At-last-ka

Date: 5/27/2013                                    Time Zone: AKDT [Alaska Daylight Time]

Location: Tok AK [rhymes with “spoke”]

Travel Leg of journey: 14                        Day of journey: 21

Miles traveled today:            385                        Miles traveled since departure: 4760

Percentage of travel completed: 43.3%

U.S. states visited today: Yukon Territory, AK

Critters observed today: moose elk, free-range horses, black bear

It is hard to believe that each day brings more spectacular views than before. Beautiful lakes [some frozen, some completely clear of ice], forests and snow capped mountains were the features today. This is the day that I have dreaded. The roads in northern Yukon get worse by the mile. The frost heaves are no longer about 6 feet across; they are more like that of a humped back whale. Or a pod of them. We dodged them all day and our average speed decreased accordingly. But, we never experienced the miles of gravel/dirt surfaces that I had expected. The armor plating that I added has helped a lot, though I did find pebbles and rocks imbedded in the bubble wrap; one was the size of a half-crushed ping pong ball, but no damage was found. As soon as we crossed into AK, the roads improved remarkably. We finally spotted a police car. Or thought we had. A marked white squad car was parked along the road in Destruction Bay YT. But as we got closer, we found that it was a full-size painted police car outline made out of plywood! We finally spotted an AK state trooper in Tok to break our string of 1839 miles without seeing one. There is no road kill up here. First of all, there are very few vehicles this time of year. Then, I think the transportation departments up here hire the larger critters to take care of their road kill management duties for them. We have seen few eagles so far. We think that most are yet to migrate this far north.

Tok was a welcome sight indeed. Not much here but a crossroads, but the RV park is great. Cell phone coverage, wifi, and again, cable TV! The park leaves all the water faucets dripping 24/7 still, as the ground is still frozen and they don’t want the water in the pipes to freeze. I feel like we have arrived at last. Well, almost. Today is the first day that this part of AK has seen 70F [reached 78F here] since last July 17. Tomorrow we hope to get mail at the post office in Tok; we had it forwarded days ago and hope it is waiting for us in general delivery. Then we are off again for Glennallen AK to stay overnight and do a day trip in the car down to Valdez AK. Nancy can take over the driving then for a welcome change.

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