We're off!

Well we hit the open road.

Haines is beautiful. We are at Marnie and Greg's house on the hill overlooking the Wm. H. Seward Fort and (finally!) the water. Gorgeous.

Chance is enjoying the break from the car in a sunny spot on the carpet. The drive has been good. Only one speeding ticket in Alaska. Oops.
Like a dope, Blain actually passed the cop. He was in an unmarked SUV. Sneaky bastard. Don't worry, we didn't call him that. This helped us avoid jail time. The old adage lies. You really don't have to try everything once.

We were sad to leave our little house, but we know Laura will enjoy a wonderful home.

We said farewell to friends Petra and Grant at Snow City in downtown. Fueled by the hearty "Veggie Bypass" plate and hearty company, we sadly part. Great folk. And preggers. We vote for Blain for a boy, and Monique for a girl, in case they are reading this. But Chance is nice, too.

It was then off to Peter's to dump some stuff and say bye to Laura and the big guy. Sorry we missed you Tracie. But as you can see, they were happy to finally close the door on us and our leaving town "donations" and get to work. So get to work you two, and stop reading this time-waster...

The road is dry and sunny. Lots of frost-heaves, but no construction. Which is an Alaskan joke about having only two seasons up here - winter and road construction.

We hit the border past Tok, stocked up on Coffee Crisps (YES!), entered Canada, left Canada past Haines Junction, and entered Alaska again. It was a sunny drive to Haines. Next is a quick ferry ride to Skagway to knock 200 miles or so off the trip. Then back into Canada for the BIG drive down.

The snow is deep and fluffy. We tried to ski a bit and bogged down the dog in the powder. We're looking for packed tracks, but no real luck, yet.

Here's our photo of a caributt.