We arrived at our destination in Alaska on Monday, June 21st; the longest day of the year and the most difficult to find a hotel in the Fairbanks area. June 22nd was our planned date of arrival and we already had arrangements in temporary base housing so Monday night we ended up staying in the family camping area on base. There was no room at any inn for miles due to midnight baseball games and marathons (summer solstice is a big thing out here since it stays light practically all night).

So far we have thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery; pine and maple trees making Peter and I feel as if we are at home in the Uintah Mountains. We have yet to see a moose but from what we understand it shouldn’t take long…

There is a house waiting for us and we were able to go and look at it last Tuesday. Housing thought it would be ready for us but it had been empty for almost three months and somewhere in that time a squirrel got in the house and caused some havoc before dying behind the refrigerator. Gross. They said it would take a couple of days to clean up (translation: many days) and get it ready for us to move in. Granted, this is the moving season and the maintenance crew is taking care of getting many houses ready right now so we must just be patient and wait our turn to move in.

The drive from Florida was long. There is no other way to put it. I hope to never have to do that again. But I know better… We did take a few pictures along the way. I will try to post some later when life is normal again. The frustrating thing about driving along the Alaska Highway was that when the scenery was the most stunning I had to pay attention to the road more carefully because it usually meant we were riding along the edge of a river or cliff. There were sections of terrible pot holes and loose gravel. My poor mini-van was covered in dust and bug guts by the end of it but we arrived safely with no car problems.

Driving along the higway in Alberta and British Columbia, Cananda, my wind shield had a constant barrage of insects; but not just any insects – beautiful butterflies! Usually when a bug hits the wind shield I would reply in my mind “good riddance” but it was heart wrenching watching all of these striking yellow and black butterflies’ guts splash against the glass.  Oh well, such is life.

Well, today is my birthday (31 years old) and we are getting out of this rotten little one-bedroom teeny-tiny hotel room to enjoy some scenery.