We started our final morning in New Orleans with the requisite trip back to Café du Monde for a delicious (though not nutritious) breakfast of beignets buried in a mountain of powdered sugar, as well as their famous chicory coffee to wake Charla up and, in anticipation of our arrival in the Sunshine State, some fresh-squeezed OJ for Chase.  On our way out of town we drove across the 23-mile Pontchartrain Causeway.  The bridge across Lake Pontchartrain is so long that allegedly one can see the curvature of the earth while crossing the bridge; unfortunately for us, a tanker truck was leaking corrosive chemical waste on I-10, which shut down the Interstate, and forced so much traffic onto the Causeway we didn’t get to see anything too exciting.

     On the other side of Lake Pontchartrain, we finally arrived in Abita Springs, Louisiana, the home of Abita beer.  The sweet smell of the brewery greeted us as we walked in to find the sampling room already open before our 2:00 tour.  The tour of the facility started with two short videos, one about the brewing process and the other about Abita’s mission to go green, and then we were guided into the large room filled with tanks where our only instructions were not to touch anything shiny.  The tour was short but informative, and most importantly, it left us with an even greater love of this Louisianan brew.

     Leaving Abita we jumped on to I-12, to I-10, to the Mississippi state line and the shockingly nice Mississippi Welcome Center.  Also near the Welcome Center is the NASA Infinity Center; the name sounded impressive yet vague, but when we arrived they had just closed and we didn’t end up learning anything more about it.  Once we were in Mississippi we ducked off the Interstate onto US90, a scenic rural highway along the coast.  In the town of Waveland we had a very exciting moment when we saw the Gulf of Mexico for the first time of the trip!  We, of course, slammed on the brakes and waded out to play on Waveland Beach before continuing on east. 

     We stayed on US90 until the sun set, and once the views were gone we jumped back on I-10 for the long slog east.  I-10 passed us right on through the 55 miles of Alabama and the 200 miles of the Florida Panhandle before finally arriving in Tallahassee at 2AM.  Charla operated as our Tallahassee tour guide, pointing out both the sights and the day-to-day necessities of the city, until we stopped for the night to say hello to Charla’s mom and goodbye to our road trip from Talkeetna to Tallahassee.

     As has been the pattern when we are staying with our friends, we got a late start out of Dallas.  We were all treated to a scrumptious breakfast courtesy of Charla and Katie; deliciously fluffy scrambled eggs and potatoes from Charla and bacon from Katie.  (While they were cooking, Chris and Chase were busy out on the town procuring Lindt truffles, so the boys were also working on important tasks.)

     After a couple hours on I-20 heading out of town, we decided it was time for a snack and pulled over at a rest area to make sandwiches.  Much to our surprise (or, maybe we shouldn’t have been shocked), each picnic table at the rest area was built to resemble a giant oil derrick on the side of the highway.  Oh, Texas…

     Not far from the rest area, we crossed the Louisiana state line and then were soon in Shreveport.  Although the Louisiana tourism booklet we picked up near the border suggested a lot to do there, Sunday night was not exactly an ideal time for a visit, as the majority of attractions were museums that would not be open until the next morning.  We cruised through the city a bit, however, and decided to stop at the River Walk.  The park is situated across from Bossier City and near some interesting metal bridges made for swinging and lifting to allow various ships down the Red River.  While there, we also glimpsed a few old fashioned steamboats at rest (ahem, these days, riverboat casinos).

     From Shreveport, we traveled south on I-49.  We were excited (and surely they were too) when we saw another car on the road with a Vassar license plate frame, this one a black mini SUV with Texas tags.  While Chase slowed down so that our windows could meet, Charla made a sign saying “We went to Vassar too!” to hold up in the window.  As soon as the two other travelers saw it, both drivers started honking while thumbs-ups and lots of waving went on in the passenger seats.  After seeing the Vassar vehicle, our night was fairly quiet, as we made our way to the Kisatchie National Forest to set up our tent and have dinner.

