Alaska with the Stocks 2009

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May 29, 2009 DAY 7 Whitehorse, YT

The morning started out dreary, but when we spotted two caribou, all was great!  They quickly became camera shy, but Dean was quicker!  We were entertained for several miles by several hundred rock messages.  They were started in 1990 by a Fort Nelson swim team.  We also saw several inukshuks, stone cairns built by the Inuit as landmarks, and the symbol for the upcoming Vancouver Olympics.  I assume their pool must have been inside because at lunch when Dean went out to check the Jeep before we left our rest area, he could see his breath in the air?it is COLD! We still see many patches of snow by the side of the road. The low tonight will be plus 4? C. 
I knew we?d have to convert money, temperatures, and liters, but I didn?t know that we?d have to convert days into Canadian.  The Visitors Centre info and the Milepost said that the George Johnson Museum and Tlingit Heritage Museum would open mid-May, but when we got into Teslin, we discovered that they are cleaning in preparation for opening June 1. Betty suggested taking a boat ride at Lake Teslin?hard to do when it?s frozen over.  We sure do cover a lot of miles in a day when we aren?t slowed down by visiting places. Fortunately, our return trip takes us through this same area, so we will be patient (thanks, Jeff), and we will eventually get to see Teslin defrosted.
We found one place that was open?Johnson?s Crossing Campground, which has a tiny bakery and boasts the world?s best cinnamon rolls.  They were quite good, but not the world?s best.  We did learn there that this year they have had a very late winter, and they seem to date things from ?winter break-up?.
Whitehorse is a real city?a Walmart, activities that are open, entertainment.  Thanks, Russ, for the comment about Mexican food.  There was a sign for a Mexican restaurant as we approached Fairbanks, and I was thinking it sounded really good.  I?ll wait.

Wildlife Count:  2 caribou
Weather:  Cold with light showers throughout the day
Miles Driven:  306
Overnighted at:  Pioneer RV Park, FHU, 30 amps, TV, pull throughs less than perfect, but working
WIFI  $24.46 CN
Road Conditions:  Primarily smooth, 3-4 construction sections of about 2 miles each, a few small frostheaves

 

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Dean & Linda Stock said:
The Visitors Centre info and the Milepost said that the George Johnson Museum and Tlingit Heritage Museum would open mid-May, but when we got into Teslin, we discovered that they are cleaning in preparation for opening June 1. Betty suggested taking a boat ride at Lake Teslin?hard to do when it?s frozen over.  We sure do cover a lot of miles in a day when we aren?t slowed down by visiting places. Fortunately, our return trip takes us through this same area, so we will be patient (thanks, Jeff), and we will eventually get to see Teslin defrosted.

Linda and Dean,

Sorry things have been closed but I'm glad you wil return this way.  The Johnson Museum in Teslin was among the most inofrmative I've ever visited so  do plese try to get there when they are open.  You may just have to slow down a few days and wait for it to warm up and for you to rest.  You are making so  many miles you must be exhaused.  Your descriptions continue to be delightful.
Betty
 
Hi, Betty!
I really appreciate your comments.  We are looking forward to Fairbanks, and I have 20 things I want to do and see while we're here.  So, we've signed up to stay for 3 nights, and we'll stay until we've seen and done everything.  After days of nothingness, doing something sounds great!  Actually, we're not tired, though we did sleep in until 8.  We only drove about 7 hours yesterday.  We would have stopped sooner, but there was nothing to do but sit inside and look at each other.
 
Linda,

For your return trip stop in Whitehorse to visit the Beringia museum.  It's about when the Bering Sea was a landmass and there's a huge mastadon skeleton.  It's the only museum we've been in that features the really old Bering Sea area.  Next door is a big transportation museum that covers every kind of transportation up there including dogs.

Enjoying your trip right along with you.

ArdraF
 
May 30 DAY 8 Whitehorse, YT

We didn?t have to get up early to see the wildlife, and sleeping in felt great!  We haven?t needed blackout curtains yet, though it?s after midnight and still light.  Dean played with electricity all morning and will go to the RV repair shop on Monday.  Pioneer RV Park has many additional features, one of which is a mechanic on site.  He came by today and advised us for free.  They also have tickets for the major attractions, so you don?t have to go to the Westmark Hotel downtown. They are the only park with this benefit. They also have a car wash, RV wash, and a pet wash.  The car was so muddy we couldn?t see out the windows, so Dean invested $4 for 12 minutes of pressure wash, which made a world of difference.
We then went to the Visitors? Center and planned out tomorrow?s activities after seeing a short film about the Yukon.  The Visitor Centres in Canada have been wonderful!  They answered all our questions, even if they had to research the answers.
We needed groceries, so we went to the ?Superstore?.  Wal-mart here does not have fresh produce.  The prices were very high, but they do have to bring everything in from quite far away.  We ate dinner at Boston Pizza, and the food was good but pricy.  They have an extensive menu?ribs, many salads, salmon, delicious looking desserts.
Dean wanted to see ?Angels and Demons?, so we went to one of the 2 theatres here.  Each shows 2 different movies, so you have a choice of 4 movies.  The prices were comparable to the U. S.  The seats were comfortable, but the floor was sticky and missing carpet.
The prediction is for at least the next 6 days to be sunny!  Hurrah!

