First off today, a huge, huge thank you to my little brother Stuart.
He has put all our travels together on an internet blog, and if you go to:
Rollinghills2007@blogspot.com you will see his great efforts.
This site will be updated daily as soon as our e mails arrive, so if you are missing some pix or pages, or want to show friends, or are just plain bored, have a look, Stuart has done a wonderful job. Thanks a million.
If any of you out there in reader land would prefer to check on our progress through this blog site, instead of getting an e mail from us, since some are big and often have lots of pix, please let us know. It would be great to get some feedback, on the new blog site as well.
Today was plugging holes day.
After our overnight stay at wonderful Wal Mart, we decided that our right rear outside tire had finally started more than a slow leak, so we went to Yukon Tire Center right round the corner. Actually everywhere is right round the corner coz the towns are small!
Anyway, we spent an hour there, were charged the ridiculously cheap price of $ 43.00, and we got to use their RV dump station and water filler upper.
A very pleasant bunch of people, and so we went back there later in the day to fill up with gas and diesel.
Then, the other hole had to be plugged. I lost a filling in my mouth, supposebly during one of the many gourmet dinners cooked by Marlipops, so I had to go to a dentist, bite the bullet literally, and get plugged.
After that, we trogged around town looking for the post office and the liquor store, the only place to get beer, and a WiFi café.
We had a look at the longest wooden salmon ladder in the world, about 1200 feet long, alongside a hydro electric dam on the Mighty Yukon River.
What did the salmon say when he smacked his head into a wall in the river?
Dam.
Moving swiftly on, this salmon ladder is supposed to be full of fish this time of year, all going upstream to spawn and die, and last night there was the annual appreciation night, to celebrate the peak season of the salmon, and there only 14 fish.
We took a tour around the local brewery, Yukon Brewing Company, but were not allowed a sample, as we were a few minutes late!!
Don’t they want to sell this stuff, or what?
Still, we had earlier bought a 12 pack in the liquor store. I enquired, at the brewery, as to the price of the same 12 pack there, and was told it was exactly the same!
Government runs the liquor stores, and they are not allowed to sell it any cheaper. Apparently there is a huge drinking problem among the native population, especially during the long winter nights.
We have decided that Canadian drivers are as bad as Alaskans.
We left town around 6 this evening, headed up the Klondike Highway towards Dawson City. This place was the original provincial capital, back in the heydays of the Klondike gold rush. In case we have not told y’all before, this whole area was gold feverish about 110 years ago, and there are still some mines operating, and panning for gold, and finding some is a popular touristy thing to do. We have resisted……so far, but if our funds run low, we may have to resort to panning.
The road up to Dawson City, or Dawson as it is known locally, is in as good a condition as the Alaskan Highway, and less traveled, so even more wilderness, if that is possible, and some of the views over the Yukon River valleys are stunning.
A little known problem up here is the sides of the roads.
Vegetation, such as spruce and pine trees abound, so the edges of the roads, about 30 ft on either side, are kept cleared and mowed where possible. This is done coz in winter these trees cause too much shade on the road, preventing thawing during spring and fall, and also they attract moose and other big animals, which is very dangerous to drivers. But, after the trees are cut back, plants such as fireweed are abundant in the cleared areas, and all these plants are food for moose, so the moose still get close to the roads!!
Of course, we have the answer to this conundrum………..close the roads, let the moose take over completely!!!
We are currently camped at kilometer marker # 394.8, “a large gravel pull out, with good photo op” says the travel bible.
We didn’t see any wildlife today.
Once again, thank you, Stuart.
