Day 30

Valdez is a great town. We had a great day. It is so nice to be away from the rain. We got up and I went to the office to register. The lady working told us about a road on the outskirts of town. It is the road that leads to the oil terminal. Along this road is a rocky coastline flanked by forest. There are bears that come down to eat salmon, fishing from the bank , and eagles she said. I bought some lures and we packed up and off we went. We arrived and there was some fog that was still hanging. There were several sea lions on a rock growling. The pink salmon are thick in here so we got out the rods and casted. I got some bites, but we enjoyed the wildlife. It was then that I had another fleeting perfect moment. As I was fishing in this beautiful sound in Alaska, with just a bit of fog hanging over the water, breathing clean air, a large bald eagle swooped down from the trees. It glided along the water almost effortlessly and finally dropped his talons into the water and grabbed a fish and flew off into the fog. Amazing. It is so beautiful here and it seems so alive. I managed to catch one pink salmon. One of the rods broke so we headed to town to make lunch and get a new rod. We fried some of the halibut we caught and the salmon we caught and made fish and chips. We took it to the park and Grant played and we had a picnic. Grant of course made fast friends with all the kids there. He tried to join in with some people that were doing Yoga. We went back home and Amy and I left Shari with the kids and we went fishing for more salmon. We caught several and then it slowed a bit. In some areas they were so thick it was like a swarm. After you catch the fish you take it out onto the rocks and find a big rock and bash the head to kill it as they are half crazy when you pull them out. I felt like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. We moved to a different spot and got into them again. A group of Air Force families from a nearby base showed up. One of the guys was obviously from the south. He was whooping and hollering and having a good old time. We got the rest of our limit and not a moment too soon as the lady that passed selling ice cream said a grizzly had come down on the other end of the beach. Time to go. We came back to the campsite and I had to clean all those fish. That took a while and we packed them and put them in the freezer. This pink salmon will make good fish and cuocou. Tomorrow the journey home begins.

Day 30

Valdez is a great town. We had a great day. It is so nice to be away from the rain. We got up and I went to the office to register. The lady working told us about a road on the outskirts of town. It is the road that leads to the oil terminal. Along this road is a rocky coastline flanked by forest. There are bears that come down to eat salmon, fishing from the bank , and eagles she said. I bought some lures and we packed up and off we went. We arrived and there was some fog that was still hanging. There were several sea lions on a rock growling. The pink salmon are thick in here so we got out the rods and casted. I got some bites, but we enjoyed the wildlife. It was then that I had another fleeting perfect moment. As I was fishing in this beautiful sound in Alaska, with just a bit of fog hanging over the water, breathing clean air, a large bald eagle swooped down from the trees. It glided along the water almost effortlessly and finally dropped his talons into the water and grabbed a fish and flew off into the fog. Amazing. It is so beautiful here and it seems so alive. I managed to catch one pink salmon. One of the rods broke so we headed to town to make lunch and get a new rod. We fried some of the halibut we caught and the salmon we caught and made fish and chips. We took it to the park and Grant played and we had a picnic. Grant of course made fast friends with all the kids there. He tried to join in with some people that were doing Yoga. We went back home and Amy and I left Shari with the kids and we went fishing for more salmon. We caught several and then it slowed a bit. In some areas they were so thick it was like a swarm. After you catch the fish you take it out onto the rocks and find a big rock and bash the head to kill it as they are half crazy when you pull them out. I felt like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. We moved to a different spot and got into them again. A group of Air Force families from a nearby base showed up. One of the guys was obviously from the south. He was whooping and hollering and having a good old time. We got the rest of our limit and not a moment too soon as the lady that passed selling ice cream said a grizzly had come down on the other end of the beach. Time to go. We came back to the campsite and I had to clean all those fish. That took a while and we packed them and put them in the freezer. This pink salmon will make good fish and cuocou. Tomorrow the journey home begins.

