I've pretty much decided I'm not driving back. I'll have to cough up the $3k to have the RV shipped from Anchorage (either to Prince Rupert or Seattle, depending on time of year and whether I go with the ferry or cargo ship). I wasn't too scared of the roads, but add some snow and ice....
Only casualties were the inverter and the netbook. The bumps really got to both. Inverter stopped working, whopped it real hard and it came back on, but will still flicker out for a second or so (just enough to shut the tv off, losing my son's place in his movie). Netbook won't charge all the time, and it's not the power supply. All other systems seem fully operational.
We left home on the 9th to pick up the RV (had left it at my dad's). After multiple delays (including my wife's mom and sister deciding to meet us on the way, taking another couple hours out of our day) I decided to just stay at my dad's for the night and head out early the next morning. Got a late start, and ended up staying at my mom's longer than expected (her house was on the way). We ended up driving around 300 miles that day, much less than the 500 bare minimum needed. Next day bumped us up to 1,000 miles, so we were back on track. We were searched at the Canadian border, but obviously not very well (they never looked in the battery or generator bays, and didn't see any of our three cats). We stayed overnight in rest areas or turn-arounds every night except for one (our 3 year old needed a playground, so we stayed in an rv park). Ran low on water a few times, but would have done better if our washer/dryer didn't use about 16 gallons per load (it's a ventless dryer, so it uses a lot of water during the dry cycle). We took quick showers about every day and a half, and twice during our short stay at the rv park (from about 8:30PM to noon the next day). Would have done all our laundry at the rv park, but no 50amp lots could be found (it was after hours, had to make do with a 15amp hookup). We were able to average 750 miles on multiple days, so were able to take it easy towards the end of the trip. Took longer to get through several sections of road than I had anticipated, but I did plan on delays. We arrived in Anchorage on the 17th. Took about seven days (not counting the wasted first day).
Wish we had more time to visit sites along the way. We stopped at Whitehorse, seemed like a popular rv stop (probably a dozen or more RVs in the Wal-Mart parking lot, RV park viewed from the road seemed full, etc.). It was just a quick Wal-Mart and Pizza Hut stop though, then back on the road. Once in Alaska Tok would have been a good overnight stay, but we just stopped to let our son play in the playground, fuel up and fill up our water tank. We also stopped at Matanuska Glacier, hiked out and walked on the glacier. Two tour groups came while we were there, and everyone was dressed pretty warm with helmets on. We just had jackets, wife had our baby in the snugli, and our son was just walking along with us.
As for restaurants on the way, hope you like McDonald's, A&W, Subway, and Tim Horton's. There were a couple Boston Pizza places (forgot the exact name), and Whitehorse had a couple more familiar places (like Pizza Hut). Don't forget to stock up on maple syrup and soft drinks while in Canada. We forgot to get the syrup (doh!) but have over a dozen 2-liter bottles of soft drinks. They use real sugar (not high fructose corn syrup), and we can tell the difference. Just be aware that each drink has a 25/cent deposit, and 3/cent or so recycling fee added on. Wal-Mart has generics for $1 in Whitehorse
As for wildlife, I saw some bears, buffalo, and some goat animal. Wife saw a moose or something in the water. Oh, and mosquitoes, huge annoying mosquitoes.
Diesel in Canada wasn't much more than in the US. Across the border it was $0.85/liter, or about $3.22/gallon. The cheapest was $0.75/liter with a 4.5cent cashback that you could use in their grocery store, so that ended up being about $2.67/gallon. Highest was $1.09/liter, or $4.13/gallon. Once in Alaska diesel was about $3.69/gallon, and around Anchorage the cheapest I've seen was $3.29 (I filled up at $3.39, the average price). Oh, and in general diesel was cheaper than gas while in the lower 48 heading up, and through all of Canada, but it's higher than gas in Alaska (regular is about $2.79-$2.89 right now). I had budgeted a max of $4/gallon for fuel, so we didn't do too bad.
We're currently parked in a high school parking lot in Anchorage with free 50-amp hookup, free water hookup, permission to dump gray water on the ground, and weekly dumping of our tank. Great view of the mountains. Elementary school with playground next door. Free wifi (well, at least it's unsecured wifi). Wife has a 30-minute walk to work. We bought a 4Runner, but she's used to a 30-minute commute, might as well walk right? She'll get to drive once we move to Eagle River, about 20 miles away.
