I planned to make an entry everyday, but cell service and long days of traveling are making it harder than  I thought.  So, I think there will just have to be days were I double or triple up.
     While it seems to me, most people find road trips boring.  I just have to say to them, they’re on the wrong roads. The ALCAN  (Alaska & Canada highway) is a mix of amazing beauty, and some cautious planning.  The planning isn’t  to difficult; bring extra  food, snacks and get gas every chance you get.  Download lots of music and podcasts for the times you don’t  feel like talking, and the road/tire noise or car rattle gets to be too much. Reading out to each other is fun also, lu’s friend Chris recommended, minus 148° it’s a really good read, about the first winter summit attempt on Denali.
     The beauty of the road starts with the fact that the ALCAN is one of the most isolated roads in North America.  If you hate traffic, drive this road.  If you’re anything like me you’ll get excited to see another car going the other way.  So, in a few days when I’m stuck in LA traffic, I’ll go to that happy memory of isolation up in the Yukon.  Then there are the trees, endless acres of trees.  Black spruce everywhere, other than the road, it’s truly untouched land with no clearings other than natural ones from wildfires.  The mountain views are  wonderful, Lu and I have some great weather sunny cool days, the crisp air seems to let us see farther as we rise over a mountain pass, seeing the panoramic views, roads we traveled, and roads we would be.  Behind us the Alaskan Range, and ahead the Wrangell-Saint Elias.
   Our first night on the road we stayed short of our planned stop, do to rough road conditions and slow driving.  We stayed in a place called Destruction Bay, love the name, someone should produce a Metal festival there.  We woke to one of the rear tires low on air just a slow leak that we watched with every fill up, till we got to White horse and fixed it.  But it was leaving Destruction Bay where the road paralleled Lake Kluane, a big lake at the bottom of a big Valley with big high mountain walls, as the road bends around the lake on the other side of the valley you look back and feel like a micro machine (a famous toy from the 90’s I played with) rolling along the bottom of a giant mixing bowl.
   Tomorrow Laird hot springs!
-Phil