Tok, AK

After another bone-shaking drive of about 40 mi we reached Beaver Creek, the last town in the Yukon before crossing the border. We couldn't wait to get there! However, hunger hit so we asked the lady at the visitor center to guide us to the best place to eat in town. Buckshot Betty's it was. Yum, had a great breakfast and hit the road for our last few miles before the border.

The boarder crossing was a piece of cake (the guy even smiled) and we proceeded to our first visitor center in Alaska where a cute young man told us lies about the weather. He was right on about the road conditions and we sailed on to Tok about 90 mi away. That night we stayed in a state park about 10 mi out of Tok.

After dinner I discovered a leak under the casita sink. Yes, wet carpet and of course, it started to rain. I borrowed a dish pan from Carol to catch the drips for the night. The next morning I awoke at 4:45 am to pounding rain. I left the mosquito net in the trailer, put on my rain gear and took the Fox for his morning pee. Naturally, he preferred to nose around instead of do his duty (job, business, whatever you call it) and I just kept yelling "Go Potty, go potty," like he goes on command ( well, sometimes, he does). I don't understand why we can't call dog poop "scat" like other animal poop. Then I could just say, in a civilized manner, "Go scat".

Speaking of scat I discovered piles of unidentified scat that some of you might recognize. Keep in mind that a moose is the largest member of the deer family and roam these areas. Or, it could be caribou, that are called reindeer if they are domesticated.

I digress, I was determined to have a shower so I crawled into my shower room, sat on the toilet and washed my hair. Sure felt good and I got to clean the bathroom. Since we had no electric my hair had to air dry. What a joke. It had doubled in length and tripled in volume since I left Florida.

I had a list of things to attend to in Tok before we headed on to Chicken. Get gas, wash trailer, dump, get groceries, try to fix leak, etc. These things I did in the pouring rain. I forgot to get water so had to go back to the gas station. This station promised a free wash, use of sani dump, and fresh water with a fill up. Fresh water is hard to find so I had to take advantage. I then went to the local hardware store to find out how to repair leak. Of course, the part leaking was almost inaccessible and you had to weigh 80# and be a contortionist to get to it. I ended up with marine Goop and instructions that I should really have it repaired by an RV person. So, again as instructed, I made my way to the RV shop, no one there so went next door to Julie's Gold shop (again as instructed) to ask Julie for the RV man's phone number. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me the guys wife is dying of cancer and he doesn't have a cell # anymore. Well, I felt like the village idiot as I said goodbye. As I was pulling out a fellow in a truck pulled in and waved to me. Hope against hope I knew this must be Rv man. No luck there, seems I dropped my keys to the Casita at the hardware store.

So, back to the hardware store with Carol trailing behind. I decided that I would do temp repairs while parked there (still pouring rain). Got out the Goop and went to town! It wasn't easy as I had to "feel" what I was doing. So, ten minutes later and Goop all over my hands repairs were made, at least for now. In 24 hrs I had to do it again to make sure it would hold.

It was 1:00 pm and we were on our way. Since it was still raining we decided to go on to Anchorage and go to Chicken on the return trip. Maybe I could have the leak professionally repaired in Anchorage. Needless -to-say, this hadn't been my best day and my mood was a little sour.

We drove for what seemed to be an endless time and after 60 miles pulled over for the night. We were at porcupine creek campground with not another soul camping. It seemed a bit weird that the place was empty but then we were only 60 mi from Tok. Most people travel more than 60 mi in a day. I was exhausted and retired early!

Here is a photo of a glacier taken along the way: