Day 63 (8-2-12 - Whitehorse)

The Fireworks

We were sleeping really well last night when we heard a boom around 11:15 pm.  Hearing a boom in a foreign country is not a good feeling.  Lauren had to crawl around Ferny Kat to get out of the bed to find out what was going on.  As Lauren was going outside, a bunch of fireworks went off.  He said Ferny Kat was airborne when she came by him to go hide under the couch.  Thankfully, they set off all the fireworks at once and were done. 

We saw the empty fireworks box by the dumpster as we left the campsite.  We saw  trees down near the campground. This all contributed to our sleepless night.  We had a hard time sleeping last night between the howling wind, a few showers, and the fireworks. 

We drove  136 miles to Whitehorse, YT.  We are camped at Hi Country RV Park.  We have the luxury of water, electric, sewer, Wi-Fi, and cable hookups, all the amenities of home.

We met the couple that is camped next to us tonight when we were in Seward.  They are from Texas.  We were seated at the same dinner table on the glacier cruise.  It is a small word.

We did a little shopping and washed the truck.  We were pretty tired today and decided to wait until tomorrow to do our sight seeing around Whitehorse. 

The wind is still howling, I cooked my first Canadian Chili. It was pretty good, but had a little too much black pepper.  It reminded us of the chili that was cooked on our first vacation when we rode the Honda 650 to Panama City with Anita and a few others.

We are going to watch TV tonight instead of building a campfire.  I bet one of us, (or all three), will nap while the TV is on.

Eerie Looking Mountain

 Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/EaN4WfAuJh6HbbwL9

 

Day 62 (8-1-12 - Haines Junction, YT, Haines, AK, and Dezadeash Lake)

We're camped on that point 

It was cold again last night.  We had to put the extra blanket back on the bed.  Ferny came to bed and we all huddled together to keep warm.  I woke up one time and heard a strange noise.  I first thought someone was outside talking on a cell phone in a foreign language. I realized that it was Ferny snoring.  Those rough roads wore us out yesterday.  After 12 hours of sleep last night, we continued on our journey. 

We bought gas in Haines Junction, Canada at $5.30 per gallon.  We may as well get use to these prices until we get out of Canada.

We pulled the camper 86 miles and set up camp at Dezadeash Lake.  We had gorgeous scenery along the way.  Our campsite is on the beautiful lake.  After setting up the camper, we ate a quick lunch and continued with our sight seeing to Haines, Alaska.  The gorgeous scenery continued.

We went through customs in the USA on the way to Haines.  We were asked a few questions and sent on our way. 

The gas prices were a lot better in Haines, AK, than in Canada.  We paid $4.72 per gallon.

When we came back through Canada Customs and the officer asked where we were staying in Canada, we had problems pronouncing Dezadeash.  We had just looked it up and found the spelling as DEZ-dee-ash.  Neither of us could remember the correct pronunciation when she asked.  She told us to stay where we were, took our passports, and went inside to check us out.  She came back in about 5 minutes and told us to enjoy the rest of our trip. She must have realized that we were just 2 harmless rednecks from Mississippi.

We got back to camp after traveling a total of 230 miles round trip to Haines. We are disappointed that the only wildlife that we saw that was 2 trumpeter swans in Alaska. 

We had a nice campfire for a little while until the wind started howling.  That was okay, we are so tired that we are glad to call it a night.

Along the Haines Hwy.

Pictures  https://goo.gl/photos/hAVBxQVJVSLbSWwK7

Day 61 (7-31-12 - Back to Canada)

Near the Border

We lazed around this morning.  We really didn’t want to leave Alaska but we know we have more adventures in life that are going to happen elsewhere.  We took a long hot shower in the campground facilities.  This is a rarity for us since our shower in the camper is so small we have to turn like a pirouette to get wet and usually don’t have water hookups and have to ration water. 

