Fairbanks, Alaska

We’re still taking it easy and let me tell you it has felt good to just hang around home for the past couple days.  It’s hard not to try to do it all, but we have to work in a few rest days or else we won’t enjoy the trip.  These two days have greatly improved our attitudes and dispositions.

Fairbanks is a small city (pop. 30,000; North Star Borough 98,000) compared to many cities in the US, but the second largest city in Alaska.  For the Alaska traveler, that means a major resupply town.  There are malls and shopping centers, large supermarkets, restaurants of all kinds, RV dealerships and repair places, and all the other stuff not readily available for the past 1400 miles or more.  The last city of any size was Whitehorse.  We’re all real glad to be in town.

Check out that map.  Don't see that very often.

Not only does Fairbanks have a variety of goods and services, but it also offers several good attractions for visitors.  Since this is not our first visit to Fairbanks, we aren’t planning to do any sightseeing here.  In fact, we weren’t even planning to come this way, but did because it shaved a couple hundred miles off our intended route.  However, we did a few things when we were here before and I wanted to share those with you.

One of the best museums for cultural history we’ve ever been to was the Museum of the North on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.  It was very well done and may have been the highlight museum of our entire trip last time.

The Riverboat Discovery was also very good.  I think the current price is about $50, but there may be a two for one ticket in the Alaska tour saver coupon book.  This is a family run operation and the owners have been doing riverboat cruises for several generations. This ride down the Chena River is narrated by very knowledgeable folks.  Periodically, the boat pulls closer to the river bank for a bird’s eye view of life along the river.  On our trip, we saw an active reindeer farm, chatted with Susan Butcher, an Iditarod winner, whose home and summer training field is on the river (Susan died in 2006 of Leukemia), a mock Athabascan fish camp, and then we got off the boat for a couple hours at a replica of an Athabascan Indian village.

Creamers Field Migratory Bird Refuse was another of our favorites in Fairbanks. Creamers used to be a dairy farm.  Creamer had cows and grew all the things cows like to eat.  Apparently, what cows like to eat is also good for birds, so the birds stopped by as they were making their way to wherever they were going.  Creamer eventually gave up dairy farming, but the folks of Fairbanks enjoyed the birds so much that they contributed to the purchase of Creamer’s Field.  Now, the cows are gone, but the birds still come.  About this time of year, the sandhill cranes are here.  When we were at the refuge there were trails out to viewing platforms which was a nice way to get pretty close to the birds.

I mentioned previously that I’ve read several recommendations for the TransAlaska Pipeline exhibit.  Several bloggers have also mentioned visiting Gold Dredge No 8 and liked that.  If the Arctic Circle is on your bucket list and you don’t plan a trip to Dawson City and a ride up the Dempster, the other road that goes north to the Arctic Circle is the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks.  We have no experience with this road, but we’ve heard it is worse than the Dempster and the big rig truck traffic is much heavier.  From Fairbanks, there are commercial tours available for a price.

Last night for dinner, Gene and I went to the Alaska Salmon Bake.  We had been to salmon bakes before and enjoyed them.  This one was perhaps a little more up-scale than most.  All are on the same concept--salmon cooked over a wood grill, served with a potato of some sort, beans, and coleslaw.  Food is served on a sturdy paper plate and guests dine at long picnic tables covered with plastic tablecloths.  It’s very casual and our experience has been very good.  The Alaska Salmon Bake in Fairbanks has the salmon cooked over a wood grill, but they also serve prime rib and fried cod.  There is a salad bar consisting of Caesar salad, potato salad, and pasta salad.  Baked beans were also available along with a hot roll and soft drinks.  They had wine and beer for an extra charge.  They also had dessert and coffee.  The food was served on real plates with real silverware.  There were picnic tables outside and there was also a large indoor dining room.  We chose to sit inside away from the mosquitoes.  The price was $31 per person for all you care to eat.  We didn’t eat $31 worth, but the experience was worth quite a bit.

Next door to the Alaska Salmon Bake is Pioneer Park, a historic theme park.  We walked over after dinner and many of the shops were already closed for the evening.  Pioneer Park is a family place with amusement park type rides, popcorn and funnel cake for the children, boutiques for the ladies, and museums for the guys.  Many of the buildings were private cabins around Fairbanks in the early 1900s and have been moved to this location and restored.  Some are museums and others have been converted to small shops.  I was sorry not more of the shops were open.  It would have been fun to browse.

Today, we have continued to leisurely work on our chore lists. I’ve spent a lot of time organizing photos, and we’ve each had lengthy phone conversations with family.  It’s been a very good day.

Tomorrow, we’re leaving Fairbanks to wander down the Parks Highway toward Denali National Park.  Our reservations don’t start until the 21st, so we’ll just find a place along the way to park for the night.

That’s all I have.  Thanks for tagging along.

Fairbanks--Rest for the Weary

Wednesday, we completed our drive to Fairbanks.  We were anxious to get to town.  Whitehorse was the last town of any size and we almost can remember when we were there.  Large towns give us the chance to get chores done that can’t be done elsewhere and we had created quite a list.  Rest was at the top of that list.

But first, before Fairbanks, came Delta Junction and the end of the Alaska Highway.  This is the place where the Alaska Highway meets the Richardson Highway.  Richardson connects Valdez with Fairbanks and was built some 20 years prior to the Alaska Highway.  Delta Junction is the official “end of the Alaska Highway” at mile 1422.  Since we skipped almost 400 miles between Whitehorse and Tetlin Junction, the last mile post lost some of its significance.

We stopped anyway and made the picture and snooped around the gift shop.  The neatest thing they had was a very large collection of hand-carved wooden road equipment.  They compared in size to the large Tonka toys and the detail was amazing.  Someone put a lot of work into that collection.

Across the street from the Visitor Center at Delta Junction was Sullivan Roadhouse.  Originally, Sullivan was located on the winter trail from Fairbanks to Skagway used by the miners and those companies running supplies between the two cities.  Sullivan was just one of many such roadhouses along the route.  The building was moved to Delta Junction and restored.  Today, it like a small museum with period furniture and artifacts commonly found in the roadhouses.  A frequent guest at Sullivan left a journal and excerpts have been copied and placed around the building along with photographs taken back in the day.  It was an interesting stop.

In Fairbanks, we got checked in and settled in River’s Edge Resort.  This is a popular park for the Alaska travelers and rigs kept coming in one right after another until the park was almost full last night.  About half left this morning and this afternoon we watched as one after another came rolling in.  This is a nice park on the bank of the Chena River.

We got a water and electric only back-in site.  There seems to be more of these than anything else, although they have full hook-up pull thrus.  They also have a few tent sites and some cabins.  There are free showers, cable TV, and free WiFi.  I’d have to say the WiFi is not worth much--difficult to get connected to and then very slow.  We’re using our own MiFi mostly.  This morning at 5 AM when everyone was still asleep except Peanut and I, it worked pretty good.

The laundry is a busy place, as you might expect.  We’ve all been holding on to our dirty clothes almost since we got to Canada, just waiting for the first American city to do the wash.  I’m not exactly sure why that is.  I guess we just refuse to pay $5 a load plus the conversion rate.  We’re not saving that much--it’s $4 here--$2 for wash and $2 for dry.  But, then again, a dollar is a dollar.  Laundry is on my list, too, but I’m waiting until tomorrow.

The first order of business for us was the grocery.  About the only thing we had to eat was a zillion packages of Lipton noodles we’d bought for our great adventure to the Arctic Circle.  Seriously, in the freezer was a half package of corn and 6 waffles.  There wasn’t much more in the refrigerator.  Just mayo, Ranch dressing, one and a half carrots, 4 slices of deli turkey, and the rest of a huge jug of prune juice I bought to help be get over the effects of riding in the car for 2 days on the Dempster.

Fred Meyer is across the street and that probably would have been my choice for groceries, but we also needed to have are prescriptions refilled.  Walmart became the store of choice.  By the time we walked out of there, we’d had a full day.

As I mentioned, rest is high on our list for this stop.  Those couple of days on the Dempster Highway were very hard and stressful.  We tried to rest in Dawson, but these old bodies just don’t recover like they used to.  Then we went out for another couple days on gravel roads.  Gene and I both were pretty worn out by the time we got here.  We registered for a 3-night stay and a lot of that time will be just relaxing, catching up on blogs we read, and thinking about the Alaska portion of our trip.

We still have a list of chores.  Gene got some of those done today.  Phone calls mostly--car insurance company, credit card company, his doctor’s office.  He also got our reservations made at Denali National Park.  It’s amazing how many things piled up that could be taken care of so quickly when you have phone service.  I got started on cleaning some of the dirt out of the house.  I’ll continue with that tomorrow.

