Day 32

The highlight of today was a car wash.

We drove into Skagway, and on our to do list was get the car cleaned.

Big sign by the fire station “ Car Wash, $ 10.00 donation”

So Marla driving, we zoomed round to the back street, where we saw Chippendale Fireman doing his dance in the street, with a big fireman’s boot for the money.

I was unceremoniously dumped from the car as Marla opened her window to be chatted up by Chip.

She then drove between two fire trucks, one on each side of the road,

which were spraying water all over with their big hoses, then she stopped while several firemen and women washed and scrubbed the crap off the car, then drove between two more fire trucks, got the hosey treatment again, and emerged clean as a whistle, with a big grin all across her face. It was really cool, and there were dozens of cars going through, and lots of tourists taking pix, so we were lucky to be here today, coz it was not a regular occurrence. And all proceeds were to a very good cause.

We then wandered around the town and had lunch at The Red Onion Saloon, which was originally a brothel, back in the gold rush days.

Marlipops had a Madam’s Martini, which was pomegranate infused Pearl vodka, served cosmopolitan style, ( Janet, you would like this one ) and which seemed to go down with little problem, and your brave writer risked a Red Onion Brothel Brew, which was reasonable.

The brothel had a brief colorful history for a couple of years, the barman kept a doll for each of the “hostesses” at the back of the bar. When the girl was busy, her doll was put on it’s back, and when the fee was sent down the copper pipe through a hole in the floor, the doll was returned to the upright position, signaling the girl’s availability.

There was also a wonderful collection of used bedpans on the wall.

Later, we went into one of the two info places, and were given some wonderful tips by one of the National Park Rangers.

First, we were directed to Reid Falls, a stunning waterfall, only 5 minutes from the town center, and to get to it, we had to go through a small graveyard, full of people who died around the turn of the last century, all gold rush type people. Most of the gravestones were wood, and lots of graves had small picket fences around, and some had what looked like bed frames. All set in the most picturesque sunlight dappled wooded area. Very pretty, if you can use that word with a graveyard. It’s our travelog so we will use wot we want!!

Then we drove around the adjacent mountain to Dyea, which is no longer there!

It was the original city of the gold rush, built on mud flats, and had a catastrophic avalanche which killed lots of people, and very soon after the survivors all left at once, most of them taking their wooden houses with them.

The area now is flat, treeless and full of beautiful blue irises, and bears. We sat on the sand dunes overlooking the bay, waiting for the bears, but none showed up. Must have been our car blending so well into the background that confused them.

One thing which struck me as highly amusing, but might not be funny to everyone, was that there was a cruise ship in from Japan, and the passengers were doing the usual touristy stuff, and I saw a local Skagway man, getting into a truck, and he was obviously in his seventies or eighties, his license plate said US Navy Retired, and he was wearing a cap with a United States WWII Ship emblem. I wonder if they had met before, 60 years ago.

There is a tiny airstrip here, and to land, the planes must first fly up the valley, do a u turn right before the mountains and come in very low over our campsite. Very cool to see these little planes flying so low, with the green mountainside behind them as a backdrop.

Wildlife watch today …………zero.

Day 31

Today we made it!!!

We are in Alaska!!!

After an all you can eat breakfast at the campground in Teslin, and making full use of the dumping and fresh water facilities, off we went Northwestwards.

Now I have to give a big thank you to the red ninja rubber duck.

As some of you know, we collect rubber ducks, and across the dashboard of the coach sit the ducks who behave themselves the most, so they get to see the sights.

On the extreme left is red ninja, who is actually my left side marker. I line him up with the yellow line in the middle of the road, and I don’t hit anything!

We had to go over the Teslin River bridge, which was under repair, and very tight, so red ninja did his stuff, and Captain Cautious came through, again.

Check out the pix, even the ducks were scared.

We arrived in Whitehorse, which is very RV friendly, causing the unforeseen problem of so many coaches and trailers, the parking lots were jammed and difficult to navigate.

We changed our route, and decided to come to Skagway, down the Klondike Highway.

We stopped at Emerald Lake, which is colored by light reflecting off the bed of the lake, known as marl.

