Barbara with "Chicken on the hill"

 I can feel it in my nuggets.

Welcome to Alaska

End of the Alaska Highway

Where's thetraffic?

Saturday 7/27/13

Surprise, I was able to get on line. This morning we visited the Museum of the North at Alaska University. Very informative as to the early times in Alaska. As with all of the museums we have visited we haven't had enough time to see everything. After lunch we went on a river cruise on board the Discovery III. Along the way, we stopped at a sled dog training facility and an Indian village. Got back to the campground around 5:15, had a travel briefing and then had dinner in. Cooked large hot dogs on the grill. Tomorrow should be a really busy day for us. We leave at 8:45 AM  to go to the visitors center and an ice museum. We return to the campground around 3:15, then go to a salmon bake and a stage show. Back at 9:30 PM. Of course it won't get dark until around midnight as sunset is at 11:18 PM. I'll try once again to add some photos.

 Discovery III

 Bear at museum

 Duck and babies

 Sled dogs

 Indian Parka

Two rivers meeting

Moose (not alive)

University of AlaskaMuseum of the north

Friday 7/26/13

Well, here we are in Fairbanks, Alaska, after traveling from Tok. We survived the Top of the World highway and Chicken,AK. The Top of the World Highway is something we will always remember. It was literally on top of the mountains with steep up and down grades and steep drop offs. The roads in Canada were mostly dirt with gravel. We crossed the border into the U.S. and thought the roads would be better. WRONG!!! They were worse.The roads were mostly dirt with a few pieces of gravel once in a while. Pot holes that would swallow a smaller car than our CRV.Try dodging pot holes with a motor home while staying in the middle of the "road". After five hours of driving and 109 miles, we finally arrived in Chicken which has a population of 20 in the summer and 2 in the winter( the postmistress and her husband). We had dust and dirt covering the coach , car and inside of the outside cabinets. We raised the hood on the car and saw nothing but dust. The campground in Chicken was interesting. We had only electric hookup and that was 15 amp. Usually it's either 30 or 50 amp, so we had to conserve our electricity.They run two generators for the electricity. The next couple of days will be extremely busy plus it took me three hours of trying to get on line. What a pain. Enjoy the photos (I hope). Nope, I tried to upload photos but, it wouldn't do it. Wifi my butt.

Tuesday 7/23/13

Tonight will be our last night in Dawson City. What an interesting town. No paved roads, old buildings and a sun that never seems to set. Right now it's light for 20 hours of the day. Yesterday we went to see a dredge that was used to mine gold. Quite an undertaking, getting the parts from Ohio to the Yukon and then assembling it outside of Dawson City. This morning we went to a place called "The Midnight Dome". It's an area high above Dawson City where you can see the northern lights at midnight. Unfortunately that happens in the winter time when it's dark most of the time so we won't get to see them. Tomorrow we head to Chicken, Alaska. All of the RVs will use the ferry to cross the Yukon River. The ferry can accommodate only two RVs at a time, so it will be slow going to get all of us across the river. There really isn't an alternative as it is quite a long distance to go around. We will be traveling along the "Top of the World" highway. This is a rugged narrow partially gravel road. So it will be slow going for about 45 miles. The trip will be a total of 109 miles. We are having a chicken hat contest in honor of arriving in Chicken. This trip has been interesting, educational and a lot of fun. I'm sure that I have left out a number of things we've seen or experienced. One sad note, traveling to Dawson City on Sunday, we saw a young bear that apparently just got hit by a car going in the other direction. The bear was laying in the southbound lane and as I passed it it sat up and then laid back down.
I'm going to try and attach some photos of the last few days.

Hopper on dredge

 Dredge sign

 #4 Dredge

Two wonderful people

Barbara & Jim on dirt road going to Diamond Tooth Gerties

Gigantic cinamon bun. Milk jug is half gallon and those are dinner plates.

 Downtown Hotel in Dawson City

Barbara at Dome sign

DomeSign Yukon River from Dome

Saturday 7/20/13

We leave tomorrow(Sunday) for Dawson City,YT for a three day stay, a 335 mile journey with portions having "frost heaves". That's when the permafrost raises or lowers the roadbed. In other words big bumps in the road that you can't see until you're upon them. Let's see, 335 miles at about 45 mph. Yep, we should be there sometime tomorrow. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that our left refrigerator door of our four door refrigerator/freezer, fell off. With help from Stu, the tail gunner, we got it somewhat fixed. Hopefully it will hold until we get home in only another 47 days. Friday we took a tour of the SS Klondike. It along with many paddle wheelers ran up and down the Yukon River during the 1920's and later. Prior to arriving in Whitehorse, we stopped at the Tlingit Heritage Center. This is a First Nation center with story poles (not to be confused with totem poles). We met an interesting woman there by the name of Margaret Douville. She makes and teaches how to make ceremonial items as well as boots and gloves(which sell for $1,000), Hopefully I will be able to upload some pictures.The sun has been setting later and later each day. It doesn't get dark until a little after 11 PM. Thank goodness for the night shades on our coach. I've been told that the wifi in Dawson City is not that great(what's new), so it might be a while before I'm able to add anything to the blog.

