Jennie and Jay talk with Pete and Kathleen Dent, about their epic road trip from Allentown, Pennsylvania to Alaska and back in the summer of 2023. This is the second episode of our occasional Alaska Traveler Stories Series.
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Polarsteps - all the details of Pete and Kathleen’s trip
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Music credits: Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.
Jennie and Jay talk with Pete and Kathleen Dent, about their epic road trip from Allentown, Pennsylvania to Alaska and back in the summer of 2023. This is the second episode of our occasional Alaska Traveler Stories Series.
Support us on Patreon as a free or paid subscriber
Book a trip planning session with Jennie
Grab Jennie’s NEW Hidden Gems Workshop!
Shop all our Alaska Travel planners and premade itineraries
Polarsteps - all the details of Pete and Kathleen’s trip
Let Jennie plan your trip for you!
Music credits: Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.
Welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska travel and life and Alaska. My occasional co host and full time husband, Jay and I are committed to keeping the Alaska uncovered podcast ad free. To do that we need your help. If you're enjoying the podcast, we invite you to contribute toward tip jar, which is the first link in the show notes. We are so grateful for our listeners, and we wouldn't be here without you. Thank you and enjoy the show. Are you curious about what it's like to drive from the East Coast of the US to Alaska and back. Today is our next traveler stories episode where we're talking all about driving from Pennsylvania, to Alaska, and back. Our guests today are Pete and Kathleen Dent. Pete is a retired chemical engineer. And Kathleen is a retired special education teacher, Pete and Kathleen are parents to four grown children and drove from their home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Alaska, and back in the summer of 2023. We're excited to have them here to share all about their trip with you, Pete and Kathleen, welcome to Alaska uncovered. Thank you for being here.
Unknown:Thank you so much for being with you.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, it's great to see you again. So, um, tell us first of all, how did you decide to take this particular trip to Alaska at this time? Kathleen, do you want to start?
Kathleen:You know what, this is really one for Pete because this is a driver of a lifetime for him. So go ahead, Pete. Oh, awesome. My
Pete:fifth time crossing the country. I always dreamed of driving up to Alaska. And, you know, going across Canada, and, you know, up through BC, although we didn't really go across that much of Canada when we made our trans continental crossing, but it was the fifth time driving across the country for me. And it was a real thrill.
Kathleen:That's awesome. And it was your 50th state as well. Right. Pete?
Pete:Yes. Yeah, that was the other big thing. I want to get to my last state. Oh, wow. All the other states except for Alaska. So that's bucket list thing.
R. Jay F:Wow. So you've already crossed the country five times.
Unknown:Yeah, this last one was the fifth time.
R. Jay F:Wow, that's, that's amazing. And Allentown, Pennsylvania
Unknown:is eastern Pennsylvania. We're about 85 miles due west of New York City and 60 miles do north of Philadelphia. So Pittsburgh, is Western PA and that's five hours west of us. So so we're really east coasters. We're two hours from the Jersey Shore.
R. Jay F:It's already a pretty epic trip from for you guys. Just to get to what people would consider the start of the Alaska.
Unknown:It was it was a total of 13,400 miles round trip.
R. Jay F:That's amazing. That is epic, as
Jennie Flaming:it really is. So to start off, maybe Pete you can start and then Kathleen, you can chime in. Tell us kind of your beat the basics of your itinerary things like how long were you on the road total away from home? And then how much of that time was in Alaska? And how much of that time was driving to Alaska? I know you made a couple other stops in the US on the way there and back. Right? Yeah.
Unknown:Well, like I said, you know, was 13,400 miles. We we crossed the us a little bit of a southerly route. We dropped off a car for the summer with my our daughter in DC. We saw Kathleen's 93 year old aunt in Kentucky. And then we went to Jefferson City, Missouri and Lake of the Ozarks where Kathleen had a lot of family there with the memorial service for another app and kind of a family reunion. So we went south. And then we went up north through along the Missouri River and then up through Wyoming and then up to Whitefish, Montana, which is just to the west of Glacier National Park, where Kaplan sister owns this beautiful home where he was great after you know, 3500 miles with that drive out to whitefish to just hang out and chill for a couple of days, get some laundry done. And then our youngest son has an apartment there. And so just had, it was this is something that was really important with the drives on the way up in the way back. We had a couple places where we just kind of chilled after long after a long stretch, very small we we crossed into into Canada just north of whitefish about 50 miles in Eureka and followed. Canada Highway 95 North, just to the west of the most of the Canadian Rockies. We did a quick drive through Kootenay National Park and Banff National Park and we had been there with the family six years before and we really didn't spend time there on this trip because it was there a lot of tourists is very crowded, but we didn't really enjoy going through Jasper National Parks was my first time to Jasper and for Kathleen and saw the Icefields and then then headed west through Prince George and then instead of heading north and picking up the the Alcan in Dawson Creek, we went over to around Smithers and picked up the casier highway just to the west of the western part of British Columbia on up to the Yukon there into you know into Whitehorse we picked up the the Alaska Highway followed that up around around the Wrangell in St. Elias mountains we entered in into Alaska on the Alcan on the way into toke I don't know what the exact town is there that you cross
