Tuesday- May 30th:
We aimed to leave the house in Anchorage between 3-5pm. Our actual departure was 5:20pm with an additional quick stop to say goodbye to Josh and Jill. We headed N to Palmer for a stop at Fred Meyer and Subway for a late dinner.
The day was long after the final work to clean up/move out of our house. We consolidated rooms, cleaned every sheet, towel and dish in our house. We depersonalized every room, moved out all clothes and personal items and got the house ready for our VRBO rentors this summer.
We drove about 260 miles past Glenallen. We pulled off the road about 11:30pm to sleep. We saw two moose, one with a calf. We hit a bird flying low and saw swans, snow still on the high rivers, beautiful mountains- Drum, Sanford and the Wrangells.
Wednesday - May 31st:
Great first night of sleep in the van. Pulled off the road and found a flat, gravel spot for the night. Stopped at about 11:15pm AK time. Stopped between Glenallen and Tok. Drove to Tok, got gas and called Pat. We drove on the AK Hwy- BIG frost heaves and we are bobbing up and down!! Big bumps and curves. we pulled over because Svea was car sick (puking) and while pulled over noticed the bed had pulled out of the back wings and was broken. EKKKK. It was staying up by resting on Svea's bike handle bars and by the bulkhead.
We braced the bed temporarily with one load lock that we had with us to be able to drive and headed for Whitehorse- the largest city in the Yukon with the population of only 20,000 and our best and only bet for a possible store. We were crossing our fingers for parts that would work. We crossed the border into Canada- smooth process. We had lunch in the border crossing parking lot and stopped at Kluane Lake for a hike. A few wildflowers were peaking out, big boulders and a fresh smell of juniper brush. There were beautiful views of the lake, 8 sheep and surrounding mountains. Beautiful driving today- big mountains, big lakes. At the pull outs, looky loos are checking out the van. People are approaching us to ask about the van and checking it out. We arrived in Whitehorse at 8:30pm, just before the 9pm closing of Canadian Tire. Great store and they had what we needed- 2 load locks!! We made dinner in the Canadian Tire parking lot and shared it with some entertaining seagulls.
Whitehorse looks clean and nice. We felt up to driving more, so we made a reservation 90 miles down the road at Johnson Crossing. Today we drove about 600 miles and saw a small grizzly bear on the side of the road. We found a spot at 11pm and trusted the bed for a sound night sleep.
Thursday June 1st:
The bed held- Yeah!! Feeling good about our night, it was a quiet and nice sleep. Excited to shower, we got our change for the coin showers, got all of our stuff and headed to the bath. Sadly, while Svea was in the shower and I was using the pooper the power went out and we were both in pitch black. Ugh!! So much for that. We had to get out in the dark to learn that that the power went out in that area of the Yukon, and the generator wouldn't be working for 2 hours. We were not going to wait, so disappointedly, left with no showers and couldn't even fill up our water. With no use of the showers or water, we did negotiate a discount for the fee. $15 instead of $40. Even without the electricity outage, Johnson's Crossing was a bit rough- the RV wash was not in service and full of old parts. The owner, cigarette in mouth, told me to put my trash "in the large 55 gallon bins- sacastically saying, those are called trash cans". He told me to throw my recycing in there too and added, "fuck it, you don't have enough recycling for me to care about it."
We hit the road and was able to get reception for a quick call to Bev and Tom. Not much cell service in this area. We drove through more beautiful country surrounded by lakes and mountains- Watson Lake, Teslin Lake. We saw a cinamon brown bear and stopped and walked to Rancheria Falls. Beautiful boardwalk to the falls- the sun is out and it is really nice weather. We saw a porcupine in the bathroom and Sven even pulled its tail. We traveled on to Watson Lake and saw the infamous sign forest and got gas. We visited Liard Hot Springs and had a relaxing soak. We then saw a large herd of Bison with 9 babies. Sven made dinner while we watched the Bison play. Through Muncho Lake we saw 3 stone sheep right next to the road. Night three we pulled off on a bench above the road- cozy night sleep.