Day 29

I cannot take the rain anymore. Everything is damp and smells and we cannot see any scenery nor do anything. I suppose Seward is probably pretty, but we cannot enjoy it. We picked up our fish from the packager and headed toward Valdez. I could fit only about a fourth of our fish in the freezer so I figured we would stop in Anchorage for some fish boxes and ship them in the mail. The rain stopped about 50 miles from Seward. Finally. We got to anchorage and bought boxes and packaging stuff and got the fish ready to ship. We called the post office and found out we had missed the cutoff for overnight shipping. We also found out it would cost dang near 200 bucks to overnight it home. We had a crazy idea. We bought a freezer from wal mart and took out the dinner table in the RV. We replaced it with the freezer. We will keep it plugged in while at campsites and just keep it shut while we are driving. The freezer cost less than shipping and we will at least get something for it. It is a crazy thing to do but there I nothing a Bajan loves more than a whole lotta fish. We continued on the drive to Valdez. You drive down a highway called the Richardsom highway. It is breathtaking as it winds through glacier fields and spectacular views. Every now and then the Alaska pipeline parallels the road. We arrived in Valdez late. We got set up and went to bed. I am not sure what we are doing tomorrow.

Day 28

What a day. We got up at 5am to get to the harbor in time for our fishing charter. We arrived in our rain gear and they gave us rain boots to wear. The boat was a sport boat that was captained by a guy named Eric. He was a young guy, who looked to be about 27 or so. The other passengers were an older lady who has fished the same charter for the last 20 year6s when she comes up to visit her friend. She was interesting. There was also another couple who kind of kept to themselves. It is still raining. Apparently it has been raining for 10 days before we even got here. They said it was the first day the fishing boats could get out. Eric took us out of resurrection bay and near cape resurrection. He demonstrated how to use the tackle and caught one on his first cast. We all went after them. We got our limit of 3 silver salmon a piece in 45 minutes. Eric was having a good time with us hollering “fish on” when one would get on a line. You are allowed 3 more back in the bay, so we headed back there. Amy had gotten a bit seasick as the seas were rough. She took some more motion sickness medicine and that seemed to help. The fishing slowed down in the bay. We stopped at one spot and Amy accidentally let her line go all the way to the bottom. This was a blessing in disguise as Amy hooked into a halibut. We all lowered our lines to the bottom. I hooked one next. Those halibut can get heavy and reeling them in from 200 feet deep will wear your arm out. We fished for more salmon but caught more halibut and various rockfish. We got back to the dock and the fish were filleted and packaged. We went back home to rest and prepare for our afternoon cruise in the bay for wildlife watching. The trailer is nasty and damp. Nothing will dry and the bathroom smells disgusting. If only it will stop raining. We took short naps and then we all went back to the docks for our whale watching cruise. On the way to the island stop we didn’t see anything. The visibility is terrible because of all the rain. Dinner was served. It wasn’t that good. The salmon had no flavor. Grant was hyper and hard to control as well. On the way back, we managed to see a humpback whale. That was pretty cool. We also were able to see seal lions, a soaring bald eagle and some puffins. Grant made friends with 2 little girls and followed them. After the cruise, on the shuttle bus back to the parking lot Grant talked to the little girls parents. He told them miscellaneous stories about things kids think are important. Then he said. Today I poopoo’ed in the potty. They told him how that was good. He then said “Daddy poopoo’ed in the potty too”. “His was a really BIG ONE”, as he held his arms like 2 feet apart. I about died of embarrassment. Tomorrow we leave. This rain is depressing.