R. Jay F:it's gonna be it's called Beaver Creek.
Unknown:Yeah Beaver Creek island
Jennie Flaming:I would not go so far as to call Beaver Creek a town
R. Jay F:to town it there's there's there's a hotel and there is yeah my Alaska Highway for Pete I'm just gonna say that only on a trip of this magnitude with the side trip to Kentucky just be a just just a jog on the way over from Kentucky so already kind of an epic road trip trip but
Unknown:it was from we clocked the mileage basically every day and from the the Montana British Columbia border to the Yukon Alaska border was 2000 miles each way. So anyway, so we took so we came up into toke and then took the top cut off and then took your good advice and went to Wrangell St. Elias National Park and spent time there and Kennecott loved it and then drove down to to Valdez and then came back up and then went to Anchorage and this was another spot where we we had a nice air b&b and chilled out for a few days and and just you know kind of had a respite and really enjoyed we can talk about, you know, Anchorage later on and then and then we did a couple of sojourns. We went down to down down the homeless down to the Homer spit. And then went up and then went to Seward and then came back up through Anchorage and up to Tao Keaton. Ah, did get to see Denali from a distance nearby they're in and then LA for a couple of nights. Yeah, we did. We camped in Denali for a few nights and then up to Fairbanks. And then Fairbanks came back through the through the Alaska Highway up through toke and then took the top of the world highway up through Dawson City crossing the Yukon on a ferry boat and then down to Whitehorse and then down to Skagway came back up to came up back up to the Alcan and then went on the on the Alcan Eastern White Horse and Fort Nelson, British Columbia and then down to Dawson Creek and Prince George again and then went down to drove down to Vancouver. So we did sort of a combination of two of the two of the four different trucks up and back to Alaska that are talked about in the milepost which was which was wonderful. Vancouver and then Olympic National Park. Portland and then back up to Whitefish, Montana to chill again for a few days, and then headed east through Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and then below the lake, Great Lakes and headed home. So some seven weeks total. Three weeks in Alaska, the three weeks in Alaska were was 2500 miles just in that southeast corner of Alaska that I described. Yep.
R. Jay F:Wow, that's, that's, that's just epic. I have a couple of like transportation questions. One of them is, what was your like? What were your daily mileage is like, did you? Did you have Did you have any super long days? Or did you keep it kind of under control for how many hours a day? We
Unknown:kind of buried it? I'm sorry. I was gonna say we kind of buried it. It depended on we just knew some days, we were just going to book through. And as beautiful as Canada was. We were so excited to get up to Alaska that we just as we were heading up. We had a couple like long eight or 12 hour days. And then it became the you guys know, in Alaska, like, any day when you're driving less than five hours is kind of a short day. Apple. You get so far and everything you look at it, your window is beautiful. So it really doesn't matter. But But yeah, we had some long days. We definitely mixed it up along the way. Yep. And one of the things that I was concerned about having talked to a friend here in Pennsylvania, who drove up and he said, You do not want to hit a moose at night. He said that he came up with his car and his his front bumper was right up at the legs of a moose. Well, we didn't have that problem because we we left in like, mid June and we returned home. The end of July. So once we got up into Alaska, it was no nighttime. You know, it was I remember looking at a chalkboard in in Fairbanks, early, you know, this is like the second week of July and you
know, sunset is 12:11am. Sunrise is like 3:50am. And so there's and you know how it is up there, there's, there's really, you can read a newspaper at 130 in the morning. And so we didn't have to, so we didn't have animals crossing the night, although we did have a couple of moose on the toe cut off some young moose that shot across the road. But it was 10 o'clock at night. And it was still great visibility, which was good. And we had some some bears running across the Alcan again at night, but it was so it was nice to have those long days and not have to worry about hitting the moose at night here in Pennsylvania. We kill a lot of deer on the highways. But anyway, it was like that long dusk
R. Jay F:Yeah, it's that's really good advice that you got to you know, moose are are a potentially deadly accident for sure. So it's good to but as you notice, that most of the time when people drive there, there isn't going to be any real darkness to deal with. What was the rig you guys were driving.
Unknown:We drove 2022 Subaru Outback that we had, we had gotten as we trade in another car, and we just used a tent. And we had a we had a rack on the back for our bikes. And then we had a roof rack as well too, that we use for mostly for our camping gear and you know tents and anything that might get wet. And you know, a little roof rack and we were very comfortable. So it was pretty new. Like we had about 12,000 miles on or maybe 15,000 miles on it. And then we put another year's worth of mileage on it but the tires were good new and no car was was new and it was really comfortable. It's great.
R. Jay F:The Subaru Outback is kind of the unofficial car of the entire state of Alaska. It's the pickup trucks and and Subaru Outback. Certainly. Yeah.
Unknown:It is an awesome car. That's It's the it's the unofficial state car here in the east of Vermont and upstate New York.
