Our drive to Alaska part 4

I think during our last couple of days on the road were where I took the most pictures! During those last two days were where we saw the most beautiful scenes we would ever see on the drive. Mountains with a little bit of snow on top, beautiful lakes and rivers, wildlife just hanging out, the sun shining down on the lakes and rivers, mountains reflecting off of those lakes and rivers and the list goes on. We saw so much during those last two days. My favorite part was actually getting out of Yukon Territory and entering Alaska officially! We of course stopped at the Welcome to Alaska sign and took some pictures. There were other couples and families out there too taking pictures so we were able to get some people to take pictures of us. It was so surreal seeing that sign and knowing that we were actually in Alaska. We had made it to our new state. Not too long after entering Alaska came entering back into the U.S. Yes, technically, when you enter Alaska, you are not in the U.S. yet. It's a little weird, but a tiny part of Alaska is not in the U.S. About twenty minutes after entering Alaska came the U.S border finally. We were hoping that we would not have any problems entering back into our own country. After all the trouble with the Canada border, we came fully prepared a little more. This time was smooth sailing. The border patrol officer was very nice and we went right on through to the rest of Alaska. Whew it felt good to be back in our own country. Although it was an experience driving through Canada, we missed America!
 

After getting to the border, we had about an hour left until we got to our final stop of the trip. We stayed in a city called Tok, Alaska. It was a very small town and we ended up staying in a hotel in an RV Park. That was definitely an experience too haha! It was a neat little RV park/Motel though and the people that ran it were pretty nice. The only thing I hated about that town is that they had bees everywhere. I mean they were swarming around the truck and the outside of our room like it was nobody's business! If you really know me, you know I HATE bees! I have never been stung by one and I never intend to. Luckily, I didn't get stung of which I am surprised. Jarrett thought it was hilarious too that I was so scared of them. I might have also had a freak out moment outside of the room of which there were people outside that saw it. Jarrett may have also pretended that he didn't know me at that point haha! I wouldn't blame him though! If he had a freak out moment from the bees I would probably walk the other way too! haha! Any who! That night in Tok, Jarrett took me to this awesome restaurant called Fast Eddy’s! It was a nice restaurant for such a small little town. We both enjoyed a huge seafood feast! I got this dinner that included lots of shrimp, fish, clam strips, chicken, hush puppies and a baked potato! Jarrett got the Alaska king crab leg dinner! Oh man were those crab legs big! We had never seen crab legs that big up close. My wonderful hubby was also nice enough to give me some of the meat and oh boy it was good! After dinner we went to this huge gift shop right next to the restaurant. Jarrett bought me a couple of t-shirts and an Alaska key chain with my name on it. He also got a sticker for his truck that has the shape of Alaska on it. So cool!
 

That night in Tok, we slept like babies and woke the next morning ready to knock the last six hours of our trip out! We were so ready to be done driving! We drove and drove and drove and around 5'oclock in the evening, we had arrived in Anchorage, Alaska! Whew what a relief! We drove around town a little bit and then headed to our hotel for the next three nights! We called our family and friends and told them of the news that we had finally made it. Our families were so proud of us and it made us feel so wonderful to hear that our parents were so proud! The next morning we awoke in our new state. We couldn't wait to get out and drive around. We got up and immediately went winter clothes shopping. We got coats, gloves and hats! We also got some stuff for Leo. We then drove on our new base for the first time. We drove the whole base and found where Jarrett's new work was. We also drove through the neighborhoods to get a feel for the houses and where we could possibly be living. We loved the base automatically! It was our new home for the next 4+ years so how could we not love it? As you know already, on that Monday we got up early and went to the housing office to see where we were on the wait list for a house. About forty-five minutes after getting to the housing office, we were offered a house of which we fell in love with and accepted the offer. We moved in two days later and the rest is history!
 

Seeing all of those beautiful mountains and lakes made me realize just how lucky we were to be moving to Alaska let alone driving 4,000 miles to get there. We were accomplishing a dream that had been thought of for years. There were many times when Jarrett brought Alaska up to me as a possibility, but I never in a million years thought that it would happen. There we were. Two days away from our new home. We were almost done and we could not believe how far we had come. Till this day I still cannot believe that we did it. Every person I meet here in Alaska, I tell them that we drove here from Virginia and they are completely amazed by the thought. We are still amazed at ourselves and amazed out how much our life has changed over this past month since we got here! We have accomplished so much in such a small amount of time and we have 4+ years to accomplish so much more!