Honesty, traveling to Alaska is no different than traveling for Ballwin, MO to California & we lived in Manchester at one time. :)
Going to Alsaska isn't the all about the stories of long ago. The highway are modern as are the stores. Yes, sometimes you will encounter bad roads but then, you will also in the lower 48. They have a very short season for repairs. When they tear up the pavement the gravel portions aren't that long you'll just be going slower and you might even see more wildlife since you have more time!
As stated above, don't overplan and make gobs of reservations. They aren't needed. Sometimes you'll want to stop for something unexpected and other times you might think "what are we doing here"? We only made for July 4 weekend and 5 nights in Denali's Teklanika campground and made those only about 3 weeks prior when we could judge where we would be at that time. The rest of the time we had absolutely no problems finding sites.
Get the Milepost and Mike & Terri Church's book "Alaskan Camping". Those are the only resources you'll need - except this forum. :) Have fun planning!