She is everywhere!

We came through a town called Carcross, which boasts the smallest desert in the world.

Sand deposits left by a glacier gazillions of years ago, combined with winds blowing down the valley make it impossible for vegetation to grow, says the book.

There was an area further along which looked like the surface of the moon, hence the name Moonscape. The ground was all rocky, but rounded and smooth, interspersed with lots of small lakes, which apparently freeze to a depth of 3 feet in the winter.

The touristy brochures say that the drive to Skagway across the border is gentle and relaxed.

We came down an 11% descent, the steepest yet on the trip, for 11 ½ miles, through White Pass, very wiggly wiggly, and a lot of it was freshly repaired, so loose gravel and dust everywhere.

It was 20 minutes or so of intense concentration, but no problem, using the gears, brakes and engine brake.

There are several truck runaway ramps, which appear to be at 90 degrees to the road, and some strange colored poles above the road. We found out that these are markers for snow ploughs to find the road during the winter!!

So, into Skagway.

The town is nestled at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by snow capped mountains, with the open sea passage at one end.

Very picturesque and quaint.

On Wednesdays in the summer they have seven cruise ships at once, and 15,000 people descend on the town. Guess who is leaving before Wednesday.

There are only 4 RV parks here, and they are all full coz it’s a holiday weekend, we of course have totally lost track of time, so Marlipops went into the police station, chatted up the chief of police, and got us a pass to stay at the city park, free of charge.

Marla has been incredible with campground finding, she has researched and come up trumps every time.

We were worried originally about whether we should book ahead, but decided not to, which has turned out so well, since we change our itinerary as we go. This is the beauty of this kind of travel.

Today’s beer trial took a new twist. They sell a variety pack, so feeling it would be rude not to buy one, I tested Alaskan Summer Ale, Alaskan ESB, Alaskan Amber, and Alaskan IPA, all brewed in Juneau, AK.
All were good!!!!

We have some kind of internet availability here, so tomorrow we will go into town and see if we can transmit.

Wildlife watch today was a squirrel.

Day 30

Day 31 ( it’s day 30 actually, just seeing if y’all are paying attention!)

Today’s travelog is being written at 11.00 pm, and the sun has not yet set, so it will not be dark before it gets light again in the morning!!

Marlipops summed up today, by 9 o’clock this morning.

“Gobsmacking.”

We left our dust filled overnight rest area at 7.15, and by 7.30 had seen a bunch of wildlife we had not seen before.

A big sign on the side of the road said watch out for caribou, and next thing, right around the corner at a rest area, was a small herd of caribou. They were like all the other wildlife, disdainful of us humans, as if to say get out of our territory.

Then, we went down a lovely wiggly bit of Stone mountain, and all across the road were a bunch ( herd/flock/gaggle/school/swarm….pick your own collective adjective) of Stone Mountain Sheep things. And they didn’t give a rats wotsit about us, either. I had to completely stop the coach, and it aint easy to stop 40,000 pounds of mobile home on a 9% slope in the mountains. But, you guessed it, Captain Cautious was at the helm, so no lamb for supper.

The journey through the Northwest part of British Columbia, especially along Muncho Lake was absolutely spectacular.

The road by the lake was very wiggly, and also as it went up and down roller coaster style, it shifted camber very quickly, so poor old Marlipops was flung all over the place!!!

The thesaurus now comes into it’s own.

The scenery today has been stunning, enchanting, splendid, magnificent and on and on and on.

There are so many lakes, rivers, creeks, and streams that a lot of them have no names, and 99% are totally unspoilt by man.

As we are driving along, Marlipops reads from our Alaska bible, The Mile Post, which gives so much information about every aspect of the Alaska Highway.

Most of the named creeks etc are named for engineers, pioneers, trappers and Indians who worked and helped on the highway when it was built 60 odd years ago.

Another nugget of info is that since there were no maps or charts, young, inexperienced pilots flying supplies etc were given hand drawn maps showing the lakes and were sent on their way with a cheery “You can’t miss it!!”

The more we read about this area, and the history of this road, the more fascinating it is.