_           We got a fairy early start from the Cibola National Forest, somewhere between McGaffney and Fort Wingate.  A few miles down I-40, we ventured into Grants to explore a bit more of the Historic Route 66.  After I-40 by-passed the small town, Grants was not kept up quite like Williams, so we made our way down Main Street until it crossed the interstate again and took us to the interagency Visitors’ Center.  The helpful Park Service and Forest Service rangers directed us to the local coffee shop as well as to take a more scenic route to Roswell than the one we had originally charted.  Before setting off for the land of the alien encounters, we enjoyed coffee and muffins at Cocoa Beans Café and left our mark on the map there as the first customers from both Talkeetna and Tallahassee.

_      Getting into southern New Mexico, highway 380 brought us to the edge of the White Sands Missile Range, the location of the Trinity Site, the site of the first atomic detonation by the United States.  We hoped that we could check out some of our nation’s nuclear history, but the security guard at the gate politely notified us that it was a secured military installation and we certainly were not welcome beyond the gate.  Passing White Sands, we stopped for a quick lunch at a “roadside table” before hitting the road again.  Unfortunately, this time the road hit back, and we suffered a flat tire.  Not just any flat tire, but approximately a half inch gash that left air gushing out the tread.  Before we lost too much, we jumped back in and milked the Pilot into the parking lot of the Capitan Municipal High School to switch it out.  Our goal was to be back on the road before school got out for the day, but we weren’t that quick, and we became our own sort of tourist attraction for the juniors and seniors who were driving home.

_      We rolled into Roswell significantly later than planned, arriving at the International UFO Museum and Research Center with only twenty minutes left until closing.  While we didn’t have time to read all of the newspaper clippings, letters, and other information in the exhibit, we still learned a lot about the “Roswell Incident” and close encounters of the first, second, and third kinds.  Perhaps the best part of our visit there was when a fog machine came on, filling the center room with a cloud while the flying saucer started spinning and the aliens started communicating(?).

_      After the museum closed, there was not a lot to do in Roswell, according to both the museum attendant who suggested going to the local cinema and to the gift shop clerk/novelist/alien enthusiast who suggested checking out the town library.  So, we got out of there faster than the little green guys back in 1947 (or faster than the military cover-up, if you choose to believe that chain of events).  Back on Highway 380 East, we crossed the border into Texas and started scoping out a place to throw up our tent for the night.  Our search led us to the Glenn Howell Park in Brownfield, where we were able to make a delicious pasta dinner, watch the stars, and sleep by the peaceful lake.

_      We had stopped in Tuba City for gas, and the gas station attendant had told Chase that highway 264 was a straight shot out into the desert wilderness and camping would be easy along the road.  Unfortunately, much to the contrary, the road was notably twisty and curvy around rock formations; this prevented us from making good time and made it harder to eat the ice cream we had bought in Tuba City.  Furthermore, the road was very highly populated, with towns every few miles and nowhere to pull off and camp.  Because of that we drove later than we normally do, passing into New Mexico after dark to camp in the Cibola National Forest. 

_       “Later” is kind of relative though, because we didn’t exactly have a clear idea of what time it was.  Arizona is in Pacific time, though the state does not follow Daylight Savings Time, though the Navajo Nation Reservation does follow Daylight Savings Time, though some towns in the reservation don’t, and then New Mexico is in Mountain Time and is different altogether!  Rather than trying to keep it straight, we just set up camp and slept when we were tired.

_      After seeing the view from the tower last night, we wanted to return one more time during the day so that we could see more than just the lights from the Strip.  The red mountains surrounding the city and limiting the growth of its sprawl were beautiful juxtaposed against the blue sky, and they are very different from the white mountains Chase is used to seeing in Alaska.

_      Once we finally left our hotel, Charla created a fun challenge for us to attempt.  Near the hotel was Bonanza Gifts, the tackiest-looking gift shop on the Strip.  We were each going to spend 15 minutes shopping, with a $5 maximum, to buy the other the tackiest item we could find, and we’d have to wear the other’s “gift” at some point during the road trip.  Much to our dismay, though the shop was incredibly tacky, it was also shockingly expensive, and we realized that a $5 maximum would not provide for more than a glittery keychain flask.  Sadly enough, we decided to scrap the challenge and must rely on our own already tacky wardrobe for the rest of the trip.

