Kreider Khronicles

I apologize for not getting this out yesterday. We have been up to our eyeballs unpacking and making our home ours. With not wanting to make you wait any longer our travels for Thursday March 31st.

We started our last day of travel bright at early. Before the sun was up we were on the road. The darkness is different than back in PA. There is no light from towns or street lights. A serene kind of dark.

As we continued to drive, you could see different road signs. There was one that said, Caution Snow Plow Turn Around. The snow started to come down more steadily and it felt like we were in star wars traveling at light speed. The people who drive in the snow regularly, drive like it is no problem at all. Passing us no problem, if they only knew what type of weather we drive in they would be impressed we could drive well.

With mountains on either side of us as we drive it makes you realize how small you are in the world. Really helps to put everything into perspective. The mountains continue to climb up next to us. Peaks barely visible in the distance. With a view of them that keeps getting more spectacular as we drive.

The weather continues to get warmer and warmer as the day continues. Almost no clouds in the sky. The sky is a beautiful blue like nothing I have seen before. Seeing God’s creation is breath taking. So glad we got to see so much of it in a short amount of time. Had a quick pit stop in Haines Junction. Once past Haines Junction we saw two red foxes and one gray one. Pretty much the only wild life we saw.

For a period of time there was nobody on the road. It was just us and the road. But then there were gravel spots and paved spots. Every time we reached gravel we prayed that we didn’t get another flat tire. We made it through without any other tire casualties. Especially as we got closer to the border the road got worse.

12:30 we stopped in the last town, Beaver Creek, in Canada before the border. Only 19 miles till we reach Alaska! Once we reached the Canadian Border we were worried that the process would be long. But it was the opposite. We walked in to the office to return our paperwork. The officer asked us “Checking out?” Felt like we were in a hotel. Handed over our paperwork, let the officer know our birthdays and were on our way. Super easy. Unlike getting into Canada.

By one o’clock we hit the Alaska Time Zone. Which meant it is now 12 o’clock. Four hours behind the East Coast. We were finally out of Canada and at the border. It took us 5 minutes to get through the border. Handed the officer our passports and he said all good to go. A lot less anxiety this time. Funny thing was that the covid tests required by Canada, we never got those results back before we left. Now we are in Alaska. One final stop North Pole!!

Had our first lunch in Alaska shortly after crossing the border. First pit stop was in Tok Alaska, the price of gas was $4.70 a gallon. Ouch! By 3:30 we hit under 100 miles. Yay! We continued on to Delta Junction. This is where the Alaskan highway ends and we jump on the Richardson Highway for almost the rest of the trip. At this stop gas was $4.98 per gallon. That one hurt a lot.

By 4pm we crossed into Fairbanks Borough. The last stretch of the trip. Passed by the Eielson Air Force Base. Where we live is between the Air Force Base and the Army Base. 5:10pm – We made it! We reached our new home. It was so nice to get out of the truck. Our awesome new friends, Cade and Nicole Kelley stopped by and helped us unload some of the trailer that night. Super thankful for them and their help. Now comes the creative part of getting everything to fit in our new home. 500 square feet isn’t a lot but we will get creative. First we got our room organized so we could sleep on our bed. Which was so nice. We finished the night by eating Cup of Noodles in bed. Crazy to think we were here almost a year ago on vacation and now we live her. God works in miraculous ways.

In total for the trip we drive 4,139 miles. That is a long time to be in a vehicle. We are excited to be in Alaska and to see what God has in store for us. For the blog my goal is to post weekly Sunday updates on life from the North Pole. See you on Sunday to hear about our unpacking chaos.

Bright and early this morning we hit the road. Well not right away, we needed coffee. So we went to the most Canadian place for coffee, Tim Hortons. Also got breakfast wraps which were the bomb.

As we keep driving through Northern British Columbia the scenery really starts to change. A lot more snow on the ground than before and different animal signs along the road. One cool this is that they push the snow really far off the road so there is no change you can get stuck on the side. There is also a lot less cars on the road. Mainly tractor trailers and you only seem them sporadically.

Around 9:30 we entered the county of the Northern Rockies – opportunity at its peak. As we continue to drive we come up on several construction zones. It appears they doing storm water management. They brought out the big guns equipment wise.

Since everything is still snow covered and for the most part frozen, people take their snowmobiles right out onto the rivers. Well as people up here call them snow machines. As we go over bridges if you look out you can see the tracks from the snow machines in the snow. Our first pit stop of the day was in Fort Nelson, BC for a fuel up and bathroom break.

Now we keep on trucking! Those animal signs I mentioned earlier were mainly for deer and moose, we just saw one that said Bison on the highway. This could get interesting. Also just saw two cars with Alaska plates. We are getting so close.

