Alaska Day 16 Tok towards Valdez

Today we waited to get our mail at Tok’s Post Office.  At 9AM we were headed south towards Valdez and “our spot”. We had the “Last Frontier Gang” spread out over three hours and not by planning. Just Lossey Gossey departures. In the 178 mile trip we encountered some neat stuff and not to neat stuff. We saw a wolf and some trumpeter swans. They just looked like big old geese to me. They weren’t tooting as we went by. I guess I will have to do my own tooting.

That’s a snow capped mountain in the background.

Steven, this girl said for you to come on up here and “stop” by. 

Now the pictures to follow are at “our spot” on the road to Valdez. You can see us setting out at our 4 o’clock.  “This is” “The Last Frontier Gang”, 6 RV’s and 12 people doing a Loosey Goosey Caravan.  We are 72 miles from Valdez. We will make it tomorrow?    

The view out of our windshield.

Miles today 180      Total miles 2473 from Montana

Day 16 from Dawson Creek, BC

Today the Beast went over 10,000 miles…

Alaska Day 15 Chicken To Tok Ak

I woke up at 4 AM local time (5 AM Yukon time).  I just did some research on campsites in different future destination areas. I try to have a plan B and C for everybody traveling in the “Last Frontier Gang” as added option for them.

It’s very cloudy already and rain is being called for down in Tok. Yes, the sun is up. I will still wash the RV and car in Tok rain or shine.  I need to wash the radiator and Cummins engine real good along with everything else. I did have one compartment door that opened up a little yesterday and needleless to say it’s trashed with dust/dirt.  Just about all the other compartments have a light film of dust. Larry said I could use his shop vac.

So we pulled out about 7:30 Am with 78 miles to go with the first two more dirt.

 

Downtown Tok.  I got fuel at $4.78 and a 103 gallons with a total of 650 miles.

We pulled into the Tundra RV Park. Got a pull thru, 50 AMP full hook up for $32. We washed the RV and car for $15 unlimited time.

Here’s what the car engine looked liked. It only has 10K miles on it.

Everyone else came a few hours later and we were all parked together. They all washed their vehicles too.

Then it was 4 0”clock time. We saluted the men & women of the Armed Services – present & past – THANK YOU..We all talked about our adventures driving the Top Of The World Highway. Everyone thought it was worth it all things considered.

I think Carol didn’t like the road kill I picked up for her.

With that in mind we all went to Fast Eddy’s for diner. Everyone agreed it was worth the drive and now we can all go home…NOT! Notice the shirts..Memorial Day. It didn’t rain on our party today.

Carol & I had fried mushrooms the Alaska way – BIG!

At the end of the blog I will keep doing the mileage each day and total mileage from the lower 48 U.S. border. The cost of fuel per gallon I will put in the blog when purchased. The cost of a campsite I will put in the blog.  I won’t be posting the total running cost of all that “other” stuff.  It really can only be used for us because of all of our tastes are so different. What you might buy at a grocery store or how often you go out to eat is different.  Fuel mileage for your vehicle is different and then there is the “fun” costs and that is really different.

P.S. The ferry across the Yukon River from Dawson city is free.  And yes to Otis Redding.

Mileage today – 78 miles  Total miles 2295

ALASKA DAY 14 TOP OF THE WORLD HIGHWAY

There is only one thing to say about The Top Of The World Highway - OH MY GOD! I can’t believe we did this again! 100 miles of dirt/gravel road and about 10 miles that should have been.

Well, pictures are worth a 1,000 words. Hold on here we go.  If you want a bigger picture – click on it.

   

It took us 4 hours of driving time.  Speeds were usually between 20-30 MPH. Some parts got very small like in one vehicle (med-Lg) at a time. Fuel mileage terrible, scenery beautiful in it’s own way but nothing like the Blue Ridge Parkway on the East Coast. Saw two porcupines, one marmot & one snow bunny. Took about 130 good pictures.  That one gray looking picture is our side mirror looking at the car – what car – couldn't see it in the back up camera either – dusty. Roads are a hell of a lot better than 2009. A lot of completed construction on them. Larry & Marilyn rolled in a cloud of dust about 4 o’clock local. We then went to town (Chicken)for diner and a drink. Not to bad. I spelt some of my chili but one of two local dogs cleaned it up quite well. Hey, it’s a smile of a stop. We are staying in a Passport America park at Chicken at $7 no hook ups and are happy, nice sites for now. It did poor down rain after getting here but no it really didn’t wash off much dust, just made it messy dust. Tomorrow we got 80 miles to Tok. Just another two miles of dirt then hard pavement with a lot of frost heaves if my memory serves me.

Top Of The World Highway – been there done that – twice – thus – no plans to return no matter how many chickens they got up here.

See ya……..