NORTH TO ALASKA
EPISTLE ONE
Well ... the RV Gods are still at it!!!
We were hoping
that they would have forgotten about us by now ... but no
CHANCE! Would you believe it ....?
On our return from the south in the end of January, we told you that we
had made appointments for Harvey to be totally tuned up and
repaired. Optimally, this was to be completed by early April, so
we could head to Oregon as a shakedown cruise before we turn our
attention to Alaska. This was not to be so simple, but the Gods
were not laughing out loud; they were only chuckling to
themselves. We made the appointment with Fraserway in Abbotsford
where we purchased Harvey lo those many kilometers ago, and delivered
him there in later February. Jimmy, our favourite Service Writer
in Fraserway, said, "No Problem! We can fix all this and get you
back on the road toute de suite!" We believed him (chuckle
chuckle .... or was that a guffaw?).
To be quick about this, we got a call 3 days later, telling us to pick
up Harvey as he was now ready to go except that we had to wait for some
parts to come from down south. Not a real problem, he said, you
don't really need the leveling jacks, and the dash lights are luxury any
way! Right? Well, NO! But, the hydraulic pump has to
be ordered from the factory, and the fix for the dashboard they did
send was not the correct one needed. What can we do, Jimmy cried?
Well, we took Harvey back to DogPatch and waited. We had to
co-ordinate the next trip to Harvey's hospital with a trip to the oil
change people and the transmission check place. With the lack of
definite dates for parts delivery, it was like trying to keep four
balls in the air at the same time. Eventually, we did get the
call that the parts were in and we made all the other appointments that
Harvey required. By early April, Harvey was ready to head to
Oregon complete with his now completely brand new dashboard.
Could
we be ready to head out in early April????
Well, as you all remember, the weather in early April was wet and more
wet. The idea of spending hours upon hours in Harvey while
looking at the ocean just did not compute with us, so we postponed our
leaving until the weather seemed to be more pleasing. Sure
enough, the weather gods did comply, eventually, in early May, and we
headed to Cannon
Beach on the northern Oregon coast. Just how well were the
repairs done, and just how well would Harvey perform? The
chuckles of the Gods soon changed to Guffaws!!!
The run down to the Coast was uneventful. The weather was
cooperating and the sun began to shine. Things were looking up
eh! On our arrival, we got our site and began to set up.
The sun shinning, the dogs happy and the site excellent! We were
settling in for a good time. The fellow at the desk told us that
the annual Cannon Beach Kite festival was being held the next day just
across the road from our site, and the annual Fort Astoria Crab 
and
Shrimp festival was also this weekend. Wow, have we lucked in
here. Lots to do and perfect weather!
Then we tried to put out the main slide! It went out only
about 10 inches instead of the 3 feet it was supposed to do. We
tried everything, phoned the factory and pushed pulled and double
checked anything that might be involved with this problem. All to
no avail! Still, that is one of the nice things about having 3
slides and the kitchen slide opposing the main slide. We still
could live in Harvey, so we thought we would put up with it until we got
home. Then we tried to make dinner. The gas stove top would
not light! Guffaws all around I'm sure!!!!! But we
persevered and lit the stove with matches. We were here to have
fun!!! And fun we would have!!!
The kite festival was awesome!!! Saturday we spent most of the
day sitting on the beach marveling at just how those huge kites could
stay up. Finally, we were back to adding to the tans we had
acquired in Arizona in December and January. You know, the tans the
Vancouver rain attempted to wash off? Sunday, we spent in Astoria
attempting to eat sufficient Crab and Shrimp to keep us fat and sassy
all the way to Alaska. After a fantastic week, we headed straight
back to "Fraserway RV hospital".
You know, I have got to admit that Fraserway does try to help.
This is their really busy time, and yet they squeezed us in. We
left Harvey there and headed home to prepare for the North. Two
days later, we got a call telling us that Harvey was ready, and could
we come quickly to get him as their lot was overflowing with
rigs. A quick trip to Abbotsford the next day added to the Gods
laughter quotient I'm sure. Everything was fixed but ....
the problem with the slide was that the rivet that holds the stop wedge
popped and the wedge ended up about 10 inches from the start of the
slide arm. No big deal eh? Well they also decided to
replace the slide motor at the same time. It was still OK, within
manufacturers parameters, but it might give problems later on so while
it was still under warranty, why not swap it out now? Good idea I
thought until the other shoe was dropped. It would take about 3
weeks minimum to get the new motor. After telling them yet again
that we were heading north and that a three to four week delay was not
in the cards, they assured us that the slide should continue to
work and the new part was ordered only as a preventative
measure. Do we believe them??????
