6/13/18 – Alaska at last!!!

It took us 3 weeks and almost 2,200 miles, but we finally arrived in Alaska!  (I'm not counting the almost 2 years of planning and preparation it took to get us going.)

The Canadian Beaver Creek Customs Station is about 20 miles before the border and the US Port of Entry, not back-to-back like others we've seen.  I don't know why.

We crossed the border, then stopped for the obligatory pictures at the "Welcome to Alaska" sign at the international boundary.  

There’s an obelisk with “Canada” on one side and “United States” on the other.  You can actually see the border because they’ve mown a 20’-wide swath along the 141^st meridian to mark exactly where it is.

There's an Alaska-Yukon benchmark that’s actually a bench!

The US Customs station Port Alcan is about half a mile further on.  The sign showed the height of the portico was 12’10”,  but we were both concerned because it didn't look high enough for us to go under. George was watching up for that, and barely saw a warning light come on as we drove through.  

When we got to the window, the border patrol guy asked the standard questions. 
Then he asked if we’d had any healthcare issues recently.  
(That was nice but unprecedented.)
“No,” we said.  
He asked if there was anything that could cause the sensors to pick up radiation? 
I told him I’d had radiation treatments last summer.  
“Shouldn’t last that long”, he said.

He started naming some things that could trigger the alarm.  When he said “old military compasses”, George had an "AHA!" moment, then told him he had an old Army compass in the backpack behind the seat.  We were told to park at the end of the building and come inside.

He seemed to be the only one working the window, so we sat in the office waiting for him to get a few more people through.  Finally he grabbed a classy looking Geiger counter and went outside.  He was gone about 5 minutes, so after he found the compass, he probably checked out the rest of the truck. Since he didn’t even ask for keys for the 5^th wheel, I knew I didn’t have to worry about putting everything back together before we could leave.

He told us that military compasses made before the mid-60s had radium dials—and that was it.  Who would have guessed their equipment was that sensitive!  The agent was polite, thanked us, apologized for the delay, then went back to work.  (This is what you get when you travel with old guys who keep souvenirs from their time in the service.  When we go home, we'll put the thing on the dash!)

We’re in Alaska now—and these mountains are in the Alaska Range!   

A few more pics here:  Entering Alaska