Chapter 5

 29 June 2015
 My how time flies when you get old. Not only that, I get less done in the same amount of time.

 Dawson City, yes, Dawson City just like in the old days. Wood sidewalks, free parking on the street, all dirt streets except the main highway, which is state owned not the town. They had a big fight with the state on paving it, to which the state would not concede, but did agree to put a special additive in the asphalt to make it look like dirt. I guess that’s called a partial win for the town. Canada Parks is buying up the old buildings and rehabbing them and selling or leasing them. So the town is looking good and like it did in the early 1900’s. We took a bunch of pictures, shopped some, and saw the sights. Oh, speaking of sights, we got to see what the miners liked to see. One night, we headed into Diamond Tooth Gertie’s. This place is the casino, roulette, black jack, bar, and entertainment center of Dawson City. That night it wasn’t burlesque, but the best girlie show I’ve seen. Those gals could sing, shake it all, and seemed to keep their frilly dresses over their head a lot of the time. It was can-can to the highest extreme.

 We ate out a lot at the local eateries, and one day they had a Commissioners Tea at the former Commissioners home when Dawson City was the capitol before it was moved to Whitehorse. Did you follow that, anyway we missed the tea party and was having dinner that evening . As we were waiting for our food, a gentleman and 3 ladies sat next to us. I say gentleman and ladies because they were all dressed in period dress from the early 1900’s. The ladies had on frilly formal dresses and the man had period suit with tophat and was wearing 4 or 5 medals on his chest. We thought they were locals who were going to attend the Commissioner’s Ball that evening. We engaged in conversation of what serving size of fish they offered and other food choices. Somehow the conversation turned, that Yukon had no Capitol building. The gentleman said if we stopped by the Legion in Whitehorse, he would show us around the building where the legislative assembly met. Ellen said “And who should we ask for, at the legion?” He handed me his card, and his wife said “ I don’t want to hear of this hanging on any bathroom walls”. The gold card reads, “Honourable David Laxton, Speaker, Yukon Legislative Assembly. After reading it, I did the only honorable thing I could think of, I said if you get to Maine, you’re invited to a real Maine lobster dinner at our place.

 We took a walking tour of the town with one of the local gals of the evening, who was dressed in all of her finery. She told local stories of the doings during the hayday of Dawson, which were colorful and funny and interesting. We also got to enter a few of the old buildings. I also got my stage debut when we went to a show about the early settlers and their accomplishments, and I was selected to accompany one actor as his accomplice in supporting his case, as to why he was the most influential person in the town. Apparently I didn’t do so well because the audience picked another actor and accomplice as winners.

 Now it was time to make the big move to Alaska, Chicken was the first stop. To get there, first you ferry across the Yukon River, drive the 100 plus miles on mostly a narrow dirt road. They may have widened it since we were across it in 2012 but they didn’t put up guard rails or rocks or anything to stop you from falling down the side of the mountain for 1000 feet. Unlucky or lucky for us, Chickenstock was Friday and Saturday, and this was Sunday. We met a few Chickenstock partiers on the drive over but arrived safely. Chickenstock is a takeoff from Woodstock I think. A lot of bands playing all kinds of music. We have met two of the bands that played, one was a quartet of electric guitar type music and the other an old man who played a washtub with string tied to a hockey stick handle braced against the tub. He strummed the string while changing the tension on the hockey stick. Chicken could be a destination if music is your thing and your music appreciation is varied. Chicken is made up of three areas. Town of Chicken comprises of three buildings, one is new with a small eating area inside. Another is a very small gift shop, and the main building is gas station, gifts and RV park headquarters. Chicken Gold Camp is one building, serving food, RV park and recreational mining and a dredge. Downtown Chicken has one long building consisting of a mercantile emporium, saloon, café, and liquor store and offers free RV parking. What else do you need for the population of 23 people? I think this is enough chicken information for one sitting so I’ll move along, just as we did on our way through Tok , Delta Junction, the end of the Alaska Highway, through the burn area around Dot Lake, and now at Fairbanks.

 Stay out of the hot sun and enjoy summer.
 P.S. The days are getting shorter here.

