Some of you may already know this, but my parents, the girls, and I drove from Montana to Fairbanks, Alaska in August. Ross was commercial fishing so he wasn't with us. We so wish he would have been able to experience it with us. Maybe some day! I was so thankful that my parents came with us as I don't think I would have been able to complete the trip if it were just the girls and myself. For how many long hours we drove and little sleep the girls got, they did amazingly well. However, we were quite ready to get home to our own beds and get some rest by the time the trip was over. We saw some beautiful country along the way though!
We bought a suburban and an enclosed trailer off of Craigslist in Montana before Ross flew back up to Alaska to fish. We were in such a rush to get something to drive up in before he left that we rushed into buying without taking it to a mechanic. It looked like a good deal at first but in just one trip from Bozeman to Hamilton we found out that it needed a new transmission. So it wasn't such a great deal after all. Bummer. Oh well, life goes on. My parents and I loaded up the enclosed trailer with things Ross and I still wanted, but hadn't mailed up last year, and left for our big adventure on August 5th!
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The girls helping wash the Suburban the day before we left.
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Our little monkey of course had to wash as high as possible.
Our fist day, we drove and drove until we reached Edmonton. On the way we had a few good laughs. We needed a better map but couldn't really find one. We were going through Browning, Montana and my Dad came out with a few maps from the gas station. When we were down the road about an hour my Dad said they just had those maps for free. My mom and I were surprised they were just giving them away. Pretty soon I was looking at the map and saw a price on it. Oops, I guess they weren't so free after all! Now Grandpa is a wanted man! :)
About ten minutes before the Canadian border, Grandpa (my Dad) told the girls that they had to smile pretty for the border officer. Marina was being crabby so he said in a teasing way, "They don't let you across the border if you don't have a pretty smile!" So the rest of the way to the border I would catch glimpses of Marina practicing her "pretty smile". She just sat there quietly and kept smiling and smiling with a cheesy grin. When we got to the border the border patrol agent asked us to roll down the back windows so he could see everyone in the vehicle. As the window rolled down, Marina peered out at him with a charming smile. This was the only time in our conversation with the agent that he seemed to let down his guard. We saw a little glimpse of a smile on his grumpy, stern face! We were searched for my first time ever going through the Canadian border as there was a mix up of communication between my Dad and I. So it looked suspicious that we had two different answers for what was in the trailer, and we had to pull over and get searched. Not to big of a deal though as we didn't have to unload the trailer. On the way to Edmonton we saw wheat fields, wheat fields, and more wheat fields! For some reason I don't have any pictures until we hit Edmonton. I guess we didn't stop much. We had to get to Edmonton as we had our hotel reserved for the first night of our trip. We finally pulled in around 10 at night! In the next post I'll tell you about the worst hotel experience we have ever had!![]()
We bought a suburban and an enclosed trailer off of Craigslist in Montana before Ross flew back up to Alaska to fish. We were in such a rush to get something to drive up in before he left that we rushed into buying without taking it to a mechanic. It looked like a good deal at first but in just one trip from Bozeman to Hamilton we found out that it needed a new transmission. So it wasn't such a great deal after all. Bummer. Oh well, life goes on. My parents and I loaded up the enclosed trailer with things Ross and I still wanted, but hadn't mailed up last year, and left for our big adventure on August 5th!
Our fist day, we drove and drove until we reached Edmonton. On the way we had a few good laughs. We needed a better map but couldn't really find one. We were going through Browning, Montana and my Dad came out with a few maps from the gas station. When we were down the road about an hour my Dad said they just had those maps for free. My mom and I were surprised they were just giving them away. Pretty soon I was looking at the map and saw a price on it. Oops, I guess they weren't so free after all! Now Grandpa is a wanted man! :)
About ten minutes before the Canadian border, Grandpa (my Dad) told the girls that they had to smile pretty for the border officer. Marina was being crabby so he said in a teasing way, "They don't let you across the border if you don't have a pretty smile!" So the rest of the way to the border I would catch glimpses of Marina practicing her "pretty smile". She just sat there quietly and kept smiling and smiling with a cheesy grin. When we got to the border the border patrol agent asked us to roll down the back windows so he could see everyone in the vehicle. As the window rolled down, Marina peered out at him with a charming smile. This was the only time in our conversation with the agent that he seemed to let down his guard. We saw a little glimpse of a smile on his grumpy, stern face! We were searched for my first time ever going through the Canadian border as there was a mix up of communication between my Dad and I. So it looked suspicious that we had two different answers for what was in the trailer, and we had to pull over and get searched. Not to big of a deal though as we didn't have to unload the trailer. On the way to Edmonton we saw wheat fields, wheat fields, and more wheat fields! For some reason I don't have any pictures until we hit Edmonton. I guess we didn't stop much. We had to get to Edmonton as we had our hotel reserved for the first night of our trip. We finally pulled in around 10 at night! In the next post I'll tell you about the worst hotel experience we have ever had!
