Day 52 - Skagway, Alaska

Day 52, Friday, July 29, 2011

Skagway, AK

Richard and Beverly Enderlein Rig #9

This morning we were treated to a delicious breakfast prepared for us by our wonderful staff, Carol and Ken and Madi and Spence.  It consisted of omelets in a bag, orange juice, coffee, bacon and toast or biscuits.  Even the weather cooperated and didn’t rain.  I heard it said that Spence is learning to cook.  So far he has mastered hamburger on the Barbeque and toast. 

Spence and Madi preparing our breakfast

Carole and Ken showing us how to make our eggs in a bag

While we were waiting for breakfast most of us visited but some just cannot stand to have idle hands and Jackie really seems to be happy doing what she was doing.  What is it they say about idle hands? 

Jackie is crocheting a blanket

After breakfast we had our travel briefing presented by our Wagon Master Ken.  We are all finally getting the hang of things so the briefing didn’t take quite as long as they used to.  Even though we are going to be traveling over 300 miles to Northern Beaver Post, YT, we have been over most of the roads before so we already knew what to expect.

Next we were all treated to an excellent show on bears.  Thank you Cindy Robinett.  She is one very talented person with the computer.  This was no ordinary show but one highlighting the bears we have seen so far on the trip set to the cutest music and captions.

Shortly after noon about 30 of us went on the White Pass Summit Excursion that departed from the Skagway railroad depot.  Because there were so many of us, we were able to have a whole car to ourselves.  The scenery was pretty.  At the top of White Pass, the engine disconnected and went to the back of the train which then became the front of the train.  We were also told to be nice and switch sides of the train so everyone could have a view of the canyon and the White Pass Trail which the miners took to the Yukon River and the gold fields. 

waiting for our train

on our way up the hill

On May 28, 1898, construction was started on the White Pass & Yukon narrow gauge railroad.  It was completed on July 29, 1900.  The track consisted of 110 miles of track, cliff hanging turns of 16 degrees, two tunnels, numerous bridges and trestles.  A lot of the work took place in winter with temperatures as low as 60 degrees below and heavy snow.  In 1982 , after the mines closed, the WP & YR suspended operations.  It reopened in 1988 to operate as a narrow gauge excursion railroad.

I contacted Winifred and George Meiser to see how they were doing.  They have hooked up with the Adventure Caravan Tour that is one week behind us.  They had seen enough of Valdez so they are waiting for the other tour to reach Tok and then they will travel with them.  They said they are sorry that they didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone and that they miss us.

George and Winifred say Hi and Goodbye to all of us

After dinner we went downtown for an hour of gambling and fun.  We were each given $1,000 in play money to gamble with.  The big winner from our group was Jacque Smith who won $10,000 but was beat out by a stranger who won $10,300.

Next on our agenda was the play “Days of ’98 show” which was the story of Jefferson “Soapy” Smith.  Dave Coleman was selected to play a “john” which he played as if he was born to the part.  Diane Hall and Mary Pattison were chosen to be Can Can Dancers and they too were quick to learn the part and did a great job.  By the amount of laughter that was heard, I would say we all enjoyed the performance.

Dave "Poopsy" Coleman

Diane and Mary "working it"

Dave is a happy man as he receives his certificate

Tonight is our last night in Alaska and we are all feeling a little sad to be leaving this beautiful state but home and normalcy is calling.   Besides we need to go home to get caught up on some rest.