Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Expecting Graingers to drive over today and maybe spend the nite with us. Up at 7:45 - Jerry took dogs for a walk and I fixed breakfast (we have been having continental style breakfasts - hard rolls, fruit, yogurt, coffee, etc.) I waited and waited on him for breakfast, but he didn't come back so I finally ate by myself. Then I was getting a bit worried. FINALLY they came back and had had an adventure. They rode the ferry across the river and back. The only way to get from Dawson City to Tok AK without going all the way back the way we had just come is to use the free ferry. Jerry and dogs were able to just walk on as pedestrian passengers.

After breakfast we all walked back down to the ferry and rode it again. It was about 9 a.m. and we were expecting the Graingers about then, but we just rode over and back. Went back to RV and I spent some time working on the blog again while Jerry went walking around town. He returned about 11 and we had just given up on Graingers coming when the walkie talkie crackled and Barb said they were on the ferry. It had taken them 5 hours to make the drive!

The weather was not promising at all. We walked a block to Klondike Kate's and had lunch and talked for a while - had a great laugh over laundry stories. It started raining while we were at lunch and that kind of scotched our plans to walk around the town and take pictures....so we got in their car and drove. We saw the Robert Service cabin (he was a famous Canadian writer and poet) as well as the Jack London cabin...London wrote "The Call of the Wild". I remember being enthralled with that book as a kid. I recommend it highly. The movie White Fang was also set in Dawson City.

We then headed up to Dome Mountain for a truly spectacular view of the city and river and surrounding areas. This is the place where locals celebrate the solstice. The sun just goes in a circle and never sets. The sun even cooperated and came out for a bit. I got a few pictures of the gravel maze of tailings from up there as well.

Graingers watching the time as they declined to spend the nite in our little RV and had to head back over 110 miles of dirt/gravel road known as the Top of the World Highway. They left around 2:30 after getting some gas.

When they had gone we unhooked the RV and went sightseeing on our own. Went out to the #4 dredge that literally ate its way up streams and rivers sucking up the gravel and rock bottoms, sifting it and filtering out the gold. It was huge...a 7 story building. We declined to take the tour as there was more we wanted to see, but we did walk around the outside and saw graphics on how the dredge operated. We followed this creek a couple more miles and saw signs posted for various gold mining claims. One spot was a public place where you could pan for gold.

Then we went back into town where I walked around taking pictures and wandering in shops while Jerry sat on the levee with the dogs and watched the river go by. Went back to RV park and re connected everything and had a light dinner of leftovers. Need to get to bed early as we want to be first in line for the ferry in a.m. There can be up to a 2 hour wait and we don't want that! Spent a bit more time on blog, then to bed about 11.