional ball. We also bought special hook-ups for lights and packing boxes. Once we finally got the tow dolly hooked on with the car aboard, we headed back home.

Thursday, October 20

The Day started early. This was the day we were do leave Alaska.

After getting the tow dolly, we had several more things to do before we would "leave town." Two of our vehicles needed to be licensed and we had to get additional insurance and special insurance verification papers for driving through Canada. We also made one last quick trip to the chiropractor and did some work for one of Mark's clients.

We left the truck and the car at the top of the hill. It was time for the final trip from the house. I took one last look around while Mark closed up the trailer. I gathered up my purse and the cat. We followed behind as Mark drove his heavy load up the hill. Our household belongings and ourselves were packed up and ready to go!

Yes, we were ready to go, including the Siamese cat. Mark insisted she ride with him so I wouldn't be distracted. My houseplants were to be my company. We pulled out about noon and drove up the highway to Palmer. Mark had a bit of work he still needed to do on the van before we left. Also, we wanted to hook up our CB sets. That took the rest of the afternoon plus stopping at Carrs and for gasoline and propane.

As is our custom when traveling north, we stopped at Carrs, an Alaska-owned supermarket chain. There were a few items we needed. Little did I know I'd have little chance to use the shampoo I was buying. I also didn't use the pancake turner (Mine was packed in some box.) We did use up the sandwich spread. While I did the shopping, Mark hooked the tail lights up on the trailer and to hook up the CBs.

After we finished at Carrs, we headed on to the nearest Chevron station while trying out the CBs. At the gas station we filled up both vehicles. While I started checking the air in the tires, Mark filled up the propane bottle and put several gallons in the barrel. I went inside with my credit card while Mark finished up the tires. While at the station, friends of ours who lived in Palmer drove in to fill up. It was neat to see someone we knew; a nice send-off. As we started slowly down the road, we realized we were having difficulty transmitting and receiving on our radios. My radio seemed to be having the problem. We pulled in at the Napa Auto Parts store just before closing. Mark bought a hand-held CB. We hooked it up; it didn't seem to be working correctly either. By the time we figured that out, the store had closed. Mark could see lights in the back so Mark went around there and aroused the store-owner who lived behind his shop. He was watching a game show (It was either Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune at that time of night.) If we didn't mind waiting a few minutes, the man nicely agreed to "open" his store so we could make an exchange. We ended up getting a regular CB instead of one to hold in the hand. This one worked okay.

We finally pulled out of Palmer after sundown; it was already dark. Only a slight way down the road, it began to snow. Little did we know that this snowstorm would stay with us for most of our travels. I was really scared. I wasn't used to driving a large truck, especially not towing a $10,000 automobile. Fortunately, it didn't snow very long. But the driving was still tough with the dark and fog.

We were starting this trip feeling tired. I had gotten more sleep than Mark had recently. He had spent most of several nights changing the transmission in the van. We stopped at Eureka for tea. About 10 o'clock we stopped in Glennallen for another breather. Which actually meant Mark spent an hour on the phone helping one of his "former" clients with a problem. Every time we stopped we had to be very careful to have the cat tied up. She always headed back down the road toward Anchorage. Glennallen had quite a bit of snow. While Mark was on the phone, I walked Cat on her leash. Cat was more interested in plunging into the snowdrifts that staying on the plowed area. Finally Mark finished his conversation and we headed to buy gas. Near the corner of the Richardson and Glenn Highways is a Texaco station. We had a nice visit with the man in charge. He had a small puppy who was interested in our cat. I needed to go to the restroom. We were invited to come inside--with the cat who was allowed to walk around and investigate while we were talking.

Despite our enjoyment, we decided we had better get on down the road. We held out until about 1 A.M. at which time we pulled into the "parking lot" of a lodge. At that time of year, there aren't very many gas stations and lodges open. And with the cat along, we had decided to camp during our trip.

We'd left a tiny space for sleeping in the camper. That first night, the cat and I crawled into the sleeping space while Mark tried to get the heater going. About that time, we realized that the cat hadn't seen any dirt since we'd left our house at noon. She was accustomed to coming and going through her cat door. It had been about 6 years since she'd been exposed to a litter box. Mark hurriedly put some cat litter in the box we had brought for her. As Mark entered the camper door with it, Cat let our a loud yowl and leaped from my arms into the box. We were proud of her for waiting so long and knowing the purpose of the box.