R. Jay F:Right So yeah, that's cool. Do you see how much what proportion Do you think you camped in in the tent and how much were you in the Airbnb ease or friend's houses and
Unknown:we pretty much split it. When we look back on the days we were about half the time camping and about half the time. Half time either staying with friends. One of the things that I was as we left the house, we had three nights booked and that was three nights in an anchorage, Airbnb, because that was over Fourth of July and otherwise We just decided to be flexible and see how it would go. I remember talking to Jenny not long before the trip, and she was like, Oh, you might want to make few boards. We just didn't know where we would be. Exactly. So we crossed our fingers. And it really helped that we were camping because except for one night, we could always find a place to camp and the night we couldn't find the place to camp, there was a big softball event going on. It's like 10 o'clock at night. And people were obviously stayed over that night. They're like, Oh, yeah, just pull up a tent here. You'll be fine. You'll be good to go.
R. Jay F:Is that a Dawson? By
Unknown:any chance? Wasn't in Dawson. What was well, de se? Yeah. Great. In booking, in booking places, also like camping and whatnot, the Fourth of July holiday and Canada Day July 1, no people up in the north country like to go out? Yeah, it was great that we had the we had that respite there at the the b&b in Anchorage. And then we've just kind of winged it there in, in Valdez. But otherwise, you know, we just, we've been I've traveled all over the country all over the world. And I've always gone by the axiom that you can always find at least one room. And you know, we did that all except for that one night in in Valdez. But there was a great vantage, I would say we also took advantage of the fact that we could tent but there are a couple of nights where the weather was just, you know, miserable. And so you would, we would find a place to stay one night, we had to stay in the car because we tried to set up our tent, and the fly came off, which was not a good thing came back, it was pouring down rain. And it was of course, we were heading back back down towards home. So it actually got dark at night, you know, go figure that it was dark before 10 o'clock at night. And so we got through the night in the car, I was a bit miserable. Pete always stays very calm. And the next day we were coming into Vancouver. I was like, okay, now's the time to Bill blow all the Hilton points and stay in a hotel. Get comfortable again. The other place I would go ahead Pete didn't we we put away our flashlights. We didn't need them. And then we came this was in this was in Fort Nelson in northeast British Columbia. And all of a sudden there's nightfall. And you know, we're, you know, we're going crazy here. You know, trying to get things set up in the rain and couldn't find the flat rates. And but anyway was
R. Jay F:but that was what did you have some to add to that, Kathleen? Yeah,
Unknown:I was gonna say the one place we stayed in this this kind of blew me away is when we got to Wrangell St. Elias which we took on recommendation from one of your podcasts. And we were so glad we did. But we arrived and we had great plans to camp. But when we arrived was one of the few places where you really hit a lot of bad mosquitoes and whatnot. And we knew we're gonna be camping right by the water. It was like right around Fourth of July. And yet because St. Elias is so you know, it's like the largest park and yet the least visited park. We were able to stay in the lodge. And there's like nowhere you could do that it'd be in the lower 48 Right. So it was great. We stayed in the Kennecott glacier lodge we had it was comfortable it was you know it was awesome because you eat whatever they're serving for dinner because that's your one choice and was absolutely perfect and we we knew the lodge was going to be good because you talked about it. We were just like off like the camp but it was the perfect place to stay. So yeah, and we got your the Alaska pass. What's the one that you have there that it got us like $100 off a night or something? I
Jennie Flaming:think you are talking about the Alaska tour saver P Yeah. I know that I recommended that to you guys. Yeah.
Unknown:And one other thing on on places to stay Jenny when we spoke last spring. You had said no book at Denali right away for campgrounds. And we did and we realized just with our itinerary that it wasn't going to work out right. So we cancelled them. And then that Denali it was it was booked out in the campsite in the National Park. And so they said well, you can you can hike in. So we did and actually in in Whitefish, Montana, we got, you know, a couple of backpacks and a duffel bag to be able to carry a fair amount of luggage for a distance was it turned out we were able to drive well so we we did not have a no a site that was ready to go there you know, reserve in the park, but we had a hiking and the hiking consisted of parking our car for a few minutes, unloading our cars walking about 50 feet to a campsite. dropping everything off, dropping the car off maybe a quarter mile away in a parking lot, and then riding our bikes up to the up to the campsite. So it was really no big deal. And so we you know, that was one where we, you know, we scraped by there without a, without a reservation at a, you know, a very busy place.
R. Jay F:Yeah. What I hear you saying, Pete, is that you guys are very flexible. And I think that let you have a lot of great experiences. And in situations where people might have been, might have been miserable. I had a similar experience to yours. Once I was driving back from Fairbanks in May. And it was snowed on me the entire way. I was basically driving in the middle of this snowstorm. And if I was doing it again, I would spend three days and wait for it to get ahead of me. But every day I get ahead of it. And they would get over me again at night. And I was camping down near Prince George. And my feet. My I'm a tall guy and my feet just stuck out at the end of my tent. And it snowed on me. And I was like, at about 3am I got in the car and ran the car for the night. And I was like, ah, yeah, I'm done camp. I'm done camp, camping, tent camping. And I drove all the way back to Montana and one day because I but you know, there's that like one night where you're like, I'm cold and wet. And I've done with this. And I want a hot shower.
