Sunday afternoon we finally left Middleburg, Pa, for Anchor Point, Alaska. Currently we are camping somewhere in Wisconsin. If you ever drive through here, make sure to stop at “Culvers”, it’s the best fast food place I have ever eaten at. The chain is mostly located in Wisconsin.
Due to snow concerns on the Alcan highway (silly I know), we are driving our 4×4 full size chevy van (instead of the limo), and pulling a 24 foot enclosed trailer, packed with survival equipment, such as a vintage 2004 Arctic Cat 800 snow machine (which I learned the other day has 145 hp), propane tanks, heaters, chain saws, gas cans, a Kymco 700 4 wheeler, water, food and other essentials.
As an alternative to motels, we decided to throw some cots in the trailer and just stay at campgrounds on the way up. I rigged up a water heater in the trailer, along with a heater, so we’ll see how that works. Right now as I type this, Shane is sleeping on the snowmobile. I hadn’t quite expected that arrangement.
So far the van has done very well. We are getting 10-11 mpg gallon, horrible yes, if you are driving a car, but for a loaded van and trailer with a 5.3L gas engine I think that is pretty good. I brought along a portable toilet that my brother in law, Paul, got at an auction for $1, new in box. The children have about wore the poor thing out, as it seems to be a novelty for them as they seem to have to go to the bathroom even more than normal, with the exception of Shane, who has vowed to never use it.
One downside on the trip, I did not learn my lesson from last time, and attempted to install my desktop computer in the van. This time it did not even make it out the lane without getting broken, so I gave up and bought a laptop at Walmart with the wretched Windows 8 OS. After using the laptop 15 minutes, it would have felt very satisifying to beat it on the ground until the keys flew off of it. (Marlene marvels that I used to work on computers for a living)
So hopefully tomorrow we will make it to North Dakata. Keep posted for trip updates, and if the updates stop for awhile, don’t panic, I probably just use the laptop for a wheel chock.