Road Trip

Last week Chuck took the whole week off so we could go on a road trip to Dawson City.  But he also wanted to get our carpet replaced, and the contractor just happened to be able to schedule us during that same week, which was a stroke of luck for me cuz I wanted Chuck to be home when they were doing that.  So the first half of the week was spent moving furniture around.  It was three days of hard labor!  This is what my house looked like for three days:

Just a house full of furniture all crammed together.

But it was all worth it in the end, and Peeka can vouch for that.

So on Wednesday afternoon after the carpet guys left, we got the house back in order as best we could (I still have to do my scrap booking room yet), and on Thursday morning we got up at 5:00 AM and hit the road to Dawson City!  It felt weird (and nice) to sit in the car all day after three days of wrestling with heavy furniture.  I was pretty sore and felt it every time I got out of the car.

Of course it was a pretty drive with breathtaking scenery!

We made several small stops on the way to go pee and stretch our legs, but our first real stop was in Tok, and we ate at Fast Eddie's, which everyone who has travelled through Tok seems to be familiar with.  

Their special that day was "Fried Omelet".  That's what Chuck was interested in.  I asked the waitress what it was fried in and she said "oil".  So I made a face and shook my head "no" at Chuck.  I felt kinda bad that the waitress saw me do this, but I was NOT gonna eat that.  So we ate from the salad bar instead, which was actually a very nice spread with lots of variety.

Our next stop was one that I was really excited about.  Chicken, Alaska!

If you have never read the book "Tisha", I would recommend it (beware of bad language).  It is a really good (true) story that takes place in Chicken, and since I read the book twice, I was really eager to see this place.  It is a very remote place with pretty much nothing there.  Just sort of like a small old strip mall, or strip "shack" consisting of three small businesses, all owned by one lady.

A store, a saloon, and a cafe.

They have a running joke that this is their "beautiful downtown".  They also have no flushing toilets, so if you gotta go, you gotta go here:

They have a pretty good sense of humor there, with chicken jokes everywhere.

There is another store in Chicken where they have more stuff in it, and it's a more modern building, where they were able to brag about having the only flushing toilet in town.  We stopped in there on our way back home.  I was really wanting to see the old schoolhouse from the book, but it's sitting on private property so you have to request a special tour to see it.  Chuck wasn't gonna "waste" time doing that, so I had to settle for a postcard with a picture of it on it.

Here is something that was hanging in their cafe.  I don't know if you will be able to read it, but here goes:

Anyhoo, visiting Chicken was a big highlight for me.

And we were off to Dawson City.

When we got to the border, getting through customs wasn't too hard.  She mostly asked us about guns.  "Do you have any firearms with you?"  "Do you own any firearms?"  "What do you use them for?" etc, etc.  And of course she wanted to know what we were gonna do in Canada and how long.  

When we got through there, we continued on our way.

About halfway between the border and Dawson, we ran into lightning, thunder, pounding rain, and hail.  The rain and hail hitting our car was so loud I had to cover my ears.  But it was pretty exciting!

Then we got to the ferry that carried us across the Yukon River.  That was a weird feeling.

Dawson City was right across the river, so we were finally there!  This is the place where we stayed.  It was called "The Bunkhouse".

Being in Canada, prices are high.  This was the cheapest Chuck could find.  The rooms are only tiny little squares consisting of a full size bed, and a tiny little table/chair.  And they had a "shared" bathroom.

The door behind me in this photo is our "shared" bathroom.  We were lucky to get the room that was closest to it (our room was just up those steps on the left).  

The bathroom was just basically 3 tiny sinks, two showers, and two toilet stalls.

A couple times while I was standing at a sink doing my own thing, a guy would come out a shower (fully dressed), and another guy would come out of one of the stalls.  I thought this would make me feel weird and awkward, but surprisingly, it didn't bother me at all.  I suppose it's because we were all in the same situation and understood each other in that way.

We got there in the evening and the town seemed "dead".  Most of the businesses were closed by then, so we just spent the evening walking around, looking at all the old buildings, but we did find a place to eat.  I had a bowl of spinach/broccoli soup.  The streets there are paved gravel and they have boarded sidewalks everywhere, so it was a unique experience being in this historical setting.

We also took a walk along the waterfront that follows the Yukon River.

I wasn't expecting to come to the spot where the Klondike River merges with the Yukon River, but there it was!  I thought that was pretty cool.

The next morning we ate breakfast and then went for a hike.  There is a path in the woods that goes around the whole town.  It had been raining the night before, so the path was pretty muddy in some places.