As we keep driving, we get closer and closer to the Rockies. They are breath taking. No picture can do them justice. Totally worth a drink along the Alaksan Highway just to see the Canadian Rockies. The snow covered peaks with the green pines scattered across make it such a beautiful view. I think snow covered scenery is 10x prettier. Just my opinion.

Made another quick pit stop around lunchtime to fuel up and hit the bathroom. Those animal crossing signs were no joke. I was mid-bite on my fluffer nutter sandwich when Benjamin goes “Oh Shit” and hits the breaks. I look over and there are sheep on the road. They were big horn sheep, just standing in the middle of the road. As we got closer they got off and started walking up the steep mountain. Crazy how they can do thar no problem.

Driving through the Rockies was like nothing either of us has done. Driving next to them was amazing as well. You look up on either side of you and it is just mountain. As we drove along the Rockies, we saw a moose and someone ice fishing on Muncho lake. Just like that we were out of the Rockies. 

What’s crazy about the roads is that sometimes you see a sign along the road that says “No Road Lines” so you could take up the whole road as you drive. Which we did at some spots because it was just us and the road going around turns. The roads are also incredibly nice for how far north we are. We thought the roads would be gravel. Thank goodness they aren’t. Don’t need to have another tire fall victim to a stone.

After some time, there was a sign that said “Drive with caution. Bison next 90km”. All coming back to that Bison on highway sign. Well things did get interesting. I have never seen a wild Bison. As soon as I said something to Benjamin he said look across the bridge there is some. That was a herd of 5. Then there was a herd of 4 right on the side of the road. As we kept driving we saw even more. And not just little herds, massive herds spanning both sides of the road. The last herd we saw there was one standing on one side of the road acting like it wanted to cross. As it started to move as we got closer, it changed its mind and walked along the road right next to the truck. The Bison were cool to watch. Some were nose deep in the snow trying to get the grass underneath. Seemed like they were using their nose as shovels.

At 3:50 we crossed into the Yukon or so we thought. We kept playing jump rope with the Yukon and British Columbia for awhile. As we drive there are these little, I mean very little town, more like rest areas along the highway. They usually have gas, motel and restaurant. A decent amount weren’t open so we had to time our gas stops just right. They do have signs saying check gas, x amount of kilometers till next open gas stop. One was called nugget city and had an RV park that is called baby nugget. This was the one of many that were closed. And they for sure closed, snow halfway up the doors.

As we continued to drive we encountered a small snow storm. Just a quick flurry mostly. Then it was sunny skies. Till it wasn’t. Hit another snow storm. We passed a big rig that was moving his hand back and forth in a it is okay motion. Not bad but not good. At first we weren’t sure what he meant. After getting through the storm we learned it was he probably meant we had a 50/50 shot of making it through the storm and not getting stuck. I am happy to report back we made it through just fine. Took it slow and threw the truck into 4 wheel drive. The second snow storm didn’t appear to be as intense as it was but it sure was intense. The temperature dropped from around 38 to 30 quickly, the roads became white. We did have something going for us. There was a vehicle in front of us so we had tire tracks to follow. Within 15 minutes we were through the storm. Now it was just sunny with flurries and the snow that was on the ground already started to melt. The temperature came back up and we took the truck out of 4 wheel drive.

That entire time we were in the Yukon. Then we crossed back into Super Natural British Columbia for some time. The road here wasn’t as nice. Trying to dodge pot holes so we don’t have another trailer tire situation. Which we didn’t but we passed a single axel Uhaul trailer on the side of the road with a blown out tire. We passed that and found any wood in the truck and knocked it. We made it through that section with no tires blowing out, which is amazing cause we also didn’t have any service.

By 7 pm we crossed back into the Yukon – Larger than Life. Our last province to drive through till the Alaskan Border! As we got closer to our stopping point the sun was peaking around the mountains to the left of us. It was just breath taking like everything else we have seen today. Within 30 minutes we made it to Teslin, Yukon were we spent the night at the Yukon Lodge. A cute small lodge with an amazing restaurant. Would eat there again. We meet the guy who had the uhaul trailer on the side of the road. He is traveling from Colorado to Anchorage Alaska. He said that was the second tire issue he had that day. Glad it wasn’t us! In total today we drove 707 miles. Tomorrow is Alaska or Bust!

Remember that tire mishap from yesterday, well we tried to get it fixed first thing this morning but that didn’t work out. Was told the garages didn’t open until 7. So we waited and waited. 7:45 rolls around and the shop gave us a call. He was running late due to a fire alarm that morning and would be to our location in 45 minutes. So to kill time, we decided to make coffee. We first tried to use the electric tea kettle in the truck outlet. Quickly learned the truck can’t handle the amps needed for the kettle. So, I stood outside next to the outlet to plug your vehicle in over the winter. And we made instant coffee. Only problem was I burnt my mouth and tongue so bad. So I said no to having anymore coffee.