GAS REPORT:  We haven’t yet filled up our tank in Fairbanks, but gas here is the cheapest we’ve seen in a very long time--below $4.20 for regular and below $4.50 for diesel.

So, there you have it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

On To Tok

After a restful night in Chicken, we got an early start Tuesday morning.  I think we were more anxious to get off the dirt road than to get back to civilization.  We only had a couple more miles of dirt before we rolled onto pavement.

We had about 60 miles to travel before rejoining the Alaska Highway at Tetlin Junction.  For the most part, the road surface was in good condition.  There were a few pot holes and places with broken pavement, but those were well marked.  There were also a couple areas of construction where pavement had been removed.  Those areas were dirt and gravel, but they were all very short.

Along this road is the area of the fire of 2004--the fire that prevented us from our trip to Chicken and Dawson when we were here then.  The burned area looks sad, but the forest floor is beginning to recover.  The drive took us above tree line again and we had some more views of the mountains beyond the valley.   We always like that.

We rejoined the Alaska Highway at Tetlin Junction.  There was once a roadhouse here and a few other businesses, but everything is closed and boarded up now.

From here, it was only 12 miles to Tok.  Anyone driving to Alaska must pass through Tok.  It’s a small community of about 800, but they have the essential services for the travelers--information and a car wash.

We were looking for both and stopped at the Visitor Center first.  Bureau of Land Management also has a Visitor Center and we stopped in there for a map of all their campgrounds in Alaska.

Our next stop was the car wash.  Tok has the reputation of being the car wash capitol of Alaska.  People like us coming into town off the Top of the World Highway are filthy dirty.  Those coming into town on the Alaska Highway with its many long stretches of construction are also in need of a wash.  Just about every gas station and campground has a car wash.  Since we weren’t staying the night in Tok, we went down to the Tesora Station for a free wash with fill-up.  I held the wand while Gene used the brush to scrub off what seemed like most of the Top of the World Highway from our motor home and car.

Also in Tok, we had cell service again.  Boy, was that exciting.  We spent time calling home.  That may have been the highlight of the day.  Well, I don’t know.  It’d be hard to beat pavement.  Not only do we have phone, we also have our MiFi.  As long as we have a cell signal, we have internet.

We didn’t want to drive all the way to Fairbanks, so we found a turnout about 50 miles west of Tok for our overnight resting place.  We were right on Dot Lake, but the shrubs had grown up enough to obscure most of the view.  There was also a shed that looked like it might be used as a concession stand, canoe rental, bait shop, or something like that during summer months.

Late in the afternoon, a bicyclist pulled in.  Since the shed was open, we figured he’d set up camp here and have a dry place to eat and sleep.  Just about the time I was going to make him some chocolate chip cookies, he left.  In 15 minutes he was back and this time he knocked on our door.  He needed water and we were happy to oblige.  We learned he was not planning to stay overnight, just eat and then peddle on down the road 30 more miles to the next campground.

We gave him time eat then Gene took him a cup of hot chocolate and chatted for a few minutes.  The young fellow was from Holland and was just starting his 19-month bicycle trip from Anchorage to Argentina with a side trip to the Grand Canyon.  Oh, my legs hurt just thinking about that.

Gene and I went to bed early.  Two days of gravel and dirt had worn us out.

GAS REPORT:  Our fill-up at Tesoro in Tok cost $4.29 a gal.  Diesel was $4.79.

CRITTER COUNT:  Not much out that we could see.  Only saw one moose.

Thus ends our second day in Alaska.  Thanks for tagging along.

Chicken, Alaska

I was beginning to think we were never going to get here.  Bet you were thinking the same thing.

As planned, we left Dawson City Monday morning.  We had gotten some rain overnight, but the forecast called for only scattered traces of rain for the day.  We made our preparations to leave.

Getting out of Dawson was not as straight forward as leaving other places.  The road comes to an end at the Yukon River and there’s no bridge.  The free ferry runs pretty much nonstop, but this is the high season for Alaska travelers and there can be a considerable wait.

When we pulled up to the back of the line there were 8 or 10 RVs in front of us and just a few cars.  We only waited an hour for our turn.  Not bad.  The ride across the river took only a few minutes.

We pulled off of the ferry onto Top of the World Highway.  The Milepost says the road gets its name for the seemingly “top of the world” views from the road.  The road for the most part follows the ridge above tree line so we got those broad, sweeping views out over the valleys and ridges of the surrounding mountains.