Day 27

It is still raining. Everything is starting to get that damp feeling to it. Nothing will dry in the RV and the walls are sweating. It is just so damp and nasty. We decided to go to the Seward aquarium since it was indoors and out of the rain. It features native Marine life. It was not very big and very overpriced however. It featured exhibits on salmon, seal lions and a few other native fish. We finished it in about an hour. We went into the sea bird exhibit and one of the puffins was attempting to murder an arctic tern. It had caught it and was holding it underwater. Someone alerted the keeper and he scared the puffin off and scooped the tern out with a net. It didn’t look so good. I suspect it died. It was ultra violence. We then hustled into the car and went to a local diner for lunch. We had some halibut and chips and chowder. We found a local bakery and got some goodies and coffee. If it would only stop raining. Last night Grant woke up and crawled into our bed saying he was scared because there was a bear outside. We let him in thinking yeah right. Well, when I got up to put my trash away in the AM. The owner asked us if we had heard noise at night. Apparently there was a bear that had come into the campsite overnight and been raiding campsites. He was apparently still there in the morning and they had taken pictures and showed them to us. There was one where the bear was sitting on the picnic table of the campsite next to us. I guess Grant really did see the bear outside. Guess we need to take him seriously.

Day 26

We left Ninilchik today to head toward Seward. It is still raining and generally a nasty day. We got packed up and set out. We drove past the Kenai and Russian river areas and again there were arm to arm salmon fisherman going for their salmon. We passsed a little something on the road. It was a little bear cub that had been killed on the road. We arrived at our campsite near Seward several hours later. The road was very winding and we did not make good time. We checked into the campsite. It was a family run place with a little lodge area. We checked in and I asked about fishing creeks in the area. They told me about a stream a couple hundred yards up the street that had good Dolly Varden fishing. The man sitting at the bar didn’t think it was a good idea, as there had been a 100 pound grizzly bear visiting there for the past view days. It was still raining. We drove into Seward. The waterfront is very pretty although we could not see much of the scenery because of the haze. There are bald eagles everywhere. We found a playground to let Grant play, and sat back and watched the eagles in the tree. We walked a bit on the waterfront and headed home.

Day 25

Alex’s first birthday went well considering we celebrated in a trailer camp in Ninilchik Alaska. We made the best of everything. Amy and Shari baked a strawberry cake and covered it with with a chocolate frosting. Grant had a blast helping to decorate the cake! We all sang happy birthday and watched as Grant happily helped her to blow out the candles. She seemed to have fun and it was fun for us. The weather here on the Kenai Peninsula has been awful. It has rained all day and everyday for the past week according to the locals. It is kind of depressing. I wish the fog would lift so we could enjoy more of the view. That’s just the way of it I guess. The weather is due to be rainy and nasty for the foreseeable future. Everyone in this RV park kind of keeps to themselves. It appears there are some serious Alaskans from the mainland who come down to fish. They have freezers plugged into the outside of their RV’s. We watched a fishing charter come back with a load of halibut. Some were big but they looked mostly like large flounder. The clamming expedition was an adventure. Amy and I got up early and went to rent clamming “guns” and buckets from the office. A clam gun is a big tube with a T handle that has a small hole in it. Placing your finger over this hole will create a seal as you dig down with the gun and as you lift, technically should pull out a cylinder of soil and the clam. That is in theory. We arrived at the beach about 30 minutes before low tide started. There were tons of locals with all of their equipment ready to go. A local game warden showed up and people seemed a bit nervous. I have noticed seeing a game wardens make rednecks nervous like seeing a cop in the ghetto will make a black person nervous. We gathered and began looking for the “show” or little hole the clam makes as its digging. This proved difficult. The holes were often subtle and an hour passed with no success. I heard locals talking about how the clamming wasn’t that good today. We did begin to figure it out and snagged some of the rascals. We ended up with about half a bucket full. Digging with the clam gun and pulling it up is actually very physically taxing and I was exhausted after the morning. When pulling the clams out you are elbow deep into a sandy mucky hole. Grant went to help, but after the cold water touched his feet he had enough. We ended up wearing him on our backs. A bald eagle circled overhead looking for scraps. We came back and cleaned the clams and froze them. Perhaps we will make chowder tomorrow. We leave for Seward tomorrow. Hopefully the truck won’t get stuck in the mud pulling out the trailer.