If you want to teach your kids history, geography, economics and biology, this is the classroom to bring them to.

The rivers and streams meander down from the mountains, through culverts under the road, and on down into the lakes and big rivers. Mostly they are shallow, so the water foams over the rocks, and the water is clear and turquoise.

The mountains still have snow on the peaks, and this morning, some brilliant white clouds were below the tops of the mountains, with the sun gleaming on the snowy peaks, it was breathtaking.

We saw deer, we saw elk, we saw all sorts of birds, including our friendly lost seagull, and we saw so many buffalo at the side of the roads we gave up picture taking. They just sat there, chewing the grass ignoring everything else.

We saw a big cat loping across the road, somewhere in the wilderness, which we are convinced was a mountain lion.

And we saw the mostest biggest moose in the world!!

We came to the town of Watson’s Lake, and they have a place called The Sign Post Forest, which was started by a pioneer working on the Highway in 1942, and now boasts over 50,000 signs of all sorts from all over the world.

Of course, today there were 50,000 and one, ( for a moment ) but The Wolves gospel has to be spread far and wide, so the flag has to be shown elsewhere!!

After 418 miles of travel today, we came to the little town of Teslin, with the longest remaining iron trestle bridge on the Alaska Highway, over 1900 ft long.

It is on the end of Teslin Lake which stretches for nearly 75 miles.

I saw a sign which said free RV parking, so we followed it for ten miles up the road, and sure enough, free overnight parking, free dump station and fresh water fill, and free boat rides on the lake, and a wonderful little restaurant, with expensive dinners.

They have only been open for a year or so and we feel they have hit on a winning formula, give free parking to travelers, and at least half of them will feel obligated to eat at the restaurant, and will spend more than if they paid for the parking.

Of course, your dynamic twosome took full advantage of everything, and cooked dinner in the coach!

We are parked facing the lake, with the snow capped mountains on the far side, and the view is stunning, check out the pix.

Wildlife watch today as yesterday, see above!!

Day 29

If this is Wednesday June 27^th, we are still in B.C. Canada

On the move again, after a very nice 2 ½ day break at Farmington Fairways.

We headed North on the Alaska Highway, and with all the stops we had, a very pleasing 352 miles was achieved, well past Fort Nelson.

Another magical day in our adventure.

Before that we finally encountered the dust we had been warned about.

There was 46 km of road repairs, which held us up for an hour. They redo one side of the road and provide a pilot truck to take the traffic through the contra flow system.

The roads are made from grey gravel and the dust clouds are ginormous. It was that bad I was expecting to see Lawrence of Arabia riding out of the gloom on his camel screaming “ No Prisoners!!” ( I liked that movie)

Anyway on we went, the road getting ever narrower and ever bumpier. We had read all the books so we knew that our speed was not going to be as good as previous, but as we aint on a schedule, who cares?

Up until now, we had encountered downhill wiggly wiggly, steepy steepy grades of 7% maximum. Today we had a 9% and a 10 %, quickly followed by a bridge across the Peace River, which had a metal grate type surface, and was a real pig to keep the coach going in a straight line. This was right before the town of Taylor, which says it all!!! ( Taylor is our grandson )

Needless to say, Captain Cautious came to the rescue again and all was well.

We stopped for a light lunch ( Marlipops has put me on rations) and I sat down in the recliner after stretching my legs, looked up through the front screen, and there is Mrs Moose and baby mooselet strolling across the road. I was actually quick enough to get some good pix.

Then, later in the day, on a nice straight bit of road, Mr Bear comes ambling out of the woods to our left. I slammed on the brakes, Marlipops picks up the camera, screams that it will only focus on the bugs splattered on the windscreen, unfastens her seatbelt, unlocks the door and dashes out and still manages to get some great pix.

Then I get told off coz the screen is full of squished bugs!!! We had a clean screen when we left, and within 5 miles it was filthy, but it was my fault !!!!!

But honestly, Marlipops and I are having a blast together on this trip. We never fight or argue, she keeps me laughing, keeps me going when I’m tired with the driving, and we love each other to bits.

