DAY 4

We woke up this morning and started getting ready to go when Becky said “Sarah did you know it is 5:45 am?” My phone that I used for our alarm doesn’t have service and it didn’t change with the time zone…so this morning we had a really REALLY early start. After a hardy continental breakfast we began yet another LONG day of driving. We found an appropriate song to start out our day “ I’m back in the saddle again, out where a friend is a friend—driving the car once more…yeppy-ty-ei-ei…we’ll drive away, back in the saddle again” Oh our butts hurt more today than yesterday.

We have had troubles reading the French gas pumps…and we’re certain the Candians are all watching talking to each other about the dumb American women traveling by themselves.

So I got an email from Jed (our interactive tour guide) he told us of a few ‘must-see’ points of interest. Mama Beck and I were both extremely intrigued by something he wrote about a Muncho Lake. He said “Muncho Lake is really beautiful, I don’t know what is in it but it is really cool.” We were really excited and anticipating this beautiful sight with some mysterious “something” in this lake. When Lake Muncho came around into view we laughed because it was completely frozen still with thick white ice, then covered with about a foot of new snow. We still got out and tried to see what was lying under the ice. Becky tried to fall in when she stepped out on to it. We both jumped with the loud cracking sound of the ice breaking. By the way ALL of the lakes are still frozen! Oh and it is copper oxide leaching that makes Lake Muncho so spectacular…when it’s not frozen….again thanks to Becky’s useless trivia!


The next “must-see” that Jed told us about we were a little skeptical…but it turned out to be one of our favorite stops. The Liard Hot Springs was just off the Alaskan Highway…we had a short walk and as you can see in the pictures it was awesome! The water was perfect…except for in some spots it was boiling lava hot, it burned my butt checks when Becky tried to take my picture at the grotto area. The water was so clear, but smelly! It was really beautiful! We stayed there for a long time and really had to force ourselves to get out and back to the car. We did see a couple from Utah there at the hot springs. I got a sweet view of his blaring white butt cheeks as he was changing his clothes! The sulfur smell remains with us still hours later. My poor car!


The wildlife continues to amaze us. We saw our first Moose Butt! A few Reindeer...they must be on vacation from Santa’s workshop ;) Tell Bevan & Wyatt I saw Dancer, Dasher, Vixon, Comet, Cupid, Donor, Blitzen, Prancer…haven’t seen Rodolph yet! We also saw some sheep in the road, luckily Beck has been married to a PH “professional hunter” so she easily classified the wild sheep as I was taking photos. I think she called them brown sheep. LOL—after she classified them explaining the difference between the four different kinds of big horn sheep and why they were different and the areas the live in…also how much a hunting permit costs…finally after about ten minutes she admitted to having a plethora of useless knowledge, and I laughed saying “sorry I wasn’t really paying attention anyways what were they called?...brown sheep? Rock sheep?” She quickly corrected me “No” (lol…I just had to ask becky again what they were called) “NO, Stone sheep!!! NOT STONED-- stone sheep!” Yeah that’s pretty much how our twelve hour conversations go! Shortly afterwards we saw herds and herds of buffalo

We saw a cow and calf on the side of the road. The calf couldn’t have been more than a week old…it was so cute! It was still all wobbly and awkward. That was another ten-minute delay.

This part of the road is really bad…as warned by our tour-guide. We about lost our car in a few potholes and the frost heaves are fun when you hit them at 100!

We were planning on making it to Anchorage tomorrow…but then decide after starring at a buffalo for 20 minutes, sitting in a hot spring for a couple hours…and just because we love being on the road we are going to take two more days. We are going to stay in Whitehorse tonight, then go all the way to Tok Alaska tomorrow and finally by Thursday we plan on making it to Anchorage!


PS Jed… Mama Beck says the delivery charges are going up…by the mile!