Our destination was Chicken, Alaska, only 108 miles away.  Don’t let that short distance deceive you.  It took every bit of all day to get there.

This was another gravel road, but in our opinion it was worse than the Dempster.  The 70 miles in Canada were once paved, but the pavement has broken down and it is now mostly gravel.  The 35 miles in Alaska were dirt, or, more accurately, mud since the scattered traces of rain in the forecast turned into what seemed like 95% rain all day.  We even had a wintery mix at one point.

The border crossing went smoothly even though the guard seemed a little put out that he had to come out in the rain to check us through.  I was surprised when he asked about fresh fruit and confiscated my wedge of lime.  I’m glad he wasn’t so interested in the vodka to go with the lime.

We gained an hour crossing the border and are now on Alaska time.  We arrived in Chicken about 3:30.

Chicken got its start as a mining community.  The story goes that the first residents wanted to name their new home ptarmigan, the bird that has since become the state bird, but didn’t know how to spell it, so they settled on Chicken.

There are still a few souls that call Chicken home; about 50 during the summer and about 10 of those are brave enough to remain for the winter season.

We made our way to downtown Chicken and Chicken Creek Cafe and Saloon.  We’d heard it was “the” place in town for free overnight parking and a great burger.

The “free camping” lot was not without its challenges.  The rain had left its mark in the form of huge mud puddles and soft dirt.  We pulled in and promptly ran aground.  Luckily, we were able to get the car disconnected and then back out of our predicament.  The tow bar, which was buried in the mud about 2 inches, only tore a couple small holes in the protect-a-tow mesh.

Settled in for the night, we wandered over to the saloon for a refreshing beverage.  As an indication of the popularity of Chicken, there were not one, but two, tour buses parked out front.

We were not the only ones parked in the free lot that night.  A nice couple from California were our neighbors and we enjoyed getting to know them as we chatted over burgers from Chicken Creek Cafe.

Critter Count:  One red fox and a moose.  The fox we had seen the previous day running through the campground, but on this morning one of the campground dogs was in hot pursuit.  The fox was way to fast for my camera finger.

That’s it for our first day in Alaska.  Thanks for tagging along.

Dawson City, Part Two

We’ve stayed longer in Dawson City than we originally intended.  Truth is, my back has been giving me fits.  Too many long, rough hours in the car, I guess.  That little Honda Fit is great for running around town and for short trips; it’s great for gas milage, but it’s not so comfortable for a long drive.  I just didn’t feel like I could take another gravel road right away, so we’ve taken our time in Dawson.

Before our trip on the Dempster, we stayed at Gold Rush RV Park.  It gets pretty good ratings, but we could never get level, so were very dissatisfied.  It’s big advantage is that it is located downtown close enough to walk to shopping, restaurants, etc.  There are three other campgrounds just out of town.  One is Bonanza Gold which also gets good ratings and seems to be very popular with RVers.  On the other side of the Klondike River is a Territorial Park--cheap, but no hook-ups.

Next door to Bonanza Gold is Dawson City RV which is where we’re staying.  It’s a very small park, but we have enjoyed staying here.  The roads and sites are all gravel and there are a few tent sites with trees and grass.  There are a variety of prices to choose from.  Full 30 amp hook-ups with cable and wifi is $35/night.  There are dry sites for $15 and 15 amp electric only for $21.  We started out with full hook-ups for two nights and were planning to leave after that.  When it became clear that I needed a little more time to recover, we moved to an electric only site.  We still have the wifi, showers, laundry, access to clean water and a dump station, and enough electricity to keep the computers charged and run the coffee pot.  What more could a girl want?

Friday, I sent Gene out exploring on his own.  I was feeling some better yesterday, so after lunch we drove down Bonanza Creek Road to Number 4 Dredge.  The first phase of the gold rush era brought the prospectors with their picks, shovels, and tin plates.  The second phase was all about big dredges to scoop up the sand and rock and wash out the gold.  Number 4 Dredge was the largest in the area and is now preserved by Parks Canada.  The young ranger was full of information as well as enthusiasm and we enjoyed our tour of the dredge.

Today, we drove up Dome Road.  With a 360 degree view, this is the party place for tourists and locals at summer solstice.  No party there today, however.  There were a few folks up to take in the view and a few more to take advantage of a beautiful day and float on the winds.

