Saturday, August 10, 2019 Valdez, AK
We visited the Valdez Museum and then went for ice cream. The ice cream truck was at the end of the harbor street where they were the weighing for the Valdez Woman’s Fish Derby
One lady brought a salmon that weighed 9.1 lbs. We were chatting with her and she asked if we wanted some fish. She lived in Anchorage and just loved to fish so she came for the derby. She really didn’t need the fish. She pointed us to where her husband was on the pier and said to bring a bag and meet her there. Luckily we had some plastic bags in the car. The man cleaned the salmon for us. He asked if we wanted some halibut too. He gave us a big piece of halibut to go with all the salmon! We now have a freezer full of fish!
Sunday, August 11, 2019 travel to Tok, AK
The roads are terrible! There is constant road repair. With a short summer they work long hours on the roads. With all the loose stone and gravel it is no wonder that over half of our caravan has chips in their windshields.
Monday, August 12, 2019 travel from Tok, AK to Destruction Bay, YT
Early morning departure. 250 miles of terrible road today. Frost heaves and rough repaired roads. Supposedly it was much better than when they travelled this road 2 years ago. The scenery was beautiful.
Typical of Alaska/Western Canada campgrounds Destruction Bay RV Park is a stone lot with electric and water hookup. Very little space between the units. We had a great beef dinner provided by the campground guy, Loren.
The dinner was followed by entertainment by a guy that sang for about an hour. He was very good. He played a mixture of songs. Remember we are older and most of the group goes to bed early, so on top of an early morning start, they were falling asleep and left early. Out of 31 people there were only 12 left at 9:15!
Tuesday, August 13, 2019 Whitehorse, YT
Another grueling drive day. The roads were better but still not smooth asphalt. A lot of dips and patched bumps.
We had a lot of dirty clothes so we decided to go to the same laundromat that we had visited in early July. We had a surprise when we got there. It was free laundry night! It was a Union sponsored activity to encourage and help people do laundry. It was to encourage the homeless and lower income people to do their wash. No one was there except us and maybe 2 other people. We kept telling them we could pay and they kept saying no that it was a free laundry night. We donated to their Yukon Union non-profit group.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019 Whitehorse, YT
We had a group tour of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. We saw lots of animals.
Thursday, August 15, 2019 Whitehorse, YT
Took the car to a Chevy dealer to have a Stabilitrak warning checked. It was a computer thing. They reran computer thing and all was well. Then we went to Wal-Mart for supplies for the next few days. No kidding – you get excited when you see a Wal-Mart in this part of Canada.
We stopped at an A&W for lunch. It was very good. They serve soda in a glass frosted mug!
The Wal-Mart has a McDonalds inside it —-complete with a drive up window!
Friday, August 16, 2019 drive to Watson Lake
Long drive again. Group dinner of BBQ sandwiches. Not too much in this town.
Saturday, August 17 drive to Iskut, B.C.
Lots of driving again. Stopped at Jade City along the way. Rain at night
No cell service, no WIFI, no TV service. Even Meow Meow literally sat up to watch a DVD.
Sunday, August 18, 2019 Iskut to Stewart, B.C./Hyder, AK
We knew the rain stopped in the middle of the night but what we didn’t know that it turned to snow! What a surprise to find everything was white on August 18.
Everyone had to scrape the snow off of the slide toppers before they could be pulled in for travel. It was a slow drive up the mountain.
We finally got cell service about ¼ mile before Stewart. Stewart is in Canada and Hyder is in Alaska. There is, again, only one road. You have to make sure you have your passport if you cross the border. You can drive from Stewart to Hyder and there is no U.S. Border station. That is because the road ends. It doesn’t go very far into Alaska. When you come back to Stewart you have to go through Canadian Customs!
We went to Hyder for dinner. We ate at the bus. Delicious fish and chips. The son fishes, Mom cooks in the converted bus and you eat in the building behind the bus. Quite unique.