We saw another bear later, both of them were black bears, as well as a elk, but as I stopped at the side of the road to take pix, someone overtooked us, and the elk did a runner. Marlipops saw a hawk/harrier/falcon type bird which was pretty stunning, but we have been unable to identify it, yet.

In this part of the world, some of the trees are conifer pine things of one sort or another. At one point today, we saw a pine tree, about 6 ft high, still growing and alive and everything, fully decorated for Christmas. Bizarre. Perhaps there is too much snow in the winter for Sanity Clause to get here!!!

Wildlife watch today….see above, plus a few deer.

We are in the wilds, so, no new beer, no internet, no cell phone just animals. Great!

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, when and if we get back to civilization.

Day 28 or 29??

We are in a internet cafe in Whitehorse Yukon Territory, Canada.

This message just to let y'all know that normal service will be resumed ASAP, when we find WIFI, and work out how to use it.

Geoff, get a life.

Dick, congrats on the sailing result, you are still as ugly as ever.

The rest of you, hold your breath, the pix to come are stunning.

Love from Marlipops and Captain Cautious ( otherwise now known as Dan, courtesy of my highly educated daughter, Beff, who cannot spell Dad.)

Day 28

It appears that the Marlipops and Clive fan club has new members!

Welcome Martha and Cotton from Ballwin, Missouri. As you have joined late in the season, reduced rates apply, and the invoice will be in the mail!

Today we went shopping…….and discovered that everything here is twice the price of USA.

Captain Morgan is $55.00 for the same size bottle we pay $ 19.99 for in Houston or Tampa.

But we had to have it, so no food for a week!!

The Canadian people are extremely friendly and laid back, the money is pretty, different size and color bills, so even when drunk you can tell the difference………….so I’m told.

Big brother Brian is braving our hospitality and going to spend a few days with us in Anchorage in late July. Don’t tell him, but we’re now going east to New York!!

Sitting here in our coach, looking out over the golf course, with the cloudless sky above, the verdant green of the greens and the fair ways the fairways traverse the course, of course, it is wonderful to see that the vast majority of golfers, still teeing off at 7.30 in the evening, are youngsters, late teens and early twenties. (No comments about everyone is a youngster compared to me)

The owner of this establishment, (which by the way is for sale, anyone interested?) Bob has been telling us of the time when a bear and two cubs appeared out of the bushes and strolled along the golf course, with the golfers looking on, amazed.

Don’t know what their score was, but I bet it was under paw.

Today’s offering of ale is Warthog, proudly brewed in Alberta by Big Rock Brewery. Not bad at all, but still doesn’t beat Ropewalk. ( or Bankss, but until that is exported I’ll make do)

The pix today are I’m afraid the obligatory touristy ones from Dawson Creek.

The truck thing was sitting on the parking lot, and I’m sure will start a new fashion.

No wildlife to report today, but there is a report about a 5’ high penguin in the paper.

Day 27

Today I did something I have never in my life done before, I played nine holes of golf and made par on two of the holes!!

Aren’t y’all excited ??

Marlipops has photographic proof as well.

We did a lot of nothing today, totally relaxed and chilled out.

After golf, we did take a ride a few miles up the road to the Kiskatinaw River Bridge.

This is the only original wood bridge of the Alaska Highway when it was built in 1942, is still in use, and is unusual coz it is curved, and quite high above the river. It is a three mile detour off the highway to the bridge, but well worth the trip.

We spent a lot of time deciding on a couple of campgrounds for July in Alaska, and of all places to stay, we picked the one in Houston, AK!!

Hope their baseball team is better than the Astros!

Wildlife watch was zero today, except for a few wild golfers, teaching their balls to swim, or hide in the undergrowth.

Short today, but I’m sure I’ll make up for it later on the trip.

Day 26

“Honey, what time is it?”

“Four o’clock”

“But it’s light outside”

“We are 800 miles further north”

“Oh”

That is how our Day 26 started.

Of course, now I was awake, the call of nature beckoned, so I had to get up, and was forced to watch a stunning sunrise over the foothills of the Rockies.

The rest of the day was interesting.

