The Arrival

So we rolled into Fairbanks late Saturday morning after a long long long drive through Canada. The best part of the drive ended up being the last 400 miles of Canada that took us through steep mountainous terrain completely covered by snow as well as rivers that seemed to have iced over late last century.

Before leaving Canada we ran into a rather large herd of bison that were bedded down just off the highway. That is the majority of the buffalo were off the road. We just about smacked one of the bulls that had decided to make its bed on the shoulder of the highway with his head just slightly in the lane of traffic.

The next day we to a quick stop to fill the tanks with seven buck a gallon gas and to tour one of the best places in Canada, “Toad Lake.” This was the home of the largest hat collection on the Alcan Highway. Yes you heard that right the largest collection of HATS…. Just like it sounds it was not all that amazing however we did manage to see a large number of elk just outside of that fine establishment.

The next leg of the journey took us past destruction bay which ended up being the worst road conditions along the Alcan Highway. Although we were in no major rush Matt still insisted on racing down the road just as fast as his slipping tranny would take him. There were a number of times along this stretch of highway where Matt slightly misjudged the ramps in the highway which resulted in an airborne 35’ trailer. Although we survived the ordeal the trailer will require some minor repairs.

Just short of the border we decided to catch a bite to eat at one of the small town restaurants called Shotgun Betty’s. We all were a little hungry and we had some Canadian money to burn before crossing the border so we took our chance at some good old hometown cooking. The place looked nice however a vagabond we had been following down the highway let us know that there was only one person running the place so we would have to be patient.

Around 10 minutes after seating ourselves and pouring our own water we were greeted by Betty…. Honestly just picture a small town Canadian gal named Betty and you would be pretty close. I am sure if she could Betty would have greeted us with a cigarette hanging slightly off her lip with ashes falling into the food she had just brought to another unsuspecting customer. Justin and I were quick with the order having plenty of time to prepare beforehand. Matt hesitated just slightly throwing old Betty off her game. At that point she had enough (shoot it had been three seconds already). She quickly told Matt to hurry up she had food cooking in the back. Matt told her the name of the burger and Betty left without giving him any options of sides with the meal. Matt learned quickly that you just don’t mess with the small town Canadian Betty.

When we finally made it to our destination after we took a short rest in the good old US of A. It was a little unnerving because we had pulled up to a gas station and our vagabond friend Wayno was just behind us letting us know he had checked with the owner and we could all camp out back at no cost. Despite Wayno’s innocent smile we did not invite him into the trailer to sleep.