Our driving trip to Alaska was something special. I realized that Zachary was about to graduate from High School and Simon was not far behind him. I began anticipating this empty nest and wanted to spend time with my two sons. With a little help from Zachary, I drove our Peugeot Station Wagon about 7200 miles in three weeks. In August of 1992, I attended a military conference in Portland. The four of us drove to Portland. While I was doing my army business, my family enjoyed our larger family on both the Kim and Foreman sides. We stayed at the Red Lion Hotel in Portland. With Zachary and Simon, I then began the long trek north. Kim stayed in Oregon. Her sister gave her a ride back to Fort Baker. We three guys drove through Washington State, up through Vancouver and then through British Columbia to the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek. We drove 1520 miles through Yukon and into Alaska and on to North Pole (a little town just before Fairbanks).
We stayed in North Pole with my Brother Frank who was in the Air Force stationed at Eielson Air Force Base. After a pleasant week we headed back. With Frank's family of six, we traveled from Fairbanks to Anchorage, then Anchorage to Valdez, then back north to the Alaska Highway. Frank parted from us and returned to North Pole. We returned to the USA by a different route. In northern British Columbia we left the Alaska Highway and drove a more rugged road called the Cassiar Highway. We popped over into the Alaska panhandle a few times (Hayes and Hyder) and make it back to Longview. After a day's rest we drove the final leg back to California.
Here is a Map of the Canadian part of the drive.
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Click to make the picture large.
Here is Map of the Alaska part of the drive
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Click to make large