WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

June 29, 2004

It has been 4 weeks today since we left Illinois and have finally made it to Alaska!!

We spent Monday and Tuesday, June 23rd & 24th in Whitehorse, YT

Although not on the water - my favorite - we had a nice place to park 

We had heard about a restaurant in town called Burnt Toast so we headed there for breakfast.  

It was in a very old building - the food and the service were outstanding.

We then visited the MacBride Museum and learned a lot about the history of the Yukon Territory as well as about the Indigenous Peoples of the Yukon 

The bead work was beautiful

Loved all the moccasins - especially the little baby ones

I wouldn't mind this for my winter jacket

An Albino Moose

They have a Transportation Museum in Whitehorse but it was closed during the time we were there - 

we did drive by and see a re-tired DC-3 that sits on a swiveling base in front of the museum - 

it is a weathervane!

We had a nice time in Whitehorse.  It is an older town but well kept - 

definitely the largest town we have been in in weeks - 25, 000 people

Wednesday when we were leaving Whitehorse we knew we were heading for some rough roads.  Many of them gravel so put a yoga mat over the windshield to hopefully keep it from getting cracked - so far it has worked!  Wednesday was pretty much just a travel day and the roads were bad but the worse was still to come.  We were exhausted - watching constantly for heaves, potholes, etc.  

Jerry did a great job of driving - it is stressful

We saw wild horses right along the road

Beautiful wild flowers

Since all of the roads are two lanes and very twisty and sometimes steep when you get behind a slow moving vehicle you can be stuck there for some time - we followed this guy for about a half an hour until we finally got ahead of him.

If you look closely on either side of the van is a grizzly bear - when one is on one side and the other on the other side someone is going to be crossing so you have to really keep an eye on them.

This guy was on Jerry's side

And this one was on my side.  He very casually walked along the road from just beyond the front of the motorhome down the entire length of the motorhome and the Jeep and then crossed behind us.  

Much more polite than the two black bears that ran out in front of us last week.

We spent the night along the banks of the Kluane River

Thursday we traveled through a town called Destruction Bay, YT - named that because of a severe windstorm in the 1940's that destroyed many of the small buildings that were a construction and maintenance camp.  However, most people who travel the Alcon (Alaskan Highway) believe it was named because it's goal is to destruct any vehicle that travels on it.  Frost Heaves, Pot Holes, Gravel Roads - it is not for the faint of heart.  But when you want to drive to Alaska you have little choice.  

Crossing the border into Alaska and another time change - we are now 3 hours earlier than central time

WE MADE IT 

3, 569 miles from Zion, IL where we left from

The first decent size town in Alaska is, TOK - 1,300 people 

After driving several days on tough roads we spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in Tok at a great little campground called Sourdough.  

Fast Eddy's is a well known restaurant in Tok and it's like you have to eat there - 

we did and the food was really good.

To say that the car was dirty, although we have washed it several times before on this trip, would be the understatement of the week so we stopped to clean her off

The Sourdough Campground was so fun - they have this nice area to sit around a campfire

And at 7:30 every night the owner, Tim, holds a sourdough pancake toss and if you win you get $10 off breakfast the next morning.  I didn't even come close

You get a practice shot and then the one that counts.  Jerry got it in on his practice shot which technically doesn't get you anything but Tim made it clear that he never had someone get it in on the practice shot and then in the one that counted.  Well not until Jerry that is - he got them both in!

So Jerry and another lady won a token towards breakfast 

And then here is the picture of all the losers

Tim holding up some of the pancakes (they were more like crepes) but the pancakes the next morning were really good sourdough pancakes.  We also tried reindeer sausage

As we continue north we keep finding spring - lilacs just blooming

The motorhome was also very dirty so she got a bath Friday morning before we left Tok

A picture of some of the frost heaves - you can see by the lines how they go down and back up.

What is really fun is when you have frost heaves, potholes and gravel

                               Where we spent last night, Friday before heading to Valdez, AK

We had originally planned on going to Fairbanks after Tok but because of the wildfires around Fairbanks we have moved things around a little and hopefully we can go in a few weeks

Valdez was really high on places I wanted to see while in Alaska.  I had heard that the drive to Valdez was beautiful and we were not disappointed and the roads were even better.

I was fascinated by the ripples in the snow

Beautiful wild flowers along the road - first time we have seen white ones

We have walked around town since arriving

Found a food truck that sells rolled ice cream

They pour their mixture of cream on a really cold surface and with two metal spatulas work it around,  flatten it, work it some more til it is paper thin and then roll it and put it in a cup

Saw several eagles flying overhead

We visited the Valdez Museum and learned all about how the original town of Valdez was pretty much destroyed in 1964 by an earthquake and Tsunami.  It killed 30 - 32 people and happened on Good Friday.  Since the soil the original town was built on was so unstable they decided to move the town 4 miles to its current location.  

Also about the Valdez oil spill.  So much loss of life to animals and birds that was never reported as it took years before it stopped affecting the area and it wasn't a big news story by then.

We will be in Valdez all day tomorrow too and I can't wait as we have something special planned - if it is half as good as I am expecting we will have a lot to tell you about next week.