 The path led up to a high place where you can see the whole town.  You can see that it's not very big.  You don't even need a car to get from one side to the other.

Also a pretty good view of the Yukon River.

 After we made our way back into town, we walked around just sight seeing.

We had seen advertisements for Jack London's cabin, so we found that first.
If you have never read the book "White Fang", I would highly recommend it (warning:  it will make you bawl like a baby).

At first I was really thrilled to think that Jack London actually lived here in this cabin, but my excitement was soon replaced with disappointment after I became more educated.  The sign is misleading. As it turns out, Jack London didn't live here.  He lived in a cabin on Henderson Creek somewhere in the Klondike area.  This isn't even his real cabin.  It's a replica of his cabin, although some of the wood in this cabin came from the original one.  I felt jipped.  But still, I suppose it was nice to know that this area has that special connection with him.

The next cabin we saw was that of the poet Robert Service.  I'm not too familiar with him, but at least this seems to be his real cabin.  

By this time we were getting hungry so we looked for more food to eat.  It is very nice that there were no fast-food joints anywhere in the city.  All of the restaurants were high class fresh-food cuisine, which was expensive, but it was SO easy to eat healthy. They get all their ingredients fresh from local farms and also from Whitehorse. For lunch, we stepped into this little quaint cafe and the cook/owner came out and personally greeted us and with a French accent, and showed us what he had to offer.  We chose the granola.

I didn't capture the whole thing, but this should give you an idea.  The French guy said they roast their granola with maple syrup, and it's topped with apple, nuts, and rhubarb/raspberry sauce.  It was SOOOOOOOOOO good!  They even had almond milk just for me!  (That cake was Chuck's idea.)  Their coffee was really good too!

After eating lunch, we walked around town some more.  Here are some pictures of some buildings:

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the "tower" of this church building was leaning.  Obviously this building is no longer used.  The whole town is embellished with old dilapidated buildings like this, many of them  became deformed on account of the permafrost.  Nowadays they are building their structures on blocks or stilts to keep them off the ground.

The whole time we were there, I kept looking for evidence of "Klondike Kate" and was wondering why she wasn't heavily advertised as one of their prominent historical celebrities.  The only thing I could find was this restaurant:

We didn't go inside there so I don't know if they have anything in there that portrays her.
After I got home I did a little research and found out that she used to perform in this theatre:

We walked past this building many times, but there wasn't anything that indicated she had been there.    If we had known that, I would've paid more attention to it. This building is still being used today as a theatre.  There were posters displayed that showed what was going to be showing and when.

Then we got in the car and drove up this steep hill where you can look out for miles.  Here is a good view of Dawson City and you can also see where the Klondike merges with the Yukon.

Then we walked around some more.  We were gonna go in this general store, but Chuck was wearing a backpack, and they don't allow backpacks in the store.  It was okay though, cuz it just turned out to be a grocery store.

Then we went to this museum and spent a couple hours there.  There was a lot of stuff in there about the gold rush.  It was pretty interesting.

Then we got hungry again.  I was in the mood for pizza, so we went here:

It's hard to see it very well from where I was sitting, but they actually cook the pizzas in a fire-heated oven.  It was pretty neat.

And of course it was really good!

I'm tellin' ya!  The food in Dawson City is awesome!

By the time evening came we were running out of things to do, and businesses were closing down, so  we went for another walk by the river and then retired early cuz we wanted to get an early start the next morning.  Unfortunately, whoever was sleeping in the room above us had a rough night.  Somewhere around 3:00 we heard all kinds of thumps and loud noises, and pacing back and forth, and heavy things dropping on the floor (our ceiling).  This went on for about half an hour and Chuck was not gonna get any more sleep after that.  We  had planned on getting up at 6:00, but got up at 4:30 instead cuz that was it for Chuck and he couldn't lay there any longer.

So we got back on the ferry, but after we got to the other side, we passed a sign saying that the US Border doesn't open until 8:00, which meant we were gonna get there WAY too early.  So we drove the whole way at only 30 mph.  This was okay cuz we were pretty much the only ones on the road.  Even driving that slow we still got to the border about 45 minutes too early, so we pulled over and took a half-hour nap.

Getting through the border at Poker Creek was pretty easy.  The lady was friendly and didn't ask as many intimidating questions.  She mostly just wanted to know if we had any purchases to declare, and if we had a good time.

 We stopped at Chicken again, and then ate at Fast Eddie's in Tok again.
Made it home around 5:00.  Not too shabby.

So, it was really fun, interesting, and educational.
I would definitely go there again!

Now.......to get my scrap booking room back in order.........!

That is gonna be a huge project.