Well, we may be playing right into the hands of the RV Gods, but what
the hell ... we are going NORTH! 
The fact that the satellite dish
no longer can find a satellite doesn't matter. We don't watch a
lot of TV anyway!!! Off we go ....
We spent the first 4 days in Osoyoos visiting with Lou and Carole and
their two dogs Belle and Mr. Bains. You long time sufferers of
these too long and rambling discourses will remember that we spent a
great week with them in Parker, Arizona in December. It was good
to touch bases with them once again! Unfortunately, they are as
bad as we are in planning ahead so it was hard to figure out if we will
be running into them on the road again this year. We sure hope so
but who knows....
Our next stop was Vernon, where we stayed for the first night when we
had
the Folly. The campsite here is sure nice and Roy and Diane,
Elsies's long time friends from the Workers Compensation Days,
live here in Vernon. Again, you long time sufferers will remember
that we were
here last year in Harvey for Roy's 60th surprise B'Day party. We
had a good time visiting with them and really enjoyed the fantastic
steak dinner they put on for us and another long time Board friend Don
and his wife,Margaret, Timuss. The weather has been spotty for the first
few
days, but as the weekend rolled around the sky cleared and the sun
shone. All great .... right?????
Guffaw Guffaw .... the gods are at it again. This time it was a
Barley problem. He is having problems with his left side and we
noticed a sore beginning to develop between his toes on his left rear
foot. It didn't seem like much so we thought we would check it
the next day. Well the morning dawned to a very unhappy
Barley. The sore had swollen overnight to the size of a large
acorn. A trip to the vet was now called for. Of
course, the vet would not do anything until she got his records from
Vancouver, so she sent us home with instructions to soak the foot in
Epson Salts and to come back the next day at 10:00. Watching
Nurse Elsie trying to persuade Barley that it was really a good idea
for him to sit still for 30 minutes on her lap with his foot in a
bucket of water was a performance worthy of recording. But, she persevered,
and the foot did stay in the bucket.
Sure enough, the sore erupted and after much pressing and squeezing,
pus and blood flowed forth. At least Barley was behaving himself
incredibly well at this point. Elsie was another question.... 
The next morning, Elsie drives into town with Barley who was to be
dropped off for the day, so they could put him under to cut the foot
open and remove whatever was causing the inflammation. Well, when
she arrived, she was informed that the decision to put him under was
changed to a local only. Could she hold him while this procedure
was attempted? Nurse Elsie, of course, rose to the
occasion! Over 30 minutes of poking and prodding and both Elsie
and Barley were released. I'm not sure just who was the happiest
in getting out of there. We did extend our stay here until Sunday
May 16th in order for Barley to feel better. In four more days,
we will have to find another vet probably in Clearwater to have the
wound checked and the dressing replaced. Will this satisfy
the Gods ..... or do they still have more in store for
us????? Stay tuned???
The plan was to head north going through Kamloops where Elsie's nephew,
Greg and Alicia, have just bought their first house. Elsie, being
the ever inquisitive aunt, wanted a guided tour of the new
palace.
Alas, Greg was away in the bush chasing salmon or moose or grizzly
bears, and I guess Alicia had headed back to the "big wet" as there was
no answer on their phone. So, no problem, we may hit Kamloops on
the flip side of this trip. There is no stopping an inquisitive
aunt, you realize. We continued through to the Clearwater KOA for
two nights. We hoped, by going into Wells Grey Park for the day,
that we would see lots of animals.
Well, all we saw was one lonely black bear posing by the side of the
road. So, off to Prince George.
We stayed for 3 days, May 18th to May 21st. in Prince George Blue
Spruce Campgrounds. It was a really nice place with very friendly
people. In Prince George is where the family tree begins to
assert itself. For those of you who didn't know, Fort St John was
where my Mom and Dad met and married in 1943. Dad was working for
the Fort St John Lumber Company which today has been bought out by
Canfor. We have always been curious about just what he did there
and what his job entailed. The only information we have is that
he was the Superintendent of the Mill. Unfortunately, all the research that
Elsie has done to date has been really inconclusive. The only
suggestion she received was to check the archives in the new University
of the North in Prince George. This she was determined to do.
