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.