Arriving in Anchorage was both a relief and somewhat disappointing. It’s not that I wish the trip was longer, but we drove right past a lot of things I’d love to see. The few Hot Springs we passed by would have been nice. We drove right through aurora borealis and didn’t get to see anything (mostly due to clouds). We didn’t even get a chance to stay up late and stop the car in the middle of nowhere to star gaze.

But that wasn’t the point of the trip. We wanted to see if we could come this far this quickly. And we did. It’ll be a story I can share for a long time.

As for the car – I appreciate it a lot more now. Can’t think of anything I’d rather be driving on this trip for less than I paid for it. The power was confidence inspiring in areas with very high speed passing. The gas mileage (and more importantly, gas range) was flat out good for these speeds. Thankfully it takes regular gas, which is often the only thing available out here. I really wouldn’t have wanted anything much smaller, which is noteworthy since I’ve been bemoaning this cars huge size since I got it. Radar cruise control and lane keep assist made some sections much easier.

It handled more rough road and gravel than the vast majority of SUVs and Trucks sold in the United States will ever see. We cruised over gravel above 70mph for 15+ minutes at a time and it was legitimately comfortable. Very loud though. The trucks (usually pulling some trailer, to be fair) were often going 30 mph.

There is some fan or belt that is much louder now than at the beginning of the trip, but not enough to worry about. I have to assume the engine air filter is completely shot. But other than that, the car is ready to do it all again (with an oil change and tire rotation). The trip has reinforced for me just how incredible modern cars are. We were not gentle to the Lincoln, but it took every spirited curvy section we threw at it and then settled back in for yet another 300 miles. I’m not necessarily sad or regretful to see it go, but I think it will have left me with at least a bit of nostalgia.

Goodbye, friend. I didn’t appreciate you at first. But you eventually earned my respect.

Oh and the power failure?

We think the on/off button may be on a hair trigger. Anything gets close to it or a big enough bump and it presses itself. Will let the dealer take care of it. Seems scary on the face of it, but it never really got us in any sort of trouble…

And I never did get L to write a post…