Wildlife Count:  0
Weather:  High of 56? F
Overnighted at:  Pioneer RV Park

 
3 days is not a lot of time for Fairbanks. Slow down and relax a bit.

Allow plenty of time for the return trip too, since you will want to sight-see more. Places along the Alcan Hwy will start to close down around Sept 1, so don't leave too late.  We found that gas stations and restaurants did not order any more supplies after early August and they simply ran out of things and closed the doors for the season when they didn't have enough left to bother to stay open.
 
May 31, 2009 DAY 9 Whitehorse, YT

Would you believe that little Whitehorse (population 24,000) has the world?s largest weather vane?  At the international airport there is an original Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-3 passenger plane mounted so perfectly on a pedestal that the slightest breeze causes it to swing around to point into the wind.  We met the man who designed it as he was working as a volunteer at the Transportation Museum restoring one of the early Fairchilds that were used to carry mail.  The people here are community spirited, and his son (who is a licensed airplane mechanic also) and a friend who was a pilot were working on it with him.  The Yukon Transportation Museum is a ?should see?.  Wear a jacket if the outside temp is low because part of it is in a large area that is expensive to heat, so they don?t.
We spent an entire day at the YTM and the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre, even skipping lunch because it was so interesting that we didn?t want to take time out.  We had never heard of Beringia before, and briefly, the idea of the little ?land bridge? of the archipelago Aleutians is not the primary way that people from Asia came to North America.  There was a whole big land mass the size of the United States that emerged during the Ice Age when sea level fell by 100 meters.  It was a grassland, which encouraged woolly mammoths, scimitar-toothed cats, antelope, bison, and rabbits to cross over and the hunters followed them.
They give visitors a lot of individual attention and our guide taught us how to use an atl-atl to increase the distance an a lance could be thrown.  This was an amazingly engineered device, which the First Peoples fit the lance into, and then with a flick of the wrist, the lance flew far.  They showed 2 very interesting films, followed by a Q & A session.  This museum is a ?must see?.
We spent quite a bit of time just chit-chatting with the Yukoners about what life here is like.  These people are hardy, have very closely-knit families, highly value education, love winter sports, and receive special treatment from the Canadian government.  They receive lots of money from the federal government and get to go to the head of the line when they go outside area hospitals.  They do not have long waits at all here locally at their doctors and hospitals.
We ate a quick dinner at the coach, and then drove into town to see the Frantic Follies Vaudeville Revue.  The performers were so talented?high kicking can-can girls, had rich singing voices, told great jokes in costume, played a whole variety of instruments, performed side-splitting skits, and at only $24.  I expected community theatre, but these were true professionals with extensive training, and this is a ?must see?.
We arrived home at 10:15.  It was 56?F and actually warm, not even a little bit cold.  Dean had to look west to check for traffic before making a turn, and we were both blinded by the SUN!  But, we are so glad to see it, and it?s supposed to shine for the next 6 days with no rain.  When we came, the Yukon was primarily a huge iceberg, and what a difference 2 days make. 
Tomorrow we visit the Jeep dealer and the RV repair shop.  I hope we have time to do more fun things, but, if we don?t, we will be back through here again on our way home.
A CORRECTION:  I learned from another RVer who?s staying at Hi Country RV Park that they also sell tickets to the tourist activities, so my other source was wrong.  There may be other RV parks that do, also.

Wildlife Count:  0
Weather:  Just perfect?probably low 70?s.
Overnighted at:  Pioneer RV Park

 

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Dean & Linda Stock said:
We are looking forward to Fairbanks, and I have 20 things I want to do and see while we're here. 
Oops!  I knew where I was, but I was planning for the future in Fairbanks, and my mind fast-forwarded.  We are in Whitehorse, and 3 days of sight-seeing is about right.  We've done a lot of "juiciest" activities, and we'll do more when we come back through.  When we get to Fairbanks, we are planning to spend about a week. 
 
Hi Linda & Dean,
    I am thoroughly enjoying your trip reports!! WRITE ON!!!!
                            All the best,
                                  Bonnie
 
Wendy said:
I love reading these Alaska blogs since we may never get there.

Wendy

Wendy:

Isn't there any Mystery Shopping that needs to be done up there?
 
