Thursday, September 24 - 218 Miles Today. The highway was nice and smooth between Haines Junction and Whitehorse - sped along at a constant 55MPH - no bumps. We arrived in Whitehorse about 3:00pm today, our third on the road. The town lies on the Yukon River, well below the passing highway to the south. There are gas stations, garages, restaurants, hotels, and RV parks scattered along the ALCAN as it parallels the river and city. We descended into town on the main exit, planning to exchange some currency, hoping to grab a bite to eat and checking our email at the Visitor‘s Center - no luck on that one. Stayed at the Caribou RV Resort a few miles south of town. Wi-Fi at the Caribou gave out a weak signal and was slow, but we eventally prevailed.Friday, September 25 - 394 Miles Today - our maximum mileage considering Moonshine gets cranky and commences a constant flow of whinny barking after the onset of early evening. Watson Lake was to be our destination, but the "SignPost Village" was having a tough time economically. We have noticed this trend all along the Alcan. Many roadhouses and gas stations are closed, either early in the season or permanently. The financial mess going on in the world has reached the Far North. Even the restaurant we planned to dine at was closed - so we moved on to Laird Hot Springs, another ninety miles.
The land is undergoing the fall color change and yellows dominate - sometimes providing a green and yellow checkerboard design. We passed a herd of Buffalo that grazes along the highway between Watson Lake and Laird. They are dispersed in groups of 20 to 30 along the highway. We passed three or four groups and a couple of lone bulls. Moonshine sat quietly during this passage as she studied the strange, large headed beasts.
Mary is like a cat that cannot find a corner in a round barn in which to pee, so we circled the campground at Laird two times before picking the most perfect site. The campground had more campers than we had expected, but there were plenty of sites available near the end of the loop. It seems that most campers take the first available, so the sites fill in that order.
We parked and walked Moonshine over to the boardwalk, a half mile total, and were returning to get our bathing gear when we met Armand, the camp host. He was a jovial guy, in his sixties, friendly and talkative. It was close to the end of the season so he was giving everyone a deal, half price - $10 for the night. He said he didn’t like to go to Watson Lake any more, area is too depressed, and when he did, he got his supplies and booze and took off back to Laird without lingering.
Moonshine stayed n the trailer while Mary and I walked out the boardwalk to the spring. By then it was very dark so each of us carried a flashlight. Mary had been looking forward to the springs, but she found them too hot to get into, and the sulfur smell was stronger than we remembered, so she stayed on the boardwalk while I took a fifteen minute dip. We had left our cloths at the far end of the facility. No one was near, and the night was pitch black, so I decided I would quickly slip off my wet swimsuit, dry off quickly, and then, quickly, put on the dry sweat pants I had brought. I was no sooner nude when a trail of flashlights appeared from the boardwalk at the other end. I was dancing around trying to get my shorts on. Mary was trying to hide my naked body from the sight of the eight or ten new arrivals, mostly children, while I, with a foot stuck in the wrong leg, was dancing a jig on the other. I finally managed to slip the shorts on backward and hurriedly don the sweatpants.
To complete the comedy, Mary tripped and fell in the boardwalk. She was carrying the big lantern, but not paying attention to where she was aiming it, so the beam would flash up to the tree tops and then slice downward across our path lighting the vegetation at the side, but never lighting the boardwalk - so Mary didn't see the raised board she tripped over.GO TO: Part 3