Off we go bright and early on a sunny blustering day to the
campus. Wow, they sure have built an impressive campus with an
incredible view of Prince George. Three hours later, with head
spinning and eyes aching from focusing on miles and miles of
microfilm, we are no further ahead with the family tree. Off we
head to the PG Public Library to see if they had anything. No
luck there either. The only answer is to head back to Harvey
after stopping in a Safeway. As you might know, food is our
answer to all problems 
so we brought with us from home a number of
"very special steaks" supplied by our ex-butcher and good friend Alf
Merton. These beauties can be cut with a fork and after a quick
BBQ exposure, they are out of this world. We may not be able to
find family information or see many animals on the road, but we sure
can eat well!!!
But the Gods are still with us .... The next morning, Elsie managed to badly chip a
tooth on a raisin of all things. What to do? A quick trip
to the Campsite office for
suggestions ended up with Elsie getting an immediate appointment with
the same dentist the owner of the campground used. A little
temporary filling and filing and she was good to go! In fact they
didn't even have to freeze her! Maybe our luck is starting to
change????
The dinner that night was great! The next morning we headed off
to Fort St John. For the both of us, this really was the start of
the northern part as neither of us had ever been north of Prince George
before. One would think that the gas prices would be cheaper the
closer you get to the oil patch. No Way!!! Regular is now
over 1.00 per litre and diesel is pushing .90 a litre. Filling
Harvey up used to be only a shock ... now you fear having the "Big One"
right there in the gas station. 
Our luck seemed to be changing as we saw a beautiful Golden Fox at the
side of the road, a cow moose with her yearling calf, a female black
bear with two cubs playing at the road side with an empty bottle and
many deer. This was more like it! But, sadly, as usual, the Gods
were not far off.
Harvey was cruising away faultlessly. I was getting a little
cocky I guess, so a RV God intervention must have been called for.
Before we left Vancouver, we had installed a supplementary brake system
for the Toad. Now, when I put my foot on Harvey's brakes, the
Toad brakes would also activate. In many American States these
systems are mandatory, but not yet here in BC. The effect of this
system is really noticeable especially in the mountains. Instead
of having the Toad's 3,000 lb weight pushing us along, it actually
helps stop Harvey. I was quite impressed from Vancouver to Prince
George and considering all the mountains we would be hitting on this
trip, we were quite happy that we installed this system. Until we
started towards Fort St John that is. 
Now, on Harvey's dash sits a little box that allows me to increase or
decrease the percentage of braking applied to the Toad. Also,
in this box resides the most annoying high pitched beep that will sound
if there is any problems with the Toad brakes. Guess what ...
about ten miles north of PG the Beep went off. It beeps for one
second, off for a second and then repeats itself, over and over and
over and over ... well you get the picture. 
We were slowly being
driven crazy and poor Hops was leading the way. Her ears are
sensitive to that wave frequency, and she responds by a violent shaking
that can only be controlled by Elsie cuddling her in her lap.
Barley, of course, figures that Elsie's lap is his property, so picture
Elsie with both dogs in her lap, trying to stay sane. It was not
working!
One of the reasons I had chosen this particular braking system was
because after it was installed, we had nothing more to do. It fit
inside the existing electrical cables from Harvey to the Toad, so I
had nothing to do extra when we were hooking up. The
drawback to this is that there is no easy way to turn off this system
in case of problems. And this was certainly a problem!!!
The only thing we could do is stop and try to make sure the electrical
connection to the Toad was secure. Well, it would work for
several miles, and then as soon as I put on the brakes, the Beep
returned and would continue as long as I had the brakes on. As
you can imagine, given the amount of hills through the Coast Mountains
and over the Peace River Plateau, this Beep returned far too
often. We stopped 4 or 5 times to attempt to silence the damn
thing all to no avail. Finally, I was able to insert the
connection in such a way that the Beep was satisfied and stopped.
Oh Joy, Oh Bliss!!! The sounds of silence were never more
appreciated. Perhaps, I thought, it only requires plugging in on
a certain angle. As Fort St John was only around the corner, I
hoped that a solution had been found.
All during this ordeal, we tried to appreciate the fantastic scenery
around us. The Peace River is unbelievably beautiful! I can
sure see why the original settlers fell in love with this area.
In spots along the side of the road, I could see evidence of the famous
Peace River Mud where during the early spring, some poor guy had pulled
off the road only to get stuck up to his axles. Though mud is
probably not the correct term .... goop or sludge more colourfully
describes its consistency. We were proceeding north on the Hart
highway that intersects with the Alaska highway just 11 kms north of
Fort St John, our immediate destination.