       Big Easter Egg 

  Us at NWT Border. 

 Some Bison on road in Wood Buffalo Nat Park, NWT 

 The Speaker of Legislative Assembly and others at Commisioners Ball 

 Examples of huge fields in Alberta, Canada

Chapter 4

June 18

It’s been a while but NOW we have water, elec, and telephone service so I can use myhotspot.  South of Yellowknife, all asphalt road for close to 300 miles. Not much to see but woods and a few black bears and bison.  We stayed the night at Fort Providence witha population of 750. The next day it was 200 miles of dirt road to Fort Simpson, population of 1250.  We took a guided tour of the town with a young 1st nation girl, who had grown up in a village 65 miles off the dirt road, which was accessable only in the winter because it was through a swamp and over many lakes. Anyway, the towns claim to fame was a visit from Pope John Paul in 1987.  His seat of honor was a chair made from moose antlers, which he used and now sits in the visitor center.  Next day another nearly 200 miles of dirt road when “EUREKA”, “I Have Found it”, theborder of NWT and BC.  Asphalt again all the way to the ALCAN Highway.  Now the discussion begins, should we go east and backtrack to Ft Nelson for the night or continue west to the next campground.  My logic says we go west, since the 18 miles back to Ft Nelson would equal 36 miles further west towards Alaska. My other half says “Fort Nelson has a campground with all utilities and a restaurant.”   “Besides we’ve traveled over 6000 miles and an extra 18 miles backtracking won’t make any difference.”  I put up a shallow defense but gave in to her logic.  We arrived with the dirtiest rig in the campground and spent two days cleaning everything including ourselves.

Now it was up the road to Watson Lake, home of the sign forest.  A quick look and there it was, our license plate, RUG HKR, which we had attached to a post 3 years ago.  It was shinning brightly among the other 75,000 signs.  On the road again to Whitehorse, a couple of black bears, some Stone Sheep in the road, and a quick tour of the sternwheeler “Klondike” and on to gold country and Dawson City.  Fueled up at Dawson City and headed up the Dempster Highway to theArctic Circle.  Oh Yes, another dirt road, with water and calcide to keep the dust down in places, but makes black mud and an oily film on everything.  We spend the night at a campground and leave early, I mean really early, three o’clock early, the next morning, in just the truck and head for the arctic circle.  We get to the gas station at Eagle Plains before it opens and I’m low on fuel, but it’s only 18 more miles to the circle, so we push on.  We do our thing at the sign, pictures and all and head back to the gas station.  The low light comes on, but I know we are going to make it.  Now it’s 7:30 and the station is still closed so we eat some breakfast at the motel. Best pancakes ever.  Now why would anyone build a motel with restaurant and gas, 200 miles up a dead end dirt road and expect to make a living?  The gas station opens up at 8:00, we fuel up and return to Dawson City.  We did see 4 stone sheep and one young, but the prize was a wolf walked out in front of the truck, but went into the woods before we could get the camera ready.  It’s just amazing to me the distances between fuel and eating places on many of the roads in NWT, Yukon and B.C.    I’m going to close this off for now and finish later.  We are in Fairbanks, AK.Cheers,    and Keep Trucking,      Steve

Chapter 3

June 1
I’mmm backkk!!!   Had to wrestle the computer from Ellen cause she said no more stories like last time.  I guess that means I have big sister looking over my shoulder and censoring everything I write from now on.  I’ll just sneak into the men’s room and get this done.  Now where were we?

From Falher north we had lots of big fields again.  They are stripping the woods and burning all the stumps and making grain fields.  The earth is good and black and looks like it will grow anything.  After 200 or so miles we stopped at High Level, big town of 3600, and camped.  After that it was woods, woods, and more woods.  Afternoon we entered North West Territories.  Everyone gets their picture taken at the 60th Parallel and we were no exception.  Nightfall found us at Twin Falls Gorge Territorial Park.  Their claim to fame is a pair of waterfalls, hence the name, Louise  Falls has a 50 foot drop and her sister Alexandra has a drop of 108 feet which I believe is greater than Niagara Falls.

