Roads up here in Canada and Alaska don't just have numbers but names as well - Yellowhead highway, Top of the World highway, Klondike highway and so on. All of these roads have a defined start which is mile zero and from there to the end are markers every mile in Alaska and every Km in Canada. The Alaska highway is 1422 miles long, Motels, gas stations, RV parks, etc all state what milepost they are at on their ads otherwise locating them would be difficult. From Anchorage to Palmer we took the Glenn highway, from Palmer we drove the rest of the Glenn for another 147 miles. After Palmer there are no towns, just small collections of wooden shacks (houses) dotted along the highway and the odd shop. Regularly you see a mailbox at the roadside and a dirt road disappearing into the trees. Well the postman would miss all the turnings if he had to deliver to the door, goodness how often the postie delivers to all the isolated dwellings spread along Alaska's long and winding roads. In Alaska they have road signs informing you that delaying more than 5 cars is illegal. In other words if you are driving at such a speed that say 6 cars are queued up behind you then you must use a 'turnout' to let them pass. We were driving the speed limit and still had more than 5 cars behind us who wanted to drive over us, does that mean I was breaking the law preventing other drivers from breaking the law by exceeding the speed limit? We left inclement weather behind and drove to the sunshine, mountains towered either side of the road with cloud still lingering around their tops. A glacial river came into view, typically very wide, shallow and gravelly with trees dropped randomly after the spring thaw waters ebbed away and discarded their cargo. Roadworks and an army of workers are trying to reinstate a road in a known 'slide' area. We drive over dirt and mud and struggle to keep traction as we climb uphill towards more tarmac. Then it looms into view - Matanuska glacier. Wow - not really it was a real let down. Donna said it was the most uninteresting glacier she had ever seen. It's almost flat for mile after mile, the steep exciting section is so far away you can't see it. To get close to the glacier you have to drive over private land. The owners have a real cash cow as they charge 30 Dollars a head for you to drive within half a mile and then walk along an artificial gravel path up onto the glacier to a picnic area. If you want to walk on the glacier then you pay 100 Dollars each for a guide and boots / crampons. We have our own crampons with us but they didn't want us to proceed beyond the gravelled area without a guide. The 30 Dollars each didn't seem like good value for money and we certainly weren't shelling out for a guide. We hit the road. We had been told apart from views that there is very little worth stopping for on the Glenn - they ain't kidding. Even the shops, bars, etc that we keep seeing all look like they shut down years ago. The twisting, up and down road straightened out and flattened out all bar the bumps and frost heaves. The mountains seemed to disappear behind us and we were cutting through the land of trees. Glenallen, where the Glenn meets the Richardson highway. Advertised as the hub of Alaska but it's just a couple of gas stations, grocery stores and a visitor's centre. We headed south to Valdez on the Richardson - back in the mountains and spectacular views of the Worthington Glacier. A great road to drive for views not for road surface though. Over the Thompson pass and into more rain - oh b*****. Horse tail and bridal veil waterfalls cascade down either side of the highway. It's still raining but the scenery is beautiful. The lower we descend the brighter the sky becomes until we emerge into a panorama of high peaks bathed in sunlight. We park up at Eagle view RV park, Valdez and the weather is so good we sit outside enjoying a beer and decide it's definitely barbeque time. All we did today was drive but the changing scenery kept our attention and the decision to visit Valdez was most certainly the right one. Exploration starts tomorrow.