I don't remember having any dinner that evening. However, I do remember the difficulty Mark had getting the heater started. It was -20 degrees Fahrenheit. We had seen a thermometer at the guess station. the fresh snow was a foot deep. We planned to use the Coleman catalytic heater using unleaded gasoline. The gasoline was so cold that it didn't want to light. Mark dowsed the entire heater with gasoline, lighted paper and started it. It would flame up but go out after a few minutes. He did this about five times before it finally caught.

Friday, October 21

We awoke about 9 a.m. It was high time we got up and started. Mark bought tea and coffee while I folded up the bedding and got ourselves ready to do. Mark commented on how clean the restrooms were. We planned to eat in the cars instead of stopping at restaurants. I had brought various meats, breads, fruit and beverages with this in mind. After gassing up the vehicles, we headed to Tok.

We hoped to buy another CB in Tok. The previous night during our travels, we'd decided that our remaining original CB wasn't working right either. I could hear Mark but his old set didn't receive very well. While I paid for the case of transmission oil at the auto parts store, Mark checked out the CBs in the grocery store. There were two CBs in town, one costing $59 and the other about $300. Needless to say, we bought the cheap one. Before we left, we covered my car with a tarp. The worst part of the road was just beginning. We were afraid a rock would be thrown from a tire and hit the windshield of the car. By covering up the front end of the car, we hoped to prevent breakage. The size and tread of the tires on the truck made this likely; we had huge off-the-road mud tires.

At the auto parts store, we purchased a case of transmission oil. Our vehicles were old. Together the truck and van take lots of gasoline, oil, and transmission oil. The truck needed a quart of oil for every 2 tanks of gas . The van was drinking a quart of oil to 3 tanks of gas; a quart of transmission oil was needed per tank. Mark checked the fluids at each stop. My tasks were to carry (and use) the credit cards, walk the cat, and see to our dietary needs.

The remainder of the day was uneventful except for more snow. We enjoyed having two CBs that worked. The communication range wasn't very far. We were using stick on antennas. Although we couldn't talk to others unless that were on the same channel and close to us, we often could hear other people above the static. Apparently, radio waves can bounce off clouds and mountains. We picked up people from New York, Montana and California. We figured out their location from what they were talking about.

My truck didn't have a regular radio hooked up. The van radio does work. We couldn't always pick up radio stations in the unpopulated Yukon. On this trip, whenever Mark did have a good station, he would hold the button down on the CB so I could hear. It was either that or have me blabbing at him.

Travel took longer than expected in the Yukon because of the weather. We had planned to cover about 400 miles each day, presumably taking about 10 hours. We carried food in the car so during gas stops, I made sandwiches. For most of the trip, we averaged about 17 hours on the road each day. Our plan became driving as late as we could and then sleeping in the morning until we woke up. My alarm clock battery gave out so we were relying on Mark's watch which we couldn't hear if his arm was under the covers.

Crossing the border was an interesting experience. Mark drove through first. We'd heard that they were getting picky about people driving into Canada with barrels of gasoline bought in the U.S. Gasoline is so much higher in the sparsely populated parts of Canada which we were entering. We were carrying a few gallons in a barrel on the tongue of the trailer. However, the border guard didn't tax us for the gasoline and didn't ask us why we didn't have current tags on the license plates. Although we had them, we hadn't bothered to put them on. With only a few questions to each of us, we were allowed to enter Canada. Mark and I later compared notes. Apparently the fact we weren't carrying any weapons other than a hunting knife and a hatchet was an oddity. Lots of people traveling to and from Alaska are hunters. I had expected that they would want to see Cat's immunization papers. They didn't even ask about foodstuffs and alcohol. These items can be transported through Canada by people who are moving if the boxes are carefully sealed. We also had a frozen turkey in the camper's refrigerator. We appreciated that we didn't have to unpack anything.

Beaver Creek is the Canadian town at the border. We stopped for more gasoline at a Husky station. I had been wanting to use my Unocal card. Since Union 76 had pulled out of Alaska, I hadn't been able to use it. Chevron and Texaco also have stations or affiliated stations in Canada. Nearly everyone takes MasterCard and Visa. Mark says that Chevron is the most useful gas card in Western Canada and Alaska if you only have one.

We had heard that friends were living near Burwash Landing on Kluane Lake where Roxienne was a school teacher. Joel is a mechanic with a tow truck. We planned to pop in on them for Friday night. Even if we continued sleeping in the camper, it would be nice to have a place to wash up. By inquiring at the Burwash Landing Resort we learned our friends had gone to Whitehorse for the weekend. We called them and they invited us to come on so we headed on down the road.