Jeff said:
Isn't there any Mystery Shopping that needs to be done up there?

Tons, but not nearly enough to pay the gas to get all the way up there. It's a long way to Alaska, don't you remember??

Wendy
 
Linda, so glad you got to visit the Beringia museum and enjoyed it as much as we did!  When we were there they had a cafe where we ate lunch and had fireweed jelly which was really good.  But then, you're too early for fireweed and probably haven't seen it yet.  Stay long enough and you can't miss it!  ;)

You know that HUGE airplane weathervane?  Here's something for you to do on the way back through.  Drive your motorhome there and park under it.  Jerry got a cute photo of our previous Lazy Daze under the airplane and it looks like the airplane is perched on top of the motorhome.

Enjoying traveling along with you....

ArdraF
 
June 1, 2009 DAY 10 Whitehorse, YT

Dean was at the Jeep Dealer at 8 when it opened.  They couldn't find anything to cause the bad smell, said the oil in the transfer case was burned, and they changed it.  RV mechanics here charge $100/hr. so $200 later, Dean left.  RV Roamer suggested it could be the mud burning off under the car, and Dean thinks that is likely. I wished I'd checked for messages earlier! For future trekkers, the Pioneer Park has an under the car wash for $10, $190 cheaper.  We are poorer, but wiser.
Dean came home to work on the coach's inverter.  It turned out that our inverter needs a new card, which is being sent to us in the speediest manner possible.  Dean says installation will be a pain because it's in a hard-to-access place-isn't that always the case?
We did a little shopping downtown and enjoyed Murdoch's Gem Shop, a nice souvenir shop.  The Canadians are so accommodating, and the clerk really knew how to make me happy-she was so thoughtful and creative.  I'd say more, but it's a gift for someone who may read this.
Dean needed a special battery for his blood sugar meter, so we went from one end of the town to another, eventually finding it in a store that is on the outskirts of the city and is a subsidiary of Circuit City.
Then on to a much needed barber.  It was a shop used by the locals, and there were 3 Mexican women barbers.  It cost $19 CN ($1 CN = $0.95 US).
We drove to G & P, a restaurant recommended by the Brewers.  We would never have stopped to eat there (they had forewarned us); it looks old and dilapidated from the outside.  But, inside....very nice ambience, nice music, great waitress, awesome crisp Caesar salad with a delicious dressing-best I've ever had, tasty salmon special & lasagna, good-sized portions, but at $70, without wine and before tax, expensive.  After a "wasted day" as far as sight-seeing, we enjoyed treating ourselves to a very pleasant dinner.
When we arrived, the Yukon River was 95% frozen with cracks showing that the ice was well over 6" thick.  Now, it's almost half-thawed.  I bet that all the ice will be gone in 4-5 days.

Wildlife Count:  0
Weather:  Warm enough to use the AC-maybe low 80's, but it feels warmer here.
Overnighted at:  Pioneer Park

 

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Are the eagles nesting at the city welcoming sign pullout near the 2nd photo ( of the paddlewheeler)?
 
June 2, 2009 DAY 11 Whitehorse, YT

We took care of business today?laundry, bills, housekeeping, etc.  No package of RV parts had arrived by 2:30, so we went to the MacBride Museum and were so impressed that we stayed until it closed at 5:30.  The historical narratives they wrote were rich in content.  I especially enjoyed learning about the ?Northwest Yukon Mounted Police?, who were actually in the army and were sent here for a two-year stint.  They did everything from birthing children (with a miniscule amount of medical training), collecting taxes on the gold the miners had dug, putting out fires, building places to stay, chopping down trees, to helping organize the community.  Their pay was $1 per day; miners made $17-20 per day.  After serving their two-year contract, most left the forerunner of the Mounted Police and became miners.  The museum had many exhibits and personalized them with biographies and true stories.  I?d recommend everyone go see it.
After we closed down the museum, we went across the street to a wonderful gift shop named the North something. It is not like the touristy places we saw on Main Street; it has real class.  Everything was high quality.  There were exquisite wood carvings, mammoth ivory that had been intricately carved into earrings, pendants, and display pieces in the forms of moose, caribou, inukshuk, geese, and whales.  They had wonderful glass, great art, and nice gold pieces.  Everything is made in Canada, most in the Yukon.  And they give the true exchange rate on your money.
All the ice in the Yukon River has melted.  There still is ice on the land masses in the river still, but I?ll bet it?s totally gone in a couple of days.  Everyone who lives here is wearing shorts and tank tops and celebrating the beautiful weather.  Maybe we?ll get our RV parts tomorrow, so we can continue our adventure.

Wildlife Count:0
Weather:  Low 80?s
Overnighted at:  Pioneer Park

 

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