Judith and Robert RAYMOND 's Travel log

7^th June  8^th June 2013    We were going to stay on the roadside again tonight but we made it through to Fairbanks and checked in at the RV Park.  A full hook up.  $43.50 per night, that includes power, water, cable TV and sewerage.  Only our sewerage hose wasn’t long enough to reach. It was a nice park right on the river. We went walk about along river edge and then into Fred Meyers.  This is a huge department store at least 4 times as big as Big W in Australia and 8-10 times bigger than New World etc.  They have everything from TV’s to groceries to food court.  You name it they have it.   Robert then walked to the museum, but didn’t realise it was so far.  I went back to the RV Park and did the washing. Really tired at the moment because we don’t get the sleep with the light coming in all night.  It never gets dark. We went for breakfast next door at the hotel attached to the RV park. First time we went out for breakfast and it was really nice. Slow day today.  Just a short walk around the river and relaxing.

10^th June. The day was a little better so we set off up to Chena Hot Springs. These were recommended so many times on this trip so we thought we had better not miss it out.  We took our time and stopped in at Fairbanks city centre to have a look around. Not much to see. And the after we filled up with gas, petrol as we call it, we headed north.

 It was an uneventful trip.  Easy driving and road wasn’t that busy. We found a nice place to stop for lunch and decided to stay for the night.  It was right beside a nice river, and not too many people around.  One lot had broken down and was waiting for a starter motor for his truck, another lot was waiting for their friends to come. So we thought nothing of this. Until 10.pm when the party started and fireworks or guns not sure which started.  The loud music with the thumpy base drove us crazy. Not such a nice place after all.  At 11pm we were so tired and just wanted to get some sleep so we moved on.  It was as though we were driving in the middle of the day.  The sun was about to go down by was just on the horizon.  We only had to go about 5 mils and we found a nice quiet spot with only one other car and tent, and they were asleep so parked and got a good night’s sleep. 

10^th June.    We didn’t wake up until 8,30am. The sun was up and so we set off again and reached Chena Hot springs at about 11am. We had not decided to stay the night here.  There is a camp but it has no power, water and only long drop toilet.  You get just as much as this on the road stops and it doesn’t cost anything.    So we parked in the day ark and went for a swim in the hot springs.  It was so relaxing.  No children under 16 years old allowed in the outdoor pool.  We stayed in for about 1 hour then went to see the ice sculptures.  This was well worth the $15.00 each.  They were amazing. After having lunch a walk, and another swim and shower we left there, it was about 4.30pm.  A good day.   We travelled about 20 miles to a spot we was coming in, where they launch the kayaks. There were 3 vans there when we went passed but we thought we would have a look anyway.   Well 2 where still there, one had moved on.  We thought we would try and do some gold panning, and then have dinner and take it from there.  Well while we were gold panning the other two lots left, as it was Sunday and they all had to get back to work. It was great just the two of us left and a few cars waiting for the kayaks to come so they could take them home.  Something to watch.  We went for a walk up river and met a man called Eddie who was getting ready to go up to his claim 15 miles up the river.  He talked to us for quite a while and told us about his friend who had just been mauled by a bear.  We had heard this on the news the day before.    He gave me a name of a gold nugget he found called “Keymaster”. It is one of the bigger ones found in this area. We have met some really friendly folk.  Well we stayed the night and it was so quiet.  All by ourselves.  A better night’s sleep was had by both of us.

11^th June.  The roads are good, not too happy about coming back the same road but never the less it is easy driving.  We called into North Pole.  Santa wasn’t there but all the toys and decorations were.  It was not worth seeing really, but we had to I suppose. Can’t come to the North Pole without going to see Santa’s home.  There were no elves, or presents getting made or demonstrations just selling Christmas decorations and souvenirs. We came across the Alaska Pipe line and it huge. Took photos of the information boards so we can remember all about it.  Then we past a place where the tours bus’s where going into so we turned around and went back. It was a restored or partly restored Riki’s Roadhouse and landing.  This is where they stopped in the old days on the way up North.  The buildings were still standing all but a little worse for wear. They had fitted the huts out with old dishes, military attire etc. so like a mini museum. Quite interesting. We found a nice place to stop by a big river called Tanana. We were both a little nervous going down on the river bed with this hired RV but it looked so nice.  Robert had a big fire, first one we have had on this trip.  Another RV came down to join us, they don’t like staying on their own. They were from Quebec and she only spoke French.  He was very interesting.  Robert showed him how to pan for gold but again we never found any.  You only find gold dust really in these rivers, but we’ll keep trying.   Still the light nights are getting to me.  I wish we could make this RV dark, but they haven’t supplied any black out curtains.  It takes so long to get to sleep then we sleep in the morning later.  The evening was lovely but those Mosquitoes ruined it. They are here by the thousands and that is not an exaggeration.

