By Jon in Alaska
August 1 2010

At last! The tenth and final day of the cross continent drive undertaken by Jon in Alaska and his brother, Former Hollywood Saint. The trip reaches an end in Fairbanks, Alaska

Day 10

Well, this is it. The final day, and Alaska is so close... The night we spent was very similar to a couple of nights ago, in that we spent it in a Walmart car park. However, Whitehorse is considerably larger than Dawson Creek was, and it's also the last major town before the US-Canada border. Other people also took the same idea as us, and by the time we decided to go to sleep there must have been over thirty camper vans, caravans, and even a couple of tents set up! Despite all the vans from all over the US and Canada, the Delaware plate still managed to evade us. Ah well...

Luckily, we decided to get on the road before most of the rest of the car park started clogging the roads. The first 5 hours or so were pretty uneventful, other than me wishing that my camera worked on a regular basis. We thought that we had seen some amazing scenery, but this was nothing as we travelled through the Yukon. Made famous in the Gold Rush, we passed through such wonderfully named towns and villages as Destruction Bay and Silver City. Sadly though, we never found any gold, so we had to carry on to Fairbanks for me to get rich through science. Yeah, like that's going to happen.

The view of Destruction Bay in the gold rush region of the Yukon

Despite being much more imposing than the Canadian border crossing, we managed to pass through the US border without too much trouble. We did have a good laugh at the official sign sending all "Commercial Trucks and Busses" [sic] one direction. Nice to see that intelligence exists up here too...

American intelligence at it's best

Now we were in Alaska, our 20th and final state of the trip, and we were only about 250 miles from Fairbanks. We could only just hear real beds calling our names, mainly because they were being out-shouted by the showers. We thought that this last part would be even more uneventful than the first part, but we were soon proved wrong. As we were only about 100 miles from Fairbanks, we started on another amazingly straight piece of road. After ten miles of no bends and no traffic, without warning there was a moose in the middle of the road! Sadly, as FHS braked hard, the seatbelt restraint locked in, and I couldn't even move to grab the camera. By the time I could move, I only got a shot of a moose's butt. Not suitable for posting here I feel... unless you're in to that sort of thing!

Bernie enters Alaska, our final state!

Soon after that, we arrived at Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaska Highway, only 1422 miles since Dawson Creek. We're still a hundred miles from Fairbanks, but that's one more milestone for us. In no time at all, or so it seemed, we were less than 50 miles from Fairbanks, and this time we were being passed by four falcons. These weren't the bird of prey variety though, but rather F-16 Falcons of the Alaska National Guard! The runway for the base runs parallel to the road, and its a strange sight to look out the side window and be overtaken by a fighter jet at the same level as you! Fairbanks also has a US army base, just outside the wonderfully named North Pole. Yes, there is a pole there, and more suitably, it's where Santa Claus lives. All the lamp posts are painted as striped candy canes, and there's even a Santa Claus House on Santa Claus Lane. Now, I'm a fully paid up member of the "Kick Christmas in to December" brigade, but even I found this amusing.

Says it all really - where else can you see a sign like this?

The next civilisation we saw was Fairbanks itself. Before we knew it, the GPS told us that we had arrived at our final destination - well, for now at least. We were staying at a friend's house until the paperwork clears for our own place. Tomorrow is unloading, but tonight is showers, food and a real bed. In that order. I can now officially call myself Jon in Alaska, and I'm sure I'll see you on the forum!

Distance travelled: 5511 miles.

States visited: 20 - ME, NH, MA, NY, PA, OH, IN, MI, IL, WI, MN, IA, SD, WY, MT, ID, AB, BC, YT, Alaska (AK).

Saints Super Summer Sojourn Across the States - Day 10

Discussion started by ComeOnYouSaints.com , 05/08/2010 23:03

ComeOnYouSaints.com
05/08/2010 23:03

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Saint Tim
05/08/2010 23:20

Good to hear you got there.

I am so jealous at some of the sights you have seen.



“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

Benjamin Franklin

Tetleys Block F E143

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Phil.
05/08/2010 23:27

It's been a great read.

Thanks boys!

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Wee Jim
06/08/2010 07:57

It has indeed been a good summewr read.
Good luck in Alaska and " get rich by science" Ive not managed it yet either so let me know how its done!

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