Unknown:Yeah, literally, yeah, just like coming back, we, we still had a lot of stuff that was wet. And we cashed in a bunch of Hilton points and went to the beautiful, you know, had went to the beautiful downtown Vancouver Hilton. Awesome. So I love Vancouver. It's a cities in North America. Absolutely. And then on our camping just so you know, we had a four person pop up tent, and Kathleen and I got to the point where we could put it up in four minutes. So it was no big deal. And then we also bought a blow up mattress that it was designed for our Outback that we could put and sleep in the outback. But we had, you know so much other gear in it, that we never used it for that purpose. But we used it in the, in the in the tent, you know, initially like every night, you know, in lieu of for a mattress. And then as we got into it later on, we brought some yoga mats thinking that we might want to do some yoga along the way to stretch out our backs and whatnot. Well, we never did any yoga. But we found that, you know, we could put the yoga mats for just like one night, we would just just throw the yoga mats out. And we were just fine with those to sleep on very comfortable, it was more than a night we would we would pump up the the air mattress for the Outback and use it in the tent.
R. Jay F:Right. Sounds great.
Jennie Flaming:So we're gonna take a break here in just a moment. Before we do that, I just want to emphasize something Jay said about your guys's trip. And that is flexibility. So if you're listening to this, and you're also planning an epic drive to Alaska, the key here that made it work for Pete and Kathleen to not have everything reserved ahead of time was one being able to camp and even sleep in the car. And the other being a little bit flexible about or very flexible about what happened. So I'm, I'm just mentioning that because if you are not a camper, for example, or, you know, you're going to need to be in a hotel every night, you don't necessarily have to have that all figured out before you leave. But you will want to work like ahead a little bit. So you know you've got a place to stay. So I love your style and how you were able to just make this work with various sleeping options. Super cool. All right, well, we're gonna take a short break. And when we come back, we'll be hearing more from Pete and Kathleen about their trip. Hi, everybody. Jennie here, I wanted to break in and let you know that I have a brand new workshop in my online shop. It's a video course it's 30 minutes long, and it's all about finding hidden gems on your trip to Alaska. It's pretty awesome. It's all the things that I well not all but many of the things that I share with my clients that we talked about, and I wanted to make it something everybody could get a hold of. So if you go to the shop, it's the second link in the show notes just below the tip jar, you'll find have the link that will take you right to it, along with all of my planners for Alaska and my done for you itineraries. So check it out. And of course, you can also find down there the link to book one of my one on one planning sessions, if you want more advice about your specific situation. Thanks so much. Now back to the show. And we are back with Pete and Kathleen dent from Allentown, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2023, they took an epic seven week trip across the United States and across Canada, up to Alaska, spent three weeks up there, and then started making their way home. And during the break, Kathleen mentioned that they're not really big campers. So Kathleen, I want to hear more about that. Because so many people are like, oh, man, I don't know about this, like bugs, rain bears, whatever. Tell me some tips that you have for somebody else who wants to do a trip like this and have that flexibility of camping, but is feeling kind of anxious about it. What What advice would you have for them,
Unknown:I would say a couple things. So just as a little heads up is Pete and I are just recently retired. So I'm 61. He's 65. And we're in decent shape. But we are not big campers. And that's never been our you know, our big thing. But camping is just so easy. Now, I would, I would say just know that getting a tent, they really, he's not exaggerating, we could put it up in four minutes. And it was not a problem at all, and taking down the same thing. And I learned we really learned to keep it simple. So like Pete said, sometimes we did the mattress, sometimes we just did the yoga mat. I would suggest people do a trial run ahead of time, our daughter was getting married in May, and we left in June. So we just never had time to go out and try it out. But I would say if you go on a weekend camping trip and kind of realize that it's really pretty easy to do. The other thing I would say is, as far as cooking goes, a lot of people think if you're camping, you also have to cook all of your own food. And that was something that when Pete never played in trip, I said love I happy to go but I have not gotten every meal. And so we we still we bought a camper stow. And I wish we hadn't even opened it because I would have returned it when we got back. What we learned was that we had a jet boil, which is the best invention ever, as far as I'm concerned. Right, it's the best thing. So a jet boil. For people who don't know, my sister gave it to us, my sister, Montana and said, Oh, you might want to use this while you're gone? Well, it became the main thing. And basically it boils water, which sounds not very useful, but it makes a cup of coffee or hot tea in the morning, oatmeal. It There are a zillion things you can buy that you can heat up to cook. And what we ended up doing is usually eating a simple breakfast, and then go into a restaurant for lunch or for dinner. And then we would often have what we call the liquid dinner when we'd find a brewery for dinner and just have a couple beers at the end of the day. But we just we really, we really didn't cook a whole lot. So that's what I would say is you can really keep it simple. And if we hadn't had this huge cooler in our friends in our car, it would have been a lot easier to set up the mattress in the car on the night, a couple of nights when it rained, so Yep. Good boy to be in my car. Yeah.
Jennie Flaming:And you know, I that is such good advice, Kathleen. And you know, another thing about that to you is even if you are planning to eat every meal in a restaurant, and sleep every night in a hotel, you still need to have some snacks and like water with you because, you know, you're in pretty remote areas, you know, you need to be kind of prepared. So, you know, it's like it's only a little bit more to have the option of doing at least a little bit of Camp food too. So yeah.
Unknown:Oh yeah, you definitely you could definitely do more cat food than we did. We just we realized how easy it was to do those basics and yeah, we always had snacks in the car and all that good stuff.