We had decided to stay in Sourdough Pete's Campsite that turned out to
be OK. The sites were close together and grass was a bit sparse,
but not too bad at all. The plan was to hit the Public Library
and the local museum to continue our family tree search. We
figured three nights here would be sufficient. Actually, as it
turned out, three days was more than enough for family tree
things. Neither the Library or the local museum had any details
relating to the Fort St John Lumber Company, but we did leave our
email so the local historian could get in touch with us if she found
anything.
There is one word to describe Fort St John .... Booming!!! The
oil patch is thriving, and there is to be a new mill constructed in town
... 600 men to build it and 200 new permanent jobs created.
Everyone you see looks to be in their twenties or thirties. A
very prosperous young looking town. Now if we were only a similar
age I could see coming here and staying a very long time.
The next day, we dropped down to Dawson Creek for the obligatory
picture at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. Somewhere, at
home, I have a picture of Mom and Dad at the same sign outside the Dew
Drop Inn Hotel taken in 1943. You will be happy to note that the
same sign is still there, the only alteration is a few more coats of
white paint have been applied. They have added a few more signs
up the road from the original at the actual Mile 0 location which I
have included in the picture sections. Have a look and tell me
which signs look better .... the old or the new?
On leaving Fort St John, we planned to head to Fort Nelson and then
continue two more hours north to Toad River. What would the Brake
System do? Would it behave or not .... you guess ....
Well, I carefully hitched up the Toad. Careful inspection of the
connection and an intense emery cloth rubbing would, I hoped, solve
everything. About 15 miles down the road .... Beep, Beep,
Beep. Over we pull, and reattach the connection. Off we go
and then ... Beep, Beep, Beep. Several more times we pull over
... and still the damn thing was wailing, as it now seemed to
us. What to do? Could we just ignore it and continue ...
you know ... the "suck it up cupcake" approach. An hour later ...
we had had sufficient agro!!! I pull over determined to do
something to silence the beast! Sometimes, Elsie says that I tend
to be just a tad cynical and suspicious. When we had the system
installed, I did ask Brian Yeates of Langley RV who actually put the
thing in, just what I could do in an emergency if I had to disconnect
it. Was this cynical or just smart? Well, he muttered that
there were two connections, one in the Toad and one under Harvey's
dash, that if undone, the system would be rendered inoperable.
Fearing Elsie's scorn at being too cynical, I did not check to see just
where these connections were. Coming into Fort St John, I had
tried to find the one in the Toad but had no luck. I disconnected
some wires in the location he had suggested, but the thing kept
wailing! By now, I am ready to set fire to the whole damn
rig! I need silence!!!!
Picture this ... parked on the side of the Alaska Highway, two very
frustrated and by now almost deaf people with two highly agitated dogs
search for tranquility. Sounds like a plot for a very bad sit-com
eh! Harvey's dash is large. The backup camera TV screen
protrudes towards the Driver's chair. There is very little space
between the dash, the chair, and the screen for me to insert my rather
large, protruding midriff. There is a chance that, once lying down
there on the floor, I just may never get up. Anything would be
better that the Beep!!! Or was it the guffaws of the Gods that
were getting on our nerves? Anyway, down I go, and slowly begin
to worm my way under the dash.
By God there are a lot of wires under here!!!! Trying to follow
the one wire from the control on the dash to a connection was like
trying to find just one piece of spaghetti in a whole ton of the
stuff. Fortunately, the highway is very quiet with not a lot of
traffic. In fact, you can go hours with only seeing one or two
other vehicles. We had time to slowly work out just which wire
belonged to the brake system. After 15 minutes, I had located the
plastic 4 wire connector and had actually managed to slip it
apart. Now came the really fun part. Could I get out?????
Would it be possible?
Worming my way backwards towards the door and the steps outside, I kept
rubbing my large belly against the Backup Screen. I even had a
momentary thought that maybe I should, in the future, forego my evening
beer to get rid of some of the girth, but fortunately, common sense and
continued squirming allowed me to get out, and put that silly thought
out of my mind. But, would this be sufficient to silence the
beast??? Just what would have transpired if Brian Yeates had,
just
at that second, walked into Harvey, I would not like to guess. It
would have been messy and painful ... for him!!!
From this point on to Toad River, silence .... blessed silence.
The Beep had been axed! But, so had the auxiliary braking system and there were mountains ahead ....
I should mention the countryside we had been going through. The
Alaska Highway to Fort Nelson is much better than the Trans Canada
through northern Ontario. All is paved and well maintained.
