Oh, Canada...

Oh Canada...we've been exploring your backroads and villages for a while now and we've fallen in love.

You are so quirky.

You love your GIANT things, from beavers on a log

to big ol' trucks 

 to pet mosquitoes

and roadside Lumberjacks.

You’ve got a sense of humor as evidenced in the many signs we saw ...

and the creative decor...

and bumper stickers.

You will make a museum or tourist attraction for darn near anything -
We visited Ft. Nelson, a fascinating collection curated by "Merle"... a lovable ancient bearded guy who was happy to show us his collection of antique cars that he still drives on occasion, along with license plates from all over the world.

We passed on the Hammer Museum (??)  but spent some time in the Signpost Forest where visitors leave signs from their hometown or country.

We were fascinated with the Fire Engine Museum in Dawson City, complete with photos of the several different times the town burned to the ground.

Your food can be baffling – from poutine (French fries with assorted gravies) to bannocks -  a thick heavy biscuit/bread that will fill you up until next Thursday, but was, of course, delicious once Patrick slathered it with butter and jam...

(I got the most amusement from the bannock-maker's apron...)

You construct buildings on the frozen tundra and when the foundation shifts, you just shore them up, move them, or turn them into a tourist attraction to serve as a warning to slipshod carpenters.

And your signs are hilarious AND informative, because everyone needs to be on the lookout for out-of-control bison and planes landing on the highway.

You are so BIG.

We traveled 5186 miles within the US from Florida to the Canadian border.  We traveled another 3002 miles STILL IN CANADA and to the Arctic Circle before crossing into Alaska! This professionally rendered infographic will help you understand the magnitude of the distance:

We first traveled through Alberta, then British Columbia, and then we crossed into the Yukon.  The Yukon is so vast that it shows up on my photo metadata as “Yukon – Unorganized Territory.”

This would imply that there was some organized territory somewhere…but I'm not sure where it was. Once you travel north from the Yukon you enter what is known as the “Northwest Territories.” Isn’t that awesomely descriptive and simple?  We know it’s Northwest….and it’s a territory …and apparently it was too much trouble to be any more descriptive than that.

But in spite of your vastness, your highway system in the Yukon consists of 11 highways…Highway 1, Highway 2, etc. For those of us who regularly spout phrases like “Take 465 to 65 to the 610 bypass…” it was charmingly refreshing to say, “Take a left on 2, honey.”

You are so diverse.

The Moose Creek Crossing was run by Germans. The Dawson City shops were almost entirely run by Germans.  When we asked why so many German people lived and visited there, they said that Germans really like having an extreme camping experience where there are no other people around.  I think they just want to experience the cowboy/Indian/goldrush vibe, but then who doesn’t, right?

The Beaver Creek Inn was run by French people. They said they moved there because people spoke French, which was very practical of them, but we didn’t care why they moved there after we bought and ate their fresh brown sugar tart and mini apple crisp pie. (Patrick's pastry-finding skills at work again...)

We encountered tourists from all over the world traveling in cars, trucks, RVs, buses, and one hardy group traveling on a sleeper bus – something I had never seen before and can’t really say I would care to experience. It somewhat resembled vampires entering their coffin for the night when they all turned in.   (Each of those little windows is a bed they slide into from the other side)

You are so heartbreakingly beautiful and wild.

Your lakes are turquoise and the water crystal clear.

Your glaciers are huge and baffling.

Your skies are bluer, your clouds are fluffier, your rainbows more subtle,

 and your vistas are seemingly never ending.

You are mystical and magical and wild and untouched and it was our pleasure to visit a small corner of your grandeur. 

And I’m so glad I got to see it all with this man...

How Does This Thing Work?

You may have wondered exactly how our travel life works, so I thought I’d share a bit about our schedule and process.

Because I’m working remotely and Alaska is 4 hours earlier than my East coast office, I often get up between 4-6 am so I can still participate in scrum calls and meetings via the web or phone.  I try to put in 3-4 hours while Patrick unhooks and packs up on the days we are traveling.

I’ll break for breakfast, which usually coincides with the office lunch hour and we’ll have eggs and toast or a bagel, or more often croissants that Patrick seems to have an unerring instinct for ferreting out in the most unlikely places. (I’m shocked and amazed at how many French bakeries there are in the most far-flung places…and when he can’t find one he’ll make do with a grocery store croissant.) With two burners, toaster, coffee-maker and microwave, we can pretty much make anything we would have at home.

