We've got a relatively long 300 mile drive today, and we're getting a late start. By the time we get up, make coffee, pack up and hitch up, it's 9:30.
We make an obligatory stop at the "Sign Monument"...a large fenced-in area with poles on which people have affixed thousands upon thousands of license plates and road signs. Roger and Gretchen put one up back in 2010, but I can't find it after looking around for a half hour. Then we gas up and hit the road.
Around 100 miles up the road, we stop at a small territorial park for a mile hike back in the woods to see two small waterfalls...very nice. When we get back on the road, it starts to rain again. It rains all day and makes for one miserable drive...no wildlife, lots of slow-moving traffic, scenery obscured by clouds and rain. All we can do is "hunker down" and count off the miles.
By the time that we arrive in Whitehorse (capital of the Yukon) and check in at our campground, we tired...both physically as well as mentally. Bill heads downtown for supplies while I get ready for dinner. On my last visit to Whitehorse, I stayed at a nice hotel, the Edgewater, with a terrific steakhouse in the basement. So that's where Bill and I head for dinner. Unfortunately, it's under new management, and the service is awful...twenty minutes to get seated, forty-five minutes to get a tiny Martini, an hour wait for dinner. I get a huge slab of Prime Rib...it's good, but not as good as last time.
Towards the end of our dinner "ordeal", our waiter sees me rubbing my hand and asks if I use "arthritis medicine". Everybody up here in the Yukon uses arthritis medicine, he tells us. I mention that Bill and I had to leave our "medicine" behind when we crossed the border into Canada. At that, our waiter leans in close to me, cups his hand around his mouth and whispers..."I'm your man". And so...twenty minutes and twenty dollars later, Bill and I have our arthritis medicine "prescription" filled. You gotta love the Yukon!
After dinner, we retire to Bill's camper, out of the rain, for a few beers. We're going "easy" on beer as of late since the price for a 12-pack is well over $30.00.
Whitehorse was one of my favorite stops up here on my 2008 trip. It's a nice little town filled with friendly people and a number of surprisingly good places to eat. A little bastion of civilization in the wilderness.
So...Bill and I are going to stay here for a few days. Then the plan is to take the Yukon/White Pass Railroad trip to Skagway, Alaska. In Skagway, we'll take a boat cruise out into Glacier Bay National Park. Then we'll take the train back to Whitehorse before proceeding. We're thinking that we might go up to Dawson City and Tombstone Territorial Park from Whitehorse...that way, we will avoid the dreaded "Top of the World" Highway which scared the living hell out of me in 2008.
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