We got out of the coach to check on the car and get ready to depart our overnight rest area, and found that some creature, some wild unimaginable beast of the forest had been right by the door, leaving massive scary footprints!!

Actually, they were the prints of a fox or at best a coyote.

Your fearless heroes have purchased a book wot shows all mammals tracks, so we examined the prints, took pix, measured them, took plaster casts, sent them off to the lab………………oops, I’ve been reading too many detective novels.

So, on we went, into the sun.

90 miles later we came to the next goal on our journey, Dawson Creek, the official start of the Alaska Highway, that 2000 mile road, built by intrepid engineers of the US Army in just 8 months in 1942, to carry supplies and stuff to fight off the Japanese invasion…………which never occurred.

The trip, short though it was, reminded us very much of the fields of England, so many different shades of green, lots of cows and horses and farms, all that was missing were the hedges outlining the fields.

The small herd of bison kind of spoiled the illusion though.

We had not really decided on a campground for the next few days, coz none of the ones we called had availability for the full 3 nights we wanted, so we dropped the coach at the local grocery store parking lot, and went off site hunting in the yellow peril.

We drove 10 miles out of town and found this wonderful little site, known as Farmington Fairways.

For those illustrious readers following our tour on Google Earth, look it up, it’s different.

We brought the coach up here, backed into the site, and found that first we had to drag our 50 amp electric cable until it was horizontal ,through some bushes, to reach, just, the socket, then the water hose was passed through the window of the adjacent, unfinished laundry room and finally, the sewer connection was so far away, the owner Bob brought an extra length of plastic sewer pipe, I had to use 2 sections of flexi sewer hose, and half a roll of duct tape to make the connection!!

We then went inside the office to pay, and the girl said your site doesn’t have a number, what’s your name? Let’s just call it after you!

So we are now at the officially named Clive Site. We so wanted to pay, but she said, do you wanna start a tab? No big deal, if you want to play golf everything is 20% off.

We just laffed, coz it is a beautiful campground, and we are overlooking the first tee of the golf course which forms part of this establishment.

John, eat your heart out, it’s a golferists paradise!!! It is now 8.38 in the evening and some people are just teeing off!

It gets dark around 10.30 this time of year.

After we settled in it was a chill out day, Marlipops pampered herself, and I took a very long nap. It is interesting, that after several days of concentrated driving, I don’t feel tired, but once I have a relaxing day, it really catches up with me.

The local sampling of beer today was Jack Rabbit Light, brewed by Big Rock Brewery, Alberta Canada, a pretty bland concoction, so I had to resort to some purchased previously.

Wildlife watch today was non existent, apart from the above mentioned bison, and twenty million skeeters!!!

Day 25

To quote Tolkien from Lord of the Rings “The road goes ever on……………”

Today was magical.

Today was when we realized that all the sacrifices have been worthwhile, that we really did make the right decision to do what we are doing.

We woke up at cold o’clock, and were on the road just before 9.

If possible, the scenery got better as we moved norther.

The rolling farmlands and forests of central British Columbia are awash with riots of greens and yellows, and the browns of the pine trees all over the mountains, the tops of which are still speckled with snow.

Ecology lesson # 54 - We discovered that the brown trees are dead, killed by the pine beetle, the little bugger, and is a natural pest in these parts ( like Taylor) and is not considered too much of a problem.

The first sign of good wildlife viewing to come was a magnificent bald eagle perched in a tree, casually lording over his kingdom. ( bit like me dad, except for the tree part)

We came through one mountain pass which has an annual average snowfall of 41 feet!!

After a timely brunch of bacon and egg sandwiches, we proceeded. And then, not long after I told Marlipops that I had a feeling about seeing a moose, we did!

Big as a house, munching green stuff right by the side of the road, not a care in the world.

That was the cream on the cake for the day, we thought.

How wrong we were.

A bit later on, 2 mooses on the right side of the road, one jogging along beside us.

Of course, both times we were going at about 40 mph, with traffic behind so we couldn’t stop, but a bit later we did stop.

Actually we didn’t really have a choice.