Jennie Flaming:I love it. This is such great advice. I
Unknown:took a 10 steak and shoved it down the middle of some hot dogs and cooked it over the Jetboil you know like, you know, hot dog on a stick. And it worked.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah. I love all those like creative hacks that you kind of come up with when you're on the road for a long time.
Unknown:Yeah, and then hit the hit the Walmarts and grab, you know some of those good packets that you can just throw When the in the hot water and yeah, no. Yeah came out. It's a meal. Yes,
Jennie Flaming:absolutely. Yeah. Cool. Okay, so we would love to hear from each of you. What was something that surprised you about your trip either either the drive to Alaska or your experience in Alaska, something that surprised you or maybe was different than you expected? Kathleen, maybe you can go first and then we'll hear from Pete. That's good.
Unknown:So I would say there were a couple of different surprises. Part of it was it very quickly came to us that this wasn't just a vacation or whatever, it was really an adventure. And when we looked at it, like an adventure, that that just changed the whole perspective for everything. But I would say as far as Alaska goes, I just, I have told everybody I've seen since I got home that they should go see Alaska is just so big and amazing. And every time you turn the corner, there was something out your window to see. And so just the vastness of this country, and as Pete said, We just saw the lower little bitty southeastern corner. So I would say that surprised me. I was also surprised by the history. I learned. I knew I would see outdoor things, I knew we'd be a lot of stuff. But like I loved being in Skagway and learning all about the history of the gold rush. And then when we were in Wrangell, St. Elias learning about the Kennecott Copper company. And so the history of it also surprised me. And just the people everywhere we went, we met amazing people, and it just you just forget when you're on a road trip like that, that you're gonna meet awesome people. So those would be my big highlights of surprises.
Jennie Flaming:Love it. Thanks, Kathleen. Pete, how about you?
Unknown:Yeah, just a bunch of surprises. And you, yeah, after 34 years of marriage and being in your 60s, and for a couple to have an adventure, versus just another vacation is really is really extraordinary. And, you know, that's what it really was, and, but was a real trip of a lifetime. And a few things that that did surprise me were, you know, that was how, how light it was all the time, although I should have known better. And all the lakes and rivers, I couldn't believe all the rivers and 3 million lakes up there. And, you know, just just being surprised by things like we got, you know, something you wouldn't get on a cruise, we're driving up to Fairbanks. And we put on, you know, the National Public Radio on the way up. And they were talking locally in, in Alaska, they were talking about the world Eskimo and Indian Olympics. And it was starting that night that we were arriving. So we didn't have anything to do. So why don't we just go check it out. So we went to the opening ceremonies of this. And you know, this is just something that you wouldn't get on a cruise or in some sort of prepackaged thing, but it was just, it was just really neat. You know, we saw them doing doing all kinds of Indian games, like you know, filleting salmon is one of the one of the events and like, out of these pole jumps and blanket tosses, and craps. It's
Jennie Flaming:a cool event. I'm so glad you guys got to see that. But I love it. That
Unknown:was one that was one of our favorite things. And it just was watching. I was like, Well, I'm never gonna go to the Olympics. So let's go to this the Olympics. Yeah. So for like 15 bucks, we're in this amazing, you know, like, it was just, you know, big, big gym or hockey facility, whatever it was. But what I loved is just the culture there and meeting the people because they had a whole area set up just for the elders, and the comfortable chairs and cookies, and, you know, hot tea and whatever. And I was like, it was so different than anything I expected. And when the like the big event we watched was how fast can you fillet a salmon and somebody did it in under a minute. It was Yeah, blew you away. Yeah, that was pizza. Right? That was a really awesome thing.
R. Jay F:What a cool experience, and love
Unknown:it. You know, one thing I was, you know, with surprises, you know, I was concerned a little bit about, you know, not having a GPS for the most part or, you know, cell service, but, you know, it's there, not that many roads up there. So it's really easy to navigate just with the map. And, you know, if you need like the, you know, some of the junctions, you know, like, between the Alcan and the and the toe cut off. I mean, there's signs up there for, you know, many many miles I'll sing, you know, junction, whatever, so many miles, you really can't miss your terms. And it's, it's almost, it's really hard to get lost on the road. So not to worry about it and dialing into Canadian Broadcasting on the way up. And when they would, they would list, you know, different different radio stations that were available as you came into civilization. And it seemed like every night along the way, where we stayed either at a campground or any sort of like, little bit of civilization, they had some sort of a satellite hookup for Wi Fi are a little bit of self service. So you could kind of catch up, you know, in between during the days, there's no cell service, but you really don't need it. And it's nice not to have it. And I had no problems with gas. Although Kathleen, thought I was getting a little bit obsessive at times, when, you know, getting toward a half half a tank, I was always thinking, Okay, where are we going to tank up. And, you know, in, in BC, they have a lot of gas stations that are unattended. And so you're, you're at risk of having your credit, or having some sort of an issue of a US credit card. In Canada, which I had in some places where we were they actually had people working but not at the remote sites, or you never know if you're going to come into a gas station and they're out or they're having some sort of an issue. So we we just kind of focused on, you know, half a tank we were, we were filling up and and it worked out really well. We didn't we didn't have any issues with it didn't have to bring a gas can also we didn't need people we had read some things about needing a lot of a lot of loonies, a lot of Canadian dollars cash to have, and we really didn't need them. The credit cards were fine, pretty much everywhere. Yeah,
