Rick & Elaine’s Alaska Caravan 2019 Part 3

Monday, 7/8/19  Whitehorse, YT with a day trip to Skagway, AK

Our first time in Alaska!  A bus picked the group up at the campground and drove us to the train station.  We got on our own car on the White Pass & Yukon Route train.  The scenery from the train was beautiful.  Again there is a haze in the sky from the forest fires.  Sometimes you could smell the smoke.

We arrived in Skagway, AK.  Of course we had to pass through Customs since we crossed into the U.S.  There were 3 cruise ships in harbor so the town was pretty busy.  The shops were the same jewelry shops like the Caribbean ports!

The bus took us back to the campground from Skagway.  We had to pass through Canadian Customs on the trip back.

The bus stopped at Carcross Desert on the way back.  Strange terrain after what we had been seeing.

<insert desert >

Tuesday, 7/9/19  Whitehorse

Visited several stops in the Yukon Passport book. 

Lots of Holland America Cruise line buses in town.  Whitehorse is one of their land excursion stops.

Group dinner at the campground that night.

Wednesday, 7/10/19 drive to Dawson City, YT

Longest drive day of the caravan – 330 miles.  The usual bumpy roads but this time interesting smoke from the forest fires.  For about 20 miles you could hardly see 100 yds. ahead on the road because of the heavy smoke.  It was really kind of scary.  We kept waiting for them to close the road.

I forgot to tell you how we travel with the caravan.  There are 16 units so every night before a travel day we have a meeting.  We all take our milepost book and they go over the route of travel for the next day.  Then the tail gunner reveals the departure groups.  We go out in groups of 3 units (one group will have 4 units since we have 16.  One lady is alone in a Class B van style unit.  She is 82!  She is always the 4^th in a group so we can sandwich her between us!)  We all have numbers on our RV and tow car.  We are number 3.  The tail gunner has a whiteboard with the day’s departure numbers on it.  Number 1 is the wagon master.  They always go first with some units and the cardinal rule is that you never pass Number 1!  The tail gunner is number 2 and they are always the last to leave the campground.  The tail gunner is the mechanic/fixit guy that makes sure everyone is on their way.  If you are in the first group you usually leave early and you leave an hour before everyone else.  By leaving first and an hour earlier the wagon master and his group get to the next campground, gets the site assignments and gets flaggers out on the highway to signal the rest of us where to turn in for the campground and parkers to help you get into your site!  An hour after the 1^st group leaves we depart the campground in groups of 3 in 15 minute intervals.  You can travel with your assigned group or you can do your own thing along the way stopping when you want.

The other thing we use the number 3 for is for any group event to make sure everyone is present.  Rodney, the wagon master, will start the count since he is number 1.  Then the people count off…..2, 3, 4, 5 etc. to 17.  We skip 13.  That was supposed to be our number in the alphabetical last name sequence but since the Beggs decided not to join the caravan we took their number 3!  Not that we are superstitious or anything but we really don’t need a number 13 in the group!

Thursday, 7/11/19  Dawson City, YT

In the morning we had a group tour of Dredge No. 4.  These are moveable floating buildings that were used to mine for gold.  Over 46 years Dredge No. 4 recovered 8 metric tons of gold.  Canada didn’t have the same kind of environmental laws that we have in the U.S.  They still don’t we some of the things we observed.

After time for lunch the group travelled to a working gold mine.  Our van driver was from Germany working as a tourguide for the summer.  He explained the dredging for gold.  The owner of the mine has diversified by running the tour company.  Smart man.  After the tour we all got a pan full of dirt, got in the creek and panned for gold.  Together we got a few flakes of gold.

Look close you will see the few flakes of gold in our pan!

Friday, 7/12/19  Dawson City

Dawson City is really only open in the summer for tourists.  In the winter there is too much snow and cold weather.  There are some people that live here year round but most just come to work for the summer.  The street is dirt and the sidewalks are wood just like the beach!

That night the group went to Diamond Tooth Gerties Saloon for the show.  You could stay for all 3.  Eight of us made it to the midnight show.  It was a little risqué!  It is also a casino/saloon.  As the night went on the youngsters from town filled the room.  Rick was up on the stage trying to dance the can-can!

Around 11 PM Rick and Rod went down to the Downtown Hotel for a Sourtoe Cocktail.  There is a club you join if you do the Sourtoe Cocktail.  It is a human toe that is kind of petrified.  You have to kiss the toe (disgusting) and then it goes in a shot of Yukon Jack.  When you do the shot your lips have to touch the toe!  Ich!!!  If you swallow the toe there is a $2500 fine.  Apparently they have lost several.  I have no idea where the toes come from.

It never really gets dark here in the summertime.  Here is a picture that we took at 1 A.M.

Saturday, 7/13/19  free day in Dawson City, YT

We slept in since we were out so late the night before.  Rick and Bob worked on a problem with the motor home connection to the car we tow.

Dinner at the Jack London Grill with some folks and then early to bed for an early Saturday departure.

These campgrounds are nothing like the campgrounds we are used to him the U.S.   You are lucky if you have full hookups and you are packed in like sardines.  Sometimes there isn’t room to put out the awning.