Ferny came outside while Lauren cooked a fabulous omelet for breakfast.  When it was time to go inside Ferny lay down and sulked.  We had to pick her up and carry her screaming to the camper. She continued the screaming after we pulled out of the campground. I told her if she didn’t quit crying she was going to make us both cry, especially Lauren.   Lauren distracted her by lowering the back window down just a little bit.  She hates to have her hair messed up.  Once he let the window back up, she was content, (for the most part), in her dog bed.

We made it 20 miles on the Alaska Highway before we got into rain and road construction.  The first stop for construction was in Alaska.  We were stopped for 25 minutes.  We traveled on and the rain quit.  We had several patches of gravel where it was very dusty.  The combination of rain and dust has the truck and camper looking like we have traveled the Dalton Highway again.   

We made it through Canada customs in 3 minutes.  We answered every question truthfully, including the one about if we had more than $10,000 cash on us.  Lauren told the officer, he wished he did. 

Ferny has got more attentive at the customs crossing.  She slept when we crossed into Canada the first time.  This time she was sitting in her dog bed looking at the officer. She had the look of find something wrong and send us back to Alaska. 

This is the prettiest scenery that we have seen in the Yukon. It is also the worst road that we have traveled in the Yukon and the worst section of the Alaska Highway that we have traveled. Lauren said that he wished the road was smoother so he could look at the scenery.  He had to keep both eyes on the road, both hands on the wheel, and still had to slam on the brakes in hopes of not tearing anything up.  We were told that this was the worst section of the Alaska Highway.  We can only hope this is true.

We traveled 232 miles today and are camped at Congdon Campground on Kluane Lake.  It is another pretty Provincial Park.  There is a warning posted as you enter the campground that bears are in the area.  It must be true because there is another notice there is no tent camping allowed because of bear activity.  I have had my bear spray at my side since I got here.

Kluane Lake

 Pictures    https://goo.gl/photos/tQXA4YpJXpjt3dax9

Day 60 (7-30-12 - Getting ready to head back through Canada)

Ferny trying to hide out and not leave

We had a busy day today.  We moved to Tundra Campground in Tok so we could have full hookups for the camper.  We needed to clean up the camper, our clothes, and ourselves before we leave tomorrrow going back into Canada. We did a little shopping and fueled up the truck and the camper propane.We had another gorgeous day.


We went to Fast Eddy's Restuarant to eat lunch.  A friend that we met on this trip from Anchorage recommended the place .  The food was good.  Lauren had a club sandwich on home made wheat bread and I had a Taco Salad.  It was the largest and best Taco Salad I have ever ate.  This makes the third time that we have ate out since we left.

You know I am Bear Aware.  I got to this campground and saw that there were no bear proof garbage cans and I had a sense of "Whew,  I don't have to wear bear bells and bear spray for  the first time in a few days". I was a whole lot less tense.  It felt like retirement day all over again. There are no worrys and no hurries.

We have several stops planned along the way through Canada, including a couple of stops back into Alaska.  We plan to cross the USA border in Washington in about 10 to 14 days.  We are not in a hurry and will decide as we go as to where we will stop for the night.  We are turning off our cell phones and mifi when we get to Canada.  We are planning on staying in Provincial Campgrounds and will not have internet most nights.  We will send blog post and pictures when we have internet again.

We have been in Alaska for 44 days.  The retirement party has being going on for 60 days and it ain't over yet.

Our Last Campfire in Alaska (for now)

Pictures:  https://goo.gl/photos/psKdgXf5SyJENUqAA

Day 59 (7-29-12 - Hanging Out in Tok)

The witch in Lauren came out again this morning.  He got his broom and chased the ravens off the top of the camper.  They know how to mess up a good sleep.

We had a few showers during the night, or during our sleep time.  When I think of night, I think of darkness, and we haven't seen darkness in a long time. 

When we got up the sun was shinning and a cool wind was blowing.  It felt like a nice, crisp, fall day in Mississippi.

We hiked the nice, wooded trail in the campground.