_      Unfortunately, while parked in a lot on the strip, we were approached by our parking lot attendant who notified us that someone had stolen the tire and wheel off of Chase’s bicycle, which was mounted on a bike rack on the Pilot.  The parking lot attendant had attempted to stop the man and had called the police, who arrived shortly thereafter.  Even more unfortunate, we had seen a man riding a bicycle carrying an extra bicycle wheel a few minutes earlier, but didn’t think much of it.  Las Vegas Metro Police have a shockingly quick response time, dispatching two police cars and two police motorcycles to the parking lot, but a brief search failed to turn up the suspect or the wheel.  Oddly enough, one of the responding officers notified us that they had recently raised the minimum for petty larceny to $650, which means that in effect it is not a crime to steal tires off of bicycles; if they ever caught the suspect, they’d give him a ticket on par with a ticket for jaywalking.  Even so, we filed a police report and the police took pictures, noting the brand and size of the wheel and tire.  We can only hope that the wheel happens to find its way into police custody in the next few days, or Chase will be buying a new one in Florida.  (In reality, we think that if the motorcycle cops didn’t spot the guy in the first few minutes, the odds of it ever turning up are remarkably slim.)

_      Finally making our way out of town, we stopped at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, something we probably would have done a couple days before if it were not on the opposite end of the Strip from where we were staying.  We said a quick hello and goodbye to the city of sin (and to an Elvis impersonator taking tourist photos there) and got out.  Before we were too far away, we spotted a Jack in the Box, which was offering free chicken nuggets for the people of Las Vegas.  We counted ourselves among that crowd for a hot second and took the chicken nuggets to go.

_      As we made our way to Hoover Dam, a small brewery in Boulder City caught our eyes, so we stopped at the Boulder Dam Brewing Company to try their sample flight, conveniently arranged in the shape of the dam.

_      Leaving Boulder City, we soon arrived at the Hoover Dam, and the trusty Pilot once again had the pleasure of driving over a massive dam.  We stopped for photos on the far side of the dam, as we crossed the Arizona state line, and then we parked the Pilot to walk back into Nevada over the dam.

_     From Hoover Dam, we traveled Highway 93 to I-40 and into the quaint town of Williams, whose main street is the famous Route 66 (we got our kicks!).  We had planned to go all the way to the Grand Canyon that night, but Williams captured us, and we decided to stay.

_ .  And, as is the state custom in Nevada, there was a scuzzy little gambling hall called the Say When Casino located just feet over the border.  The Say When is open 24 hours, and it has 25 cent slots, so to celebrate getting to Nevada we stopped.  Even at 6:30 in the morning there was a crowd inside.  We walked to the closest slot machines to the door and dropped in our quarters; with Chase’s quarter he won back 50 cents, and is probably the only person in the state of Nevada who is currently 100% ahead in gambling winnings.

_      From Winnemucca we jumped on the I-80 for a short hop to Battle Mountain and then took Highway 305 south to Austin.  Highway 305 felt like an extremely lonely road, and it didn’t seem that there was any reason for someone to drive it unless they lived or worked out there; and despite a couple ranches and mines, we can only assume very few people lived or worked out there.  Ironically, Highway 305 dead-ended into Highway 50, which is billed as the Loneliest Highway in America (despite having more tourist traffic).  Highway 50, though, is an amazing road.  We immediately entered the town of Austin, which is a quaint little mountain town.  Steeped in gold rush (and oddly enough, Pony Express) history, the town was situated at 6,600 feet elevation and when we pulled in the air temperature was exactly 100 degrees.  We did the only obvious thing, and stopped at the Toiyabe Café for ice cream.

_      On our way out of Austin the road started climbing, and climbing, and climbing, until we finally reached Austin Summit at 7,484 feet, which has been our highest elevation of the trip.  From there it was all downhill.  (Las Vegas is all the way down at 2,181 feet elevation.)  Highway 50 to Highway 376 to Tonopoh to Highway 95 to Las Vegas!  On the way we passed some sketchy-looking military outposts in the desert, including the alleged Area 51; we also passed Angel’s Ladies, a legal brothel in the desert, though we didn’t want to investigate the quality of the ladies who would choose to work in the rural desert when Las Vegas was less than hour away.  Managing to avoid military security, aliens, and prostitutes, we soon found ourselves driving down Las Vegas Boulevard, more popularly known as The Strip.