Day 24

It was kind of nice to get up early. Today is another cold wet day. I found a mechanic shop a few blocks down to change the oil. It took about an hour. I read the local newspaper. It seems as if a lady was asked to stop breastfeeding at the local water park and it is now a big deal. I am not sure what has happened in this country that people are so hung up on a woman breastfeeding an infant. Sarah Palin is also having a series of farewell town picnics. After the oil was changed, we hooked up and ate breakfast of French toast with blueberry sauce. We drove on to our next stop Ninilchik. The drive down the Seward highway was breathtakingly beautiful. It was like the postcards of an Alaska cruise. It was still very rainy and nasty though. The drive took about 4 hours. We passed several areas where people where fishing arm to arm. We arrived at our campsite. Because of the rain, the whole area seems dreary. We inquired a bit about clamming tomorrow and the lady told us some about it and how we could rent equipment at the office. We will try that tomorrow when the tide is low, about noon. We got setup, ate dinner and drove to the beach. We walked around a bit and watched the gulls and some fisherman cleaning up after a days of fishing. There was a bald eagle circling overhead. We will try to get the children to bed early tonight so we can have a productive day of clamming. Apparently the razor clamming days have hundreds of people scrambling for these clams. We shall see. I enjoyed a nice bit of rum as I was able to refill the trailers grog in Anchorage. They did not have Mount gay so I got some Bacardi. There is no comparison.

Day 23

Today we packed up and made the drive from Denali to Anchorage. We continued along the Parks highway. This has been some of the most scenic driving on the trip. It wound through green valleys and lakes and marshes with moose grazing. Some of the water was so still and clear it appeared as if there was a mirror image of the mountains in the water. We got a bit of a late start and didn’t arrive in Anchorage until about 3:30. We had wanted to take Grant to the zoo. We stopped at a place called Centennial Park. It is a city park that offers campsites. It was actually very nice. We are near an Air Force base and fighter jets are buzzing overhead. We quickly set up camp and drove to the zoo. I dropped everyone off and went to try and get some errands run. I went to an RV shop and asked them to check the torque on the hitch ball. A nice technician came out and torque it and they charged me nothing. I then went to try and get the oil changed and the oil change place claimed they weren’t accepting any new customers even though it was almost an hour until closing. I had some time to burn so I went to Wal Mart for some supplies. I bought oil and I figure I will take it to a mechanic tomorrow and see if I can just get them to change it. I picked the others up from the zoo after that. They said there were lots of bears and you were able to get very close to the animals. It was a small zoo otherwise. We then went to the grocery store and stocked up on groceries and supplies for Alex’s birthday party. We went back to the trailer and Amy and Shari begun dinner while I went to Lowes to get some things to repair the broken jack. I took Grant with me and since he had been good all day, I bought him a toy monster truck which he was very pleased with. We went back and ate some delicious chicken parmesan and got to bed. I will need to get up early to try and get this oil changed.

