Day 73

We had a very good day of travel with sun and some rain but warmer, the roads gradually got better. The first part was better than the days before but still not good, it was curvy and narrow and the edge of the road dropped off the road surface, I am talking about 10 to 20 feet down so we went slowly. After a while there was this yellow line down the center and the road became better and better. The last 90 miles was like driving in civilization at the speed limit! Tomorrow we will be in Prince George, BC for 5 days.

Day 72  

We are in Dease Lake, BC after a beautiful drive through Northern BC. The roads are good and bad so we just went slowly. We did stop at Jade City again to thank them for their kindness and help when we broke down. This time we did some shopping and picked up a couple of items like a pair of jade bear earrings for Karen.  It is a quiet evening in prep for a longer drive the next couple of days.

Day 71

We had breakfast at the Jade City Café and waited for the service truck.  The service truck arrived an hour early and did a temporary patch on the spring and then towed the trailer back to Watson Lake, YT where Good Sam had made arrangements to have the spring replaced. They were very good and had us back on the road in 1 ½ hours. The down side is that they had a spring that would fit but not as heavy duty and as soon as I get to an RV dealer I will have to have it replaced again. We will spend the night here and tomorrow meet up with our friends who are waiting for us at Dease Lake BC.

Well enough about repairs, here are some photos leaving Skagway and on the Cassiar highway.

Interesting things we learned as we sat and talked with some of the workers about Jade City: this area mines about 92% of the worlds Jade and 90% of that is sold to China. There are other Jade mining operations like in South America but on a smaller scale. The staff here was very friendly and helpful as we waited over night in their parking lot.  

Leaving Skagway

The beginning of the Cassiar Highway

Polishing Jade

Cutting Jade

Jade as it is mined

My evening walk

Day 70

Not a good day! It started out fine weather was good, roads were good then we turned down the Cassiar Highway and the road was paved, some slowdown areas for pot holes and frost heaving, curvy, no lines or berm and like a rollercoaster. We decided to make a stop at the Cassiar Mountain Jade Store in Jade City and when we got into the trailer there was a burning smell. I went outside and discovered that we had broken a spring on the trailer, OUCH! I called Good Sam roadside service and after a couple of hours they called back and were sending a repair guy and tow truck. He is going to do a temporary repair and tow the trailer back to Watson Lake about 80 miles to install new springs. We spent the night here in the parking lot and to my surprise the generator we bought for this trip would not work for the trailer it does not have a ground and my line protector will not work without it. We did use it for powering a heater and the computers. 

Day 69

Well we left Alaska behind today and head home through British Columbia on the Cassiar Highway through Prince George towards Spokane Washington. It has been an adventure and one that we were fortunate to travel. The weather has not been the best with a lot of cold rainy days but also some very beautiful and warm days. The weather has never deterred us from doing anything other than sitting outside with our friends. The Top of the World Highway is one that we did for the second and last time. This one was a cold rainy day on a 100 mile dirt narrow road with soft shoulders but we did it! We have a lot of photos to sort through and memories that will last forever. We love Alaska and all it has to offer and would travel it again but we have a lot more of the lower 48 to revisit and enjoy. We have enjoyed traveling with Jim, Norma, Rico and Rooty and will still be with them until we reach Washington and head different directions. I will continue to post our travels until we get home, stay tuned.

Day 68

We went back to downtown and the cruise people traffic was light so we spent the morning exploring the shops and found a few shops had some very nice art pieces that were made by local artists. We purchase a couple of prints to put in our trailer and an ulu knife and cutting board. The Alaska ulu knife is an innovative tool that came from the Eskimo culture. Back to the trailer for lunch then took a short drive to a high viewing area overlooking the town and harbor. In the afternoon we just hung out in preparation for our departure from Alaska.

This knife really works cool! Used it for dinner prep

Day 67

Today was another laundry day then after lunch we walked through town and down to the cruise ship docks. You know Karen is a huge Disney Fan and wouldn't you know it, the Disney Wonder was in port! As we walked back through town, by the way town is one street about 7 short blocks long and because there were three cruise ships docked the town was packed. We are near 15^th street and town begins at 7^th so we went back and did some casual looking around. Now it is time to sit with our feet up and have a cup of coffee.