_      Pulling into the Stratosphere, we commented that neither one of us could remember the last time we had been in a parking structure so large.  The hotel has more than 2,800 rooms, making it approximately ten times the size of the Hotel Alyeska, where Chase works in the winter.  Exiting from the parking garage, guests must drag all of their luggage with them from one end of the casino to the other to check-in for the room before dragging all their belongings back across the casino to get to the elevator.  There are three elevator banks, depending on which part of the hotel your room is in.  We finally found our elevator bank, and sped up to the sixteenth floor for our mountain-view room.  We barely left the room, instead relaxing and reveling in the fact that for the first time since July we had walls, electricity, air conditioning, a shower, and a bed.

_     Our day began with texts from Elliot: “Make me a breakfast sammich!”  Over egg sammiches, we made plans for the day to go to “the river,” a Portlander term for any river surrounding the city.  After making friends with Grace and Benji, we followed them to the Washougal River just over the Washington border.  We were on I-5 for just a few minutes before taking a state road that led to the dusty, gravel Forest Service roads.   Grace led us to a spot perfect for swimming and catching some sun, a place where the current slowed around the rocks scattered throughout the middle of the river.  Just upriver was a large swimming hole surrounded by rock faces perfect for jumping.  The sun dipped below the surrounding mountains in the mid-afternoon, so we moved from our secluded spot to Dougan Falls, a more populated spot but one that had better sun.  Dougan Falls was a series of short waterfalls that you could swim under, climb up, and play around.  Unfortunately, it was nearing time for Benji to go to work, so the whole crew returned to the city to drop him off.

_      Back in Portland, we made a stop for some groceries for a quick dinner at sunset overlooking the Coast Range from a beautiful apartment that Grace was housesitting.  After dinner, we retreated to the complex’s pool and hot tub.  We expected the river water to be cold, but even though the pool was relatively warm, it felt cold to us and we stayed in the hot tub.

     At Elliot and Brad’s, we caught up on the day’s Olympic events.  It has been interesting watching the Olympics while traveling; each day that we are able to hear Olympics news it is biased by our location.  While driving through Canada we were listening to results of Canadian athletes, and we listened to some of the controversial Olympics moments involving Canadian teams.  The Canadian badminton team (Bruce-Li, Michelle Bruce and Alexandra Li) was thrust into the international spotlight after a host of other teams were disqualified, while the Canadian women’s soccer team lost their semi-final to the US by a questioned call to the ref.  Once we crossed the border these stories were never focused upon again, and this evening in particular the big story was that the US team had 40 athletes with Oregon ties (including Ashton Eaton, who had just won the gold in the decathlon).  Overall, we haven’t been able to keep up with the Olympics as much as we would’ve liked, but the local flavor definitely has made it more interesting when we are able.

_      We woke up rocked by the waves of floatplanes taking off beside Noelle’s floating home on Lake Union.  We hung out with Noelle while she made us a delicious breakfast, and then we walked around her dock to check out the different floating homes in her “community.”  After a late start out of Seattle, we rocketed down to Portland on I-5.

_      We arrived at Elliot and Brad’s apartment and our hosts gave us a nice tour of historic Irvington, the neighborhood in which they live.  The four of us shared a “bucket,” a delicious concoction whose recipe we brought back from Southeast Asia earlier this summer.  Once we had had our bucket and were ready for a fun evening we jumped on the MAX train for a trip downtown into Portland.  Portland is known for its variety of food carts and casual street food, and we decided to go for the real local experience by devouring Egyptian food.  The Egyptian food made us thirsty, so Elliot brought us to Momo’s, his regular after-work watering hole, where we were met by some of his co-workers for a few drinks and a lot of laughs.

     The tour of Portland continued after Momo’s as we were brought to public squares and historic areas downtown.  One of the most interesting was a square where if you stood in a specific spot within a circular brick structure you could hear your echo even though those standing around you could only hear your regular voice.  From there, a quick MAX ride brought us back to Irvington and a comfortable bed.