We’re towing a Mini Cooper to buzz around in and it has to be hooked up to Le Bus when we travel and unhooked when we arrive.  We have now achieved Indy Pit Crew proficiency as we tackle this together; he plugs in the electrical cables, I connect the tow hooks, we attach the brake buddy inside the car, and then I stand behind the car while he cycles through Le Bus’s blinkers and brake lights and I very professionally raise my right and left hands to signal they’re working on the car.

We’ve had more than one bystander say, “Wow…you guys have really got that down pat!”  Our current best time is about 4 minutes, but we feel confident we can shave it down even more with continued practice. 

Then it’s back to work for a couple of hours as Patrick drives; the passenger seat swivels around and I can put my laptop and files on the table.  

I'm not usually dressed this fancy - this was after a dinner out.

• The good part: I’m pretty comfy as we roll along with my feet propped up on the chair.
• The bad part: Bumpy roads make it very difficult to maneuver a mouse and capture screenshots!!
• The worst part: Patrick pokes me about every 20 minutes to say, “Look!  A buffalo!” or “Look! A moose!”

We try to stick to what is known as the “330 Rule” – which means don’t drive more than 330 miles a day, or stop driving by 3:30 pm.  We hook/unhook in reverse and in about 15 minutes we’re settled for the night or a couple of days, depending on our location and I put in a few more hours during the afternoon or before bed.

As we prepared for the trip, Patrick kept emphasizing that our space would be limited and I wouldn’t need to bring very much.  Aren’t men adorable?   

I nodded my head sweetly and then proceeded to exercise my ninja packing skills to bring along 12 pair of shoes/boots, a summer, winter, AND work wardrobe for times I have to fly to client sites, and full jewelry/earrings to complement any occasion. 

Patrick is quite proud of his ability to get by with 2 pair of jeans and about 8 t-shirts, thus his storage compartment looks like this:

My storage compartment looks like this... enough said, right?

While driving, Patrick has implemented all sorts of clever hacks to keep things stable, from using simple binder clips to keep the paper towels from unspooling, 

To his clever solution for TP storage.

We’ve gone to some beautiful places while exploring and I take a thousand pictures, but you’d be amazed at what we’ve seen from the road while driving along.

CRAZY THINGS

We’ve seen some crazy things like this WAL-MIKE store in Trapper Creek, Alaska whose proprietor clearly had a sense of humor (be sure to read the handwritten signs):

WILD THINGS

We’ve seen some wild things like moose, buffalo, deer and goats (bear in mind I have minimal wildlife recognition skills so these could all be misnamed, but they are definitely wild...and awesome!)

Mama Moose and Baby. I think.

Moose

Bison

Mule Deer with Serious Bad Hair Day

Goats. Or maybe Sheep.

FUNNY THINGS

We’ve seen lots of funny things like this clever advertising brochure for a museum:

I almost....almost paid the 6 bucks...

 And this aftermarket modification:

I think my dad had a red truck just like this. Minus the antlers.

BEGINNING AND END OF THINGS

We’ve seen the beginning and the end of the Alaska highway

MAGICAL THINGS

We've seen the North Pole

And we've seen the Arctic Circle

INSPIRING THINGS/PEOPLE

We’ve seen people with indomitable drive and determination like Lloyd from England. We were driving toward the Arctic Circle - IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE – and we see a guy pushing a bike.  We thought perhaps he was broken down, but when we stopped and asked if he was ok, he said he was just taking a break from biking...biking from California to the Arctic Circle. We chatted a bit and left him with some grapes, cheese and water to fortify him. He left us with amazement and awe at his ambitious goal.

Lloyd and Tanya chatting on the road to the Arctic Circle

 And we've seen people working to keep their culture alive: 

Tr'ondek Hwech'in Ceremonial Dancers

 BEAUTIFUL THINGS

And of course, we’ve seen unspeakable beauty, from the turquoise glacier lakes in Banff, CN 

 To the wildflowers growing on the arctic tundra 

To the untouched Alaskan landscape

So if you want to know how this all works?  It works pretty darn well.  We highly recommend it. Follow your feet, folks.