Alive!

[layla]

Just a quick note, as I'm on a borrowed computer (dial-up, too, so I'm tying up the phone line checking my email). We reached Alaska safely after a week of travel; we got into Glennallen, AK, this afternoon, where Orion's parents live, and will stay with them for a couple of days before heading up to Fairbanks to house-hunt.

All I can say is I'm SO glad that the drive is over. It was long. Very very long.

Comments

[senri.livejournal.com]

Woot! You're here!

So how was the drive, other then being long?

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Not bad. We didn't have any major mechanical trouble, at least not until Fairbanks, which is much, much better than having some kind of breakdown happen in the middle of the Yukon Territory. The biggest problem we had was with the brakes -- the brakes on the trailer never worked right, so we had only the front brakes on the Suburban to stop 4 tons of rolling steel. It was worse than driving on ice. I did learn how to engine-brake (shift to a lower gear on hills to slow down the vehicle), which was actually sort of fun.

We had our queen-size mattress in the back of the Suburban, on top of a layer of boxes, and most nights we'd just find a gravel pit or rest area, and pull off the road and crawl back there to sleep. It was fun in its own way, although it was very nice to get somewhere with showers.

[oop-ack-chee.livejournal.com]

Um, hi. I'm a friend of Senri's, and I was just browsing her friends page when I saw this post. I just though I'd mention that I used to live in Valdez, and we'd pass through Glenallen every time we went to Anchorage. It's beautiful country, isn't it?

[/pointless post]

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Hi! Yes, it *is* pretty. I'm somewhat more partial to Southcentral myself, since I grew up down there -- I like the lush wet climate with lots of big trees. I've only been to Valdez once, on a ferry trip from Whittier a few years ago ... it was really gorgeous down there. We spent the night in a nice bed & breakfast in Valdez and then drove up to Fairbanks the following day.