Still crossin' 'em

I guess we have another day of waiting for this apartment to come through, ugh. But on the bright side I finished my taxes today with all the free time I have! LOL! Jay and I actually had a really great day yesterday. The weather was freaking awesome and the sky was so clear that we just spontaneously decided to drive the 40 or so miles North to Talkeetna, AK for some touristing. If you're a fan of Man vs. Food you may have seen the Alaska episode. We ate at one of the stops on the show. So I asked the bartender about the event and whether the guy actually finished the food challenge and she said he totally DID NOT finish even though on the episode they made it look like he did...WHAT A HOSER!! Well I guess they gave everyone in the crowd free burgers and apps and she said it was still a good time. But there ya go, the truth revealed about Man Vs. Food...he's a damn liar and cheat.

Mt McKinley in the clouds..otherwise it's the highest point in North America. Yay Alaska trivia!

This town has a lot of character and wicked good beer!

We didn't go for Seward's Folly but the Yukon Jack wings were awesome!

 Mt McKinley

I really need to be getting back to work

 Can you see the creepy eyes? No seriously, I need to start working like ASAP. I'm losing touch with reality.

And the best for last, good ole rednecky fun!

Cross your fingers for us!

We think we might have found our new home...I've said too much, I'm jinxing it already. Ugh. Still need to get through the approval process. The Peak Inn is still doing great though! We've been in town for, what, 4 days and we have been to the liquor store 3 times :-) I know, you're proud. Oh and the weather here has been, um, pretty awesome. Shit, I jinxed that too. I'm gonna shut up now and show you some silly pics:

I really don't know what's going on in this pic, but those are definitely people falling from the sky with parachutes. It could be recreational (in winter??), it could be military evacuation training, or it could be peeps jumping out of one of those "Flying Wild Alaska" planes before it crashes... I don't know, but these people are nuts and I think I love it.

Yes, that is a purple GeoTracker with a license plate that is supposed to read "Thug Life." I had Jay pull over so I could bus' a cap in this white kid's ass.

See ya!

Searching for a home :-)

We've been in Palmer, AK for a day and a half and we can already tell that we like the town and the location. A few miles from Wasilla (stayin on the look out for Palin sitings) , a little North of Eagle River and even not that far from the Big City of Anchorage. We are both sick as dogs, I guess the 2-week drive finally caught up to us, but we are trucking along on our search for a home. In the meantime we are living in a motel run by a Chinese Food Restaurant and yes it is called the Peak Inn Motel...genious! We're enjoying breakfast at 11:00am (well the sun just came up so we're getting a late start...we're rookie Alaska folk) and charging forward on the search. The weather is wicked comfortable and the view is fabulous, see pics below. Miss you all!!

 The last one is just for fun :-)

Tek Hath Made It

Hey Terese! I totally took a pic of Tek this morning because she was being cute for once. But, yup, she made it. She's a solid 5 pounds skinnier but she'll pack that back on in no time. Thanks for asking about her!

Tok, AK

We had one last push to get out of the Yukon and into Alaska.  We saw temps today from +36 degrees to minus 16.  The healing power of the Hot Springs had worn off and Amanda was sick all day.  She found the strength to enjoy the great views and keep me laughing.  

 Worlds largest Gold Pan

 Marking my territory in the middle of the Alaskan Highway.

 It was cold and dark, we made it and made the most of it.  Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes we had a safe trip and no snow on the worst roads.

 My special Elephant guided us to AK (thanks Auntie)

"Last Great Road Trip"

A pitcher of Alaskan Amber, wings and burgers we celebrated making it to our new home.

Sunday - Liard to Whitehorse, Yukon

 Despite the clear skies we did not see the Aurora.

After an awesome night of chopping wood, hot springs and warm drinks in the warm little cabin...we decided to do it all over again by starting our day before the sun rose (at 9am).  The hot springs were a 10 min walk from the cabin and lifetime imprint on our minds.  The water was too hot (boiling) near the spout of the springs but the cold water of the river  mixed  and we enjoyed temps from 100-140 degrees.  

 the view during the walk to the hot springs

 After all the warnings of Buffalo being worse on the road than Moose we finally spotted some.

Arriving in Watson Lake we easily found the Sign Post Forest.  There are over 42,000 signs from all corners of the world.  Next time we will have our own to add.

 After some research we are upset to say the "Sour Toe" will have to wait until summer, the road is closed in winter.  For those not in the know the Sour Toe is a cocktail served in Dawson City, Yukon in which a frozen toe is placed in a drink and the patron has to let the toe touch their lips when drinking it.

Saturday - Fort Nelson, B.C. to Liard Hot Springs

We were waaayyy out in the middle of nowhere so internet was non existent so I am gonna do yesterday's then Jay is gonna do today's entry :) yay teamwork! Alright so we stayed in a cute little place in Fort Nelson and I got some laundry done and we took our time getting on the road as we tried to take it easy yesterday...still did 8 hours of driving though. But when we got in the car I happened to look up at our brand new GMC ceiling and discovered it was completely covered left to right in blood. We took a small spaz then deduced what happened. We left Phinny in the truck while we went to have dinner the night before and he must have panicked and cut his nose (see pick below) then started rubbing it all over the ceiling...we guess (see pick below that). Poor puppy..poor trucky. I wish Billy Mays was around to help me Shamwow/Oxyclean out this mess :-(

 I know...so gross. Well we went on our way to our "vacation spot" the Liard Hotsprings. It was definitely a winter wonderland out there and the driving was a little scary but the weather has been amazing for us (knock on wood) and the temperature has no joke ranged from 20 to 40 degrees. We're even seeing lots of critters, moose and elk mostly. But this is def a road for the summer time. Most of the cute little stops are all closed so we have to plan our munchies and fuelings accordingly. We've done pretty well.

This last picture was our lunch stop in Muncho Lake (munchie? Muncho? it was fate) just south of the hot springs. We made friends with the locals and the lady who was running the show made us 3 of the best sandwiches ever. They were so thick we ate them for like 4 meals after. So good. But here is my classic locals story I encountered while there: there was a giant guy, had to be 6 foot 400 pounds, crammed into a tiny table shoving pie into his mouth with his hands. He gets up and waddles his way over to the register. He drops his pen on the floor. Another nice local saw what was coming and stopped the man and said "can I get that for you?" and the big guy was like "nope I got it" and proceeds to take a Chris Farley-esque wide leg stance then bends at the waist to get the pen. His coat and apparently his shirt and I guess his underwear too all went over his head because from his jeanline to his neck was all ass crack...giant frightening ass crack and I was staring right into it. I almost fell over laughing and Jay was not helping me contain myself. Oh and I should mention this is about where gas prices jumped to $7.00 a gallon...eep. So between the blood, the drive, the locals, the gas/hotel prices we were pretty much cracking but laughing it out instead of letting it bring us down. Then we made it to the Hot Springs. I'll turn it over to Jay to talk about our awesome camp but below are a couple pics of us taking a late night dip. We brought Phinn and a couple Miller Lites and enjoyed the out-of-season privileges on this very peaceful night.

Oh yea! and we totally warmed up Glug on the fire Jay started and cheered to our traveling success!! Thanks Auntie Lynne!