Barbara with Story Pole

Ceremonial Glove

Jim with Margaret Douville

Barbara and Howard by SS Klondike

Barbara in front of quilt shop in Whitehorse, YT

 Yukon River

 Barbara and Howard

 Flower growing in rock in gorge

Barbara on bridge over gorge

Gorge

SS Klondike

Barbara in the hot springs

Male Bison

Thursday 7/18/2013

Yesterday our travels took us to the Liard, BC.hot springs. The springs were very hot. I can only imagine what it would be like in the winter. During traveling we came across a herd of Bison. (Hopefully the pictures will show up). We also visited the Sign Post Forest (pictures also) you can't imagine how many signs there are. Today (Thursday) was a long but easy drive to Whitehorse, YT. Not much wild life, but we did see a dead snowmobile that someone left off the side of the road in a gully. We will be in Whitehorse for three days before moving on to Dawson City. We are still on the Alaska Highway. What a marvel, of course it's been up graded since it was built in 1942. It took them 8 months and 10 days to complete the 1500 miles. Shoot today we couldn't get approval in that length of time.

Barbara, Howar & Jim entering the Yukon Territory

Bison Herd

 Sign Post Forest

Jaguar Plate at the Sign Post Forest

More signs

Bison crossing roadin front of motor home

7/15/13

Well, here we are in Ft Nelson, B.C. Yesterday we were in Dawson City where mile post 0 is located for the Alaska Highway. We also went to a wild game farm and had a wild game dinner buffet. We had elk lasagna, sweet and sour pork and buffalo steak. It wasn't too bad. On the drive today we saw an elk with her calf. I have posted some pictures, but I can't label them. I also can't go back and insert or correct anything. The last entry I mentioned a black crossing the road. That should have been a black bear. It has been a very interesting trip with an activity almost every day.Tomorrow we head to Liard Springs where we will swim in the hot springs.

Friday 7/12/13

Well, here it is Friday. Sorry I haven't posted, but, wifi has been terrible. Let's see, since I wrote on last Saturday we have done quite a lot. We spent two complete days at the Calgary Stampede. The first day, Saturday, we watched bull, bareback and bucking bronco riding. On Sunday we again watched the riding in the morning followed by a buffet lunch at the Stampede. The late afternoon/evening we saw the chuck wagon races. After the races, the area was transformed into a giant stage. The stage show was fantastic. Even the group "Kiss" performed. After the show they put on one heck of a fireworks show. The next day, Tuesday we headed to Banff National Park. What a beautiful sight. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular. The two day we spent there awesome. We went to the city of Canmore where we ate lunch and found a headlight bulb for the motor home. Yep! we had one blow out. We also went to the town of Banff, where we had dinner at an Irish pub and walked around a little. We also drove up to the Banff Springs hotel. While at the hotel we also saw Bow river falls. At the camp site in Banff, electricity was the only hook up we had. After leaving Banff we drove to the Columbia Ice Fields. There we didn't have any hook ups. That afternoon, Wednesday the 10th, we took a coach ride up to the glacier. This is where we got on an "Ice Buggy" that took us to the glacier, where we actually walked on top of a 1,000 foot thick glacier. What an experience!!! The next day, Thursday, we headed to Hinton, Alberta. On the way we finally saw some wildlife besides pet rocks and bicyclists. A black crossed the road about 50 yards ahead of us as we were traveling. We also saw some Big horn sheep on the side of the road. Everyone was stopping which created quite a traffic jam. Today we are also in Hinton and decided to visit the Beaver Boardwalk. This was interesting as there was a boardwalk  and trails around the area where there are beavers. We didn't see any but, were able to see the dams along the lake.

Saturday

Well, here it is Saturday. We had a busy day seeing the Calgary Stampede. It was just like the ones you see on TV. Bucking broncos, barrel racing, bull riding and more. Yesterday (Friday) we watched the Stampede parade in downtown Calgary. It lasted two hours, thank goodness we had reserved seating. After the parade we visited Heritage Park, a quaint town set in the 1910's. Hopefully I can upload some pictures. Tomorrow (Sunday) we spend the whole day at the Stampede. They have shirts that say "Stampede 101 come hell or high water".High Water is a town just outside of Calgary that was flooded a ;little more than two weeks ago. The shirts will help raise money for the rebuilding. So far they've sold 100,000 shirts at $20 each. Of couse we bought two.We leave the campground at 10:30 AM and return at 12:30 AM Monday morning. Talk about a long day. We then leave later Monday for Banff where we only have electric hook up. We will spend two days there before moving on to the Columbia Ice Fields. We won't have any hook ups there. We will be in a parking lot and can run our generator some. There isn't internet in either of these two stops, so I will have to make it up when we get to Hinton. It is 9:45 PM and the sun is still shining.

 This is a picture of some of the flood relief workers.

 Mounties

 Heritage Park entrance sugn

 Heritage train

Old GasPumps