Let’s see. We left you in the last dispatch as we were settling into Albuquerque for what we expected was to be a two-week+ stay. And then it got interesting.
We’ve always prided ourselves in being flexible travelers. We rarely book lodging and transportation very far ahead; keeping it open in case we want to go here instead of there, stay fewer or more days, change directions, etc. But on this trip, because of it being high season in Alaska, we decided we should probably get some things in place or we might be shut out. We booked a BnB in Dawson City, Yukon (owned by the daughter of Kino friends Terry and Maggie), a tour in Anchorage, a train to Denali (expensive!), and a ship from Anchorage to Vancouver to end the Alaska portion of the trip.
Perry put hours into crafting the itinerary. (At this point, note that we are referring to PLAN A. This will make more sense as the story progresses.) We would be driving from Bahía de Kino, up the remote Ruta de la Sierra east of Hermosillo and into the U.S., then north through the Rocky Mountains to Canada, take the AlCan highway all the way to Dawson City, then head west to Fairbanks, and on to Anchorage.
I was a bit concerned about internet service in the northern regions, as I had heard it might be limited, and I need to be regularly “connected” to deal with our Airbnb apartment rentals in Kino. We had purchased the Milepost — the “bible” of AlCan highway travel, and I began researching where along the way I could count on service.
Everything was going well until I got to the stretch between Dawson City, YK, and Fairbanks, AK. On the map, it looked to be a rather short distance, referred to as “the top of the world highway.” Interesting. I read on…one long hair-raising account after another of that stretch of road…soft shoulders, drop-offs, white knuckles! Did we really want to drive that, I asked? In our ten-year-old car?
I shared the info with Perry…and no, we didn’t! The problem, however, was that driving the alternative route from Dawson City to Fairbanks would add a couple of days to our schedule, two days we did not have if we were to make Anchorage in time for things we had already scheduled and paid for. So there you go!
We began questioning the wisdom of spending so much time driving and sitting so many days in a vehicle. It might not even be healthy. Besides, we had been trying, without success, to pin down a shipping company to take our car from Anchorage down to Vancouver where we could pick it up after getting off the cruise ship.
PLAN B. After lengthy deliberation (which seems to be normal for us), we decided it was time to make some changes. We shouldn’t be spending so much time in the car! We would drive, instead, to Bellingham, WA, park the car in a long-term facility, and take the Alaska Ferry up to Whittier and a train from there to Anchorage. Alaskan friends had told us it was a great way to go, so we booked a couple of bunk beds on the Ferry. We would miss experiencing the AlCan highway and feeling the expansiveness of Canada and Alaska; but, frankly, it felt more like the way we prefer to travel. We canceled our BnB reservation in Dawson City, and reworked our schedule.
Our focus could shift to spending time with family and friends in Albuquerque, as we really didn’t have that much time and wanted to make the most of it.
Perry decided it would be wise to have the car looked over one more time before heading north. A little rattling had developed as we were driving up from Kino, and there were some small things to be checked. He took it to Pete’s Auto in Albuquerque for a general checkup.
Pete called the next day. How can I say this? It was not the best of news. Pete was stunned by what they found and said, “Frankly, Mr. Wilkes, we don’t know how this car is still running!”
I won’t go into all the details (I’m not qualified!), but suffice it to say, there was a whole lot wrong — broken, worn, on the verge of disaster. Could it be fixed? Yes, but at what cost? And this car, our “Mexican car,” belongs to our Mexican corporation. The corporation should pay for repairs, but it can cover only the cost of repairs done in Mexico! We would need to do just enough to make it safe to drive back to Mexico to be fixed…or traded-in. This Mexican car would NOT be driving to Bellingham.
That’s right. PLAN C. We would not spend three weeks driving north through the U.S., visiting dear friends all along the way. More things scheduled in advance would need to be chucked. Instead, we bought Southwest Airline tickets from Albuquerque to Bellingham in time to catch the ferry going north. Now we would have ample time in New Mexico: more time with the grandchildren, breakfasts and dinners with friends, more time with Perry’s sisters and other family members. A little jazz at the Outpost Performance Space, Friday night salsa at the Albuquerque Museum, an afternoon of the Watermelon Mountain Jug Band at O'Neils on Central.
It was fine. We were getting closer to our preferred travel mode of not driving, using public transportation, loading our bags onto planes and trains.
We reminded ourselves it was good to be flexible!
If I must fly, flying in or out of Albuquerque is at least made pleasurable by the Albuquerque International Airport — in my estimation, the most architecturally stunning, culturally enriching, welcoming, and human of airports. Ours was a 6:25 a.m. flight, and we arrived the requisite two hours ahead of time, so things were fairly quiet. We enjoyed the art, the exhibits, and two cups of good, strong coffee before boarding.
We booked into Bellingham’s Bay City Motor Inn for two nights, just to be sure we could easily make the ferry sailing should there be any hitches. And that gave us time to explore the city a bit — walk the downtown area, experience the friendliness of the people and the vibrance typical of a university town.
On the first morning, we walked to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast, and while Perry was in line paying, my phone rang. It was someone from the Alaska Transportation Division calling Perry Wilkes about his booking on the Alaska Ferry. I thought, of course, that it was just a confirmation of our trip. But, no. It was: “I’m sorry; your trip has been canceled due to a strike. The ferry will not be running. You will be issued a full refund for your fare.”
I asked, of course, if there was any chance it would resume service soon. “The earliest is will begin again, IF they manage to settle the strike,” he said, “will be August 10.” The date was July 25. We looked online to make sure this wasn’t some kind of cruel joke, to find that it was all too true. And it was the first time there had been a strike since…1977! Are we lucky, or what?
Up to this point, we had been fairly sanguine about all the changes. But this was hard to take. We both had totally bought into the Alaska Ferry idea. No time for mourning, however. We had to decide what to do.
Back at the hotel, we settled in to finding where we might go, how we would get there, and where we could stay. You guessed it…
PLAN D. Since we had earlier taken Fairbanks off the itinerary due to tales about the “top of the world highway,” we decided to use the time there. It would be five days, at ‘high season,’ and most everything in Fairbanks seemed to be booked. I finally found an Airbnb described as “Aurora Lakeside (in town)” with good ratings. Since we like being able to walk places to eat and enjoy sites, the “in town” was appealing. We booked it. Then we had to figure
out how to get there. That turned out to be an Alaska Horizons flight from Bellingham, through Seattle, to Fairbanks. None of this was particularly inexpensive, but it could all be covered by the refund of the ferry fee.
Being flexible can sometimes also mean being a little tired! We slept well that night, and on July 27, we left lovely Bellingham in mid afternoon, arriving at nearly 11:00 p.m. in Fairbanks in the brightness of what looked like any late afternoon sky. Latitude 64.8378° N. And finally, we are in Alaska! — CJK
How do we know we are in Alaska? We are no longer wearing sandals...