After dinner in Hyder we went on the only road they have to the U.S. Fish Creek Wildlife Site to view bears. The site is a boardwalk with fencing about 12 feet above the ground. It is beside a creek where salmon are trying to swim upstream and the bears come to feed on them. It is kind of gross to watch the bear catch and eat the fish but it is nature. The bear only eats certain parts of the salmon.
Monday, August 19, 2019 Stewart, B.C.
We visited downtown Stewart. That didn’t take long. There isn’t much there. We drove back the highway we came in on to see the glacier. The road, once again, there is only one road, no turnoffs, intersections, just a 38 mile stretch back to Steward/Hyder. These people are isolated.
We had a group dinner. Everyone on the caravan brought a can of soup. The soup couldn’t be anything cream or with noodles. Tonya dumped them all in a crock pot and we had soup. It actually was very good. We scattered shortly after eating because it started to rain. Luckily it was warmer so it would be rain, not snow.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019 Smithers, B.C.
Again – a driving day. We had pizza with the group for dinner. The rain eroded a lot of the glacier on the road to Stewart. Here is a photo of the glacier 2 days later. The glaciers are melting fast.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019 Prince George, B.C.
Another driving day to our final destination with the caravan. The highway was getting better because we are heading south toward the U.S. border. It will be good to get to the lower 48!
Had dinner with the group at restaurant across from campground. After dinner we went to the Treasure Cove Casino. We didn’t win but had fun. Used our Canadian dollars
Thursday, August 22, 2019 Prince George, B.C.
Explored using the car. Checked out Costco location so we could gas up the motor home in the morning and found a spot to get propane tank filled. The heat has been on for the last several nights so we needed propane.
Caravan group had a farewell dinner at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. Very good food. We said our goodbyes because tomorrow we all go it alone! We are scattering in different directions. One of the best things about the caravan is that for 53 days we didn’t have to plan campground locations or how to get there and what to do.
Friday, August 23, 2019 heading to the Lower 48!
The first day after the caravan and we are on our own! We left the campground, stopped for gas and propane and then we were on our way south.
We stopped in Cache Creek at Brookside Campground. We had leftovers from our frig for dinner. We needed to empty the refrigerator in preparation for crossing the border. You never know what they are going to prohibit coming back to the states from Canada.
Saturday, August 24, 2019 heading toward Seattle
We left Cache Creek heading to the border. Very pretty views. Very different than the north.
We were crossing at Sumas, WA. There was a long line. The sign at the turnoff warned that there was a 70 minute wait. And it was longer than that! We stopped and then moved a car length for a little over a mile. Then we finally saw a sign that told us on Saturdays from 8-4 that RVs could use the commercial truck lane. It took a bit to get to the turn off but we made it. Zipped right up to the border, the guy checked our passports and said have a good day! We were back in the Lower 48!
We headed toward Seattle. Traffic on I-5 was heavy. We called several campgrounds in the area and they were all full. We ended up in the employee parking lot at Tulalip Casino in Tulalip, WA. They have an RV lot but it was completely full. So there were several RVs that overflowed into the employee parking lot. Security told us it was okay but that they had to put a notice on our window that if we didn’t move in 48 hours the RV would be impounded! It turns out there was a huge Sammy Haggar concert that brought in a huge, huge amount of people.
We spent some time in the casino and didn’t do too badly. Thank heavens for big casino parking lots.
Sunday, August 25, 2019 travel to Spokane, WA
We were up early and on the way to Spokane to visit Cousin Kim and her husband, Charlie. We hoped to beat the traffic by driving early on a Sunday morning. The traffic wasn’t too bad.
We got to the campground in Spokane Valley and set up camp.
Had dinner with Kim & Charlie at Longhorn BBQ restaurant. We delivered the goodies that we had brought from Lancaster, PA – chow chow, chips and Cope’s corn.
Rick & Elaine's Alaska Caravan 