Now we wait for the service guy. Around 9 o’clock the service guy. Within 15 minutes the new tire was installed and we were on the road again. Since our hotel didn’t have breakfast we ate breakfast on the road.

As we continued to travel through North Dakota, we noticed that as we saw more trees we knew that there was a house around that area.

Canada! We arrived at the border around 10:45. It is not an experience I need have again. It was the most nerve wracking time ever. We were both extremely anxious the entire time. At the border, we thought we would have smooth sailing. We gave our passports, showed our negative covid tests, paperwork for the guns and paperwork stating Benjamin had a job. Seemed like everything was going well but then he asked us to pull up to a garage door. Talk about anxiety going through the roof. So we pull off and pull into this building and our hearts sank. They were going to search our truck and trailer. We also had paperwork to fill out because of covid and moving to Alaska.

So we get out of the truck. Give the guns to one of the officers to make sure the serial numbers match what was on the paperwork. Then we left the truck and trailer to go fill out paperwork in the office. As we sat and worried and sat some more. We really hoped they didn’t search the trailer. We had it packed just right and it was driving nicely. Didn’t want to attempt to recreate it. In the office we explained why we are trying to get through Canada to get to Alaska. Within an hour we had the okay to continue traveling. We were informed that we had to take another Covid test within 24 hours after crossing. We got everything we needed and we’re escorted back to our truck. We got in and an officer told us how to get out. Upon further inspection as we left we determined they only searched the back seat of the truck. By 11:45 we started driving into Canada!

By 12:10 we hit another time zone which changed the time back to 11:10. We are now in mountain time, 2 hours behind PA. Then we started to see more snow. We kept driving and driving, Saskatchewan was flat just like every other state we traveled through. Right before we crossed into Alberta, we stopped for dinner in Lloydsville. We quickly realized that we hadn’t eaten yet all day. So we grabbed some gas station sandwiches and gassed up. At this point we had about 2 hours left of driving till we got to where we wanted to end at. So we kept trucking along.

After crossing into Alberta it started to flurry. The flurries were small, but didn’t last the entire drive. Kept coming and going. We finally ended our day in Edmonton Alberta. Once in the hotel, we tried to schedule our virtual covid test that is required by the government. We tried and tried but couldn’t get it to work so we decided to wait till the morning. In total today we drove 715 miles and made it into Canada!

We started our drive nice and early. The goal is to drive 850 miles, ending up in North Dakota and only have an hour of driving till the boarder. Just because of not knowing how long it will take to get through the border.

Not long into the drive we crossed into Wisconsin. Four states down. Three more to go! First thing we noticed was the price of gas. For everyone in PA you will be wishing gas was this cheap, the cheapest gas we saw was $3.79 a gallon. Super thankful for that price when we are filling up every 200ish miles.

The very beginning of Wisconsin was cool. Lots of different rock formations and passed Camp Douglas. Fun fact: Wisconsin has cranberry farms. One town has a cranberry festival in September. We crossed the Saint Croix River which was still mostly frozen and entered Minnesota. Another state down!

About an hour and a half into Minnesota we were officially under 3000 miles till North Pole. Yay! Not much else to note about Minnesota. I took a nap due to being so bored with nothing to look at. One interesting thing is that State Troopers have maroon cars. By 3 o’clock we reached North Dakota. Last state before the border!

Once again everything was flat. You could see for miles with the except of the occasional rolling hills. The one thing to look at was the size of the feed mills and grain bins. I still can’t belive how big they were. Some are designed to have the railcars come right under and have the feed drop down. The trains that run in North Dakota aren’t small ones. We saw one that all we could see was the end. Couldn’t quite see the beginning.

The drive was going smoothly. We were well on track to get to Portal, North Dakota by night fall. To be ready to cross the border right away. Until we needed gas. We could have used a gas can in the bed of the truck but decided to play it safe and stop. That is when things took a turn. The lot was gravel and a small stone piece punctured the one trailer tire just enough that we had a slow leak. Tired to see if an auto shop was open to put a new tire. Everything was closed, expect we got lucky and found a tractor supply. They weren’t able to fix if and didn’t have the right tire. But they did have tire slime. So we purchased it and tired to use it to temporarily fix the hole. Turns out we got the one for truck tires not trailer tires. So Benjamin ran back in and got the trailer tire slime. Got it to work enough to patch the hole and limp along.

At this point we hadn’t eaten dinner and weren’t sure if the patch would hold. I got in contact with uHaul to see if they could have someone come out and put a new tire on. Since we were still driving they needed us to find a place to stop at. We decided it was best to call it a night and find a hotel. We stopped at Minot, North Dakota. Our hope was to have someone that uHaul found to come out tonight to fix the tire. But because everyone was closed, nobody would come out. So we decided to just have someone come out first thing to fix it. Today didn’t got as planned. Only got 800 miles in but it is all part of the adventure.