When last we left you, dear reader......

We had just spent a pleasant night at Pink Mountain, BC.  That was a reasonable nice site, for a work camp.  That is to say, it had nice restroom facilities and LOTS of construction workers staying there on a more-or-less permanent basis.  Nice folks, salt of the earth types.  We enjoyed ourselves.

The next day's journey started off about 9:00, as usual.  Since we were well and truly into the Rockies by now, the day was a long series of up and down hill experiences.  I chugged up the hills, with speeds getting as low as 9 miles an hour on some of the more extreme up grades.  But, by taking it easy and keeping the RPM's at about 1800-2100, I managed to keep the truck from overheating.  All in all, a good day.  Susan, oddly enough, had challenges in the opposite direction.  She had plenty of power to climb the hills, but was challenged to keep the speed down on the downhill side.  When she goes too fast, the trailer wants to sway and bobble about.  Most disconcerting.  So I roar down hill and crawl up, while she roars up hill and crawls (relatively) down.  At the end of the day, with a little care, we end up at the same place.

And, on Tuesday, that place was the Toad River Resort and RV Park, located, oddly enough, right on the Toad River.  We got some nice pictures there and thoroughly enjoyed our stay.  We met a lovely couple from Ohio, Bob and Bobbette (names changed because I forgot to ask their permission to mention them), who had made this trip five or more times before.  We had a grand chat and got referrals for nice places most of the way into Seward.  The following morning, we followed them out of the campground by about an hour and an half, not knowing where they were going, but having enjoyed their company very much.

The Rockies east of Toad River

After another harrowing day in the Rockies we pulled into Nugget City, in the Yukon Territories and found ourselves an RV site.  As I walked away from the Office, who should I see but Bob and Bobbette!  Another glad meeting and great fun ensued.  Nugget City was a bit on the sparse side, with no trees and a sand and gravel lot for RV sites, but they had a fine chef in their restaurant.  I will let Susan go into more detail about that, since she spent more time talking to him than I did.  We had a lovely dinner, the first one out of the trailer in several weeks, and got to bed early, since we were THAT tired.

The following morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed at around 6:30 and got ready for the last big push to Whitehorse YT.  We had a lovely breakfast, corralled the cats into their carriers and set off.  Along the way, we encountered winding roads with tight turns and a few tall hills, but no mountains to speak of.  We had apparently gotten out of the Rockies with no ill effects, beyond somewhat frayed nerves.  But we were bone tired and ready for a break.  We arrived at Whitehorse about 4:30 and got checked into the Hi Country RV Park with enough time to make a grocery run into town and still have time to eat.  After a bit of waffling, we decided that since we had been on the road, pushing hard for 23 days, it was time for a break.  So we settled in for a three day stay.  Yesterday we went to the grocery store again, did some miscellaneus shopping and set of for the Takhini Hot Springs.  Wow!  I had never been to a hot spring before and I found it very relaxing.  We stayed about 4 hours and by the time we got back to the trailer, I was so relaxed, Susan nearly had to pour me into bed.  Got a good night's sleep too.

Today we did go shopping, again, for books and for suspenders for me (I have lost about 15 pounds and my trousers are falling off).  We came back to camp and spent the afternoon writing post cards and catching up on some business over the Internet.   My mobile broadband card finally works here, so I have a secure connection.  The WiFi provided by the campgrounds is not secure, and I have been reluctant to put out anything that I did not want to share with the whole world.  Like my banking codes, for instance.

Tomorrow we will get up early and have a nice breakfast.  We will have Morning Prayer and thank the Lord for His help and protection along the way. 

then we will will continue on, refreshed and relaxed, about 150 miles to the Cottonwoods RV Camp, almost halfway to Tok, Alaska.  On Monday we should cross back into the USA, a glad thing since the exchange rate is $0.95US per $1.00Can.  I never thought I would live to see the day when US currency was worth less than Canadian currency.  We lose $0.05 for every dollar we spend.  I do not care what your politics are, that is just wrong.  We need to stop solving our national problems by printing more money.  That worked out badly for Germany after WWI and I do not think it will work any better for us.  It led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and we do not need one of those.  But enough on that subject.  We will be glad to be home.