In June and July of 2008 we took a road trip to Alaska from the Panhandle of Florida. This page will serve as a table of contents for the Alaska Vacation Trip of 2008. We left home on June 20th and drove the entire way, made some side trips and drove all the way back stopping at some very cool places along the way. In the end after all the driving and side trips we drove a total of 10302 miles and burned approximately 481 gallons of gas; This while gas was at the highest it had been in history.
Nan is a Children’s Librarian, and the summer reading program was called “Catch the Reading Bug”. We created a Geocaching.com Travel Bug that we named “The Book Bug”. At the outset of our trip we planned on visiting a couple of libraries when we got to Anchorage and release the Book Bug to see how long it would take to get back to Fort Walton Beach. We ended up visiting a lot more libraries than we planned and did a little less Geocaching than we planned but we still had a lot of fun. This is our story:
Phase 1. Getting there.
- Day 1 – The Bug Starts to Move – Fort Walton Beach Florida to Marion, Illinois – 661 Miles
- Day 2 – On the Road Again
- Day 2 – Bug Travels – Marion, Illinois to St Paul, Minnesota -695 Miles
- Day 3 – A Late Start – St Paul, Minnesota to Estevan, Saskatchewan – 628 Miles
- Day 4 – What We’re Up To
- Day 4 – Made it to Edmonton – Estevan, Saskatchewan to Edmonton, Alberta – 609 Miles
- Day 5 – Arrived Safely in Dawson Creek – Edmonton, Alberta to Dawson Creek, British Columbia – 329 Miles
- Day 6 – A Haul – Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory – 594 Miles
- Day 7 – Almost There – Watson Lake, Yukon Territory to Haines Junction, Yukon Territory – 362 Miles
- . Day 8 – Well We Made It – Haines Junction, Yukon Territory to Anchorage, Alaska – 613 Miles
Phase 2 – Alaska
- Day 9 – A note about the book bug
- Day 9 – Tourist Mode – Anchorage, Alaska
- Day 10 – A Quiet Day – Anchorage Alaska
- Day 11 – City Diner – Spenard Alaska
- Day 11 – Moving Day – Anchorage, Alaska to Seward, Alaska – 126 Miles
- Night 11 – The Farm Bed & Breakfast – Seward Alaska
- Day 12 – One Word… Awesome! – Seward, Alaska, Kenai Fjords Cruise, Drive to Willow, AK
- Night 12 – The Alaskan Host Bed & Breakfast – Willow Alaska
- Day 13 – Move to Fairbanks – Fairbanks, AK, North Pole, AK and Santa Clause House.
Phase 3 – The Return
- Day 14 – Back to the YUKON! – Fairbanks, AK to Haines Junction, Yukon Territory – 796 Miles
- Day 15 – Book Bug is Free! – Haines Junction, Yukon Territory to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory – 362 Miles
- Day 16 – Not the TV Show… Dawson Creek – Watson Lake, Yukon Territory to Dawson Creek, British Columbia – 594 Miles
- Day 17 – Now we’re in Red Deer – Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Red Deer, Alberta – 447 Miles
- Day 18 – Big Sky Country – Red Deer, Alberta to Billings, MT – 661 Miles
- Day 19 – Rapid City and Mount Rushmore – Billings, MT to Rapid City, SD – 394 Miles
- Day 19 – Sanford’s Grub and Pub – Rapid City, SD
- Day 20 – Wall Drug, The Badlands and Omaha – Rapid City, SD to Carter Lake, IA – 716 Miles
- Day 21 – Omaha, NE – St Louis, MO & Gateway Arch – Omaha, NE to St Louis, MO
- Day 22 – Home – St. Louis, MO – Home