We made it to Valdez, AK last night!  We almost stayed in Tok, AK but decided that we just wanted to go the full way despite having to drive another 5 hours of driving.  The driving yesterday was brutal.  We were on the road for about 15 hours.  From about Destruction Bay until the Alaskan border, it was insanely bumpy.  Like they couldn't pave the asphalt smooth or something.  47 miles of undulations and random patches of no road and/or gravel.  We found out the hard way that "Road Damage" equates to "no road."  Then there was a lot of construction.  Places that we had to stop because it became a one lane high way.   It took a lot longer because of the road conditions.  The following is an Eric quote: "Maxy, my car, got to drive in a couple inches of mud, over large (baseball-sized) rocks, and had to deal with an onslaught of huge bugs. "  Some areas had no markings, no asphalt and no guard rail.  Half of the time we were at the same level as the tree tops.  Kind of scary.  On the bright side, what we got to see was unbelieveable.  The pictures aren't even as good as seeing it in person.

Earlier in the day Eric once again slammed on his brakes.  The critter stopped in the middle, looked at us, then ran right under the tires.  

Also saw a caribou/elk?  Don't know exactly what it was, but we had the windows down and we got to hear the click-clack of its hooves as we drove by and took pictures.  A lot more bug kill.  The car is filthy.  

We got into town around 10:30-11pm.  It's an hour earlier here than back home too.  Still bright and warmish.  I think the constant sun is messing with my system.  I'm tired but still wide awake at night becuase my body is telling me that the sun is still out.  Need really heavy blinds!  There are no fast food places here and not much is open at night.  We're staying at the Downtown B&B Inn for the next several nights.  

We're pretty sure that we saw the pipeline on our way into town because it parallels the highway.  We're off to go explore Valdez now.