12^th June.   The day is another out of the box or so we thought.  The rain drops started to come down and the clouds were very low.  You couldn’t see the tops of the mountains. The views are getting better. The snow-capped mountains and running rivers. We stopped at Tok. A nice little town in the middle of nowhere.  We filled up with gas, petrol and emptied waste and filled up with water.   Then went to the info centre and Jim told us about the shops in this town.  All gift shops. A small grocery shop as well.  He told us about the Jack Wade gift shop and we thought, just another gift shop, but then he mentioned a 53 OZ piece of gold on display so we wandered over there.  Well we got talking to the lady behind the counter and she showed us some real nice pieces of gold and let us handle them.  The without asking she offer to show us something special. Not everyone gets to see this.  A piece of gold that weighed 5lbs yes 5 pounds worth ½ million dollars. We could hold it, photograph it, but she wasn’t far away. What a great feeling it would be great to find that one.  They used bulldozers etc to find that. We then set off on our travels again. We passed over the Canada /American border about lunchtime.  The customs officer was a real blunt unfriendly person. We mentioned this at the Information centre at Beaver Creek and she told us that the last person in there had said the same thing. We are heading towards Haines Junction and then onto Whitehorse. The landscape was back to being quite interesting.  The driving was anything but.  Well over here you have what they call permafrost. This is when the ground under the road freezes in the winter then starts to thaw out.  When this happens it causes the road to buckle, and you have all these bumps in it.  You cannot go very fast over these bumps so this part of the trip took some time.   Then we hit road works, as they are trying to get rid of this trouble.  So not to say, the trip was a slow one today.  After about 200miles of this the road got a bit better and we could go back to 90 km per hour instead of 40. We found a nice spot to stop for the night as we were both had it after the concentration of driving and looking out for the non-existent animal life.  There were no bears, caribou, even Dall sheep or birds.  It was as dead as a dodo of all living things. We got excited at one lake where we saw two ducks and two other birds. We arrived in Whitehorse and walked around the town. Went on the old steamer, called Klondike, and went to the Mammoth house, which was very interesting. You can stay at Walmart overnight here if you like. It was like a RV convention they were everywhere, generators going, and Walmart stayed open until 9pm so we got on the road to find a better spot to stay for the night.  We had dinner before we left at the burger place.  They sure love their burgers and fries over here. We found a nice little spot about 50 miles north of Whitehorse.  We are heading for Dawson City. And the TOP of the WORLD Highway to Chicken and then back to Anchorage.

13^th June.

 On the road again and this time we passed Pelly crossing, Minto Landing which were supposed to be towns but they were ghost towns.  We saw the twin lakes where the reflections were really neat. We then came to Five Finger Rapids. These are very famous rapids, hard to navigate and there has been quite a number of people who have died trying to get through.  There were only 200 steps straight down and then a 2kms walk to see them close up.  You got a very good view from the top of the hill, but we had to walk down to see it first-hand. I didn’t think I would be able to get back up but no trouble, or not much anyways.  It was a good stretch and great exercise for the day. So you would think I would sleep like a baby after that.   But after travelling another 150 miles we found a nice quiet pullover away from the road.  We were tired, watched a DVD then bed about 10pm. Still light outside.  Well, we were just dozing off when the Mosquitoes started.  We killed about 10 of them in the next 2 hours. They are pests. Didn’t have any spray so just had to find them and kill them. So it was well after 1pm when we went to sleep.  At midnight we watched the sun set and it was  a great one but neither of us were willing to open the door and get a photo and let more of our friends the mossies’ in.

Friday the 14^th June. What a day to wake up to.  There is not a cloud in the sky. We hit the road about 10am with not far to go to Dawson City.  No further stops and no animals still, so disappointing, we did expect to see some wild life.  Got into Dawson at lunchtime. What a funny little place. All built to look like the old cowboys time.  Buildings are sinking into the ground because of the permafrost, so the new ones have to be built with different foundations but they have to look like they are old.

We walked all around the town today.

I have found that the internet is not the best here in Canada. The phone I got in Alaska cannot be used in Canada.  In the RV Park we are in today you get 2 hours free Wi-Fi but you cannot download or upload because you are limited to the megabytes you can use.  Real weird, however, I guess we are in the outback’s so we will have to just put up with it.  Quite an interesting town.  We went to the saloon for dinner and show. There were dancing girls, old pokies machines, roulette, black jack etc.  The show was good. Robert got picked by one of the girls to go up and learn to dance the Cancan and we didn’t take the camera. He was good, got a few laughs and got to keep the garter he took off the girl. Good night had by all. Came out of the club and it was 10pm and the sun was still shining brightly.

15^th June 2013.   Well we think we see a lot of big rigs (caravans or bus’s) in Australia but you haven’t seen anything like over here.  Huge buses all pulling cars, 5^th wheelers, 32’ or 36’ RV’S. And dogs, I have never seen so many dogs in RV’s and bus’s.  Not one dog per van but 2 and three.  They do it big over here. They call caravans, pull trailers. Had a slower day today. We walked up town to get some groceries, had lunch at 2pm(didn’t get up until 10am Couldn’t go to sleep last night neighbours wouldn’t stop chatting.) Then went for a ride on the ferry across the Yukon River.  We have to go across on it tomorrow to get to where we are going, so thought we’d have a little ride first.  The camp man here is not a nice man.  Very grumpy and his wife doesn’t want anything to do with the customers. She wants to sell, he doesn’t so not a good atmosphere.  Didn’t know this when we booked in. Never mind it’s only for 2 nights.  They squeeze you in. Only about 1.5 Metres between vans, no room for an annexe if you had one. No fire codes here.   We went onto a Gold shop, surprise surprise, and met the lady called Leslie. We got talking to her and when we said we were from NZ and were going to 60mile she immediately asked if we were friends of Jim And Beth. She told us Jim had been here only yesterday. We walked around a bit to see if we could see them but we assumed they had already gone back to camp. After another of not so good sleep, with dogs barking and talking after arriving home at midnight, when it was like 4pm outside we decided to set off the next day.