Alaska Bound Monday, July 25, 2011, Day 48
By: Bert and Carol Henderson, Rig # 13.5
A projected long day means an early alarm. At 6 a.m. we arose to drink our early ready cup of coffee. Knowing we had to leave at 7:31 a.m. meant all of our morning preparations were abbreviated to meet the early departure time. The reason we leave so early in the morning is because the road is projected to be less than friendly to our travel. There are places that we know we’ll have to drive at five or 10 miles per hour, greatly increasing our travel time.
When we left the RV Park in Tok the drive to the fueling station was thankfully short. No calculations of mileage, fuel consumption, and speed were necessary to travel the few hundred yards to the station. Fortunately my coach only needed about 15 gallons of gas to top off the tank. Now I have the freedom to travel between 350 and 400 miles.
When we left Tok the fog was dressing the mountain tops and bogs with a beautiful covering of white cotton.
Fortunately for us the fog did not cover or attempt to be anywhere near us during our travels. That is one hazard we didn’t have to worry about during our drive.
The destination today is Destruction Bay, Canada—about 225 miles from Tok, Alaska. We were treated to our first really bad road considering our travel on the Top-Of-The-World Highway was suppose to be the epitome of terrible highway. Today’s road was washboard, potholed, frost heaves (the first major encounter), rock, gravel, and swirls of tons of dust. Our vehicles, both RV and toweds, got really crusty with more dirt. I washed my coach in Valdez and the unit stayed clean for the three days in the RV Park. As soon as we hit the road we were covered with pounds of mud and slop! Today we just piled more on; you can’t see in the windows or tell what color the vehicle is.
We stopped at the rest area less than a mile away from the RV Park in Destruction Bay to have lunch and to sit until the designated time, 2:30 p.m. When we arrived at the designated time, our wagon master parked the arriving rigs expediously in an interleaved manor, i.e., front to back in the sites. For utilities, this park only provides water and electricity, no sewer; so boon-docking is in order for this stay. That’s not a problem because we’ve loaded on a sufficient amount of fresh water and our black and gray water tanks are clean and empty. That just means we’ll have less to disconnect for our morning departure.
Carol and I walked around the facility and take pictures for the folks back home to see some of the scenery that is afforded us out of our coach window on this trip.
We also walk next door to the motel that has a gift shop so we can purchase hat pin souvenirs. I ask if they have walking stick pins and I get the usual, “No!” So I buy an extra hat pin for my Alaska hat.
We have a driver’s meeting scheduled at 5:30 p.m. today with a dinner and show to follow. The dinner was a marvelous slice to order roast beef with smoked potato salad, baked beans, garden salad, and a wonderful apple crisp with tons of whip cream. J About 8:30 p.m. Loren, our cook, tour guide, and performer, gave us some history of Destruction Bay and included songs and personal anecdotes of where we are and what we’ve seen during our short stay. At 9:15 p.m.
Loren thanked us and Adventure Caravans and wished us well in our journeys. What a great way to end the evening and a tiring drive.
More to follow later!
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