Jennie Flaming:I'm really glad you mentioned that Pete both about the fuel and about money. Um, because those are chains, things that number one have changed, right? So if you did this drive in, like the 70s, it was, or even the 90s it was more of a factor, um, you know, in cars weren't as reliable and didn't have as good fuel economy and that sort of thing. So, yeah, I'm really glad that, that you call that out that that isn't something you had to worry about too much. Yeah,
Unknown:I think it is smart, though, to be prepared with. Like, if your windshield got broken, you know, like we had the stuff, we didn't need to use any of it. Be prepared with an extra full tire. Again, we didn't need it. But boy, if we had, it would have come in so handy. Because there were places where you were a little bit remote, but just being prepared was a big part of it. And you guys had said in your podcast as well that the gas prices were so much higher in, in Alaska and Canada. And they were higher, but at the time we were paying I think at the most We paid about $6 and, and 20 cents a gallon. It was mostly in in northern British Columbia where it was really rather remote. It was down in the low$5 A gallon or so in, in Alaska and in the continental US it was just under $4. So it was maybe about 20 25% More than then in the lower 48 But wasn't too bad. One other thing I want to point out too with with the highways people ask, you know, what are the roads like well, the entire route can is is is paved now since the pandemic at least. And one thing that I found I really liked was I liked in the in the north country where you get up above the where you have the permafrost when you're on the when you're on the dirt roads, you don't have nearly as many if any frost teams which are really annoying. And for your audience that don't know what a frosty there is. It's basically a paved, they sink for maybe like a it maybe it's about a one or two foot drop that'll be for maybe anywhere from 20 feet to maybe 300 feet. So you have this up and down and up and down type of a thing that you have to slow down for in particular if you're in a an SUV, but when you're on the on the what I found particularly on the top of the road Highway, which was spectacular looking at like seven mountain ranges to the north. Although was dusty, or like no potholes, it was nicely skimmed. And there were no frost teams. And don't be intimidated by going on dirt roads. And that's not just because we had a Subaru Outback either.
R. Jay F:Yeah, Pete In fact, that's the main reason why a lot of those roads are not paved, is because it is way easier to maintenance. Frost problems like that on a dirt road, you can just grade right over it and fix it. Where once it's paved, it's a lot bigger of a deal to to deal with one of those sinks. So I agree it is, it's better to have a dirt road in a place where there should be a dirt road. Paper up that shouldn't be,
Unknown:Oh, absolutely. I liked the dirt roads better. And they're all really good except for the driving into Wrangell St. Elias, where there were a fair number of potholes and wasn't very well graded. But and we also had this one, there's this one RV that was stuck along the side of the road there for you know, who knows how long it was turned on its side? Let's be real here. Well, that is to give you a big heads up as you get on that road, that you shouldn't be driving an RV on it. So there was fair warning, I felt bad for them. But there was far more.
R. Jay F:Yeah, it's a
Jennie Flaming:really sad. And you know, since we're talking about gravel roads, I will just add one thing to you, which is I completely agree with everything you all said. And I will say that it can make a huge difference what the conditions are. So one thing about gravel roads and the McCarthy road that you were just talking about Kathleen is a good example of this. Like sometimes that road is in fantastic condition. And sometimes it's really pothole Ian muddy. So I think, um, it's important, I agree with all that and, you know, top of the world highway is sometimes more hairy than other times, you know, depending on the weather how long it's been since it's been graded and and stuff like that, but in general, I completely agree with you.
R. Jay F:Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna start asking you some rapid fire panel questions you're watching like couple of them. So I'm gonna ask what the favorite meal you had while you were in on this trip or in Alaska. And I'm gonna start with you, Kathleen. And what was your favorite meal on the trip?
Unknown:Okay, well, this isn't fair, because I know you always want to know restaurants so Pete's gonna take the restaurant option. I'm gonna say our favorite meal was in Anchorage, but it was fresh fish from the neither and Ron who owned the bed and breakfast where we're staying. Was we arrived had just caught fresh fish, fresh salmon. Shrimp, and I forgot there was one other so that was the best meal because it was so fresh, but awesome. You have yours. Pete has a really good 102 All right, so we cooked it ourselves on your grill. And what a great bonus. So what was your favorite restaurant though? Pete? It was a 49 state brewing. We both had yet burgers. Which were really good. They were like really? You know, really juicy hamburgers. Yep. and wonderful and great beer. Yeah, that's a great brew pubs up north there.
R. Jay F:Yeah. Kathleen, I'll say that that was a superb answer. And we were not you can get a local to fish for you. And then cook it on their grill. You should do that. Yeah, I'm gonna top that. Yeah, I'm sorry, restaurants to the far north, but you're not going to compete with that. Absolutely.
Unknown:It was it was like you we could have eaten it without cooking it, I swear.
R. Jay F:Oh, and the shrimp up there. Epic too. Anyway, sorry.
Jennie Flaming:So fun. Sporting it. So did you go to the 49th state in Anchorage or in hilly or both?
Unknown:Anchorage, okay. Off the Third Street?
