A Canadian man drove a family and their dogs nearly a thousand miles through a snowstorm to get to Alaska where their father, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, is stationed
A Canadian man drove a family and their dogs nearly a thousand miles through a snowstorm to get to Alaska where their father, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, is stationed, according to a report. Lynn Marchessault, her 13-year-old son, 10-year-old daughter, and their pets began their journey from Georgia. They planned to travel through Canada, where they would end up at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, CNN reported.
The family packed a 4x4 U-Haul truck and set their sights on a cross-country trip to start in September, the outlet reported. But when Canada's travel bans remained strict, the trip was pushed to November. She had estimated it would take them five days to get to Alaska.
Eventually, the weather got stormy and the tires were losing traction so they stopped for the evening, she told the outlet.
She drove to a gas station where a woman informed Lynn that the tires on their U-Haul were not suitable for winter weather.
The family stayed the night in a motel and were about to call it quits when a man named Gary Bath, a ranger who trains members of the Canadian military to survive in the Arctic, saw a post on Facebook.
Residents of the small town in Wonowon, British Columbia, made posts to Facebook as a plea for someone to drive the family the rest of their way –– a total of 1,056 miles, CNN reported.
When Bath saw that no one was going to help, he said he talked with his wife and decided to drive them the "whole way to the border," he told CNN.
Bath admitted that a road trip in this winter season was not the wisest of decisions, but said he does not regret lending a helping hand. Lynn sat on the passenger side as Bath took the wheel –– and she recalls the relief that came over her for not driving in the poor conditions.
"You can't cry with actual tears because then you can't see the road -- and I was just gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles," she told CNN, recalling the fear that came over her.
"We both have military experience so we talked about military life, told stories of family, the kids played games, and Lynn and I found out we are both weird and like the MRE's -- the military food," Bath told the outlet.
Lynn said they clicked "like old friends."
They were dropped off at the Canadian border checkpoint, where they parted ways.
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