On that 4 wheel drive pickup...
You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!”
Reminds me of my Uncles. One was routed home from a WW II South Pacific stint in the Seabees, via Alaska. He was mighty impressed, and when he heard they opened the Alcan Highway to the public in 1948, he talked his brother into going.
They took a new Ford pickup, bent pipe into loops about a foot higher than the cab, covered the loops with corrugated aluminum and wrapped it with heavy canvas to close the front and back. That kept most of the weather out but not the dust. Built a platform across the top of the bed sides for sleeping, and stowed gear underneath. At that time you could only buy a six foot step side bed, plus they had a 55 gallon drum up against the cab for gas, so it couldn't have been very comfy.
From MA to Alaska via the Alcan was a bit over 5,000 miles, that's five oil changes. When the Alcan was built under wartime pressure, they chose the easiest/fastest route to build. From then till the first time I drove it in I think '71, the trip was shortened by about 1,000 miles, 400 on the Alcan alone. But it still cost me a windshield every damn time.
Now it's mostly paved but in the 40s and 50s they'd come home in mid-November and head back by the first of March, while the road was frozen. As soon as it thawed the heavy truck traffic made the road as rough and muddy as a WW I battlefield.
My buddy made the run from California to Anchorage on a chopper Harley. He had to keep replacing disc brake pads because the dust would clog them up till it was constantly wearing the rotor.
One Uncle got married and stopped going in '55. The other took 35mm slides which documented the tremendous changes in Alaska from '49 through the mid 80s, but most were lost in a house fire.