We rode around Tok and hit every gift shop in town.  This took about 40 minutes.  It is a really small town.

We took a short ride out of Tok on the Alaska Highway and the Taylor Highway and killed a little time.  We thought we might see some wildlife.  We thought wrong.

We are back at camp with a campfire and are planning on being well rested before we leave here in a few days.

We remembered the Park Ranger at Exit Glacier tell us that the moose poop was a good fire starter  I looked around and found Moose Poop.  I got a paper towel and carried it to the fire pit. Ranger Lou was right.   We started our campfire with moose poop/  Another one of those, Only in Alaska.

We grilled another pack of halibut tonight.  This fish is so good you can't wait for your mouth to open to put more in it.  I sure wish we would have caught more Halibut.

Pics   https://goo.gl/photos/srhs6VDDhKjsopPZ6

Day 58 (7-28-12 - Tok)

We started out with a light shower today.  The weather cleared and it turned out to be a warm pretty day.    We decided to drive until we had cell phone and internet service.  We drove 70 miles to Tok.

We are staying at Tok River SRA.  It is another pretty campground that is on the Tok River.  Again, we have no hookups. 

When we got here, we had neighbors park next to us.  We left and went to the big , exciting, town of Tok.   When we got back, no neighbors.  We watched quite a few campers leave the  site next to us. I wondered if Lauren had forgot to plug the septic tank a few days ago, because quite a few campers left the site next to us. 

Then I heard the campers two sites away tell a potential camper  that was going to park between  us, there are bees in those trees, as they pointed to two holes in the tree.  They told then that they got stung and had moved.

We had a lot of campers ride in and ride out of this spot.  The last camper that we saw pull in as we sat by our campfire were considering  burning out the bees. They must have seen the look in our eyes and reconsidered.

I am not sure if was my look of please, don't do that, or the rugged look of my honey who has not had a hair cut in over two months and has not shaved in quite a few days. They went to another part of the campground. We really appreciate their consideration.

This place feels like home.  We have the muddy, swift  Tok River.  We have a sand bar, (the first sand bar that we have seen in a while).  If it weren't for the glacier look of the water, I would swear we were at the Pearl River Swamp. 

We are planning on staying in this area for a few days.   This is a good place to rest, clean up, wash up, and stock up, before we head back into Canada.  And hopefully, Lauren will shave.

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/rDgTVNryN3U2PE2JA

Day 57 (7-27-12 - Porcupine Creek SRA)

We woke up to a beautiful warm day.  We were well rested listening to the creek rustle over the rocks all night while we slept.  Lauren cooked a great breakfast and we hit the road. We had no planned destination. 

The Tok Cutoff Highway was a rough but pretty ride.   After 129 miles and checking out 4 campgrounds, we decided to stay at Porcupine Creek SRS.  The campground has 12 sites.  The sites are isolated and are in the thick woods with no hook ups.  There are a few sites that are on the creek.  We had our choice of camp site being we were the only ones here.  We chose a nice creek site.

As I have typed before, Ferny has adjusted to the climate in Alaska really well.  With the temperatures in the 70's, she has began shedding her artic coat of hair that she needed for warmth.  She meowed for miles today when it warmed up.  I was hot, she was hot, but Lauren refused to turn on the A/C being we have been cold for weeks.  Lauren tried lowering the back window a little bit to give her some air.  This made her meow even louder.  Lauren  finally rolled the window up and turned on the A/C.  Ferny curled up in her dog bed on top of the ice chest and went to sleep.  She knows how to work him.

This is the first campground that we have ever stayed in that has porcupine warnings, only in Alaska.

Lauren fished a little bit.  I took my usual wade in the cold creek.  I love wading in this freezing cold water when it is warm.  It must be the country girl in me. 

We have the IPod playing and my bear spray close at my side as we are cooking our salmon patties on the fire pit.  Dang, life is good!

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/JqEbNmHhJisUKGRz7