We also toured the SS Keno.  The Keno was one among many sternwheelers making the journey between Whitehorse and Dawson City during the Gold Rush era.  These vessels carried a few passengers, but were used primarily to transport supplies.  Along with their own cargo, they often acted like a tug and pushed two or three barges ahead of them.  Our guide, Fred, dressed in period costume, was very knowledgeable and happy to answer Gene’s many questions.  A similar vessel, the SS Klondike, is open for touring in Whitehorse.  We did that tour on our previous trip and, of the two, it’s better.

Number 4 Dredge and SS Keno are both Parks Canada facilities. There is an admission fee for both, but we used our Parks Canada annual pass which we purchased way back at Kootenay.  We got that pass because we planned to visit several parks on this trip and figured we would come out ahead with the annual pass rather than paying for individual entry fees.  I think the pass was $137, but we have already recouped that amount.  We were really surprised it was good for the attractions in Dawson City.  The SS Keno and the Number 4 Dredge would have cost $26 had we not had the pass.

I’m feeling much better today and our plan is to leave Dawson City tomorrow morning and finally cross the border into Alaska.  Our destination tomorrow, after a 100 miles of gravel road, is Chicken, Alaska.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Dawson City, Yukon

We’ve been resting in Dawson City from our drive on the Dempster Highway.  That drive really did a number on my back, so I haven’t felt perky enough to do much sightseeing around town.  Gene went exploring on his own yesterday.  Here’s his story.

Toured a little of Dawson City.  Parks Canada has several historic sites here, there is a large, active City of Dawson Museum.  Several buildings dating back to the 1901-1908 heyday including some twisted and swaying from permafrost thawing beneath them when they were heated and occupied.

Robert Service cabin

Judi wanted me to write about the Robert Service cabin.  The cabin is a small log cabin of two rooms with a wooden floor and dressed wooden walls.  The floor was covered in the day with painted canvas.  The best thing about it was the sod roof.

Jack London cabin

I saw 3 such cabins (sod roof that is) on Eight Avenue…Service, Jack London and another private home.  Service’s cabin is on its original site while London’s cabin was moved to Dawson from out in the bush where the Palmer River flows into the Klondike River.  London actually lived in it a year trying to strike it rich as a miner, and it was very basic.

Service arrived in 1908 and left 1912.  He was already a successful writer and journalist.  His verse was aimed at the mass market and tapped into a new, growing wave of “popular literature” that was being peddled in cheap magazines of the era.  Service did not claim to write poetry but verse.  He liked to inject humor and have a catchy phrase that could be quoted by his readers.  Some critics called his writings doggerel.

Service arrived after the gold rush (pick, shovel, sluice box) when the big machinery (dredges) and wage labor miners were the main players.  His stories were based on the tales told him by the locals.  Some of the tales were even true to a certain degree.  He left when signs of obvious decline in the town were becoming evident.  His abandoned cabin immediately became the largest tourist draw in the Yukon.

Leaving in 1912, Service never had the opportunity to meet Ruby.  Ruby purchased a boarding house down the street from the bank.  (Coincidence?)  She had been a madam in Paris, Honolulu and elsewhere before arriving in Dawson City.  She was soon up to her old “tricks”.  From 1923 to 1961 Ruby ran her establishment with the city government and the RCMP looking the other way.  Many believed such services were required for the miners working the dredges in the summer season.  The miner received $5 for a 12 hour shift, while Ruby’s house charged the same $5 for a single encounter or $20 for a full evening of companionship.  In 1961 the town charged Ruby with running a riotous house to which she pleaded guilty.  She ceased operations but still holding the boarding house license the building was returned to its original purpose.  Her 1923 boarding house license ($50) is on display.  She never retired and died at age 84.

In fairness I should note that Bombay Peggy had a similar establishment in the north end of town.  That building has been moved downtown a couple doors down from Ruby’s.  Bombay Peggy’s has been turned into a quite nice inn and pub.

During the gold rush not only were some ladies gold diggers, Frank Ladue had a house on Front Street.  He converted it to a saloon and restaurant in 1908.  He charged for a meal of beans, stewed apples, bread and coffee $5.  (Does that number sound familiar?)  The same meal in Seattle would be, at that time, 15 cents.  He sold out after 18 months and returned to NYC with $90,000 to marry his childhood sweetheart.  We had a dinner of fish and chips there on Thursday evening.  Excellent!

