Day 17

I need to back up to Tuesday in Dawson City. A ride across the Yukon on a small ferry is the only way to get to the road to Chicken (The Top of the World Highway). Jan inquired about the ferry when we went to the Visitor's Center and was told there were 21 RVs scheduled to go across on Wednesday morning - 2 tours. The man next to us at the RV park told Jan he was planning to get in line at 4:00 in the morning because last year he had to wait in line for over 2 hours. We hadn't considered that we might have to wait in line for the ferry!

It rained all night, Jan woke me up at 6:00 and told me to throw some clothes on because we were going to go get in line; we could eat breakfast while we waited. We quickly hooked up the trailer (record time) and made our way to the ferry dock. WE WERE THE ONLY ONES THERE! No line, no breakfast, no makeup (scary)! We stopped on the other side of the river and ate breakfast and I put on some makeup (didn't want to scare any wildlife).

The Top of the World Highway (highway is a very questionable term) is dirt and gravel for about 90 miles. It was still raining, the road was very muddy, and, to top it off, it was foggy. The reason we decided to take this route was so Jan could get some awesome pictures, especially a panoramic photo of Dawson City. So, we ended up driving 90 miles on a narrow, muddy, mountainous road in fog that was so thick we could hardly see the road in front of us and we didn't get any pictures. We were very happy when we finally got to Chicken - the road after that was paved. We bought tee shirts to commemorate our feat.

Remember the man from the RV park who was leading a tour? One of the RVs in his group slid off the road and ended up in a ditch sitting at a 45 degree angle. It was one of the big bus style motorhomes and he was towing a car. About an hour later, we encountered a tow truck headed in that direction. I have no idea how they were going to get him out but I'm sure it wasn't easy.

The border between Canada & Alaska is a few miles before Chicken - we were finally in Alaska! No more kilometers, no more strange money! We met up with Jerry and Nancy in Tok and we're very glad they didn't go with us - they would have ended up hating us for dragging them over that road. Not to mention the fact that our truck and trailer were caked with inches of mud. We stayed in Delta Junction which is the end of the Alaska Highway - now we will be on the Richardson Highway. I don't think any of you will be surprised that Jan popped for an additional $8.00 at the RV park so we could wash the truck and trailer.