"Taking our trip to Alaska was not about a journey to the end with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved RV but rather to skid broadside totally worn out and thoroughly used up loudly proclaiming “Wow, what a ride”.
By Gil and Robin Elmy (Revised quote from the bathroom of the Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer, Alaska) I do not take for granted one minute how blessed we were to be able to take this trip. We've saved for two years with the intention of having a great trip...and we did, and then some! We were blessed with safety, great weather and wonderful new friends. I'm so glad that this was on Gil's "bucket list". I now just put it on my bucket list...and marked it off (I do that in real life too haha). When we started this trip, I asked if he was sure he could put up with me for 5 weeks non-stop. He winked at me and said "It will be a struggle...haha". Well, I loved everything about this trip but the thing I loved the most is that I got to spend 5 weeks, 24/7 with my best friend on an amazing journey. We meet some incredible people along the way, and I hope they stay lifelong friends. What crazy thing can we think up for our next adventure...I'm sure it is right around the corner (sorry Mom...it's in my blood). Random Facts About Our Trip: Miles Driven: 7,275 (This does not include the mileage in the Trailblazer..and there was a lot. Just one was the Arctic Circle) Average Price of Gas: $2.91 per gallon Average Cost Spent a Day on Gas and Camping: $107.80 ($78.65 for gas and $29.15 for RV camping). Not bad for two people. That is cheaper than some of our foreign travels that were only 10 days. Other things we spent money on: - Food (But we probably saved money because we didn't eat out as much as we do at home. We enjoyed eating in the RV) - Extra Activities: Most were free liking hiking, driving and sightseeing but we did spend money at Denali (bus tour), Homer (Fishing Trip), Seward (Boat Trip) and a few museums and walking tours. - RV Repairs: We won't go there.... RV Miles: We bought this RV new in 2002 and we just clicked over 70,000 miles. I think we got (and will continue to get) our money's worth. Things We Learned: - Have a plan but be flexible. You have to research and plan to see what you can in the area but don't put yourself in a box. Sometimes you want to stay longer, sometimes shorter. The popular places (like Denali) you'll want to get reservations so we had an idea of what day we wanted to be there and made reservations. Weekends are also a time you might want to consider planning a few days ahead and getting reservations. - On the note of reservations, if you had a smaller rig and you were a little more adventurous than us, you could camp for free almost the whole way. There's a ton of places you can pull off and camp and people do it. Water and power is sometimes an issue but you could save quite a bit camping for free. - If it rains, put on a rain jacket, rain boots and go anyway. A lot of times the weather clears up after a short time so go out and enjoy the sights. Pretend you are a kid again, pull up your hair in a ponytail and get wet. It's not so bad. -For those days that it rains buckets...bring movies -Roll with the punches. Something is going to happen...just find the humor in it and press on, if possible. Praying helps too :-) You need to bring tools and it helps if you are fixer upper. -Having a car is a must! We went so many places that we wouldn't have been able to see if we didn't bring it. Our old car was great because we weren't worried about rock chips etc. - You can buy gas at the AFD stations. They look like they are for commercial truckers but anyone can use them and the gas is cheaper (sometimes extremely cheaper). We didn't learn that until later in the trip. They aren't always the easiest to figure out but hang in there...you can use them. -Last but not least...go with someone you can be with for 5 weeks straight. It's a lot of time together..but it's awesome!
