Back to the Yukon heading home

We left Valdez and went back up the only road we could, the Richardson Road, since we already had alot of pictures from the trip down we only took two, The Thompson Pass sign, which Cindy Thompson said was a must this time

After driving north from Valdez

and staying the night in Tok,

same place we stayed going up,

good wifi then, nothing this time,

we drove east on the Alaska Highway to Cottonwood,

on Kluane Lake, in the Yukon

This is Mount Elias and the Wrangle Mountain Range, the same one I was trying to get a picture of but it was in the clouds, I keep trying....

The silt from the glaciers causes this braiding effect on the rivers

This is Mount Elias in the Wrangel Mountain Range,

some of the most remote parts of Alaska,

I tried for miles to get it without clouds,

poking my head out my window,

while Cindy tooled down the highway

We think it's going to rain and hoping to wipe the bugs off the windshield when it does

Gracie and Rainier get out and run around, Gracie manages to find a vindictive sticker bush and is covered with stickers all around her eyes, nose and ears, spent an hour taking them out of her, Ranier got a couple but that was it

You guys need to look at these bugs for awhile, you aren't having to put up with the bug bites, I've got one inbetween my eyes that makes me look like I'm part of a religous sect

So we stay in the same campgound in Tok that we stayed in coming up, free wifi, worked great, this time it didn't, everyone was mad, woman at the desk say's I'm so sick of you people complaining about the wifi, we spent hundreds of dollars trying to make it work and it doesn't,

end of storyBut I did get these amazing pictures of these mushrooms

We are getting close to the Canadian Border, so we get Rainbow, the mooses' Canadian flags out, this is our ploy to get through the border crossings faster

Our Protect a Tow is trying valiantly to protect us, but I'm not sure how many times we can string it up

The blooms are all off the fireweed, things are closing down, and it's beginning to look alot like

Autumn

The calm before the storm

We didn't go this way to Alaska, went further up to Dawson City and then into Alaska through the Top of the World Road,

this was 30 miles of road we hadn't anticipated, very rough

The road looks like these telephone poles, the marshland under the permafrost causes frost heaves like you wouldn't believe, there is nothing the road crew can do, they have tried everything, but the road it still absolutely the worst road I have ever been on in my life, my head hurts just thinking about it, up and down, up and down

Nothing will stand up in this ground, even the cabin is

cattiwampus

Canadian Custom's don't hardly ask us any questions at all, don't think we look like women to be messed with at this point

We finally get to the Yukon, now that it's calmed down a bit on the road I'll call Chuck and wish him Happy Birthday, no I won't, Verizon doesn't work in the Yukon, doesn't work very well in Alaska,

Happy Birthday Chuck!

We were looking forward to the gravel, it meant no frost heaves, and then......there was washboard

There are swans all around this area,

Cindy keeps telling me Swan, Swan,

and by the time I get my head out the window,

they're gone,

finally got a picture of one,

wouldn't you know it, both swans have their heads in the water,

what's the chances of that?

This is called a drunken forest,

it happens because there is marsh land under the ground here,

and with permafrost it causes a tremendous upheavel in the land,

it is the reason that the Alcan Highway is the worst here,

they have tried to fix it,

make it better,

but Mother Nature takes over and

makes it a roller coaster ride down this stretch of highway

This picture perfectly depicts how we felt, our washing machine broke its tie downs and is walking out of it's closet every couple minutes, our toilet is leaking water, a bolt has come out of our exit step, our protect a tow screen is draggin on the road, and our brake wires have ripped apart, not to mention our rear ends hurt

I wanted to stop here at Buckshot Betty's, but Cindy said no, she was afraid Gracie would start something

These are little quansat buildings that were left over from the building of the Alcan, there are three of them made into churches on the

Alaskan Highway today

I keep trying to get pictures of these ponds out the window, by the time I get set up the trees are blocking my view, imagine, I have my head stuck out a 1 foot by 2 foot hole, clicking as fast as I can yelling at Cindy to stop, slow down, she doesn't listen to me

You kind of get shell shocked by the road, we see people flying by at 50 miles an hour, their vehicle looks like it's on a pogo stick, I think they just gave up and accepted it, Cindy and I hunkered down at top speed of 20mph

We finally get to Watson Lake, all shook up, washing machine that dances better than me, exit step with only three legs, protect a tow, protecting nothing but the inside of our storage unit, but we're here, and tired