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Published: March 12th 2008
Today was a long day of driving. It’s about a six hour drive to Fairbanks depending on the weather. We began our trip on the Glenn Highway (which I pointed out to Glenn) at about 1:00pm. Have you figured out that we’re not early risers yet?
At our first toilet break and gas station stop Glenn fueled up the vehicle while I ran inside. When I came out the car was directly in front of the gas station doors. Glenn explained that he didn’t want my little American butt to have to walk any further than I had to…that would just be un-American.
Alaska is a big state with a relatively small population. For being one-third the size of the continental United States, Alaska’s population is less than ¾ million. Towns are generally far apart with very little in-between them besides trees and mountains. If you’re lucky there might be a road or two (many of Alaska’s cities, towns and villages are only accessible by plane or boat). We were driving along one such stretch of road marveling at the breathtaking views—the only sign of civilization was the occasional mailbox buried in snowberms—when Glenn realized that “it would suck
to forget the bread & milk way out here.”
As the drive continued the windows grew colder and colder. We were constantly negotiating the heat controls trying to find the happy medium that would keep us warm but alert. Throughout the drive we kept an eye on the thermostat; gradually it dropped from 20* F to 6* F to -2*F and finally to -6*F. Of course, at the coldest point of the drive, Glenn had to jump out of the car to take pictures of the scenery. He hurried back to the warmth of the car and exclaimed that that was the coldest weather he has ever experienced (we later figured out that it was -21.1* C). We had to take a picture of the thermostat at this point to commemorate the momentous occasion.
Glenn knew it was cold, but our Fahrenheit to Celsius conversions weren’t always spot on. I got out the manual and did a magic trick; I changed the display to Celsius. Very excited, Glenn said “it’s in normal talk now.” Now that Glenn has solved the Fahrenheit obstacle, he aims to rid America of lbs, inches & miles.
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