Day 22

Wow, what a day we had today. We got up, or at least I did, at 4:45. It was the usual struggle to get the women and children up and going. We got there slightly late, and had to take the last seats at the rear of the bus. Luckily, the bus people had car seats we could borrow so we did not have to take the ones out of the truck. The day started of a bit cloudy and the guide prefaced the drive by saying it may not be the best day for seeing wildlife and Mt. McKinley. You basically ride an old green converted school bus along a narrow dirt road. At some times the ride was harrowing as there was no shoulder, dirt road with no guardrails and hundreds of feet of sheer cliff. The driver assured us he knew the roads like the back of his hand. Just after we crossed a pass past the point where you are not allowed to drive by yourself, the view opened up to the most magnificent vista I have seen. There was lush green subalpine tundra with a backdrop of the Alaska Range as far as the eye could see. It looked like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie. I expected to see a Giant lumbering across the plain at any movement. We saw a large male grizzly down below. As we moved further a female grizzly and her cub popped up not 50 feet from the bus. The casually ambled across the street in front of the bus and frolicked in the field next to us. We were able to see moose, Dall sheep, Harriers, and Golden Eagles all in this area. Further along you are supposed to be able to see Mt McKinley, which is the tallest mountain in North America. In reality, it is covered in clouds 70-80 percent of the time as it is so large, it creates its own clouds and weather. As we crossed the bend, the road opened up to a magnificent view of the mountain. It was one of the most awe inspiring things I have ever seen. The pictures here are truly worthless and no picture I could post could convey the enormity of it. We arrived at the far visitor’s center and hiked a bit with Grant. Unfortunately it was very windy and cold and they could not tolerate much of a hike. Soon after the mountain was engulfed by clouds again. We boarded the bus and headed back. Some British hiker boarded the bus from the road and gave us his leftover apple and muffins. We rode back and absorbed more of the view on the way back. It was an awesome trip. We came back to the trailer and Grant did some activities from his junior ranger bag while I performed some maintenance on the trailer. Many of the hitches bolts needed tightening. I do not have the tools to check the torque on the ball so I will see if there is an RV store in anchorage that will check it for me tomorrow. We went back out to the visitor center, and Grant turned in his junior ranger activities. He got to wear a ranger hat and the Ranger made him swear an oath to protect Denali. He got a little badge for this. We then went to get ice cream, Amy was very sad to see that the flavor she wanted “birthday cake” was gone. We came back t o do laundry. We reheated leftovers over a fire. Today we did laundry. Some fool was making a stink about how the washer wasn’t fast enough and how he needed to use the dryer first because he was with boy scouts. The kids are tired and we will try to get them to bed early. Tomorrow we head to Anchorage. We booked our fishing charter for salmon today. Hopefully we will catch a mess of fish.

Day 21

So far the first part of the park hasn’t been very impressive in that you can’t see much. Mostly its dense trees flanked by some mountain vistas. It is very clear today as most of the smoke seems to have cleared out. We did several small hikes. Grant tired quickly today and I had to carry him most of the way. After the hikes, we stopped again at the visitor center for Amy and Shari to research the berries and find recipes. We also bought some ice cream after that. I got a cup of coffee. We decided to pony up and just by tickets on the bus that takes you into the park. We decided on 6 am as we figured it would be better for viewing wildlife and would leave us the afternoon to do other things. We tooled around a bit more and came back and grilled hotdogs for dinner over a campfire and then more smores. We wanted to get the kids to sleep early since it would be an early start. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow. Amy and Shari have made a blueberry coffee cake tort thing that we will eat for breakfast.

Day 20

We woke up today and used the fresh blueberries to make blueberry pancakes. They were so good. We ate them all. It was an extraordinarily windy day again. We packed up and drove the 7 more miles to Denali. The road right before the entrance was filled with the typical tourist trap type places. We entered the park, filled our tanks and Amy registered for the campsite. Denali is different in that you can only drive 15 miles into the park. The rest of the way you must buy a ticket on an Aramark shuttle bus for 35 bucks. Seems like a rip-off but we will see. We went to the visitor center and registered for a junior ranger program for Grant so he would have some activities to do while we are here. We noticed a sign that said there were sled dog demonstrations at the kennels. Apparently in the winter, the rangers access the park primarily by dog sled. We missed the first presentation and so we went back to the trailer and had lunch. We caught the next bus and that took us to the dog kennels. There were probably 60 dogs or so. Some on chains and some in kennels. Some of them didn’t like small children, and they lunged at the gates as Grant and Alex went by. One particular one named Chinook, who happened to be a lead dog looked especially fierce. It was interesting to see the personality differences in the dogs depending on where they ran in the dog team. After we got to walk the kennels for a while, the rangers hooked up a small team and ran the sled around a gravel loop. It was funny as the other dogs in the kennels went nuts when they heard the word demonstration. They knew a few of them would be picked to come out and work and that’s what they love to do. Grant seemed to enjoy that. We came back and grilled some burgers at the campsite. We lit a campfire and made smores. Grant of course was fascinated by the fire. I will have to watch him closely. Amy and Shari have begun to research different types of edible berries. They plan to pick a whole mess of them I suppose. Tomorrow we will plan on a hike and a relaxing day.