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Day 35 - We were able to slow down and enjoy Lake Louise and the Icefields Parkway today. We were so tired by the time we got to this spot yesterday that we just wanted to get parked so I'm so happy we were able to take a break today and see the sights. The one thing I've learned on this trip is.....ignore the weather forecast. It said it was supposed to be thunderstorms and lightning all day. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. We've had that kind of weather the whole time. Even when it rains, it clears up quickly and you can still enjoy the sights. We drove the Icefields Parkway and had sunshine the whole way...then on the way back, it started to rain. Seems like that is what happens every time. We started at Lake Louise. When we came here years ago (probably 10), we swear there wasn't this many people. You could hardly get a picture. What a beautiful lake though. We have found that if you stop everywhere there is beautiful scenery to take a picture...you'll never get to your destination. We had to head up the chair lift for old times sake. We did this 10 or so years ago with the boys and my mom and Delmar. Back then we didn't have selfie sticks so we had to take pictures of each other while riding up. Now we can take one from behind and in front haha. You have to be VERY careful with your phone though! And we saw a grizzly and her cub on the way up. Basically we were overwhelmed with beautiful views today. Gil and I were talking about this whole trip and there just isn't enough adjectives. We keep saying "beautiful", "awesome", "spectacular". If you come on this trip you have to get a thesaurus so you can try and differentiate the levels of beauty. This is a sneak peak of Herbert Lake...I liked the trees framing it. This is Crowfeet Glacier....can you see the crowfeet? This is Peyto Lake. A couple got into their swimsuit and jumped in the lake. Remember the weather forecast? Thunderstorms and rain all day...look at those skies. I'm sure the swim felt great even if the water was cold. We were a little warm at this point. We pulled down this road to see what was there and we found Num-Ti-Jah Lake. There is a lodge at the end. I'm sure it is so peaceful staying there. Not that you care what the name of the lakes are, but this is just to show you how MANY there are. This is Bow Lake. Look at the reflection in the water. This is Columbia Icefield, the name of the parkway. This is a "drive by shot". Gil didn't do bad on this one. I drove today in the trailblazer to give him a break so he had to take some of these from the window. Huge piece of ice! We turned around at Tangle Falls. The rest of these are just photos along the way. I'm going to miss this place! We got back about 4:00 and headed down the road for a couple hours. We at one of the places we started...Claresholm, A.B. It is raining here though. It's coming down in buckets. Gil's windshield job is almost all waterproof. Just a few raindrops making their way in, so that's a good thing. Back on the road tomorrow....we're headed back to Utah!
Day 34 - Today was a little tougher than yesterday. Between all the traffic on this road due to the closed highways, headwinds hitting the RV, huge hills and a bumpy road that makes us worry the whole windshield is going to cave in on every bump...it turned out to bea long day. I'm exhausted and I didn't drive one mile. I don't know how Gil does it. He just keeps truckin' and does it with a smile (most of the time). We forgot how beautiful it was in this area. When we came last time, we weren't on this part of the highway so it was new territory for us. Wow! It's too bad all the smoke from the forest fires made the air hazy. Between the haze in the air, the cracked windshield and the smashed bugs...my pictures are a little to be desired. When we got to camp, the RV spots are parallel parking along the road. So after a long drive, Gil got to try and parallel park the RV between two rigs. I tried to help but that is pretty much useless. He got it but there isn't much room to spare between the rigs. The bonus though...we were parked next to Willy Nelson!!! Okay, maybe it wasn't Willy Nelson but he sure looked like him. Obviously, Gil wasn't the first to tell him that...he had the bandana and braids to put on to complete the look. His wife, Sandy, was adorable as well. After dinner, Gil suggested we go into town (I was shocked he even had the energy). We could use the fresh air and walk. Cute town but a lot of people. We are spoiled in Eden. We like the small towns with small communities. We wanted to stay in Banff another night and look around Lake Louise and the IceFields Parkway but everything is booked. So we think we will park the RV in a parking lot for the day and look around and then go down the road an hour or two tomorrow night to camp. We'll see how things go.