We made a stop at the Bayshore Motel for tea to sustain me. I took the cat for another walk. This was the first time she didn't head back toward Anchorage. When we got too far from the van, she would look back toward it nervously. Since Whitehorse is another 175 miles past Burwash, we knew we couldn't make it to Whitehorse that night. We finally stopped at Haines Junction. All the campgrounds were closed for the season. So we pulled into the parking lot at the Visitors' Center.

As the visitor's center was closed at that time of night, we located convenient bushes. We spent the night feeling pretty cold despite the three of us being crammed into a small space. It was so cold outside that the gasoline wouldn't light. Mark tried the using the propane stove but the fumes were so bad we abandoned the idea. Therefore, we were without heat. That same night we discovered the cat had tapeworms. Needless to say, she didn't sleep under the covers with us that night.

Neither did the plants. I never thought of the fact that on the floor of the truck, they would receive the full benefit of the heater. By this time, the soil was dry and the plants very droopy. I decided to wait until we got to Whitehorse to ask Roxienne's advice.

Saturday, October 22

The next morning we didn't waste any time before rolling out. After a quick fill-up of gasoline and to buy tea for me and coffee for Mark, we headed to Whitehorse.

We took another tea break at the Rainbow Inn about 12:30. My tea cost $1.50. Two and a half years before, Mark had stopped at the Rainbow Inn just before having a serious accident. We talked with the owner who remembered hearing about the accident. The highway supervisor had been eating lunch there when the call about the accident was received. They were interested to meet Mark and hear the results of the accident.

We arrived at the Prestone's house in the early afternoon. They were so nice to us. The first thing we did was to shower. It was so nice to curl my hair, put on clean clothes, and be fed a hot meal.

We spent the rest of the day visiting with our friends. We were surprised how Cat settled into this new location happily. Even our hosts liked her. In the early evening we went to the IGA grocery to stock up on supplies. We took the van so Joel could listen to the transmission. Mark was worried that it didn't sound quite right; but he didn't think it had a problem. We went to bed early so we could get up the next morning.

Sunday, October 23

After breakfast, the men shifted a number of things from the van to the truck. We had decided that we should sleep in the van which would be heated as Mark drove and would be still be warm when we went to sleep. Also, we began keeping the gas can and heater in the van so they would be warm when time to light the heater.

It was about 10 a.m. before we left the Prestone's house. We stopped at the gas station. Mark wanted to finish filling up the barrel of gasoline. Even though gas was expensive, we wanted to have plenty with us as we would be traveling at night. The roads were pretty curvy. Having the CBs were a good idea. Mark had driven the highway many times. He could warn me about sharp curves and slick spots in the road.

Even though we had the spare gasoline, we didn't want to use it unless it was an emergency. We were getting quite low by the time we reached Watson Lake. Gasoline is higher in Canada and the price sounds worse because the currency is also called dollars. The total for two vehicles was $35.16. But this wasn't as high as it got later.

At Watson Lake we waved at the major tourist attraction. This is the sign forest at the junction of the Alaska and Robert Campbell highways. Signs from different places around the country are on posts. The first signs were put up by homesick soldiers during World War II. Watson Lake is the first major town in the Yukon on the side near British Columbia.

We pulled in at Liard Hot Springs about bedtime. We had planned to go skinny dipping (The bathing suits went into some box rather than the suitcase.) once the crowd thinned down or everybody went to bed. On our honeymoon, we had stopped there and gone swimming. We figured we would be safe. The parking and camping area was separated from the bathing area by a long walkway and plenty of trees.

While Mark was getting the heater started, Cat and I went for a walk. She was feeling pretty chipper from sitting all day so wanted to explore. I didn't feel like traipsing through deep snow so finally took her back to the van. But alas, we were so tired. I had figured that we would doze for awhile before getting up to go swimming. But Mark was so tired; he knew once asleep, he'd never be able to wake up until morning. Maybe next time we can go swimming (and I'll try to remember the bathing suits.)

Monday, October 24

The next morning, we awoke refreshed and headed to Laird Lodge, the nearest place to buy gasoline. We had been low on fuel the evening before. We hoped the Lodge would be open. The gas station looked deserted. But we were able to get service by going to the Lodge. I bought hot beverages and paid for the gas and drinks with my Rainier Visa card. The gas totaled $32.50 Canadian which is about 27.53 in American money.

We then headed on down the road. For once we were getting a fairly early start. We hoped to go at least as far as Fort Nelson and maybe to Dawson Creek. Little did we know what adventures waited for us that day.

Just short of Toad River, Mark warned me of an on-coming gravel truck that was throwing gravel on the snowy road. This made me nervous. As the truck passed, I must have pulled over too far to the right. The car began to "fishtail"; one of the wheels of the tow dolly must have gone over onto the soft shoulder. No matter what I did to compensate, the car continued to sway. I wasn't sure what to do but knew not to hit the brake.