_      Once again, we had the pleasure of packing up camp in the rain; we went to sleep with a nice lightning show above and assume the rain started shortly afterward.  The benefit of a rainy morning is that it got us on the road nice and early!  After a couple of hours we drove out of the rain and stopped at an overlook near Big Bar Lake to cook up some breakfast.  After passing through British Columbia’s agricultural district for a couple hours, we made it off Highway 29 and onto the Trans-Canada Highway to drive through the Fraser Canyon.  The Fraser Canyon is a narrow, rocky canyon cut by the Fraser River, and the two-lane road follows the path of the river while clinging to the side of the cliff.

_      Once through the Canyon we had one last Canadian stop in Chilliwack, by far our most successful shopping attempt of the trip.  We were able to do a last-minute stop for Canadian chocolates and beer not available south of the border, as well as some other errands that needed to be run.  We sped immediately from Chilliwack to Abbotsford, where we crossed the border for the last time into the Lower 48!  Another easy border crossing (where we did declare our Timbits, or donut holes from Tim Horton’s), we found ourselves in Sumas, Washington. 

_      Two hours of interstate travel later we stopped in Kirkland, Washington, to visit our friend Alison.  It was great to reconnect, and we took a walk through beautiful Kirkland past the Wilde Rover, the scene of past adventures of Charla and Allison.  Our destination this evening was just next door at Hanuman Thai Café, Charla’s first Thai food since leaving Thailand earlier this summer.  The prices were a little higher than Bangkok street-food (though also significantly lower than prices in Talkeetna), but Charla still approved of the cuisine.  Later that evening we headed into Seattle to visit Noelle, one of Chase’s friends from Talkeetna.  We quickly all became friends and slept soundly that night rocked by the waves of Lake Union.

_      Much to everyone’s surprise (especially the local Skagwegians), we woke up to a beautiful sunny day!  We explored town a bit more, including a walk down to the cruise ship dock, where a new boat had unloaded its happy passengers earlier that morning.  From the dock, we had some sweet views of the Tracy Arm.  Then, we made our way back into town for some pan au chocolate at Glacial Smoothies and Espresso.  Noticing an ad in the Skaguay Alaskan paper in the coffee shop, we stopped in a store nearby for a free train whistle with the purchase of some snazzy bear socks.  In times of radio silence while driving through massive British Columbia, the train whistle certainly came in useful (without much success, we both attempted playing songs ranging from Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and a smattering from Lonely Island).

_      After much hugging and a few high fives at the Attic, we started the scenic drive out of Skagway through White Pass, climbing some 3,000 feet in just nine miles and crossing the Canadian-America border one more time.

_      We crossed from BC into the Yukon, where we happened upon the deserted Venus Mill mining structure on Tutshi Lake.  Built in 1908, it was meant as a last-ditch effort to try to mine silver from the lake, but it was unsuccessful.  Later on we crossed through Carcross (from the original town’s name CARibou CROSSing) and then the Tagish Road onto the Alaska Highway for the third and longest stretch of our trip.

_     We made a quick stop in Teslin for gas and groceries before making a nice lunch overlooking Nisultin Bay just outside of town.  With a full tank in the trusty Pilot and full stomachs, we covered a lot of ground before reaching the Watson Lake Signpost Forest.  We meandered around a bit and made the necessary stops to check up on Chase’s two signs there.  We skipped out on the Northern Lights Centre, deciding that we would just have to wait until our return to Alaska to see them again in the sky and not on film.
     From there, we drove for a bit and started seeking out a place to rest for the night.  Our first stop was place we will forever call mosquito land.  We took a turnoff, hopeful for a nice spot, but it looped around back towards the Highway.  We found what appeared a nice spot in the back of the loop, but after a few minutes of setting up the tent, we were swarmed with plaque-like quantities of mosquitoes and quickly decided to pack it all in and search for something better.  We stopped in a rock quarry a few miles down the road that was still fairly mosquito-infested but a much better option for a place to make dinner and get some rest.