Jennie Flaming:Yep. downtown Anchorage. There's also a location in hilly which is near didn't just north of Denali National Park. And they're both I mean, it's the same place so they're both fantastic. Wonderful. Okay. Um, another toughy. I would love to know what your absolute favorite either town or location was. And maybe another way to think about it is if you were going back to Alaska, and you could only go to one place that you've already been. Which one would it be and why?
Unknown:That is hard. I thought hard about this. So I have to go with the best single day if that's okay. And that was absolutely Kenai Fjords National Park. Again, I hate to keep giving you kudos for the broadcast, but it's how we planned our vacation was publicity of your podcast and all the different ideas but doing the Kenai Fjords National Park tour we had really wanted to get to Glacier National Park. It just wasn't feasible on this trip. And so Kenai was amazing. I had Never seen whales. So I was thrilled we got the by pure chance we were there during one of the two weeks when the whales come and they do their bubble feeding. So we're seeing, yeah, like a dozen whales coming up at the same time. And you know, when everybody on the boat is coming up, who works on the boat is coming up to take pictures, right? This is amazing. And it was incredible. And it also happened to be, we just had several great days anybody going to Alaska be prepared. They're gonna be great days. And we knew that but this was like the first pure blue sky day in a few days. And so to see the whales to see the glaciers, we saw some puffins, the glaciers themselves. So that was that everybody I've talked to that's always my favorite overall day.
Jennie Flaming:I love it. That is absolutely magical. How about up? What was the
Unknown:mean, Jenny? Your advice to go to Wrangell St. Elias when we talked on the phone was a topic and I loved it. I love glaciers on what it is I'm a I'm a big skier I've skied on glaciers and Switzerland and France and Austria and to clip on some some crampons and hike around on the glacier there the route glacier there in Wrangell St. Elias was just I just love that and also Wrangell St. Elias to the scenery is that they have I think it's like 16 to the 19 highest peaks in North America. Yeah, and you can see him a lot. It's not like, you know, Denali, that only, you know, reveals herself, you know, every third day or so. And so, you know, wrangle was that was, you know, being on the glacier was great. If I can jump in on the end of rainbow the other part of wrangle that was so cool is you have the whole Kennecott Copper company that was originated there. And you feel like you're walking through this old, you know, 19th century 20, early 20th century rather town. Yeah. So it's a really cool combination of a place. Yes. Just waiting for the funds. I tried to stay up till the sunset when we were Wrangell St. Elias, and I couldn't do it. Yeah. It's amazing. Amazing.
Jennie Flaming:Oh, that's awesome. And for folks listening, just to clarify what we were just talking about with sprinkles St. Elias National Park, not the town of wrangle in southeast Alaska. So that can be immensely confusing for people. So this is like, really a remote location. But in the mountains on on the sort of border of Canada and the United States.
R. Jay F:There's a few things in Alaska, that and one of them that are very confusing when you first moved there and one of them is the use of the term wrangle because people in the interior will talk about wrangle, and they mean Wrangell St. Elias, and people who are from the southeast will say wrangle, and they mean the town wrangle, and it's very confusing until you figure out they're talking about two really different places. Because one is a small fishing town in the fjords of Southeast Alaska. It was a very mountainous place. Yeah. And I always think that you know, the other one I was thinking about because you guys were talking about maps, just that. No one in Alaska ever uses any of the numbers of roads. And so when you get there, and you'll ask a local like, you know, I'm trying to get to highway two, like, they'll just look at you like what? Oh, you mean the seas highway? Or oh, the tow cut off? Nobody knows. They all know them by the names. Anyway, I just think one of
Unknown:the cool things though, if you've learned to just we learned that and it was so much fun. It's one of the things that makes Alaska so different.
R. Jay F:Absolutely. And yeah. Anyway, well, I can start waxing on about that. But so Okay, so you guys have done what is perhaps the most comprehensive trip that I've heard of from someone that we've interacted with, to the far north, what would you do on your next trip, in addition, or something you would cut out if you were doing it over again?
Unknown:I wouldn't cut out any of it. All those places, but I would really like to get to Glacier. That's one of the places I really still would like to get to Glacier National Park.
Jennie Flaming:I mean, Glacier Bay, Kathleen.
Unknown:I mean, Glacier Bay. Yeah. Glacier Bay. No problem.
Jennie Flaming:I just want to make sure I knew that was, but I just wanted to move into glacier
Unknown:in Montana. So yeah, yeah. Talk about two very different places. Yeah. I really like to get to Glacier Bay. I would. I loved Skagway and die. Yeah, I would definitely go there again. Yeah, I would go back to any of those places again. But I know Pete, you had a good thought on this too. That I definitely agree with. What were you saying you wanted to do again? Well, we were there in June, July. I'd like to go back in March, and ski. It always drives me crazy as a skier when you drive by a ski resort in summer we drove by Whistler in British Columbia, we drove by Alyeska just south of Anchorage. And I'd love to go there. And in March and ski, you'll have like half a day, you know, 12 hours a day or so around then, and then hopefully see the northern lights too. And I saw the Northern Lights once as a kid on the trends or the Trans Canada, one in Saskatchewan in the middle of summer, and it was spectacular. But I would love to go up there and, and ski. And the other thing I'd love to know one thing we did not do. We did not go up to her Quisque and up to the up to the Arctic Ocean, we thought it was going to be a lot more time. And there was a couple that we met at the at the Museum of the north and Fairbanks who had just come through there and they drove up and they had a they had a they had a trailer that they were carrying and they had a flat. And they were real concerned about getting a second flat as they were driving up because they said there's really nothing there. But they said people were so great that they would stop and ask them how they were doing and you know, really helpful. I know you guys, you guys drove up there this summer. But that's one I would have liked to have done and would love to love to dip my feet in the Arctic Ocean.