For the record there were 4 people involved in the original discovery of gold in Bonanza Creek.  Yukon Charlie, Socum Jim, the other guy, and the wife of one of the 3 men.  (Can you tell I am doing this from memory? )  No one knows for sure which of the 4 actually found the gold first.

So that’s Gene’s story.  There’ll be more on Dawson City in another post.

66 Degrees, 33 Minutes

Here’s part three of this saga.

Like the sign says over the front door of the hotel at Eagle Plains, this was truly an oasis in the wilderness.  And they had everything a weary traveler would want.  We were looking for a campground and they had one, sort of.  It was just a gravel lot with a few picnic tables and electrical hook-ups.

Since we had a tent, we pulled into one of the three spaces for tents.  It was fine; we really didn’t need much.  Gene pitched the tent and I arranged the stuff in the car so Peanut and I could sleep.

I’ve slept in some pretty rough spots, but the back end of a Honda Fit with a litter box may the all time record worst.  Peanut didn’t know quite what to think.  He chose to sit on top of the litter box and look out the windows all night.  Gene had more room and no litter box smell, but his air mattress had developed a leak and wouldn’t stay inflated.  He had a pretty rough night, as well.

By morning, we were both wondering if 5 more days of this was really worth it.  For the last 100 miles of our drive the previous day, there had been hardly any scenic appeal.  The most beautiful part had been the first 100 miles.  We were also disappointed in not seeing wildlife that first day.  Then there was the rain which wasn’t supposed to be. Everybody had said don’t drive the road in the rain.  My back was beginning to give me fits again and riding, and especially sleeping, in the car was most uncomfortable.

There were a couple of guys camped next to us from Ontario. They were on their return trip from Inuvik.  Gene spoke with them at length about road conditions, what to expect in Inuvik, scenery between Eagle Plains and there.  They didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm about their trip there.

We finally decided just to drive the 20 miles or so north to the Arctic Circle and then turn around and head for home.  The Arctic Circle was the main goal anyway.

We packed up the car then drove over to the gas pumps for fuel. They had every kind of fuel you might want from jet 2 fuel to home heating oil.  They had it all and it was all sitting in tanks above ground.  We got our 6 gallons of unleaded regular gasoline and turned north on the Dempster.

The twenty miles from Eagle Plains to the Arctic Circle reenforced our decision to turn around.  The scenery was not spectacular enough and the road was too rough to make driving an additional 400 miles worthwhile.  We just weren’t having that much fun.

I’m so glad we went to the Arctic Circle.  That was fun.  We got out and made the pictures and looked all around.  As far away from civilization as we were, there were still 4 cars there at the time we were.  A regular rush hour at the Arctic Circle.

We were happy to be heading south again.  It didn’t take long to get back to Eagle Plains. Gene wanted another cup of coffee so we went in the restaurant for that.  I browsed the tiny gift shop.  When we were ready to leave, Gene couldn’t find his keys to unlock the car.

I had been driving, so my keys were in my pocket; we weren’t locked out of the car.  We searched in pants pockets and coat pockets.  We drove back up to the campsite, but no luck there.  Back to the bathroom, but again no luck.  We went back to the gas pumps and looked around--nothing.  Gene went into the hotel to ask if keys had been turned in and then went down to the restaurant to look around.  He came up empty handed everywhere he went.  I scooted around in the seat for something and, low and behold, there they were.  I guess it just goes to show how uncomfortable sitting in the car is, if I didn’t realize I was sitting on a wad of keys.  With that mystery solved we got under way again.

The drive back was stressful.  It rained almost all day which didn’t make the driving any easier.  It was a good thing we had had some sun the previous day, because we had hardly any views this day.  The highlight of the day was seeing mom bear with her cubs.  That was pretty special.

We had left the motor home in storage at Dempster Corners.  That was a blessing.  We were surely glad to see home just waiting for us.

The folks at Dempster Corners were very nice.  The storage charge was $10 per night.  Gene paid in advance for 6 nights.  The owner refunded us $40.  We had an outstanding breakfast at the restaurant on Thursday morning.  We would have stayed an extra day in their campground, but they only had 20 amp electrical hook-ups.

They had a car wash.  Every place here has a car wash--a car wash and a tire repair shop.  Gene washed most of the mud and black goo off the car, then we drove back to Dawson City for a full service campground for a few days of sightseeing.

That’s the end of my tale about our drive up the Dempster Highway.  Thanks for tagging along.