Mr. Moose ambled out of the trees to our right, looked at us with a disdainful air, and strolled across the road, almost daring us to challenge him!

We then saw a coyote, on the side of the road.

Now the really fun bit. We were driving carefully down a wiggly bit from the mountains, and not 100 feet in front of us a young black bear ran across the road and disappeared into the woods.

So, after we caught our breath, we moved on, slowly, and Marlipops said “Are you driving really slow coz of the wiggly road, or coz we might see something else?”

No sooner were the words out of her mouth, then another black bear, we think fully grown, reared up from the grass on the left of us, probably 20 feet away.

After seeing lots of deer, another bald eagle and several Kamikazi ground squirrel things,

today was a good wildlife day.

To sum it up:

Moose 4, Bald Eagles 2, Black Bears 2, Coyotes 1, Ground Squirrels 2, Deer lots, and Wolves 0, as usual.

It really is difficult to describe the grandeur of this part of the world, 99% unspoiled, mother nature at her finest. It almost brings tears to my eyes to realize that we have seen wildlife, been to places, and experienced things that most people only see in books, or on TV.

We both are very lucky.

Day 24

Today we achieved another one of our goals on our odyssey, we got into Canada!!

Yes, they let me in!!

We left our overnight boondocking site at 8 in the early o’clock, and proceeded in a Northerly direction, and promptly got stuck in the rush hour traffic around Seattle and Bellevue.

We had forgotten what you poor mortals have to endure each workday!

We got to the border at around 11 am, and it took us 30 minutes to go through, coz of all those tourists!!

We drove up Highway 1 and decided to have lunch at a rest area.

Lesson # 1. Canadian rest stops are slightly different from American ones.

We followed the signs to a rest area, actually following an RV in front of us from Pennsylvania, obviously looking for the same rest stop, and we traveled about 10 miles, and ended back on the freeway, 4 miles back from where we started, no rest stop in sight, and thinking, OK we’ve missed it. So we carried on, past the exit we had just got off at, and eventually found the rest stop, 2 miles further on.

I must hold my hat up to the Canadian Porta Potti makers.

Inside, there was a mirror, and a super clean hand washing section, complete with soap, water and towels. A far cry from the graffiti ridden smelly construction toilets of Houston.

British Columbia comes a close second to Montana for scenery, beauty and mountains.

The road we traveled North on went up, over and through Fraser Pass, the wiggliest and uppy downiest yet. And narrow. We were told at the gas station later that there are lots of wrecks at one particular point, where the road does a double 90 degree zig zag under the railroad bridge, where people think they have room side by side with oncoming trucks, and they don’t!!

Needless to say, Captain Cautious made no mistakes. It is difficult to make much of a mistake at 25 mph! Sorry, 40 kph coz Canada is metric.

The mountains seemed to be more rugged than previous ones, and we went through numerous landslide areas, in some cases there were rocks and stones over the road.

But, I don’t really have to say it, Captain Cautious came through unscathed as usual.

Now, more shock horror news.

Marlipops went into a store to replenish the liquor cabinet, and Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum is TWICE the price it is in the USA.

So, we are driving all night to get to Alaska ASAP!!!

That brings me nicely to my punishment, ale sampling. Tonight’s delight is Kitsilano Maple Cream Ale, brewed by Granville Island Brewery of Vancouver, BC.

Slightly too much emphasis on the creamy part for your hero’s delicate taste buds, but a refreshing brew nonetheless. I’ll give it 3 out of 5.

We are overnighting, after 425 miles, ( I’m knackered) in a town called 100 Mile House. Why it got miles in the name when the country is kilometerized, who knows, but a pleasant little burg, set in some wonderful rolling farmland, in the valley, with the Rockies away in the distance to our right.

Wildlife watch today was just a bunch of alpacas in a farm, so they don’t count, and we saw roadsigns for badgers.

The boring picture of the sea with the island in the distance is Vancouver Island, where Big Mark’s brother Jonathon lives, so please all wave to him like we did!!

Also, just for your info, once again, while in a foreign country, Marlipops nealry got into trouble for taking pix where she shouldn't, namely the border crossing.

Bad Marla!!!