R. Jay F:That's true, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone with a trailer. Not Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a great road. And it was totally doable in in f150, we drove it in should be fine and a Subaru Outback. But I think a trailer might be a real challenge. But you know, this is the thing I you just talked about spending most of the summer on a trip to Alaska, and there are still a bunch of things you want to see. Yeah, I lived there for almost 20 years. Still a bunch of things I want to see. Yeah, it's a big state.
Unknown:It's an amazing place. It really is incredible. Yeah. Well,
Jennie Flaming:one more thing I want to mention, for those of you listening before we wrap up is that Pete and Kathleen used an app called polar steps to document their trip. And it's a combination of photos, journal, map all of this stuff. So if you want to find it, I'll put a link to polarsteps in the show notes. So you do have to create an account. It's free. But if you are considering a trip like this, and you want to see even more detail than we talked about today, then that is a great place to find it. So before we wrap up, Pete Kathleen, is there anything else you want to add? That you want people to know about your trip that might help others?
Unknown:The one thing I think we didn't really mention too much is the the Bible we live by was the milepost yeah and I know you've talked about it in your podcast before. Best What 40 bucks I forget that we spent thing like that. Yeah, it takes a little bit of time to learn how how it works. But ours it to see ours it has a million posts in it and marks and it is such a fun thing to go back and look at but it literally goes through every mile along the way. And it's it's amazingly up to date. And I that is the other thing I'd say get a Jetboil get and get the milepost and you will be good to go. And the other thing I would say that we love doing was the Fairbanks riverboat tour. That was that was a really, really cool day to do. We went out like yeah, it's a riverboat. It's great. Yeah, it's a really, really good thing. But that refers to another podcast of yours where we learned about it so people can get
Jennie Flaming:episode five or seven. It was very early in the pilot was earlier. Yep. Yeah.
Unknown:Yeah, absolutely. For me, it's just, you know, checking things out. And one thing I would recommend is doing some, some reading, you know, reading your blogs and, and you were like our Jenny, you and Jay were our companions all the way up. We were listening to, you know, some of the, you know, some of your podcasts and just getting more and more excited. It was a great way to spend, you know, to pass the time and, and learn some things and heighten our anticipation up there. Which was not at all disappointing. They're in Alaska. And we learned some history as well too, and some of the stories. A friend of mine here in Allentown gave me a copy of a book about Was it was like in search of a dream or something some early homesteaders have a family of like four people or so that were that homesteaded somewhere between Fairbanks and anchorage in the 60s went through just before the earthquake. Yeah, just before the 64 earthquake, oh wow 11 tires driving up to Alaska in the early 60s. And then also in Skagway, going to Sophie Smith's and got a copy at the bookstore Skagway bookstore called Klondike and you cannot make this stuff up. The trail was just unbelievable, you know, with people that had never had never been in a boat before or hiking up through the past the weight pass and in the past, they had to carry up 2000 pounds of of luggage because the Canadian Mounties wanted to make sure that they didn't they didn't starve, so to do multiple hikes up, and then they're building these racks at the headwaters of the Yukon. And, you know, going down the Yukon River, you know, 500 miles to Dawson Dawson City and in the Yukon, for the to the Goldfields. People who had never been on a boat. It's just and the stories just go on and on. And then Sophie Smith was the most amazing scoundrel who has ever lived. I mean, definitely he makes Don Corleone look like a saint.
Jennie Flaming:Ya know, he was crazy. I think you guys know that Jay and I met in Skagway. So we have a history with Sophie also. Um, but yes, I Yeah. He was a real character. There was there were some wild characters there in Skagway and many other places. But yeah,
R. Jay F:we were just two of them. Yeah, right.
Unknown:Well, a lot of great stories.
Jennie Flaming:I am. So I'm so glad that that we were able to accompany you along the way through the podcast and that we got to actually hear about your trip. I really appreciate your willingness to do this and to share with other travelers what your experience was on the road and in Alaska. Thank you so much.
Unknown:It's been great to share it with you. I would say you know ever someone could get to Alaska. They should go with it. If they can't drive it, then fly in. go on the cruise. Get to Alaska.
Jennie Flaming:Let's get it. I totally agree. Yeah.
Unknown:Thanks so much so much for having us. Yes. And also thank you for all your your sage advice and your writings and your podcasting and your blogs. It's all really great and highly recommend you to anyone, and anyone listening. It's It's It's fantastic. Just do it. Don't be afraid. And
Jennie Flaming:that's true. Oh,
R. Jay F:thanks so much for talking. Yeah, your kind
Jennie Flaming:words and for being here.