Day 19

We all woke up late. It was nice to have a kind of lazy day. We got up and began to get the trailer ready to leave. I whipped up some breakfast tacos. Grant had been saying all day he wanted to play mini golf. In Pioneer park they had a little golf course so we went to play. Grant used the clubs about twice and then ran around from hole to hole rolling the balls with his hands. He had a blast. Again I heard many people complaining about the smoldering 80 degree heat. We played until Grant got tires. We needed a couple things we forgot from Wal Mart so Grant and I went to the version of Krogers here. Krogers here is cool in that it sells guns and is larger than a regular Kroger. We came back and took a ride on the mini railroad again. Grant met a couple other little kids and they all wanted to sit in the back together. We got packed up after that and left. We had to go to a gas station to dump sewage and get gas. We stopped at the visitor center on the way out of town. There were some sled dog team there trying to raise money and they had a little pen of puppies. Grant and I played with them a bit. They were a kind of husky mutt. The visitor center is along the Chena river and we looked down to see a large salmon swimming upstream. We got back in and drove South along the Parks highway. It was absolutely gorgeous. This is the classic wilderness that Chris McCandles disappeared into in "Into the Wild". Miles of dense forests surrounded by mountains. It was a bit hazy and we realized it was all smoke from a huge forest fire burning nearby. It was massive and I have never seen anything like it. Luckily it was probably still a mile or so off the road. We are a day ahead of schedule so we stayed at an rv park near Denali as our reservations there are not until tomorrow. The owners were very nice on check in. The winds are very high which made setup annoying. Amy had a great idea. We could ask the owners if they new anywhere we could take the kids to pick wild berries. He said "As a matter of fact, yes". There ia an area past the RV park where there is a field full of wild blueberries. He told us to be careful of bears. We packed up the kids and bear spray and set out. The little blueberries were everywhere. We spent the evening picking the wild blueberries. We will probably make some pancakes and bread with them tomorrow.

Day 18

Fairbanks is an interesting city. There seem to be many hippie types out and about. We woke up and went to the local Farmers market. It is a good sized one with many booths and all sorts of local jams, vegetables and the like. We went little nuts with treats, popcorn and veggies. They were all tasty. We got lunch at a local falafel place and it was good. Amy had read about a fun day at the racing grounds of the Alaska dog mushers association, so we decided to head over and check it out. Unfortunately by the time we got there, the races were over. A few mushers and dogs were milling about. There was a Fairbanks fire engine and one of the fireman dressed as a dog. Grant thought this was cool, but when he approached Alex she shrieked in terror. From there we went to the arena and attended the scissor long jump event of the Eskimo Olympics. It was cool watching all the Eskimos interact and peruse their arts and crafts. We bought a few things. From there we went to the museum of the North on the campus of the University of Fairbanks. This was a good museum. They had many exhibits on local culture and wildlife. They even had an exhibit on the Alaska Highway. I learned an interesting fact. The highway was constructed in WWII as a means to move war material to Alaska by land if needed. It was built in about a year from 1942 to 1943. It was also built by mostly Black soldiers as the white soldiers were being sent to the front lines. They were the 97th engineering regiment and were mostly from the South. I chuckled when I imagined a Southern Black man thrown into a harsh wintered wilderness complete with grizzlies and such. They also had a nice art gallery. There was one room that was very cool. It was a white room with subwoofers. There were soft toned lights and all of this was connected to photoreceptors and seismographs at the oceanographic center. The room creaks and groans and the lights change to coincide with mother earth. It is truly the sound of mother earth only brought into the range of our hearing. We then left and went to a Wal mart to re-supply. Food is very expensive up here. It reminded me of Hawaii. The Wal Mart also had a huge gun section. I guess up here everyone has utility guns. I admired some of the bush pistols. We went and got the car washed after that, as the dust from the road can be corrosive to paint. We came back and had supper and then took Grant to the park to play. There were many other kids there and he had a blast. He did fall and bite his tongue so hard it bled. Some idiot parked directly in front of the tongue of our trailer. What is wrong with people? They better be gone by tomorrow or I will call to have it towed.