On the way to Skagway

Downtown Skagway

From 1982 visit

2014

1982

2014

Disney Wonder

Day 66

We had a good day of travel to Skagway, mostly sunny some construction early then we turned on to the highway to Skagway about 100 miles from the junction. The road was nice and the scenery was beautiful. Unfortunately not much chance for photos in that we were driving into the sun alongside a beautiful lake about 30 miles long nestled between the mountains. Hopefully we will get some photos when we leave. Just before we reached the US Customs there was about an 8 mile steep winding road that we thought would never end. After setting up we walked into town for dinner and to see the changes from 30 years ago and they were very apparent like the gravel main street is now paved but the board walks are still there. A few of the business were still in operation as they were then. Skagway has one grocery store, one bank, one gas station about three year round restaurants and small shops. This is the end/start of the Inland Passage for cruise ships, three were in port today. As of today we have driven 7,550 miles and are 4,000 miles from home. 

Day 62 Sorry, this one is out of order, I missed publishing it.

It is our last day in Valdez; we took a morning walk along the small boat harbor then drove back to the hatchery to see what was happening. There were more bald eagles and people fishing and we watched the salmon swimming upstream, then we drove down to the Old Town site of Valdez which was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake. All that is left are the roads and signs of where the businesses were. As you can tell I am taking a lot of photos but this place is so big and vast that all you can capture is parts. It is awesome to drive through; in fact we are driving about 50-55mph so we can enjoy it longer! 

Valdez across from the harbor

Hope you can read this, interesting!

Salmon at the fish ladder

Commercial fishermen hear out

Day 65

This was not a good travel day even though the weather was great the road conditions were poor. There was a lot of gravel mixed with frost heaved roads which made traveling very slow. We traveled 228 miles in about 6 ½ hours. We are at Destruction Bay, YT and heading for Skagway, AK tomorrow at 270 miles. Sure hope the roads are better. We crossed the US/Canada border and tomorrow we cross back into the US then on Saturday back into Canada and will be there until we reach the lower 48.

Day 64

We are just hanging out today which turned out to be one of the nicer days of the time in Alaska. The campground is nice with long and wide sites and about a 20’ strip of trees and grass between sites. We went to breakfast at Fast Eddies’, got gas and some groceries then spent the day sitting and talking about the rest of the journey. I did work on cleaning up some dirt stains on the back of the trailer that would not wash off; it still needs a couple of hours work, then wax.

Day 63 

We drove most of the day in the rain and wind on frost heaved roads from Valdez to Tok, AK. We are here two days waiting on an opening at Destruction Bay RV Park, BC, they have several caravans coming in and we can’t get a site until Tuesday. We will be in Skagway, AK for three nights which will end our tour of Alaska.

Here are two more shots taken our last morning in Valdez

This is one of my favorites 

Day 61

Karen and I went for a walk after breakfast to the small boat docks and on to a short 1 mile trail. As we started down the trail a girl jogger and her dog stopped us and said there was a black bear on the trail. We went on and Karen had me whistling and she was clapping so the bear would hear us. It worked, no bear! Later it was a beautiful day, all the clouds lifted and bright warm sunshine was the afternoon so we drove to the fish hatchery where people could fish and catch salmon any way they could, by net, hand or gear. We were told that it may be possible to see bears, sea lions, otters and eagles there. We saw some eagles and otters at a distance. We then drove about 28 miles to walk up close to the Worthington Glacier, a short walk from the parking lot to a viewing area. There were people walking on a trail up to and on the edge of the glacier. After a nice cookout dinner we drove back to the hatchery to see what was happening. It was high tide and sea lions were near the shore catching salmon and it was cool watching as they brought their catch to the surface the sea gulls would massively move to the sea lion to get some salmon. Then a couple of bald eagles flew over head and landed in a nearby tree. As you can tell we had another great day in Valdez, Alaska.

Valdez small boat harbor

The end of the Alaska Pipeline in Valdez

Bald Eagles hang out at low tide

Notice the people near the foot of the glacier

This cave was formed from water running under the glacier

Sea Otter

Sea Lion

Sea Lion catches a salmon

Sea Gulls go for left overs!

Bald Eagle