Day 33 - Well, we didn't intend for it to be a "driving" day but it was a good driving day with our rest yesterday so we decided to pressed on. We are currently in Prince George. We are having to alter our plans because I guess the area has a lot of forest fires. We were going to go through parts we've never been through but it looks like Hwy 97 is closed both ways. We aren't totally disappointed because it forces us to go to Banff and Lake Louise. We were there many years ago, that's why we were going to go a different route but Garrett was very young last time we were here so a repeat is in order. So, tomorrow will be another long day to get to Banff so we can rest the next day and enjoy the area. Then we will hit it hard again the next day. Although we drove most of today, we had to make a few stops to enjoy the First Nation (Native Americans) along the way. This one is the first nation of Gitanyow. It is known to be the land of the totem poles. They are very artistic with the carvings and they're huge. You can see the comparison with Gil standing next to them. A little further down the road in Kitwanga, we stopped to see the Battle Hill and also the Seven Sisters (the mountain range, you can't see all 7 peaks in my photo though). In town there is a sweet little Anglican Church and Bell Tower (with an actual bell and I was able to keep Gil from ringing it...miracle). Unfortunately the church was closed. It looked beautiful inside (I stood on a log and peeked in the windows). Gil and I reminisce about the trip already (and it's not even over) and we had just said that we'd only seen one grizzly on the trip...and then she appeared. I think it was a baby but I saw a picture of a baby grizzly and I think the babies are black..so maybe it's just a small one. Either way, she's cute...from a distance! So even though it was a driving day, we did squeeze in some sights to break it up a bit. As we headed into Prince George, we started calling to see if there was a place we could stay for the night. With the fire, everyone was booked but we could pay and dry camp (no hook-up etc). We'll if we have to dry camp...might as well be free in Walmart. We feel like Cousin Eddy with our windshield taped (from the movie Vacation) so why not complete the look and camp in their parking lot. So we are visiting Wally-world tonight. We have a long drive tomorrow to Banff but the payoff will be worth it. Hopefully the forest fires stay away from that area.. And another picture of my sweet Bella in the flowers (Braska won't cooperate that's why they are all of Bella).
Day 32 - We got up bright and early to see if we could see the bears eating salmon (we were told we were too early but we were going to go anyway). In the trailblazer by 6:00 am! We crossed the border from Stewart, B.C. to Hyder, Alaska and didn't have to worry about when customs opened. Once you get into Hyder, you can't go anywhere so they don't even bother checking on your way in. They figure they'll get you on your way back out. So they only have customs on one side that open at 8:00 a.m. I love the back of the Hyder sign...a friendly little ghost town. We stopped by the Fish Observatory but...no salmon and no bears :-( Although we did see one bear on the road on the way up there. Why do we always see them on the road...I guess it is better than on a trail we are hiking. Even though we didn't see any action going on at the Fish Observatory, it was a really peaceful setting that early in the morning. You walk on the boardwalk in the picture below and you can look over at the bears in the river...when they are there. I can only imagine what it would be like when the bears are feasting. Next time, I guess. End of July or August is the best time to see them. We continued up the road to Salmon Glacier. Okay, maybe it is because I heard all the horror stories and read all the warnings on the internet about the Arctic Circle and Top of the Mountain Highway but I thought both of those drives were a piece of cake compared to the road to Salmon Glacier. The road was RIGHT on the edge, went up into the sky and dropped off FOREVER. I think I read somewhere that the Salmon Glacier was one of the biggest glaciers in Alaska but I'm not 100% on that. It sure did look like one of the biggest though! You can see how massive it is by looking for Gil in this picture. It actually curved and went down both sides of this huge mountain. Both Stewart and Hyder and such cute little towns. When we went to get dinner last night, we found out that there's only two places to eat dinner in Stewart and I think only one in Hyder (and it closed at 5:00 p.m.). Ma and Pop places with hometown cooking! The inlet was really interesting. They store all these logs until a Chinese ships come and pick them up. Truly looks Alaskan! We headed out of town...past the construction again so we were very careful to watch for swinging pipes. We only had about an hour to go down the road to Meziadin Lake. We'd planned to come here anyway for the night to relax by the lake and use the kayak but after our adventure yesterday, it was perfect timing to have a short driving day today. We got a place right on the lake! I went out on the lake to kayak while Gil tried to McGivor the motorhome back together until we can get someone to fix it in a bigger town. He got the RV repaired. I always tell him, he can fix anything. However, this time it doesn't look too purdy but it'll do until we get into a bigger town. Duct tape WILL fix anything. Crossing our fingers that the glass holds. He did get the rear-view mirror back on as well temporarily. We are hoping it doesn't fly off as we go down the road. He found out today only driving an hour, how