Driving the ALCAN

On the right is the Fowler Suburban and camper.  Our motor home is on the left.  The snow covered mountains were gorgeous.  We would drive until we got tired and then we'd pull over till morning.  

We put a seat belt between my seat and Paul's for Sarah.   She likes being the center of attention.Leo & Menda in their camper...  Leo is making popcorn for the whole crew.
The roads were pretty covered with snow.  Below Leo is passing a snowplow.
Paul and Leo are changing a tire on Leo's camper that was leaking.  The trip started out with a flood in the Fowler's camper because their faucet was bad.  Home Depot was only a couple of blocks away and Leo had it fixed in no time.  Deborah is doing fine.  She still has a rash and swelling going on here and there, but not bad.  Please pray with us that it will go away or we'll figure out that she's allergic to something.

Getting started down the Alcan

Here is the whole crew in front of Lake Clark Air in Anchorage as we are getting ready to take off.

We crosssed into the Border with Susan driving and it was our quickest border crossing ever.  When we exited Canada above Minot, Paul was driving at 10:30 pm and they had us all get out while they inspected our vehicle.  They took our oranges and we were on our way.  I think we'll do an experiment and let Susan drive on the border crossings back up.

We saw lots of animals which turned out to be our math lessons for a few days as the kids gave points for the animals.  We stopped counting at 4850.

Caleb taking a turn in the Fowler's suburban.

   One of our favorite things to do while driving is to read to the kids.  I fixed up a microphone that goes through the speakers of the motorhome so everyone can hear me.  We started reading "Secret Believers" by Brother Andrew.

Almost out of Canada

We are in Saskatoon, Canada.  We had finally decided we were going to go through Montana on our way to North Dakota when Deborah broke out in a nasty rash with a lot of swelling.   It got so bad we stopped at the hospital in Fort St. John.  They did a lot of blood work and decided it wasn’t a lot of things, but they aren’t sure what it is.  She’s been taking Benadryl and that has controlled it some.  We appreciate your prayers for Deborah.

We decided to take the more traveled route and so we our headed straight for ND and we’ll visit our friends in Montana on the way back to Alaska.

We’ve been having a great time in spite of Deborah’s illness and a flu bug that has hit each one of us one at a time.  When it happens in the movies, one person gets sick then two, then four then eight…  It doesn’t seem to happen that way in our family, only one person was sick at a time.  We are grateful that each person was down for about 12 hours and then back smiling.

The highlights of the trip so far have been swimming at the Whitehorse aquatic center and at Liard Hot Springs.  We hit a couple of snow storms that made driving interesting.  

We parted ways with the Fowlers and already we miss their smiling faces.  It was a lot of fun trading places with our kids and their kids.  

Watson Lake

We are in Watson Lake, with lots of stories to tell but not enough time.  I should have had something ready to send but I was sick yesterday.  We all been taking turns getting sick.  I just realized our cell phones don't work.   I'm not sure if they'll work until we get out of Canada.  

Pray for Deborah, she's got some kind of rash that's been going on for sometime but is getting worse.  I'll post more later.  We just stopped to get water.

Snowmachine Snowboarding

I picked up a couple of snowboards at Value Village for 99 cents a piece the last time I was in town.  The kids have been having a blast snowboarding behind the snowmachine.  The last two days it has gotten up into the 40's.  Maybe Spring is finally here.  The snow is definitely getting soft.  We leave on Friday to go to Family Camp at Tanalian Bible Camp in Port Alsworth.  From there we are going straight to Anchorage and then driving down the Alcan to the lower 48 until the first week of July.  We might just miss mud boot season here in Nondalton.

Making an Ice Rink

The kids decided to make an ice rink this year.  They got a lot of good exercise clearing off the snow.  

They got a submersible pump to try and flood the rink to make it smooth.  However, the ice was so thick this year they had to go a long ways out to get to where the ice wasn't frozen right to the ground.  They made the rink too close to the shore so the bigger hose wouldn't reach.  They attached a garden hose which reached but they couldn't get enough pressure going through and it soon froze. (The submersible pump came in handy though when we lost running water to the house.  Our front loading washing machine needs 5 lbs. of pressure to run.  So, we filled up totes of water and put the pump in them and ran a hose to the washing machine.  We've got good water pressure now, Praise God!  We're supposed to boil it to drink because they are pumping it straight from the lake....  Maybe they'd let us borrow their huge, long hose with the powerful pump:) That would flood the ice rink in no time!)

Anna giving David and Benjamin a wild ride on the ice.