In Brief
I joined the Army and got stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska. I gave up my plane ticket for a travel stipend and decided to drive there.

I looked around for information before I set off, and kept running into conflicting reports about the Canada/Alaska Highway bit. Many people were saying it was nearly impassible, rubbish. Most of that driving was exceptional, save for the unplowed, narrow parts of the Yukon, with steep cliffs to the left and frozen lakes to the right with no guardrail and 17 inch summer tires, hundreds of miles from anything it might be summer until I'd be found. So the trip was from Florida, but not directly to Alaska, I went to some parts of the country I'd wanted to see...and to anyone planning this trip, do it, it was amazing.

8500 miles covered, 8 vanilla milkshakes, 2 oil changes, 2 hitchhikers, 3 hotel rooms, 10 days traveled, avg speed of 59.5, max speed 125 mph, 6 car washes, 3 audiobooks, 0 tickets or police stops, 15 states, best MPG was 29, worst 22, avg of 26 mpg.

In Canada where I'd run out of black and white film

There were lots of gas stations, but getting north, about 3/4th were abandoned.

Old Route 66 stray dogs

Can't stop here, this is bat country

Mulholland raceway, the best part of the trip.

National Triumph car club meeting/autocross, held on a Thursday? I guess you can't have a job and own a British car.

Florida on the left, Alaska on the right

Not in much order I'm afraid.

If anyone has been to this Cafe, it's quite a hike/tumble down the cliff to get to the ocean

You can't drive to the Golden Gate and only take one photo

New Orleans

real western

Irony

You might think you want to drive across America off the interstates and main highways, but some of the main highway is incredible.

Old Route 66

First thing I did arriving at the west coast

When traveling cross country, do remember your dental hygiene.

Quite a shakedown for a car I had just bought a week before.

Modified by Chris.K at 11:47 PM 11-3-2009

Oh, and you look a bit like Tim Roth

Screw the poor!!!

Great looking Subby. I'm not the biggest Subaru fan, but that one really does it for me.

Screw airplanes. I just flew home from SFO on Monday and it took a $30 bar tab to get me on the plane.

EDIT: Love the Golden Gate picture what camera are you using?

Modified by Potter at 12:21 AM 10-30-2009

Quote, originally posted by Chris.K »

I can't tell you how many times I've sat on that overlook...

Great write-up and photos, thanks for sharing.

I used an old Nikon N90s film body, I wanted to buy something digital for the trip but I had all this tri-x black and white film leftover and digital seemed too easy and too common. I missed a lot of great stuff, but I think film worked out pretty cool.

So can you really see Russia from Alaska?

Also, great pictures..

Just wondering.. did you calculate the total expense?.. Will the 'per diem' for PCS travel stipend cover it?.. And did you also ask for POC mileage allowance?..

The US market didn't get a GC series WRX, right?

Cheers - Mike

Quote, originally posted by MVZOOM »

Umm, quick Q - how does the GC8 RS differ from the WRX in for the US market? Is is turbo / 4wd etc? The US market didn't get a GC series WRX, right? Cheers - Mike

Right, it's a 2.5 NA engine from the Legacy, the hood scoop is non functional besides looking pretty good. It's AWD, but no turbo models in the US, except all the awesome STI swaps.

Modified by Chris.K at 1:08 AM 10-30-2009

US didn't get a WRX till the 2002 'bugeyed' GD..

The USDM 2.5RS performance model was powered by the naturally-aspirated 165 bhp (123 kW; 167 PS) 2.5L DOHC engine mated to the same AWD drivetrain as elsewhere plus added larger brakes, borrowed from the Legacy.

SOHC in the later models like mine, don't know why exactly

Evolution of the EJ25 engine..

and just $2500?.. how many days did they authorize you?.. did you also get the mileage?.. seems like you did but they just acknowledged the one not part of the 'scenic' route.. how much did you deviate from the shortest/fastest route?..

Here's some of my Alaska pictures from the snow this week:

I highly recommend a set of something like this for your car:

They don't really plow the roads on base or in town that well and they don't use salt. So ice build-up especially at intersections is a huge problem and it never melts all winter. So the snow isn't as big of a deal as the ice which is different from anywhere else in the lower 48. That's why the studs are so important because nothing else helps as much on the ice. Even with blizzaks last year I was sucking at the icy intersections.

"It would take a cross-wired star trek replicator, if not an act of God, to make a left-hand-drive Skyline GT-R for the U.S." - Don Schroeder

"GET OUT! THE COWS ARE GOING TO KILL US!" - Texas cabbie

Dude, you got some big brass ones....

Great trip!

Exactly what I was thinking......especially the tim roth part

VR6 FS: Slv Cyl OEM Cams Axles PP/FW

The Mark 5:
United Gray. Interlagos. Huffs. 6MT. Factory Sport Springs. Neuspeed Intake (Dryflow filter).

edit: definitely seeing the tim roth comparison (LOL)

any other examples of your photography? definitely digging the overall feel and your use of composition on a lot of the shots...

Modified by jay3737 at 8:46 AM 10-30-2009

1993 Toyota MR2 - track toy