Day 17

We drove on from Tok, this drive was beautiful and contained mountain vistas and streams that we crossed. The road here was very good with the exception of a few construction patches. We were headed to Fairbanks. We stopped in a little town called North Pole Alaska. They have a huge gift shop with Santa Clause, all sorts of Christmas stuff, and reindeer outside. Grant had a blast. He was very serious about meeting Santa. He almost acted like it was an honor. We got ready to leave and get in the trailer and make sandwhiches. CRAP!. The trailer has a flat. One of the trailer tires was flat, like completely flat. I got in the dirt and changed it and put the nearly bald spare tire on. It seems to have had a sidewall puncture somehow. We drove the 5 more miles to Fairbanks. I guess after all of that driving, getting a flat 5 miles from Fairbanks is about as good as it gets in the way of mishaps. We decided to camp in the parking lot of this place called Pioneer Land. It is like a free park with all kinds of activities and museums and such. They allow RV camping for 12 bucks a night. We dropped Shari and Grant off, and we went searching for a tire shop. We bought two new tires. Once they put them on, the old tires looked so bad, I went ahead and just replaced them all. The workers were talking about how unbelievably hot it is. It is 79 degrees. We drove back to Pioneer park and got set up. I took Grant on a train ride around the park. We came back and decided to go to the salmon bake place at the side of the park. It looked very touristy and was kind of expensive at 31 bucks but it was all yo can eat salmon. They do not know Amy and I. We got in there and concluded that you must eat 4 large pieces of salmon to break even. You had to get one piece at a time. Amy and I waited patiently and kept going up until we had eaten them even on money. I was so stuffed. Fairbanks seems kind of run down. Maybe its just the part we are in. We went back to the RV and decided to move it behind some trees and posts after some Alaskan redneck teens went tear assing around the parking lot in their cars. We were afraid they would crash the trailer. We are all tired. Tommorow we plan to check out the farmers market and maybe even the Eskimo Olympics.

Day 16

We made it to Alaska. Finally!! We got up and packed up. On the way out of Dawson, we noticed the town fire station had a free museum. It was basically a fire bay with some old engines and pumpers and such. Grant enjoyed climbing on the relics. The old pictures were neat. Apparently it gets so cold that the blow back from the water will get on the bunker gear and freeze it solid. To get to the rest of the highway you must take a small ferry across the Yukon River. It was kind of fun. When it took semis across it almost looked like it was about to sink because it sank so low. The highway on the other side is referred to as the “Top of the World Highway”. It is a winding gravel road that goes for about 50 miles or so. You are high up on the ridge line of a mountain and it has great views in all directions. You feel like you are on top of the world. We finally made it to the border station. There was a sign that said it is the northernmost land crossing in the US. It was really just a tin shack. Amy was worried he would make us throw away fruit so we had gorged ourselves on cherries and blueberries. The border guard just looked at our passports and waived us through. The road after the border was treacherous. It was a dirt road that goes for about 40 miles. It is very narrow and has a soft shoulder. There are no guardrails, and you can see the hundreds of feet you would fall if you went over. I white knuckled drove this at about 20 miles per hour. About halfway in, There is a little town called Chicken. It is basically a little outpost on an old gold mine camp that has a roadhouse, gift shop, and bar. Apparently it is a popular place to stop. We stopped and Grant chatted up the owner’s mother. She was an older lady from Florida. We left Chicken and finally arrived on some pavement. We continued to a little town called Tok to stop for the night. There is a medium sized RV park here. There selling point was free entertainment every evening. It looked to be an old man with a guitar singing folk songs. All the old retired RV types were sitting there watching. Grant seemed happier to help me with the “poopoo slinky” which is what he calls the RV dump hose. Apparently the owners love Sarah Palin as their cars were coated with bumper stickers. We relaxed for the evening just ate snacks for dinner as we were still pretty full. Alex’s rash seems to have gone away. Alaska has been beautiful so far, but it is somewhat hazy, as there are apparently forest fires burning somewhere.