 |
| Sprinkles! |
 |
| Tommy, Mom, Trudy, Dad: clearly loving their gourmet feast. |
 |
| A Canada must... right? | |
As we headed
out of Whitehorse, Dad and I decided we needed to hit up Tim Horton’s for
breakfast once before we left Canada (even though my parents have one a few
miles from their house). We “took the scenic route” around town before ending
up back downtown to hit up the Tim Horton’s near the visitor center, which we’d
seen the day before. My goal was to use up as much Canadian money as I could,
so I bought breakfast for everyone. Desi and Tommy got donuts (D only ate the
sprinkles off and gave the rest to Tommy; good thing he’d already eaten
breakfast), Mom and I got bagels (I loved my pretzel bagel!), and Dad got a
breakfast sandwich and a donut. I also grabbed a box of donut holes to go and a
shot of espresso for a bit of energy. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, so the
caffeine in coffee really hits me. It was good.
 |
| Decent-looking roads; beware the frost heaves! |
 |
| Unbeatable views! Lake Kluane |
 |
| Unbeatable views! Lake Kluane |
The drive out
of Canada was long and arduous. Yukon’s road’s towards Alaska are the worst we
experienced. The pavement is damaged as a result of thawing permafrost and
results in something called frost heaves, bumps and waves in the roadway that
can be minor or quite large. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me anxious
to be riding an RV over the frost heaves. In my Outback, they wouldn’t have
been so bad, but RVs don’t provide the smoothest ride, plus there’s the nagging
fear in the back of your mind that they could flip, so it made for a long
drive. In addition, the road was gravel for a long portion, which made the
drive that much more unpleasant.
 |
| Vent experiment to reduce thawing that creates frost heaves |
 |
| Workers wetting the road to cut down on dust |
 |
| That's not scary at all |
 |
| And then the roads took a turn for the worst... |
A highlight of
the drive through the Yukon was the spot where we stopped for a picnic lunch
out of the camper. We stopped at Horseshoe Bay along Kluane Lake and it offered
an amazingly gorgeous mountain view. The sky was clear, the air was crisp, and
a simple sandwich never tasted so good. Desmond wanted to explore a bit, so we
hiked away from the camper and viewed the lake from a few other points while he
climbed on rocks and dug through the gravel.
 |
| Lunch at Lake Kluane |
Another
feature of note along the Alaska Highway, which started in Canada and continued
on into Alaska were rock messages. Apparently, they were started by a swim team
in the 1990s and people continue to put messages into the sides of the highway
with rocks. Usually, they are someone’s name or a location. My favorite was the
one that said, “ROCKS.” Haha.
 |
| Rock writing |
Our last stop
out of Canada was a place called Buckshot Betty’s. Dad wanted to try to run
through some of his Canadian dollars, so we all bought some ice cream bars and
ate them on the deck of the little log diner.
We jumped back
into the RV and headed to border crossing, which went smoothly and then we were
in Alaska! Immediately, the roads improved (although later we would experience
some construction and frost heaves; though none were as bad as the Yukon roads)
and I noticed some old telephone poles, which even had the old glass insulators
on them. I’ve never seen those in use; I was fascinated with their appearance
and couldn’t keep my eyes off of them.
 |
| Old insulators on telephone poles. Alaska... leading the future! |
We arrived at
our destination for the evening, Tok, Alaska, which is apparently the dog
sledding capital of Alaska because so many people in town are involved in the
activity. We saw no dogs and no sleds in Tok ourselves. We stopped at a liquor
store to pick up some wine and beer and as I complained to Dad about the
mosquito bites on my knees from Liard, a local commented that I’d been attacked
by their state bird. Hahaha.
The RV park we
stayed at had many other RVs from Great Alaskan Holidays who were part of our
caravan from Iowa. We couldn’t help talking to them when we ran into them. In
Whitehorse, we caught up with the couple from Ohio who we’d had dinner with the
first night. They had some trouble with the slide out of their RV popping all
the way out and had to duct tape it in place. We had the same problem, only,
thankfully, ours only came out about an inch; still more than I’m comfortable
with. Thanks, Obama. (Actually, thanks Winnebago).
At the campground I chatted
with a couple from Maryland.
Desmond wanted to check out the gift shop in the RV park’s office (they had
some clocks) and I picked up some fur-trimmed fingerless gloves that I’m going
to enjoy wearing next winter.
 |
| Noon? Nope, dinner time. |
 |
| Taken at midnight inside the RV with no lights and no flash... all natural Alaskan light from the air vent. |
We finally got a taste of the long Alaskan summer
days; the sun didn’t set until almost midnight (and it really never sets; it’s
always light out, it just becomes more like dusk). This can really throw you
off because it’s hard to judge what time it is. As much as we rely on modern
technologies, it makes you realize how much we also still utilize our innate
tendency to judge time by the location of the sun. In Alaska, at 11 pm in May,
to an Ohioan, it feels more like 4 pm. And then you’re confused about the fact
that you are tired.