I tried to drive straight ahead and not do any thing stupid. But as I proceeded, the car behind me wiggled more and more. I was terrified. It was the longest minute I ever lived through. Finally, the inevitable happened; the truck and I went into the ditch.

Already the CB's were worth the expense; it might have been some time before Mark figured out I was no longer trailing him if we hadn't had the radios. I immediately let Mark know I was in trouble so he could turn around to come back for help. He thought I was joking because I sounded so calm. But I convinced him I was in the ditch. The gravel truck had backed up to help me, as well. When Mark showed up, he was able to put the 4-wheel drive into low lock and back up enough so he could pull forward out of the ditch. Mark says if I was going to fall into the ditch, it was probably the best spot on the road.

When we got my truck back on the road, both Mark and I were faced in the direction from which we had just come. It was miles back to the nearest gas station where we could turn around. We drove for a ways until Mark spotted what would have been a turnout except for being under a foot of snow plus the berm from the snowplowing cleaning the road. He decided to attempt going through it. We knew if he got stuck, we could always use my truck to pull him out. Mark drove into the pile of snow. He had to really accelerate. For a minute, he thought he wasn't going to make it. But the tires came free and he bumped back into the road. He called for me to drive on through in his tracks. But I was scared and asked him to do it for me.

Once we got turned around, we headed on to Toad River Lodge which was about 30 miles down the road. We talked about buying a meal. We looked at the menu but decided $5.50 was too much to pay for a burger. Mark bought an Oh Henry candy bar; he'd always wanted to try one. Besides fixing the van, Mark later admitted he thought it would give me a chance to rest my nerves. Even though I was willing to go on, he was right that I was more shaken up than I knew. The transmission was still acting strangely. He decided to take care of the problem while I was drank my tea and fixed some lunch with the things we'd brought with us.

We made a stop at Steamboat Mountain. The sign outside the gas station/store advertised ice cream. Unfortunately, that wasn't true at that time of year. We had a long talk with the proprietress as well as using the restrooms.

The next stop was at 3:30p.m. in Fort Nelson for gasoline. I bought some postcards 4/$1.00 and admired the local art work that was for sale. At twilight we were at Prophet River where we found the $1.71/ltr., the highest price on the highway. The spelling should have been Profit River.

We wished we had waited until Pink Mountain to fill all the way up. Gas was cheaper there; Mark also bought some transmission sealer. The hours crawled after that. Although the transmission problem had been conquered, Mark kept worrying because the back end of the van was making funny noises. He'd first noticed them about the time we were at Pink Mountain. We pulled over several times so he could crawl under to try to locate the problem.

Unfortunately, the farther we went, the more evident it was that the van was having problems. The roads in that area of British Columbia are very hilly and curvy. At every hill, the rear end of the van made terrible noise. Mark kept stopping and crawling underneath to see if he could figure out the problem. Being that the shoulders of the roads we covered with ice, it wasn't very fun to crawl on the ground. We gassed up and purchased tea at Fort Nelson. The road got steeper and curvier. At one point we attempted to put alumeseal on the rear end. It did seem to make a slight difference so we continued on. But by the time we reached Fort St. John we decided not to go any further.

A sign said the camp ground was on the far side of Fort St. John so we decided not to go there. We found an automotive shop and parked at the side of the building. Mark was able to get the heater going while I walked the cat and went to the "bathroom."

Tuesday, October 25

We were early risers that Tuesday morning. If anyone did discover us and tap on the window, I didn't want to be caught in my nightgown. We were waiting on the doorstep when the repair shop opened. They agreed to look at the van. It was assumed that the problem was the rear axle. They wanted to locate one before starting to take everything apart. After several calls, one was found costing $650. Mark was upset because in Anchorage used Chevrolet axles can be bought for around $150. The estimate for the entire job was close to a thousand dollars before the work would be finished. But we had to have the work done, no matter what it cost.

The van, including the cat, was jacked up. We opted to leave her inside instead of trying to hang on to her amidst the hustle and bustle. She crawled into a fold on the foam pad on which we had been sleeping. We never heard a sound from her all day.

Luckily it turned out to be the U-Joint. It was cemented in so tightly that one couldn't tell that it was broken and ready to pop out. It wouldn't have made another 10 miles, certainly not the steep hills between Fort St. John and Dawson Creek. What a relief! Mark also decided to have the brakes worked on as long as we had the van in the shop. The shop built their own brake shoes, manufacturing and selling them all over Canada. Our brakes badly needed replacing so we used the money we hadn't needed for the rear axle. We also tried to change the transmission filter. The Parts store kept sending over Dodge filters. We finally had to make do.