Anyway we were now officially in NWT.  Wood Buffalo National Park, home of the wood buffalo, cousin to the plains buffalo, and nesting ground for the whooping crane, was our destination. We stayed just outside the park at Fort Smith.  Fort Smith is also home to the smart black bear.  Our host told stories of bears climbing up high power lines, 40 – 50 feet, and raiding the raven’s nests in the top.  They open 4 wheelers gas tanks and sniff the gasoline to gethigh, and even have learned to open car doors, and outhouse doors by turning the doorknob.  She also watched one try to open the bear proof garbage containers  by putting its paw in the slot but was unable to lift it up because it was sitting on the top of the lid.     While at Ft Smith, we did see one whooping crane at the salt plains.

We are now in Yellowknife NWT.  Been to a couple museums, ate at some pricyrestaurants, they’re all pricy, and did a little exploring around the countryside.  On the trip up Ingraham Trail, a dirt road, we came to the end of the road, which was thebeginning of the road across the water for the “Ice Road Truckers”.  While taking pictures of the sign, a pick-up stopped by and 4 people got out.  Turned out the man, John, and his wife were showing his parents where he drove the road to the Diamond Mines.  He had started as a driver for the transport company and now is Head of Operations.  His wife is a dispatcher for the company.  The primary purpose of Ice Road Truckers is to haul fuel to the diamond mines.  There are 3, soon to be 4 mines to the north some 400 plus miles.  They transport all the fuel needed for the mines for a full year during the winter months.  In 6 to 8 weeks, running constantly, they move nearly 200 million liters of fuel across the ice.  It takes 2 days to make the trip, first an eight hour day and seven the next.  Four vehicles go as a convoy every 20 minutes.  The weight of the loaded trucks cause an under ice tidal wave to move out in front of them. They have to slow to a crawl when meeting another truck because of the two waves under the trucks colliding might cause the ice to crack. Also when coming to land they make a turn so the water will surge harmlessly toward shore before they exit the ice.  He was super interesting and I would have liked to have heard more of his stories.

So far we have counted a dozen black bear, 30 or 40 bison or Wood Buffalo, 3 rabbits and  one very dead moose. It’s hard to tell when the day ends and morning begins because it’s twilight and predawn all night.

We are heading south tomorrow 6/2, because this is the end of the road north, and then go west to Ft Liard. From there it’s the Alcan Highway and “North To Alaska”.Keep warm, or keep dry, and I’ll keep in touch.    Steve

Chapter 2

May 22

Chapter 2

As the soft sun slowly crept through the partial closed blinds, I lay next to my beautiful wife. She opened her eyes and seeing me, she leaned over and gave me a light kiss. I knew this was going to be a great day as I slowly ran my hand over her naked WHOA, WHOAAA, WHOAAAAAA. What could I be thinking, this is a nonfiction adventure not a romantic love novel. So here I am sleeping on the couch and a couple of feet away is Ellen sleeping on the table/bed. She says “Better get up, we have to travel another 250 to 300 miles again today”. So by 8:30 after eating we left Thief River Falls and headed for the Canadian border. The border guard at the small, low volume crossing, had drunk his morning coffee and needed some small conversation to get his morning going. It was the normal “Where were you born?” “Where are you going?” “How long will you be in Canada?” With each answer we gave, the longer the delay before the next question. Finally it was “Have a nice day”.

On to Winnipeg and a stop at the Canadian mint. We arrived at the mint a minute late for the tour, but the nice lady rushed us to catch the group just before they closed the door for the start. It was very interesting tour and all the coins for Canada are minted there along with coins for 75 other countries including the USA. Most coins for the US are commemoratives. Each coin is struck 2 times and the output is something like a zillion a minute or some amazing figure. Canada was the first to make colored coins but on the first issues it slowly rubbed off. They fixed that by enameling the color to the metal. As I recall, the loonie was not to be the design of the one dollar coin, it was of two explorers paddling a canoe. The sample issue and cast were sent to Ottawa for approval but was lost and never found. The loonie was the second design and is still being used. If you find the explorers cast and make your own coins everyone will know they are counterfeit. No free samples were given but lots to look at and admire.

