I wrote this last night but couldn’t get it to upload. It may look a little strange but I will fill in some gaps and add a little of today’s activity.

We are in Dawson City, Yukon Territory tonight. It is raining a little, I have good WiFi but to be honest I was too tired or maybe lazy to get the laptop out of the car.

I think we had just got to Fairbanks when we last talked. We really enjoyed our time there.

Monday we took a flight up to Coldfoot, a little place on the Dalton Highway, about 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Since we were in the neighborhood we caught a van driven by one of, those kids I talked about last time, this one a University of Georgia student from Atlanta. A very personable and knowledgeable young lady spending her summer living in a tent and explaining the far north to old geezers like me.

She drove us thirteen miles up the road to Wiseman. A small village with only thirteen residents. Their claim to fame: they are permanent residents, they don’t go south when the snow flies. Jack, one of the residents, gave us an excellent presentation on the history and lifestyle of Wiseman.

The flight, much to my surprise, was very scenic. I don’t know why, but I was expecting to see a bunch of frozen tundra. I think that starts another hundred or two miles up the road.

Tuesday was a rainy day in Fairbanks. Patty has this unique ability to find a museum on rainy days. She did good this time; we spent most of the day in the Museum Of The North on the campus of The University of Alaska Fairbanks. I don’t know if I should be concerned or proud, but I am beginning to enjoy the museum visits. Never too old to grow.

Last night we were in Tok, Ak; it is just a small town on the Alaska Highway. We just needed an overnight stop and that is about all Tok has to offer. The motel did provide a presentation by Hugh Neff, a musher, he has competed in the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest for several years, winning the Quest one time. Patty may correct me on this, she pays more attention to those things than I do. He gave an interesting and informative presentation.

I made a mental note at Tok. Don’t stay at a motel / RV park combo; those RV folk get up real early and are kind of noisy.

To say the run from Tok to Dawson was scenic and interesting would be an understatement on both counts. The only things between the two are Chicken, AK and a shared U. S. And Canadian customs facility in the middle of nowhere.

We were expecting asphalt roads with some stretches of gravel. We found mostly gravel with a little asphalt. We drove the Taylor highway the first sixty miles to Chicken and The Top Of the World highway the final 120 miles from Chicken to Dawson.

The view was really kind of breathtaking almost the entire route. I really can’t confirm that for the last twenty or so miles, all we saw was dense fog and rain. Also, they need more gravel on the road, it was pretty muddy.

We arrived in Dawson via a free ferry ride across the Yukon river. The streets in Dawson could also use a little more gravel, they are pretty muddy. Maybe some sunshine tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Chicken is not a good place to have a flat. They sell a lot of T shirts and other stuff, they have two or three cafés but they don’t fix flats. They did have an air hose and the souvenir shop sold those seven dollar tire plug kits for $29.95. Got her fixed good enough for that 120 mile run and we didn’t have to unload the car and put the spare on. It may be flat tomorrow but I think they fix flats here.

Update: Patty had a picture of the service station where I did the self help tire repair. Darned WiFi the pic just won’t work. It is worth a look I will get it in someday.

They fix flats here in Dawson but the guy that does them is on a service call and won’t be back until noon tomorrow; he is probably gone to Chicken to fix a flat.

Update continued: We had a slow, relaxing but good day in Dawson. I will remember it as the neat little town with boardwalks, no curbs and no pavement except for the highway from Whitehorse.

We took a guided walking tour of the town. Our guide, Justin, is another of those, here because he wants to be guys. He did an excellent job and seemed to enjoy himself.

Dawson sits at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon rivers and dates back the the discovery of gold in 1896.

Thanks for listening, I kind of needed to unwind a little tonight. Maybe some pics in a day or two.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave and Patty