A turn for the worst.

Today we started the most scenic and beautiful part of our drive. A windy road through the remote northern rockies. The land here was once carved by huge glaciers and is now covered with gorgeous bright blue lakes, birch and spruce forests. Our path along the Alaska Highway

follows aqua blue streams with icebergs still floating down stream and in the mountains we can see waterfalls in the distance still frozen and swollen with ice. Already the trees are green with new growth. To add to it all, the sky was clear and as blue as can be!

We started out nice and early so we were privileged to share the road with all sorts of animals. We saw moose, deer, elk, big horn sheep, bison, one stubborn beaver and lots of caribou!

This was my first time ever seeing a Ram or mountain goat so I was very excited and was able to take some great photos.

A little later we saw a beaver in the center of the road. He didnt budge until our car got a foot from him and then he squeeked, jumped and then waddled off. It was as if he didnt see our car until that moment when we were a foot or two away. We both had a good laugh.

Here is one quick snapshot of some caribou. This was the second group that we saw.

The first group of caribou that we saw was just two of them. The first ran off as soon as our car approached but the other stayed dead center in the road, licking it to his hearts content.

He stayed in that spot as our car slowly approached. He stayed there as jake rolled down his window when our car was so close that jake could have reached out and pet him. And he even stayed there as I yelled.

"Jake! Dont! He'll reindeer you in the face!"

At that moment it was the only way i could express what in my imagination. I just saw that little caribou stopping his make out session with the road to put his horns in jake's face and give him a good rendeering. We laughed about that one for a long time.

Pretty soon, the laughter stopped.

(oooh dramatic)

We heard a loud boom from inside the engine, felt some shaking, and then saw smoke coming from under the hood. We managed to pull over before the engine died. Within a few minutes a nice Canadian couple with a motor home pulled over to help us. They said it would be best to take everything valuable from the car and they would give us a ride to the lodge about 20 miles behind us. That nice couple said they would wait for us to get a tow on the way and figure our situation out. They waited nearly 2 hours. God bless them!

The lodge had a pay phone we could use but it was canadian so every calling card we bought for 5 or 10 bucks was only good for one call. Every USA 1-800 number didnt work there either. It was really frustrating and it took us nearly 2 hours and the help of my Dad to figure out that the roadside assistance that is offered through Wells Fargo, is nothing but a scam. They claim to cover you through Canada but when it comes down to it, they are impossible to get a hold of from inside Canada and only cover the first 15 miles!

Anyway, we decided to do something kinda sneaky.

We called progressive and signed up for their roadside assistance, even though it wasnt effective until the next day it was still better than having none. So we signed up for it and tried to find some way around the ridiculous prices at the lodge we were stuck at. Here is an example of their prices:

One night in an Average room with no phone and the cheapest possible linens and mattresses:

$169.00

One liter of gasoline:

$1.79, that's $6.78 per gallon!

Quite nearly this exact plate of food only half the size:

$28.95

One can of soda:

$3.75

crazy, crazy, crazy!

We had no choice but to pay for a night in the hotel and to share some dinner.

At the end of the stressful day we just had to keep reminding ourselves that things could be a lot worse. At least we were in a beautiful place and at least we have each other!