essential that mirror is so....here we go! I finally got him to "come out an play" and we chatted with another couple in the middle of the lake for about 45 minutes. Weird place to meet a couple but...what do you expect! We decided to run to see the Meziadin fish ladder before calling it a night. Gil saw some fish trying to jump up the waterfall. They usually can't make it (although the guy there said that some do get up the falls) so they go up the ladder to a cage. They count the fish and then release them in the Meziadan Lake. Pretty interesting. Rearranging our schedule a bit to ensure we are in Prince George by Monday. We are hoping they'll have a window for us there. Our insurance is trying. It could take several days though and since it is a weekend, we aren't sure how that is going to work. Guess we'll have to stay on vacation longer :-)
We haven't had internet for 2 days so Day 29, 30 and 31 will be in one post. Day 29 - We left Whitehorse and headed towards Watson Lake. We didn't want to stay in the same place twice plus we would have to backtrack about 15 miles the next day so we just decided to stay at Junction 37 which is where the Alaskan Highway and Cassiar Highway meet. Not much there...no internet, no cell, no TV, nothing to do in the area and it was raining. So we decided to make it a rest day and once we got settled in we took a nap, relaxed in the motorhome and watched my video series of "I Love Lucy" (which we love). Thank goodness Gil can fix things. He had to fix his windshield wiper before it broke off...we just keep putting band-aids on her. Day 30 - We didn't want to return home the same way we came (the Alaskan Highway) so we are coming back on the Cassiar Highway. The Cassiar Highway is a little more remote and doesn't have cell coverage etc but, from what we have heard, you can't beat the scenery. So we left bright and early to tackle it. We ran into a couple that had just traveled this highway and she said they were taking an extra day in Watson Lake to rest because the drive stressed her husband out a bit so we were prepared for the worse. We'd planned on only going a couple hours down the road at a slow pace. The first 20 or so miles was a little bumpy but really not bad at all. I'm thinking that if this road stressed him out...he is in for a LONG trip to Alaska because this is nothing. We've been on much worse through this trip. After those 20 miles, things were really good. Maybe our motorhome is such a rough ride that we don't notice anymore haha. We still have more to go tomorrow so maybe it gets worse. We'll see. We stopped by the Jade Store...that's a dangerous place to stop. Gil had one hand on his wallet the whole time...unfortunately I have my own set of credit cards. We saw a baby bear and another bear (not related, I don't think. If they are, their miles apart from each other). We wish we had time to camp at Boya Lake. The pictures don't do it justice on how blue-green and clear this water is. Our kayak was screaming "take me out!". They say the scenery on this highway is stunning...they weren't lying! We are staying at Mountain Shadows RV campground in Iskut. We thought we could kayak but the lake isn't close enough but the description of the RV park is correct...it is in the mountain shadows....it is so pretty. We are headed to Stewart/Hyder tomorrow. We are crossing our fingers that we see a bear eating Salmon out of the river. There is a Forest Service place you can view them on a platform. We might be a week too early though...but we are hoping! Day 31 - Roll with the punches...that's our moto! Well, we got punched today but it could have been SO much worse. More on that in a minute. As we were traveling down the road, Gil and I both kept saying "Stop, let's take a picture" because it seems like every time we looked in another direction, there was another beautiful place to look at. We took a detour from the Cassiar Highway to go to Stewart, B.C. and Hyder, Alaska for the night. As we were headed down the road, we had to stop and take in the sights of Bear Glacier. We continued down the road and, of course, hit construction. Now for five weeks we've been worried about truckers kicking up rocks and hitting our windshield. We read so much about it and have seen other rigs with rock chips. Well, we didn't get a rock chip... Once we got to the construction, they'd closed one lane so they had a lead car guiding us through the lanes. They took us on the left-hand side of the lane and as we passed a construction worker, decided it would be a good idea to use his tar wand to put tar on the center line. Unfortunately though, his wand (like a car wash wand) swung around and the metal pipe it was attached to, swung around and hit my window and shattered it, ripped off our side mirror, dented the side of our motorhome and when it swung back it put tar all over our RV and car. Needless to say his wand was now a V-shape instead of straight. They sent us on a wild goose chase to find the supervisors "down the road". We eventually just went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and filed a report. We got some supplies and the "fix it" man is going to see how he can repair it until we get to a bigger town. Before we knew it, the day was about over and we decided it was best to sit outside our camper and lick our wounds and start over tomorrow. We are actually in good spirits..it could have been so much worse or one of us (me) could have gotten hurt. So we are happy with the outcome. Our planning worked out because we planned on staying most of the day here tomorrow anyway so we'll just see the sights then. God gives us a new day...so tomorrow we be another great adventure!
Day 28 - The end to our fourth week! We left Carmacks and headed to a familiar place, Whitehorse. We came through Whitehorse on our way to Alaska. It was raining when we left camp...and once again, it let up just as we headed into town. We had a few things that we didn't have time to see last time, so we decided to hit a few of those places today. Our first stop....the Yukon Beringia Museum. It explained the land bridge between Asia and North America, how Beringia was formed and how the animals/people got to North America. I actually learned a lot. They had a neat graph that showed how the earth for millions of years has gone through warming and cooling trends. We also learned that when the male Dall Sheep wants to mate with the female, he flicks his tongue at her and if he likes her then he will kick her. Not sure how that works for him but I told Gil he better not try either of those with me! This was a life size beaver that is now extinct (not Gil). Can you imagine running into him? When we were done..I realized I had my own "woolly mammoth" on my hands and we decided it was time for Gil to get a trim. So we cleaned him up and he is ready for a date! I did some research before we came and I got "Miles Canyon" somewhere. There was no explanation, no description, nothing. I just had the place written down that I got from somewhere. We decided to check it out...remember, either go and be disappointed or don't go and have regrets. We'll we were NOT disappointed. We have said that every day there has been a "gem" for the day. Some days we knew we would see a "gem" and other days we thought it was just going to be a driving day and a "gem" would just appear. We found our gem for the day...Miles Canyon. The water was a turquoise blue. It was absolutely breathtaking. We hiked around the canyon a little to take it in from different viewpoints. Up high, down low and along the sides. Wow! Look how clear and blue this water is! When you have exhausted all site-seeing options, you resort to the largest weather vane in the world. Much to our surprise...it was "gem" #2. Believe it or not, this airplane is a weather vane. The plane moves and the nose points to the direction that the wind blows. How cool is that! And we just thought it was the only thing left on my list that we could possibly do...and thought, what the heck! I included the bottom part of the plaque that explains it. Once we were done, we figured we would get groceries before heading down Cassiar Highway. When we went to the grocery store, you had to pay $1 (or looney) for a grocery cart...???? Well we didn't have $1 so we used their free "hand" baskets which limited how much we could get because we had to carry it all. However, we didn't think that through either because when we checked out she asked if we wanted to purchase plastic bags (which is probably smart for the environment but we were clearly not prepared for all of this) so we bought five bags and squished the bread accidentally. I carried some of the groceries without a bag so we didn't have to pay for more bags haha but then we realized that we didn't have a cart (or hand basket) to carry it to the car so we just had to lug it all out by hand. Well, like my mom says...if you want it to be like home, stay home. We will deal with it. Well, once I get done with this blog, I'm going to need to do some research for the rest of our trip home. I got overwhelmed when I did researching prior to us coming once I finished a month's worth of traveling and kind of gave up. So I need to see what is coming up ahead of us. (By the way...I was curious why it is called a blog and looked it up. It used to be call a weblog and someone shortened it blog. There is your random fact of the day).