I spent most of the day reading Michner's Texas; fortunately I had taken it along on the trip thinking I might have some spare time. The shop owner nicely supplied me with hot water; I had tea bags in the food box.

The snowstorm blew in on schedule that morning. We had finally gotten ahead of it but the car trouble once again delayed us so it could catch up. The snow lightened during the midmorning I took a walk. I had my heavy coat and moon boots so didn't mind the snow. The evening before I had noticed a laundromat; sometimes they have showers for a fee. We hadn't bathed since Saturday in Whitehorse. I found the laundromat but they had no showers. The bathroom was so filthy I gave up the idea of using the sink to wash my hair.

For lunch we decided to go across the street to the hotel dining room. It was nice to sit and leisurely eat. I ate a hamburger; Mark ate a hamburger steak. I haven't mentioned that the snowstorm had blown had blown in that morning. My walk had occurred during a lull in the storm. Being from Alaska and traveling during winter, we were prepared with cold weather gear. The snow continued most of the day.

The work on the van was finished about 3 p.m. We quickly got ready and headed for the Mohawk gas station. On a previous trip Mark had been at this same station when he locked himself out of his car with the engine still running. In addition to gas, we fortified ourselves with some litres of Classic Coke. We had the feeling it was going to be a long night. We had lots of driving to make up for the miles we hadn't traveled during the day.

We made Dawson Creek about at 6:55p.m. Here we bought the first ice cream we had had on the trip so far. The Alaska Highway begins in Dawson Creek. A large signpost marks the corner where the highway starts.

We had the habit of filling our gas tanks at nearly every station we passed. The truck has about a 140 mile range since it goes only about 6 miles per gallon. In the winter to run 24 hours, one needs a 400 mile range because many lodges are closed. It is often long distances between open stations. Therefore, one should fill the tank whenever possible. With less people on the roads, it isn't easy to get a refill. We passed up gasoline at Dawson Creek knowing that Ponce Coupe was only a few miles down the road.

At Ponce Coupe, we filled the tanks. Because we bought so much gas, we got 2 free beverage glasses. We were given a lottery card that made us instant winners of $2; we used it to buy ice cream sandwiches. Soon thereafter we passed over the border between British Columbia and Alberta. I didn't realize it until Mark mentioned that we could go faster with the higher speed limit. We made Grand Prairie by 9:30 p.m. We had another ice cream break.

A little later we gassed up again at Valleyview. We talked to the girl at the counter of the PetroCanada station a while before continuing. We noticed lights in the distance by a bridge. We wondered if someone had gone off the road. A car had stopped and was warning people that the bridge was super slick. The people had slid and didn't want others to make the same mistake. We had already slowed down; Mark had slid slightly on the previous bridge; we had already cut out speed.

At this point the cylinder compression in the truck started working so we were able to pick up the pace except for on bridges. Then we looked for a place to stay. Mark pulled into a campground past Valleyview. He made the circuit to see if I could turn around. Then he met me at the entrance and guided me to where he wanted to camp. The cat once again felt restless and wanted to explore, especially inside the covered picnic area. It was very dark so I didn't want to hang around inside the is building. Instead, I carried her with me to the outhouse and then we walked on the road around the perimeter of the campground. Mark said the outhouse he found to use included a magazine with pictures of naked men. I was happy I hadn't chosen that one to use. In the meantime, Mark had gotten the heater going. This campground was very nice. However, it was located close to the road. We could hear the semi-trucks roaring down the highway.

Wednesday, October 25

Wednesday was probably the longest, most exciting and stressful day of our journey. One of our first stops was a the Texaco station at Whitecourt. We wanted to buy windshield wiper blades for the van. However, they turned out to be $9.50 apiece. Mark decided we didn't need wipers that badly. We decided to forget that buying them until we got to Edmonton.

The wind had gotten up by the time we arrived in Mayerthorpe. We decided to stop there for lunch at a Chinese/American cafe. We chose once again to have hamburgers. They are usually inexpensive. Lunch, including the tip, cost $7.10. Our major goal for the day was to reach Edmonton. Mark has a friend that he wanted to see. We phoned several times while at lunch but didn't find him at home. We ate delicious hamburgers, then headed on to Edmonton. The West Edmonton Mall is one of the largest in the world. We turned into a parking lot where I could turn around while Mark scouted for an appropriate parking space. The Mall covers several acres, includes an ice rink, water park, theatre, hotel, and an amusement park. A place really worth visiting if there is ever the chance. We were there for four hours and didn't even begin to see the whole thing. Mark had wanted to go there for years but decided to wait until he had someone special to go with. We've only been married a short time and thus far, I hadn't had a chance to drive through Edmonton with Mark.

