On my way to AK (Hope: home, construction, camping)

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Unless you're a veggie... beef jerky is always good road food. You need some protein to balance out all those sugary carbs! Cheese cubes work pretty well if you keep them in a zip baggy in the cooler. The other thing that has always worked are those small tins of tuna fish... just make some small bags of mayo (mayo won't go bad in only a week) with chopped celery and onions so you can dump the fish in and squish it up for sandwiches or crackers. Hobo chicken can be good too... just stick a leg or two, half an onion and a potato in some tinfoil and then stick it on your engine for a 50 miles or so. When it smells all yummy through your vents, it's good to go!

I've managed to drive cross country and up to AK and back a few times and never stopped once to eat in a restaurant!

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by elgusano

Take cans of Spam and some MRE's.

ETA: I've done the drive 7 times, and my wife has done it twice. When I'm alone, I don't use hotels. I'm frugal that way. (My wife says I'm cheap, not frugal.)

But, one of the times she was with me, we stayed at a hotel in Ft. St. John, that was only $30 per night, with a full breakfast in the morning. Next time, I'm staying there, even if I'm alone.

We will be driving through Canada and Ft. St. John is where we are going to stop for a night; how long ago was it that the price was $30 per night?

[elgusano]

I don't remember if it was when we did the drive last winter or the summer before that. I think it was last winter because there were some buses that had been broken into at the hotel down the road, and we were pulling a trailer with supplies, but at the present, it strikes me as odd that there would be tour buses in the winter.

Either way, within the last couple of years.

If I remember, I'll ask my wife what hotel it was. It wasn't all new and fancy, but it was clean, and the service was friendly.

The worst drive I ever had was a few years back that had all the forest fires. Even here in Homer, the sky was blanketed all summer long. But, after we passed Ft. St. John, there were a few fires, but several more started. We pulled over to sleep, and lightning hit about 30 yards from the car with another fire started. I had a broken leg, so couldn't attempt to do anything, no cell phone, and 100 miles to the next pay phone. We tried to stop again, with more lightning strikes. We ended up driving from Ft. St. John to just north of Palmer without stopping. (And because I'm 6'9" and my wife is 5'3", and my car was permanently set for me, my wife could not even relieve me for driving.)

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by elgusano

We ended up driving from Ft. St. John to just north of Palmer without stopping. (And because I'm 6'9" and my wife is 5'3", and my car was permanently set for me, my wife could not even relieve me for driving.)

I hope you didn't have a stick shift.

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by elgusano

I don't remember if it was when we did the drive last winter or the summer before that. I think it was last winter because there were some buses that had been broken into at the hotel down the road, and we were pulling a trailer with supplies, but at the present, it strikes me as odd that there would be tour buses in the winter.

Either way, within the last couple of years.

If I remember, I'll ask my wife what hotel it was. It wasn't all new and fancy, but it was clean, and the service was friendly.

The worst drive I ever had was a few years back that had all the forest fires. Even here in Homer, the sky was blanketed all summer long. But, after we passed Ft. St. John, there were a few fires, but several more started. We pulled over to sleep, and lightning hit about 30 yards from the car with another fire started. I had a broken leg, so couldn't attempt to do anything, no cell phone, and 100 miles to the next pay phone. We tried to stop again, with more lightning strikes. We ended up driving from Ft. St. John to just north of Palmer without stopping. (And because I'm 6'9" and my wife is 5'3", and my car was permanently set for me, my wife could not even relieve me for driving.)

Yes that had to be a terrible drive; broken leg, fires, geeez.

[elgusano]

It was an automatic.

But, we got to see lots of wildlife in the road trying to escape the fires.

We just couldn't see much of the scenery.

We did 5,000 miles in 4.5 days, and the first 2.5 days we did some tourist stuff. We basically drove 1700 miles in 2 days, and a lot of it was not at a high rate of speed because of low visibility, so we ended up driving for about 40 hours straight, stopping only for fuel when it was available. Even that was scarce, as many stations were being evacuated. (With 2 gas cans, I was able to get about 450 miles without a station at one point.)

Always carry extra fuel.

[Barkingowl]

Great advice! What was the first thing you did when you got out of the car?

[warptman]

He stretched...

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by warptman

He stretched...

So are you at work?

[SarahB82]

Hey all! I didn't actually make it that far today - got a late start out of Little Rock so I'm only in St. Josephs, MO. Not much to report, besides some rain and landscape that I know like the back of my hand...

South Dakota tomorrow - along with the Badlands and Wind Cave National Park(where I worked for a bit about 8 years ago and haven't seen since). Can't wait for that!

Gas prices: $3.86 in Arkansas and $3.74 just South of Kansas City.

Now some less than great pictures - I have a cheap 4mp camera that's a little worse for wear.

Rain!


Looking back - I should have stopped to take a proper picture rather than just pop the camera out the window. I'd just come out of a storm and the clouds were tremendous.


Kansas City, MO - Just before I got slightly turned around and circled the city for about 10 minutes.