At Regina, Capitol of Saskatchewan, we went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police museum. There were interesting facts and artifacts on the RCMP with a sergeant’s parade at 12:45. We had our passes and were prepared to watch them, when they announced it was cancelled for the day. Our luck was not as good as with the mint. We spent the next morning roaming around the countryside and seeing backcountry and finding some birds. The afternoon was spent touring the legislative building. It had lots of marble with a British influence.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan are HUGE grain producing provinces. The fields must be 300 to 500 acres easy. And the equipment is HUGE too. Lots of equipment dealers with millions and millions of dollars of inventory.

Now has anyone seen the world’s largest Easter egg? We’ve got a check mark next to that item on the bucket list. It can be found in the little town of Vegreville, Sk. Weighing over 3000 lbs and standing 31 feet high. They call it a pysanka, and even the queen of England came to Canada to dedicate it. I sure hope we don’t run into the chicken that laid it.

We are now in Falher, Alberta. A nice city park. Folks around here should call it Paradise or Eureka. Not much to see but HUGE, there goes that word again, grain fields and oil wells. Many fields have oil wells in their HUGE fields. This central Canada area must be one golden wave of grain during harvest. Tomorrow 5/21, we head north again and again I expect to travel through trees but have been wrong before. Internet is sketchy so I have resorted to typing offline and add as an attachment. Let me know if there is something I’m doing wrong if you don’t get it. On the other hand, if you don’t get it, you won’t know I sent it. Anyway, it’s now almost 10:00 and the sun is still up and should set soon. It was nice today got up to 75 or so and sunny and we did a little birding.

May The Force Be With You. Steve

Chapter 1

May 12

Introduction:  Two older senior citizens serving no useful purpose in life except enjoying their retirement.

Chapter 1. It was dark that early morning of 5 May 2015 when she reached over and shook me and said "Quick, wake up, we should be leaving soon." The temperature was going to be a balmy 60 degrees instead of the past 40's and 50's. Considering we were part of the lucky people who got to spend the 2014/2015 winter in Maine with well over 100 inches of snow, we felt deserving of a trip in the summer to exotic places like Northwest Territories and even Alaska. We were ready and packed except for the last minute items to put in the camper. Now why is it that the last minute things take at least 2 hours to accomplish?  Anyway we were on our way by 9:45 with the sun shining.

All was uneventful that day as we traveled through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and into New York and stopped at Walmart in Malone NY.  As we rode along that day, I thought a heard a whine coming from the engine. So in the morning I'd considered buying a belt tensionerpulley just in case.  Instead to the GM dealer we went and left a couple of hours later with two new engine belt tensioners and we were on our way. One happened to be the same one we had replaced 363 days  before and was covered by warranty, so my total cost was reasonable. 

We crossed into Canada at Cornwall and days later crossed back into the U.S. at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.  The normal questions at customs like, "Do you have anything to declare, tobacco, alcohol, weapons, drugs."  "How much money  are you carrying?"  "Any fruits or Vegetables"  I answered politely, "No" to appropriate questions and minimal money. Ellen said we had lettuce, onions and some grapes. but nothing with seeds and all bought in the U.S. To this the response was "Could I have the keys to the camper?" So handing her the keys, she spends some time inside, doing whatever customs people do, and exits waving two bags with vegies inside, one with grapes and the other a slice of green pepper.  "These grapes came from Chile, and this pepper doesn't have a sticker country of origin."  So these two old people looked like drug smugglers, but all that could be confiscated was two small bags of vegies.

Into Michigan we go, a stop at Seney Nat Wildlife Refuge and a new life bird for us, the Trumpeter swan. An overnight side trip to visit camping friends Dale & Betty, whom we haven't seen since 2009. Had a wonderful time. Now we sit in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.  

Ellen woke up with a cold nose this morning, a sure sign summer has not found this place yet.  The thermometer held at a solid 32 degrees. In spite of the chilly start we went to Agassiz Nat Wildlife Refuge and with my charm I managed to sweet talk the ranger lady into letting me have the keys to all the locked gates, so we went where others didn't normally get to go. No phone for a while.

Tomorrow it's off to Canada, Winnipeg, and beyooooond.

       Steve