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.

Day 15

This is weird. I am typing this at midnight and there is bright sun outside. It feels like 4pm in Texas. It has been difficult to get the kids to go to sleep because they think it is still playtime. Today we drove from Whitehorse Yukon to Dawson City Yukon. It was a desolate drive and the road was terrible. There were many gravel sections and dirt sections. It was very hard on the trailer and truck. On the way we stopped at a roadhouse that was advertised in our guidebook. They stated they had the worlds best cinnamon buns and that they could feed 4 people. We stopped and I got a bun, 2 cups of soup and some coffee. Boy did that go down well. They were so gooey and delicious. The road house is also the start of some sled dog race and there were sled dog looking dogs running about. We continued in through more wilderness. It looked very much like the Yukon I imagined. There were pine forests, and streams with rocky shores and mountains in the backdrop. Is was difficult not to find my mind wandering to those Jack London novels about that wild Yukon with mushers and sled dogs off in search of gold. We arrived in Dawson city around 6. Dawson City is an old gold rush town. I remember reading about it in all those books of my youth. It was one of the main towns where speculators would stage during the gold rush with nothing more than a pan and a dream. The town today has about 1100 people in it. It is a town center with a collection of old board buildings and wooden boardwalk. The roads are still dirt and gravel. We got set up at our campsite on the edge of town and went to a restaurant called Sourdough Joes. Their specialty is salmon fish and chips. They advertise Yukon size portions. It was decent but I left hungry. I guess I am used to Texas sized portions. We went to a neighborhood park and let Grant play for a bit. He had fun playing with two other French Canadian kids. He then had to poo so we had to go to a local gas station. We then went back and had some ice cream from a local place. Of course Grant wanted the most brightly colored ice cream regardless of flavor. The lady there told us about a music festival that is here this weekend. We will miss it. Too bad because it sounded like fun. We then went back and tried in vain to get the kids to sleep in daylight. Alex has broken out in a whole body rash. I am not sure what caused it, but we stopped her antibiotics. I gave her some antihistamine and we will see how it looks tomorrow. Tomorrow we cross into Alaska.

Day 14

We woke up early and made egg sandwiches for breakfast. The clothes we hung up are finally drying it seems. We got on the road. We noticed two black bears soon after leaving our campsite. They seemed to be eating berries. We planned on getting into Watson Lake Yukon after a short drive and staying the night there. We got in about noon and decided to continue on to Whitehorse which is another 6 hours or so. We did stop at the sign post forest which is is a huge collection of street signs that travelers put up. This was started originally when they were building the Alaska Highway in WW2 by a homesick soldier. We took some pictures, went to the visitor’s center and then ordered some food from a place across the street. We got some Buffalo burgers and fish and chips. We continued on. The drive again climbs into the mountains into some snow capped peaks. We stopped at another road house for food. Gas was over 4 dollars a gallon. Ouch. The teenager working the register seemed nice enough and Amy chatted with him a bit. He had graduated high school and his parents had purchased this road house. His parents can not find any help so they pay him to work. He is trying to save up money to go to Mexico to live for a while. Amy asked him what they do for fun he said that he and his dogs were chasing a bear yesterday. It was kind of like a Canadian redneck. We bought some pie and coffee and a brownie there as well. They were all delicious. We continued on in the Yukon Territory. It was hard not to imagine back to all the Jack London novels like Call of the Wild and the like as you drive through this wilderness. We arrived in the capitol of the Yukon, a town called Whitehorse. It is an interesting town. It is kind of touristy, but with an interesting array of people. Some Eskimo looking people and various drifters. We went to the large supermarket and re-upped on supplies. The campground was very nice and clean. I changed one of our tires because it has sustained some abnormal wear and is almost bald. Our French Canadian neighbor was kind enough to let me use his floor jack. We will see if the spare wears like that. We have full hookups tonight so I am looking forward to a long hot shower.