My niece got married at Chena hot springs...in an ice castle they had there a few years back. Even had an ice hotel you could stay in! Thay may do it every year, not sure, but it was pretty cool!

 

its a wonderful place, best part is my grandpa knows the owner really well they worked together 40 years ago and he comp'ed the suits for us! freaking cool!!

making a run to walmart tonight and taking the third row seat out. going to bring a cooler for drinks but since i'm not doing any camping it'll just be snacks otherwise. truck is all ready to go!

Fordboy, i'll be sure to stop at one of the coffee stands!!

leaving 7am tomorrow, EST 6 hours going to try and keep the stops to a min and stay as close to 70-75mph i can. i shall report back with pics and a full report of activity's haha

P.S. lets hope i dont loose an alternator 50 miles from home in Wasilla like i did 2 years ago with my old excursion. in its defense it did make it home safely though!

 

so it was a awesome trip! family had a great time the kids were crying they did not want to come home LOL

the drive was wonderful, on the way up i ran the truck really hard mostly 80-100+ alot of the way. hit a top speed of 111mph going up hill at 2200 elevation for almost 2 miles continuously..that was fun!

400 miles going up, got 11.0 MPG like i said i ran it hard.

300 miles running around fairbanks and going to and from chena 12.5 mpg

400 miles coming home, did not run as hard but hit some really bad head winds and pouring rain netted 11.8 mpg

all in all 1,100 miles of trouble free exciting driving..i love this damn truck!


the weather was amazing up there...70s and sunny the whole time. the last day though winds brought in smoke from a wild fire 25miles away..that sucked.


i made this trip in 2010 with my old 2000 black Ex that died a horrid death soon after. i started looking at the pics from that trip and found out something kinda weird? the black truck rolled over 120k miles on this trip in 2010...i rolled over 120k in the red Ex on this trip..odd? anyway thought i'd share some pics in the same places.


2010



2012



2010




2012



2010




2012



2010



2012

 

heres the rest of the pics from the trip, i'll try and do them in order


heading north




the speedo drops out after 100, so the GPS was the only way to know how fast i was really going





had to stop and let the passengers use the bathroom...i cant stand stopping i can hold it all day lol



got into fairbanks about 5 hours before everyone else so we stopped for breakfast. also apparently this is the worlds northern most Dennys!



in Fairbanks then headed another 60 miles out to Chena Hotsprings





finally made it!


the second day, about 7AM it was so pretty




the family that came up is borrowing my Expedition, so they drove it up too. i had both my beasts up there



so then we headed back into town, stopped off at the trans-alaska oil pipeline. i just was down in valdez and got to see the end of the pipeline..next year the plan is to go all the way north and see the start!




had to do alittle shopping in down, ran to walmart and old navy. made it a point to park next to a miata.



we then hit up subway and had a picnic in the parking lot for the little park in the middle of town..more on that later! (me on the back of the truck)


then i stopped at Mocha Dan's for some coffee..good stuff too! thanks fordboy67!




then it was back out to Chena to get soaking in the water!





this guy drove all the way from WI with this tractor to bring it to our state fair..pretty cool!





the last day before heading back to Anchorage we went up to North Pole,AK and Santas house...man that place is Jolly!







then we stopped at a park in the middle of town, it was pretty cool. the smoke from a wildfire had blown in though and made it alittle hard to breath.











then it was time to stop for gas and head back home!






made a stop at Skinny Dicks on the way south..always wanted to go after hearing so many stories.





rolled the big 120k and made it home without issue.





all in all i LOVE the excursion for road trips..its perfect! great passing power and as much as i hate the 3:73 gears it sure makes high speed cruising easy.

 

Wow Al X, thank you so much for sharing yer pictures, thats great

 

One question, how in the fack did you hit 120k on the same trip going 75mph in two different trucks two years apart. LOL

 

pure freaking chance! thats all i got lol i did not realize it until i looked back at the old pics and i was like wow weird?! kinda cool though!

 

is history going to repeat itself again with a total?

 

Sweet pics as always, AKX! I tell my Uncle you liked his coffee! I really need to get back up there!

 

i'm going to make sure it doesnt! LOL the next 2k miles i'm going to be veryyyy careful!

 

Thats no fooling! I was born in Anchorage, raised in Valdez. not what i remember growing up. left AK the second time in 2009, but the snow is looking good! Never liked Los Anchorage!

 

awesome pictures! so jealous of where you live, hope i can make it up there someday!

 

everyone has there own opinion and likes/dislikes. but for me anchorage is home(born and raised), its beautiful, its a good size (and growing). i have been able to visit some parts of the state this year i never saw untill now. yes they were amazing beautiful and remote but i would never live anywhere else.

the road construction this year is realllllly starting to get to me. i have about 6 ways i can commute to work and now 3 of the roads are shut down due to construction..making it a real pain in the morning

 

I can very much relate to road construction, as it is one of the two seasons we have in Alaska! Winter and road repair!

 

Who needs roads when you have a 4x4 excursion!