The scenery, while not as spectacular as the Jasper to Banff highway,
you can never get tired of it. From Fort Nelson through to Laird
River Hot springs, the road conditions deteriorate somewhat. The
road becomes very narrow and hilly with the center lines worn away by
the sand used on the road during the winter. The
approaching large trucks seem to take the whole road, and with no
centering line, it was hard to position Harvey in a safe zone,
especially on curves. As I mentioned before, it was a good thing
that the traffic was not heavy at this time of year. I would have
really liked the Toad Brake system here though as there were lots of
hills and dales to get through. Toad River, our destination
tonight, was in between Fort Nelson and Laird River. All
along the way, we saw more bear, moose and caribou even buffalo. 
This
was the way we thought the Alaska Highway would be.
The combination of the Beep and the trying road conditions ensured that
we would be really tired when we did finally reach our campsite which
proved to be a gravel pit with barely enough room between the sites to
open your slides. Toad River is nestled in the mountains and is
indeed, a very picturesque setting. We got in, parked, and
leveled Harvey. The next step is to hook up the sewer, water and
power. But, there was no sewer, and the water did not work.
I went back to the office to inquire, politely of course, why the full
hookup we had paid for was not available, and his answer was a little
laconic. "The water lines are still frozen, not his fault, and we
were parked across from the sani dump for the whole park. All we
had to do was to pull forward and dump". "Besides", he continued,
"we did have cable service and all RVs carry enough water to last for
at least one night, so be happy". Exhaustion won, and we put out
the slides and made a very quick spaghetti dinner. 
This time of year there is very little night. The sun goes down
after 11:00 and rises around 4:00. It is a little hard to get
used to going to sleep in the light and getting up in the light.
Here I was, patiently waiting until at least 9:00 so I could
legitimately head to bed, when Elsie decides to take the dogs out for
their evening "squeeze and Squirt". Being pretty numb at this
point, you can imagine my concern when I hear Elsie screaming at the
dogs to get into Harvey quickly. I really don't think either of
their feet touched the stairs on the way in! Fearing the
worst, I ran to the door in time to see Elsie fumbling for the
camera. "Come with me", she said. "You won't believe
this!!!"
By the time I got my shoes on, all I could see of Elsie was a white
blur heading towards the back of the Campsite towards the river.
By the time I had caught her up, she was standing on the bank, her
little feet going up and down, and she was pointing ... she was not at
her articulate best. I looked to where she was pointing, about 50
feet way in the middle of the river, was a full grown bull moose 
complete
with velvet covered antlers. All the years we had traveled in
Canada and the US looking, in vain, for the perfect picture of a moose
were forgotten. Here it was!!! I have to say, that I
was impressed too, and also very grateful that it was ignoring
us. We stood there watching it for 20 minutes or so!
WOW! This was the "NORTH", and all the problems of today
simply vanished. For city slickers, this was sure something. I won't
mention that when we returned to Harvey, our next door neighbours, from
Alaska, were just returning to their rig. We excitedly told them
about the moose and half expected them to share in the wonder of the
sighting. Their reaction ... a shrug and a comment that you see
this all the time in Anchorage. Still, for us it was a big deal
.... ta hell with them!
The next day we headed to Laird River Hot springs, Teslin and
Whitehorse. The hot springs were about a ten minute walk from the
Provincial Campground parking lot along a well built wooden pathway
across the moss and mud. It was a very pleasant, relaxing hour we
spent there.
And, No, the object in the springs was not a misplaced Beluga whale, it
is me. Knock off the funny quips!
Strangely, from Toad River straight through to Whitehorse, we saw not
one animal on the road. The road was good and the weather varied
from really short showers to sunny periods. So far all the
weather around here varies greatly. In Vancouver we have a day of
rain ... here the same day could be rain, sun, hail, wind, and then sun
again. Never a dull moment.
Must mention that we did spend one night in Watson Lake and saw
the block long Signpost City, that Watson Lake is famous for. A little
overwhelming to
say the least.
Whitehorse is a neat town. The people seem to incredibly polite
and helpful. Just walking down the street, complete strangers
will nod to you and say hello. One day we must come here and
spend more time. As it is we only have time for a 4 night
stay. We have to replace the electric plug in the front of the Toad as the old
one, I think and hope, is the cause of the Toad brake problems.
