What a week it was. Thanksgiving. Thursday, November 26^th. A quick trip to Anchorage to spend the holiday with some friends. Eat turkey, take a quick break then load the truck with items coming back to Fairbanks with us. No problem. This is gonna be fun. Well...this is Alaska. On Monday the snow began. On Tuesday it was piling up across the better part of the Interior. On Wednesday, the only two roads to Anchorage were closed due to weather and bad driving conditions. This was not fun day. My wife, who is sick, was looking forward to this trip. She's just going with short goals right now to help her make it through everything. All I could do was tell her we would keep trying.

While this snow event was happening, we just happened to have an Ebay auction going on. We have HughesNet which is satellite internet. Remember that it is snowing, we can't make it to Anchorage, Ebay auction and now...the weather takes out our internet service right when our auctions are beginning to come to a close. Go figure. Only in Alaska and Only to Us!

On Thursday morning, Thanksgiving day, the Richardson Highway opened up. Driving was classified as fair to moderate with little difficult in red on the reports. We went for it, the long way around but at least we would get turkey and Derby pie! We first made it to Delta Junction to stretch our legs and fuel up. You top off every chance you get in these conditions. After a quick break, off we went into no man's land. The stretch between Delta and Glennallen is a very desolate and potentially dangerous road this time of year. Around 20 miles into this section, the road started getting rough with ice. No big deal, just slow down. We kept slowing down as the road kept getting rougher. Then the rain began. Oh Boy! Along with the rain, the road slicked up. Also, along with the rain the visibility went down...and we couldn't stop. In these conditions, if you stop you are stuck. The rain started freezing and covering the windshield. My window was down so I could see the snow bank on my side. This was my first white out condition. My wife was very calmly calling out our position on the road the entire time. She had been through this before as a true Alaskan and her experience showed. She masterfully kept me calm, between the snow banks and moving forward. That was the longest 100 miles I think I have ever driven.

We finally made it. Due to the weather and conditions, this became a 12 hour trip for us. We made it, ate turkey and I promptly passed out. It was a good Thanksgiving!