My first goal at the West Edmonton Mall was to find the restroom. We found one next to the Food Court. As mentioned before, we hadn't bathed since Saturday. By that time my hair was pretty greasy. Washing my hair in a public restroom isn't my idea of propriety; however, by that time, I was getting desperate. I found an isolated sink in an alcove so I was able to wash my hair without being totally obvious. Fortunately there was a blow dryer for the hands so I could dry my hair. I had opted not to bring the towels inside to have to carry around; Mark forgot them entirely. If only, we had known, the amusement park areas had lockers.

When Mark finished his hair, we headed to the telephone to try Mark's friend again. This time he was home and agreed to come meet us at the Mall in the Food Court. While waiting for him to arrive, we walked around poking our noses into stores. We did have a couple of objectives that afternoon. We went to Sears to buy a windshield wiper blade for the van and a battery for my alarm clock. We discovered a Marks and Spencer. I was really excited. I hadn't been in one of these since a trip to England several years before. We went inside and bought some real English cookies with chocolate on one side and cookie on the other. At Eatons, a department store, we bought t-shirts that say West Edmonton Mall.

We met Ray at the Food Court. Unexpectedly, he offered to buy us dinner. We really appreciated that. We needed to eat some time that evening; it was nice to be able to visit while eating. After we left Ray, we headed for two last places before leaving, a grocery store and the Roller Coaster. Bird's Custard Powder is a product that can't be found in the United States. I always buy it whenever we are in Canada. We also bought some chocolate candies at the grocery. Then we headed for the roller coaster which is really big with several loops. I had never been on one this large. Mostly I kept my eyes shut. Not because I was afraid but because the wind was blowing against my eyeballs.

By the time we finished, it was getting late. The snowstorm had again caught up with us while we were in the Mall. While we were at the gas station across the street, Mark finally adjusted my right mirror so I could see better. We almost got out of the city successfully. On the edge of town we were stopped by a policeman. One of the headlights on the van only worked on bright. Then we were warned about not having the tail lights hooked up on my car. When we promised to get the things fixed, we were allowed to proceed with only a warning. We wanted to get on down the road, hoping to get ahead of the storm.

I had always wanted to see Calgary, Alberta. Unfortunately because of the weather, the only thing I remember about it is a blur of snow. We had hoped to get to the town of Coaldale near Lethbridge that evening. A friend from Texas lives there with her Canadian husband and children. It was snowing so heavily that we had to crawl along. It was scary the way the large trucks went roaring past as if the road was not at all slick.

We were ready to give up about 4 a.m. We were still 30 miles short of our goal. Obviously, we missed the night with our friends. Mark saw a campground just before Fort McLeod. We decided to check it out. Mark drove in and decided we could stay the rest of the night. I had waited outside on the road.

I could not back up very well pulling my car. Mark had less problem since his trailer had only two wheels. Our arrangement was that I would wait at a designated spot while he canvassed the area to see if there was enough room for me to turn around. Then he would let me know he was returning or tell me to come on in.

When Mark told me to enter the park, I started to proceed. However, the entrance to the park was on a curve which was on an incline. I never made it. The truck slid crosswise in the road. At every attempt to go forward, I kept sliding. We had to do something quickly. The road was so slick that if anyone speeding around the corner would never be able to stop. It scared me to even contemplate being plastered by a semi.

Mark came to my rescue. He came out of the campground entrance. Up to this point he had had no problems. He parted on the side of the road near me. It's disgusting how easily some people do things. He put the truck into low lock and was able to maneuver the truck so it slid totally back to the left side of the road. We then pulled forward.

Mark had come out of the campground facing the direction from which we had come. He had to go back down the road to find a place to turn around. He was able to do so on a bridge and then came back for me. What were we to do? Obviously, the campground was not a viable option. There were a couple of gas stations just up the road. The one on the left had several parked semis. We chose the deserted station on the right. We pulled in far enough we'd be out of the way if another truck arrived. The restrooms were locked. Fortunately, at that time of night, we didn't have any observers; I decided not to wade through deep snow to the protection of the bushes.

Thursday, October 27

We woke up to sunshine, lots of snow on the ground and a sheet of ice on the road. We stopped at Ft. McLeod to call my friends. We anticipated being there fairly soon until we encountered the road conditions. It took us several hours just to get to Lethbridge. While there we stopped at Safeway to stock up on fruit and Classic Coke. We thought inching along during the previous night's snowstorm was bad, but driving on ice was even worse.

