North To Alaska- Day 1

Saturday was the day Maddie and I left for Alaska to get her to her summer job. We had the car packed and ready to go by 7:30 in the morning. After a tearful goodbye between Maddie and Cindy we were on our way in her PT Cruiser for a new adventure. We really did not know what to expect. We stopped at Idaho Falls to get gas and then on to Montana. We made it to the Montana boarder without much problem and we thought the drive through the mountains of Montana was pretty but we did not know that it would just keep getting better.

We made it to Butte for lunch and got some gas. Between Butte and Great Falls we had our first trauma. We were on the freeway and as we came up over a hill there was debris on the road as we got closer it was large pieces of wood. Maddie tried to avoid it but we went over top of one of the pieces and it made a thump so we quickly stopped and then Maddie looked in her mirror and say a wrecked car in the other lane of the freeway that was heading south. We got out and ran over to the car and the driver was out of his car and Maddie checked him. He had drifted into the middle guard rail and had taken it out and that is what was thrown on our side of the highway. The front of his car was gone and he was lucky to be OK. His car was completely turned around. Once the police came we then left and continued on our trip going along the Missouri River for a portion of the drive.



We got to Great Falls and got some gas. By the way we paid $3.70 for gas in Montana when it was $3.61 at home.

From Great Falls to the Canadian border the land is prairie. We listened to the radio as the local stations talked about the graduating seniors of each high school, generally three or four from each school out in that area. We finally made it to the border. Maddie wanted me to drive there because she did not want to answer the questions.

Once across the border into Canada we were in the province of Alberta. Speed limit changed from 75 miles per hour to 110 kilometers per hour among other changes. Still the same prairie though even though it was a different country. . We drove through Lethbridge and then headed to Calgary. We got our first experience with liters for gas measurement in Fort McCloud. We filled up with 35.4 liters. The cost came to equal $4.52 a gallon when you convert from metric.

We continued on and arrive in Calgary at sunset which was around 9:30. We had traveled 830 miles that day.