Another problem that has reared its ugly head is the cover over the
steps in front of the passenger chair is also screwed up. We have
had problems with this before, and we fixed it by inserting a new
fuse. This time (Guffaw Guffaw) it is not as simple. The
toggle switch works well putting the cover out, it is just returning
the cover is the problem. Now that the National Warranty is over,
I feel more confident in trying to repair things. I took off the
cover over the switch and used emery cloth to ensure a good
connection. It would return sometimes but not after a lot of
pushing and tapping of the switch. Obviously, there is a problem
inside the damn thing, but just how that happens, I really don't
know. Anyway, we went off to the local RV dealer to pick up a new
connection for the Toad and this switch. The connection was no
problem but the switch would have to be ordered from California.
We placed the order at Fraserway RV of Whitehorse and it will be
waiting for us when we return. Yes, that is correct! The
place we bought Harvey actually has a location here. In fact,
when we walked in whom did we see but the owner himself, James Epp. He
apologized for not having parts for A Class vehicles here, but this was
only a C Class rental centre. Apparently, they fly 180, mostly
Germans, into Whitehorse weekly and supply them with the means to see
Alaska. Combine this with the numbers that fly into Vancouver
weekly to see the lower part of the Province and this is a very big
part of their business. In total, between here, Vancouver, and
Calgary they have 800 units rented from May through October. Not
a small organization.
Thursday May 27th we headed into Alaska. Well, only a little part
of it. Skagway is only 163 kms away and the road is really
good. We had a choice of taking a bus to the Canadian Border and
then taking the Whitepass Yukon Railway into Skagway and then bus back
for $100.00 US each, or driving ourselves. When we did the Alaska
Cruise 9 years ago, we did the rail trip so it was a no brainer.
We drove. The drive into Skagway was beautiful. You know,
the mountains and rivers and river gorges are incredible here. I
don't think that I would ever get tired of seeing them. On every
turn, there is a more spectacular vista. The two hour drive
passed by very quickly.
Skagway itself has not changed a bit. In fact the ships in
harbour were the Holland American, Staatendam, the Norwegian Line,
Norwegian Sun, and the Princess Cruises, Sun Princess. As we were
on the Sun Princess when we sailed up here, and the other two ships were
the same so absolutely nothing had changed. The streets were
jammed with older cruise passengers desperate to buy authentic Alaskan
souvenirs from just as desperate to sell shopkeepers. If I
closed my eyes, time went backwards. All in all, it was a great
day but only because of the drive in and out .
Well this morning, is our cleaning day. Elsie and I spent an hour
replacing the Toad electrical connection. Sitting on the gravel
trying to make sure that the 7 wire connection is hooked up correctly
was not much fun. What I would have done without Elsie, I don't
like to think. We got the thing together, and believe it or not,
it works. The lights on the Toad go off and on and the
signal/brake lights functions as advertised. Feeling very brave
now, I hooked up the Toad brake system again and all appears
fine. Obviously we won't know until we head off again, but at
least we tried. While I am churning out all this turgid prose,
Elsie 
is cleaning and scrubbing.
We have been away for three weeks and it is amazing how much dirt
accumulates. It's the dog's fault of course....
One last note about the dirt. The last two campsites we have been
to have spots where you can wash your RV and Toad. Why you
ask? Well, we went through only two constructions zones for about
10 miles, and the sides of Harvey became totally brown covered by a mud
that sticks like glue. The toad had disappeared under an inch of
guck! Pressure washing is the only way to get this stuff
off. As you pull into this campsite, Pioneer Campgrounds, the
first thing you see is the wash area. Most people sign in, hit
the wash and then go to their site to set up. But, the
mud is not the only problem on these roads ... we met one fellow traveler who was going through the
last construction zone just when a water truck was screaming past him
going the other way. A rock, the size of a softball, was thrown
up by this passing jerk and hit his driver's window. Luckily for
him he had dual pane windows and only the outside pane was
smashed. Imagine what would happen it it had gone straight
through and hit him.......
Tomorrow is Saturday May 29th. After I upload this, we will spend
the day wandering around the City of Whitehorse. On Sunday, May
30th we aim to get to Tok, Alaska.... with no problems with the brake
system. Do you hear that RV Gods????
Anyway ... we are well and having a blast as usual. Barley's foot
seems to have healed well, we are getting a piece of plywood to
temporarily cover the stairs, and we know how to disconnect the Toad's
brake system if our repairs today do not fix the problem. We can
survive!!! But do remember ... you can send us email ...
let us know how you are and what you are doing. "
Ahhh ....Sunday .... Alaska .... stay tuned ....
