Great Alaskan Road Trip: Final Roundup

First off, many apologies for being so neglectful of the blog this past week!  When we planned the trip, we wanted to make sure that we made it to Northern California by October 6th for my cousin’s wedding.  We made it there a week early, so most of this past week we’ve just been enjoying hotel amenities (Private bath/shower!  Reliable internet!  A bed AND a chair to sit on!) as we remotely re-booted our lives back in Phoenix (Turn on internet/satellite! Un-forward mail!  Have house sitter plug in fridge!  Very exciting, I know).

We did spend a few days in Eureka earlier in the week.  Eureka’s downtown area has all these wonderfully preserved Victorian buildings, including a fabulous Queen Anne style home – the Carson Mansion.  It’s supposed to be the grandest Victorian home in America, so we were really excited to take a look at it.  Unfortunately, we could only see the outside – the home is not open to the public because it has been a hoity-toity exclusive private club since 1950.  Boo.  (There are some photos of the interior on the Ingomar Club website, if you want to check it out.  We can thank the 1%-ers for that at least!)

We left Eureka mid-week and headed south to Geyserville (where the wedding was held).  We loved that highway 101 went right through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  It made for a very scenic drive!

This gentleman at the visitor center was sanding down an enormous cross-section of a downed tree.  It’s fascinating to try to count the tree rings on these stumps, and it’s mind-boggling when you realize just how long they’ve been standing here – 2000 years is a looong time.

The wedding was fabulous!  It was held in Geyserville at Trione Vineyards.  And it was a great chance to catch up with family (some of whom I hadn’t seen in five months or more) and watch my cousin walk down the aisle.  The wedding was on Saturday, and by 8AM Sunday morning we were on our way south, making a beeline for home.  We have enjoyed the trip, but we are really ready to get back to the real world!  We just got in this afternoon (Monday) so this will be the Final Roundup (and final post…for now, anyway).  Drumroll, please!

The Great Alaskan Road Trip Final Stats

• Total miles driven: 14,584 
• Total miles by ferry: 537
• Total days on the road: 146
• Avg gas mileage: 22.5 miles per gallon
• Cheapest diesel: $3.82/gal (in Orem, UT in June)
• Priciest diesel: $5.64/gal (in Carmacks, Yukon Territory in August)
• Avg lodging cost per night: $29.40 (does not include hotel nights, just camping) 
• Total nights in a hotel: 13 (and 2 nights on a ferry) 
• Number of National Parks sites visited (US & Canada): 25 
• Total miles hiked: 125.14
• Number of Bears seen: 43
• Number of Technical Issues: 10 (nothing serious though, thank goodness!)
• Number of times one of us has said, “I’m ready to go home”: 17 Okay that was mostly me, but Kevin has had his fair share of “ready to go home” moments in the past week or so. :)
• Today’s high temperature in Phoenix: 96 F
• Number of dead or dying plants in the yard: 5
• Number of dead scorpions greeting us upon arrival: 3  (no live ones…so far)

A HUGE thank you to all of you for your support and comments and for following along with us on this adventure!  We saw some incredible sights and were amazed at the beauty and diversity of the western American landscape.  We wanted cooler temperatures and wide open spaces, and we ticked both of those boxes for sure on this trip!  But as they say, all good things must come to an end…now, does anybody want to buy a van?  :)