It takes a village to get us to Alaska.
The day before leaving home we thought to call T-Mobile to see if our cell phone would work in Canada. We were a little surprised to learn, that Canada is no problem, but there’s no T-Mobile data in Alaska – talk and text will be fine, but I’m not sure what we would do about finding charging (and activating the chargers) along the way without cellular data. Thanks, Macarius, for helping us get prepared.
So on our way out of town, we stopped at an At&T store – the one reliable network in Alaska – and turned our old spare iPhone 6s into a prepaid phone with unlimited data for our time in Alaska. Thanks to Gage for getting our phone set up and guiding us through the process.
That was after the quick stop at Linden Hills Coop and REI – which was after the morning of final cleaning and packing and getting our Tesla, Redd-Y, all loaded. Thanks to our friend Cary who is staying at our house and taking care of Pickles the cat and the garden while we are gone. And he will have great support from our wonderful neighbors, the Braatens and the Werrys!
And thank you to the other friends and neighbors – Rick and Loren – who have lent us the tire repair kits that we hope we will return without having to use them. But it’s good to be prepared.
And then there is our friend, George, in Anchorage who sent us the milepost travel guide and Alaska maps and is anticipating our arrival in 5-6 days. And Doreen, our biggest cheerleader who sent us off with our A-Z card for Alaska.
We departed from home with a full charge and will make it all the way to Fargo before needing to stop for a charge. Then we will head west to Bismarck then turn north toward Canada. We’ll find camping somewhere in North Dakota for tonight.
– Mindy
I’m so glad you are posting your progress.
Please correct your link from .org to .com.
Also, it will be helpful to make clear that to receive updates one must first click on the title “And we’re off”
we resent the link to those that got the wrong one. Hopefully they are now here so got the correct link! Thanks for the alert.
Have big fun!
Can’t wait to see your next installment, and then have you pull up in front of our cozy Alaska home. Best of luck and good charging!
Looking forward to seeing you soon, George!
Most folks don’t fathom the logistics it will take for Mindi and Paul to get all the way to the 49th state on electricity. In the early days of the Alcan , people would fill their rigs with Jerry caos, spare tires, and spare headlamps, driving slowly day and night to keep their cars in one piece and schedules intact. Now, pavement has come to “the Highway” along with the occasional jury rigged charging opportunity. So, though they face a different set of challenges today, Paul and Mindi are embarking on real adventure. May great fables be born!