Yesterday, we drove from Haines Jct in the Yukon up to Tok, AK. We’re finally in Alaska. There have been times when we didn’t think we’d ever make it. When we weren’t sure we’d trust out RV to go further into Alaska where service might be harder to get and only wanted to head back to the states. When we thought that this Alaska adventure might not be ours this year. I’ll have to admit that I got a bit down about it all.
However, here we are. We had a smooth drive from Haines Jct to Burwash Landing and then we got to drive the worst 100 miles of road in the North American continent. AGAIN. It’s not as if they don’t work on it to make it better and smoother but as I mentioned before it is built o permafrost, and it’s difficult to build stable roads that can carry semis, RV’s and cars on ice. 45% of this road is filled with potholes, frost heaves and uneven patching. 45% is where the current construction is and is covered with gravel and rock. Oh, yeah, there is about 10% which is good road. And I don’t want you to think that I am complaining about the continual effort to make the road the best that it can be. They do work hard but it’s impossible to make this 100 miles of road good all the way.
That’s just the way it is. If you want to get to Alaska, you either put up with this or take an alternate route which - guess what - is not any better. So , there you go. Batten down the hatches and drive slowly.
Which we did.
Then, wonder of wonders, we got to Discovery Yukon RV, the furthest north we got the first time we went this way - before we were towed back to Whitehorse. We stopped in to say ‘hi’ to Amanda the owner and let her know the rest of our story and then we headed on.
The views were stupendous as we drove along.
But, it’s things like this that make us stop and stare. No one else around. This was all ours.
We saw these interesting churches made out of cquonset huts left over from the building of the Alaska Highway. pretty clever.
We crossed the border about 2:00 where we got our picture taken - by another tourist who had stopped to get pictures taken also. We must have taken pictures of 3 families as we were there reading all the informational posters.
This is looking south down the border
And this is looking north - as far as the eye can see - and even further.
Note the border marker - and - the straight line through the meadow, the forest and the rock for thousands of miles. This is the border and crews try to keep it cut down. But, this is a long border between two very friendly nations so there isn’t a desperate need to make it perfect.
Of course, we had to stand in different countries.
We crossed the border again and were back in America.
We stopped at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge to peek at their displays and to get an better idea of all the birds that pass through here. Moose and bear are two. These prints are bigger than Gary’s head.
Finally, we landed in Tok and - first thing to do is wash the RV and the car. 45 minutes later, we were a bit cleaner but not as clean as I like to be. I like a sparkly RV and car but have given that goal up on this trip. Not gonna happen. We gave them good washes and waxes back in Washington state and will do it again when we return to Iowa in September. A lick and a promise is what we gave them here but the do look much better and have regained a bit of their shine.
Then we found our site and parked. Remember several days ago the Gary helped a guy, Rich, in another Winnebago find a leak in his hot water heater? Well, they were at the same campground and actually in the row in back of us. Melinda, the wife brought over a huge crockpot of chicken noodle soup with several rolls from the dinner that they and their group had just finished. Oh, wow, hot, delicious and I didn’t have to cook it. What treat. What thoughtfulness. It went down so well. We were full.
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