Day 27 - This old girl has hung in there the whole trip. She's filthy and needs a bath. She has a few more rattles and clanks that I've not heard before so I'm not sure how much time she has left but she is still moving right along (I'm talking about the 2005 Trailblazer with 163,000, not me). She has been worth her weight in gold (get it?). Officially starting today we are homeward bound (no detours..at least that are planned). We still have about 2400 miles to go though. While we were in Dawson City, the visitor center said that if you have time, going to Tombstone Mountain is worth it. It was about 60 miles out of the way. We decided to try it...you either go and you might be disappointed or you don't go and have regrets. We hate having regrets. Why do we always end up on roads like this? Although the scenery was absolutely gorgeous....this is what we have seen the WHOLE trip. It is unimaginable how beautiful everything is. Soooo...to go two hours out of the way round trip, this one was probably not worth it. But it was a beautiful sight...and no regrets. The big rock in the middle is Tombstone Mountain. They say it is erected so high it looks like someone's tombstone. We were headed to Carmacks for the night. We passed a scenic view on our way and as we passed we realized we made a mistake by not stopping. We couldn't find a place to turn our big rig around so we decided to head into Carmacks, disconnect and head back in the car because it was only about 15 miles back. We sometimes don't always do things the simplest way so we came back to "Five Finger Rapids" and notice that there is a trail you can hike down to the river. We didn't wear proper shoes or bring our hiking backpack...so we went BACK to the camper, got our stuff and drove back a third time. After driving all day, we like to get out and walk/hike. For our sanity and for the dogs. This is the view from the top. It was straight down...and straight up. But it was a good workout and the dogs have settled down for the night haha. This is the same river that the Yukon River Quest was on. We saw some racers at the top and they said it looks a lot worse down on the rapids than it did from the viewpoint. I can only imagine. The two pictures below were at the bottom of the trail. The campsite that we are at, is the campsite that the Yukon River Quest used as the resting stop. The paddlers are required to rest for 7 hours and this is where they stop before heading on to Dawson City. It's a nice campground...bonus for Gil, they have ice cream. There are two families here that are going to raft from here to Dawson City...with two four year old children. They will raft about 30 miles a day (approximately 5 hours a day) in this cold water for 10 days. I will end my opinion at this point :-) Good luck with that. This picture is here...just because I think Bella is cute! On to Whitehorse tomorrow. It won't take us long but there are some things we didn't see the first time through that we are going to do tomorrow. So it will be a play day!
Day 26 - Where do I begin? We really don't try and make marathon days but before we know it we are saying "Oh, let's go here" or "Oh, let's do that". Before we know it we have gone all day and at some times (not often) we forget to eat. We actually got a late start. We slept in until after 7:30 (we had a time change against us as well). We relaxed, Gil cooked breakfast and we were on the road about 10:30 to go see the "Canadian Parade". Today is Canada Day! We love these little towns (that's why we love Eden). You didn't have to fight for parking, the town is small and the people are laid back. After the parade, they had a free BBQ at the park so we joined some locals and visited with them while we ate. We TRIED really hard Garrett, to have Gil be your "proctor" of getting arrested by the Canadian police. The problem is they won't pose like that. They said now-a-days with the reputation of police officers they won't put themselves in that position. I totally understand but it is so sad that it has come to that. They were super nice and this was as good as we could do Garrett, sorry. We sat with a couple that were doing a "motor home" tour. I asked how that worked and she said about 15 rigs go together on this tour. They are from all over the United States and they meet in Idaho. She said that they pay the guide to schedule all the tours, campgrounds and some of the meals are provided. She said it was really nice. There is a lead RV and a caboose RV (that's nice if you break down). I asked the benefits, flexibility etc to see if it might be something Gil and I might be interested in. She told me what she liked about it so I asked how much it costs to do something like that....she said about $20,000 for the two of them AND that did NOT included gas. OH...MY....WORD! I told Gil I'm in the wrong business, we could be tour guides. Can you believe that?! The Canadian government had a deal that you could go to one attraction for free since they were celebrating their 150th anniversary. So we got free tickets to do a tour of "Dredge 4" ($40 value). All of the park service tours have been fantastic! All very informative, enthusiastic and they know their stuff! I asked our tour guide how long he'd been doing this tour because he was so good and he said 6 weeks! I couldn't believe it. They have all been fantastic and fun. We checked on the dogs and then headed BACK to town. We wanted to go through the Danajo Cultural Center. It was so interesting to see how they lived prior to the gold rush and how things changed and are now circling back around giving them back what they deserve. Because it was Canada day, they were making bannock (sort of like scones). I thought this girl was adorable...so is Gil. Then we went down to the Yukon Gold Panning Championship. The winner got $3,000 to put towards going to the World Championship in Scotland. They make everyone's bucket have the same amount of gold. They race for time and amount of gold. For every piece of gold missed, they add 3 minutes to their time. It only lasted about 10 minutes...these are the best-of-the-best. They they showed how the gold is melted into a gold brick as well. Are you tired yet? I am but...we keep going because there is still too much to see before we leave tomorrow. Once was not enough, Gil wanted to go across the ferry again (in the car this time) because he saw a motor home up on the hill and he thought it would be a great picture. Turns out it was (look at the separation in the water again, Yukon river and the Klondike river coming together). The picture of us in the car, look at Gil's face. You can barely see it..but those smile lines you see around his eyes....I've seen that for 4 weeks now). Only is Dawson will you see a dog ride on TOP of the truck. He seemed very comfortable there. Don't hit the brakes fast though. At 7:00 p.m. (the night is still early), they had a walking tour of the town. They told about the history, current living conditions and how Dawson is so unique. Once again, they reenacted parts of it which broke it up a bit and made it much more interesting. Gil was a part of the play and he was "Gil-ty" (guilty). He was accused of running his hand through his hair that had hair gel (now that's funny) to help gold flakes stick to his finger. Then he would run his finger through his hair again to store the gold. Later he would wash his hair and...then he would "find" gold. I loved that though "Gil-ty" name. We finally got dinner at 9:00 p.m. but our last stop was by the Sourdough Saloon. We weren't interested AT ALL in participating but if you come to Dawson, you have to at least stop by. Apparently they have a drink that is called the "sourtoe" drink. They put a pickled amputated toe in your drink and you have to drink it. Who thinks up this stuff? There is a LONG line to do this and you pay $5. Not only, who thinks this up but who then drinks it? A couple of weeks ago, it was in the news that someone stole the toe (no worries, they have others that have been donated. Yes, they are really amputated toes). It was stated in the news that charges would be filed. A couple days later it was mailed back with an apology letter. Charges were dropped.
I will stand next to a glacier, I will drive to the Arctic Circle, I'll even take our RV that is bigger than the ferry across the Yukon river but I'm NOT having this drink. Even if I was in the desert and dying of thirst. We decided it was time to call it a night. We definitely took advantage of Canada day and our last day in Dawson. Day 25 - Originally we decided to skip Dawson City because it was too complicated to get up there. We'd heard how horrible the road was, etc. Then we thought we might park our RV at Chicken and take our car up there for the day and get a hotel but all the hotels were full because of Canada day, July 1. So then we thought we would just go up for a day trip but then we were worried we might not get across the border before it closed and be stuck in our car all night...so after talking to many people along the way. We just decided to go for it. I was nervous and about drove Gil crazy. It's hard when you hear all these stories, they all differ and you're not sure who to believe. So early in the morning we headed up the "Top of the World Highway". It did look like you were on a highway (if you could call the dirt road that) on top of the world. It didn't really go up and down, just across the top of the mountains. It was a gorgeous view. I'm not going to lie, there were parts of the road that would rattle your teeth out. The washboard roads were knocking a couple screws loose and they were in me, not the motor home. But the big test was when we got into Dawson City. For the life of me, I'm not sure why they don't just build a bridge. It would be sooo much easier. We had to cross in the RV on the ferry. I swear we were bigger than the ferry. We are on the ferry in these pictures...even Bella isn't too sure about the whole thing. Once we got in town, we settled in and went to the visitors center to see what was happening today and tomorrow (Canada Day). We were just in time to go to the Commission's House of the Yukon Territory for a reenactment of the days back then. They actually did a great job. It opened discussion with the tour about how industry changes and how it affects the community. Afterwards we were able to wander around and the house and have tea on the front porch. On our way back into town we headed up the road to the Midnight Dome. Apparently, for the summer solstice in 1899, the town decided to see the midnight sun on the top of this hill. But they were disappointed because the sun set a half hour before midnight, only to rise two hours later. What a view from up there. We got a special treat. We saw a black fox! Then we headed to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall to watch the cancan dancer. The house was packed. They have several shows throughout the night and each are different. In between watching Gertie's cancan dancers, we went to the river to watch the Yukon River Quest. The competitors start in Whitehorse and paddle to Dawson City. They can use canoes, kayaks, and even paddle boards. It is 444 miles from Whitehorse to Dawson. They average it in about 48 hours. The river is so interesting. If you look closely in the picture you can see it very clearly that part of the river is muddy looking and the other part is clear. This is where the Yukon river and Klondike river meet. We'll be in Dawson City one more day to celebrate Canada Day with them (150 year celebration).
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