There are some things that people wanted to know about how I prepare to come to Canada
and Alaska.
My last video, I did a bunch of van mods.
It was geared towards making sure that I was safe in Alaska, like having a spare tire.
You can actually click on the link here, and that will show you the mods that I did.
One of the other things is, I usually really plan.
I didn't plan so much on this trip yet.
I had so much going on before I needed to come to Canada where I knew my internet was
going to be very different, and so I needed to get all of that done first.
My focus was really on that.
Other than that, I made sure that I didn't bring any fruits and vegetables in to cross
the border, in case they had questions about that, and I threw that all out.
I made sure I had my spare tire.
I went and got some mosquito repellent.
Oh my god, the mosquitoes from what I hear are really bad.
I'm already itching thinking about it.
I got the all natural stuff in case the mosquitoes stay away from me with that.
But, if I have to upgrade it, I did get stuff with deet in it.
I hate using that stuff.
I do have some other stuff called Thermacell that's like this little, I don't know, it's
this little device that has a container.
Supposedly it's deet free, and it will keep mosquitoes away in a 15 foot radius.
It has a little clip that you can attach to your backpack, or your belt loop, or something
like that.
We'll see if that works.
I ordered extra cartridges just in case, because I got eaten by mosquitoes when I was in Idaho
just this last week.
It's painful, guys.
I hate it.
When I was in Maine in 2017, and all up and down Canada.
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, mosquitoes were awful.
It hurt, it literally hurt to be bit by them.
Then, it would itch like crazy, and I felt like no matter what I used, it wouldn't go
away.
Part of that was this product called After Bite, and it's been working on the ones that
I got from Idaho.
But, not the ones that I got in Maine.
There's some little angry mosquitoes out there, man.
They'll bite you through your clothes too.
Oh, I think there's one right there.
Oh goodness.
I prepared for that.
I also got enough food for Lily.
She eats a special diet, this food for sensitive stomach, prescription based from the vet.
I bought five cases of that, and then some other food.
It's a raw food, it's a dehydrated raw food for her that I mix in with that.
She really likes it, but I bought extra of that too.
That should last me while I'm in Canada and Alaska, and on my way back down too.
Because, you can only get that special food at special places that have vets, and she
goes to Banfield, so that's where I usually get it is at PetSmart, where there's a Banfield.
What else did I do?
Oh, supplements.
You know, you think about these things as you're using stuff throughout the month, about
things that you're going to need that you don't think about like all my supplements.
I ordered a three month supply of all of my supplements, and had them shipped to me so
that I could bring those all with me because it's more expensive to ship things to Alaska.
I didn't want to have to wait, and deal with all of that.
Okay, that was creepy.
Did you hear that?
That was coming from Canadian Tire.
I bought the book, The Mile Post, which I haven't used yet.
That's to help you plan your route all through Canada and Alaska.
I'll be doing that here soon.
The other thing is just different supplies, right?
Your toiletries, any kind of specialty foods, or just anything you think you're going to
need that you might not be able to find in Alaska, or that you're going to have to ship
in.
I went ahead and bought all of that.
Made sure my oil was changed, make sure everything under the hood was working properly, tires
are inflated.
I bought a Garmin inReach.
This is the Garmin inReach.
This thing is a satellite device that helps in case you have emergencies.
I did have something called a Spot before, and quite frankly I just didn't have much
luck with it.
I felt like my messages weren't going through, so it allows you to send preset messages to
whoever you have in your contact list that you want to send these preset messages to.
Like, "I'm okay."
Or, "I'm delayed."
Or, "I need help."
Any messages that you want.
With the inReach program you have to have a subscription, and that subscription is a
little bit more costly than the Spot service.
But I mean heck, you need it to work.
I don't know what the deal was with Spot, but the Garmin, I'm going to try it out and
hopefully the services works.
Hopefully I never need SOS or emergency.
It does have that on there too.
There's an SOS button right here.
You can hit the SOS button if you need help, so they'll send someone to help you.
It also has texting available.
The subscription that I have, I get 40 texts per month.
Let's say you do have to call medical, or police, or whatever.
You can text back and forth about what your needs are, or make sure they're on their way.
That's the other thing.
It'll also lay down tracks, you can turn the tracking feature on, and it'll put little
GPS markers on a map that anybody who you give access to the map can find you.
They can also click on your name on the map and click, "Find Amber," wherever I'm at,
and it will find me even though I haven't laid down a track.
It'll find me on the inReach device as long as I have it on me and it's turned on.
It's worth it I think, if you're doing something like this.
Especially if you're going to be on back roads where there's not a lot of people.
If you break down, this is bear country.
Something could happen where you need help, you need someone to help you change a tire,
or whatever.
I felt like it was a good thing to have, and to also let my loved ones know that I'm okay
and where I'm at.
The other thing I did is I bought two way radios.
It's something I've been meaning to do actually for a while and haven't done.
But, we might be caravanning with some people, and so we could use those two way radios.
Also, I thought that potentially if I'm in a place where there's no cell service and
let's just say I need help with a tire, or something mechanical and my cellphone isn't
working.
There's the potential that I could radio somebody on the two way, a truck driver, or another
person who has a two way radio on the road, and ask for help.
That's another possibility.
But, I think there's a lot of people kind of coming down the road.
We're all kind of going the same road, like the Alaska highway.
There's a lot of people, tourists, and people who are doing exactly what I'm doing.
Oh, I made sure that I had some winter clothing.
Oh, my boots.
I bought boots.
My friends are making fun of me because they're like, "It's warm up here right now."
I bought boots.
These are my ... excuse Lily's food, she didn't eat everything yet.
These are my Timberland boots.
These boots I got because they're waterproof, and they've got a good tread on them.
If I'm in mud or water, it's going to be okay, I've got a good tread on there so I can kind
of get through it without slipping and sliding, and also it won't go over hopefully, the actual
top of the boot and into my sock.
They're not necessarily rated for winter, but I bought them because they're useful for
me in the summer and the winter, because I spend a lot of time in the desert to.
They're very useful for something like that, something I just haven't purchased.
I did buy that because when I moved into this lifestyle I downsized a lot.
One of the things I did was, I got rid of my big ol' hiking boots because I didn't think
I was going to need them.
Only because I had some hiking shoes that I really preferred, and I didn't feel like
I was going to be doing a bunch of mountain hiking, or something that I would need to
protect my ankles with a big ol' hiking boot, so I got the hiking shoes instead, which I
already had.
But, I think these boots obviously are beneficial because of the particular climate, and possible
things I could run into when I'm in Alaska.
I think that's about it.
If there's anything else I'll put it in the upcoming videos.
But, those are the things so far that I've done to prepare, and get ready for Alaska.
I'm ready, I just need to plan the trip now.
I think I'm going to go in and do that now.
Oh, darn, I forgot.
Make sure you click that subscribe button, hit the notification bell to be notified every
time I upload a video because I may be uploading more than every Thursday, for a little while
at least, while I'm in Alaska.
There's also some videos right over here, or possibly down here.