Whitehorse and Skagway

The first few days in Whitehorse gave us a chance to take care of a few necessities including having our trucks serviced and getting caught up on laundry.  We had an interesting experience worshipping at the United Church of Canada on Sunday.  When we arrived at church, we learned the service was being held in a nearby park.  The outdoor service was very unique and exhilarating.

On Monday we took a tour of the S.S. Klondike, an early stern-wheeler on the Yukon River, that carried mail, general cargo, passengers, and silver ore between Dawson City and Whitehorse.  The boat remained in service until 1955.  While waiting for the tour to start, we all played a  ring toss game on the front lawn of the Visitors Center.  Glynda and Jim  are not prone to brag but they soundly whipped the other two members of the party, six ringers to nothing.

In the afternoon we took another tour, to the Yukon Brewery Company, a local micro-brewer that is Canada's Northernmost brewery.  They have the distinction of being the Yukon's only brewery and have gained National and International recognition for several of their beers.  They were even generous with their samples.  We finished the day with a visit from HitchHiker friends, Jeff and Susan Collingwood from California.  We hosted a fish-fry followed by a great little campfire.  The evening was beautiful and the mosquitos were few which allowed all of us to stay up way past our bedtimes. 

On Tuesday we took a day trip to Skagway which put us back in Alaska for a few hours.  One of the highlights of that trip was being able to have cell-phone service again.  That allowed Glynda and Marlene to make contact with their Mothers.  Skagway is definitely a "tourist" destination with the majority of their visitors coming ashore from cruise ships.  In fact, there were four cruise ships in port that day.  We understand the ships dock in the morning, leave in the evening to be replaced by more ships the next day.  Several times while we were shopping the clerks even asked us "which cruise are you with?"  We hope they weren't disappointed when we replied "We are RVers".  As usual, food was another highlight of our Skagway trip.  We took a tour to Liarsville, a quaint little village where we enjoyed an all you can eat Salmon-bake buffet, a live melodrama and panning for gold.  Unfortunately, proceeds from the panning experience fell far short of paying for our trip.  

The drive to and from Skagway has to rank among the most beautiful we have experienced so far.  The many visas were "postcard-picture" perfect.  

From Whitehorse we drove on to Alaska, where we are currently located and where we will remain for the next couple of months.  We'll be telling you more about that later on.