It was almost noon when we made it to Coaldale. We were so desperate for a bath that we probably weren't very polite. It was "hello, where's your bathroom." I don't think I've ever enjoyed a shower so much. It was so lovely to be in a real house again. The children were thrilled to see the cat. They followed her around as she tried to hide. Stephanie had fixed spaghetti. By the time we showered the food was ready. We enjoyed sitting and talking.

Stephanie and I hadn't seen each other for about 8 years. So we had a lot to catch up on. We also were able to meet her husband Frank who came took extra time off work to come welcome us. After lunch we made sandwiches with the last of the turkey and bread we had in the cooler. Stephanie supplied a few extra ingredients. It was nice to have food to keep us going for another day. We finally tore ourselves away in mid-afternoon.

We were quite refreshed when we left Coaldale and headed for the Canadian/U.S. border. Little did we know another small adventure was awaiting us before long. We passed through the border without incident and headed for Shelby, Montana. I was getting worried about my gasoline supply. We hadn't wanted to buy more in Canada because of the expense.

We put in enough to get us into town. Shelby is a small town just south of the border. Gasoline was 97 cents inside town. We were glad we had waited. Then we were ready to proceed on south. We gassed up again later at Great Falls, Montana. We arrived there about 8:30 p.m. and headed to Albertsons where we bought some more food. Now that we were back in the States, we wanted to call south. My parents weren't home so we called my sister; we asked her to notify both my parents and Mark's mother that we were okay. We also called the previous owners of our house that we hoped to arrive by Saturday.

Mark had been the one who usually tired first. But that evening I began to get sleepy. Mark suggested we stop at Eddie's Corner, the next truck stop. He thought I might wake up while we were gassing up. While I checked out the restroom, Mark filled the tanks. Forgetting about the cat, he left the van door open so he could hear a old-time radio show. When he went to get his wallet, he found Cat hanging out of the van, standing on her tip-toes. The leash had caught on something so she was suspended, barely able to reach the ground with her hind feet. He put her back on the seat. She jumped out again, hit the end of the leash and hung. They did this about four times before Mark got inside to release her (with the door shut).

We decided it was late enough to call it a day. We pulled out of the parking lot back onto the road. It was easier to turn around that way. Parking for trucks was on the other side of the building. We were talking on the CB; as we turned into the parking area Mark suddenly stopped talking. I kept asking him what was wrong. Finally his voice came back on saying he was in the middle of an emergency and couldn't talk. I couldn't imagine what was wrong. Earlier in the day, Mark had shifted some things in the van. The cat's litter box had ended up on top of the bag of dirty clothes which was on top of some boxes. This was an unwieldy perch. Just as we arrived at the truck stop, Cat decided to get in the box. When Mark turned the corner, the load shifted; Cat and the litter box tumbled down. Unfortunately, Cat had already begun taking care of her business.

Once we got stopped to get things picked up, we put Cat in the cab of the pickup. A good portion of the urine had soaked the knapsack in which we were keeping our toilet articles. I took that to the restroom to wash out while Mark swept the van. Our sleeping bags were covered with cat litter.

It was awful but pretty funny. Mark was mad at me for laughing; I could just picture the cat flying through the air. It wasn't her fault so we really couldn't be mad. It was just frustrating since we were so tired.

Friday, October 28

Needless to say, we didn't get as much sleep as we would have like to have that night. However, we did wake up feeling more like driving than we had the night before. We cleaned up and bought some tea. We still had some of the sandwiches I'd made the day before so didn't buy anything substantial.

Friday was a fairly "relaxing" day. Mark showed me a point on the road overlooking Billings; he says the lights are really pretty at night. However, we weren't there at night. Billings is a refinery town which smells. Other than that, it seemed like a very nice town. We made our usual stop for gasoline at both Billings and Sheridan.

We finally had run out of snow. My truck took more gasoline than the van. I was worrying about running out before we got to Casper. I finally persuaded Mark to agree to stop at the first station on the edge of town. We were horrified that the price was $1.28/gal. for regular. So we decided to use the expensive gasoline we had in the barrel on the trailer tongue. It was probably a good thing we lightened the load. When we arrived in Denver and went to unhook the trailer, we discovered the welds on the tongue were breaking. The weight we took off may have helped the trailer to stay together long enough for us to finish our travels.

We arrived in Casper, Wyoming about 5 p.m. We debated about staying there for the evening. It was too far to make Denver without stopping. We have friends in Laramie. But that didn't look real close according to the map. We didn't want arrive on their doorstep past bedtime since they have children. The young man at the gas station overheard us discussing the options. He asked us where we had in mind to go that evening. We said we would like to go to Laramie to visit friends but were afraid it was too long a drive if we continued down the interstate. He told us of another route which would take about 3 hours.

That sounded like a viable option. We decided to continue down the road in the direction of the new route while looking for a telephone. We called our friends who said they would be happy to see us. Then we noticed one of the tires on the trailer was low. We found an air hose and pumped it up, then continued on our journey. Mark told me to keep an eye on the tire since I was following behind him and could see the trailer.

My truck had always had a problem. Sometimes it would operate normally. But most of the time, it had difficulty getting up and maintaining higher speeds. This hadn't been a problem in the earlier part of the trip. The roads had been too curvy and icy for fast travel. But we were on the plains, it was frustrating to have difficulty maintaining normal highway speeds.. Actually, we had idea what speeds we were traveling except to gauge it by how fast others were going. The speedometer of both our vehicles don't work correctly. We had made an estimate before leaving Alaska by comparing my automobile to the truck. The truck showed 10 or so mph lower that the actual speed. The Chevy Van had the opposite problem. Mark speedometer looked like he was speeding when he was actually poking along.

This evening the truck seemed abnormally slow. We kept wishing it would make its rare decision to work properly. We finally pulled into Medicine Bow to buy gasoline. We decided we had better change the tire on the trailer. It had gone completely flat by the time we finished paying for our gas. We pulled forward to clear the gas pump area. We had come prepared with multiple spares for every vehicle except the truck. We weren't counting on trouble. In fact, Mark says in all the times he's traveled the Alaska highway, he's only had three flats. But that's another story.... We were happy that if we were going to have a flat, it was a fairly warm evening. At least Mark wasn't kneeling on snow to change the tire. Cat and I took another walk.

We arrived in Laramie about 9:30. So we hadn't really lost a lot of time between my truck and the flat. Of course, instead of going to bed early, we stayed up and talked to Ada and Steve. We had lots to talk about since we had recently crossed paths in Europe. It was fun to compare notes. The cat had fun hiding from their cats.

Saturday, October 29

It was hard to drag out of bed in the morning. We stayed in the van as usual since we had the bed already set up. But we wanted to get up earlier so we wouldn't monopolize the one bathroom for a long period. Ada served a nice breakfast. It was good to have hot food, especially eggs.

We were on the road by 9 a.m. This part of the trip was a breeze. The truck decided to cooperate. I had enough power to keep up with the best of them. It was such a pleasure not to have people honking at me for slowing down the traffic. Fortunately, I naturally slowed down on the hill just north of Fort Collins. A police car was just around the curve. The policeman pulled over the Toyota pickup that had passed me going up the hill.

We made it to Denver at Noon. What a relief to be back in civilization. When we arrived at our new house, one of the former occupants was surprised to see us. We were scheduled to take possession of the house on Monday. However, we had been told to come on if we arrived earlier. It was so helpful for us not to have to spend the night in a motel. The house was almost empty with only a few things left to be moved. We made ourselves at home in the bedroom that was totally empty. We found mail addressed to us in a box.

Mark had rented a room during the summer from friends in Littleton. They invited us to dinner at their house. After we cleaned up a little, we got Mark's car out of the garage to drive to Littleton. Mark had left his car behind in the garage of the house he bought. Instead of driving back to Alaska when coming back to move me, he took the plane. It was nice we had it to drive instead of our still heavily-laden vehicles. Being invited out on our first night in town was great! I really needed to relax. I was so exhausted I didn't even feel like coping with the Colonel. We were pretty tired so headed home fairly early. We stopped for gasoline and ice cream.

Sunday, October 30

Moving day! We awoke early. It was a perfect day for moving, cool in the morning but getting up to 80 degrees in the afternoon. After all the snowy weather we had encountered, sunshine and warmth felt wonderful. We began moving boxes into the back bedroom where we had slept the night before.

The former owners arrived before noon to finish clearing things from the house. They had spent the night at their new home near Pueblo. They were taking things out and cleaning as we brought things in. I'll always be grateful to Elsie for leaving the house so clean. They also left several pieces of furniture, including the desk on which I have my computer. They were surprised at how much stuff our vehicles held. We kept bringing things in. It was mostly in boxes. Since we only had so much room, we didn't bring furniture except our filing cabinet.

Epilogue

We've been in Colorado for eight months now. We've now have

furniture, thanks for many of our new friends. Leaving Alaska and starting a new life hasn't been easy. But it has also been a lot of fun.