Thursday, July 7, 2011

It's a beautiful morning here in Chicken, AK.  The campground generator must have kicked out last night when all the RVs put on their TVs and furnaces (I assume we only had 15 or 20 amp service.)  We had our baked potato cookout with the group at a shelter just behind where we parked our rig in the campground.  The potatoes the Wagon Master picked out for us were as big as footballs.  After delivering a blueberry cobbler with ice cream, the couple who owns Chicken Gold Camp told us their story and about the mining in the Chicken area.  There are no TV stations.  Internet was non-functional yesterday.  I heard today that someone was "abusing" it yesterday by watching the news.  Apparently you can not SKYPE, stream, download or send pictures, go on You Tube or stream as Internet service costs so much up here. 
  
The wife of the retired Mountie said she saw a cow moose with two small ones just outside the campground yesterday afternoon.  Today as we were leaving LeRoy spotted a moose standing on the air strip in Chicken.
The road out of Chicken started out like more of yesterday's Top of the World route with a narrow dirt road, gravel stretches, potholes and frost heaves.  Somehow, we got into a convoy with 10 other RVs, some from our caravan and others that were not. It was slow going for quite a while at 28 miles per hour.  Thankfully, some RVs pulled into stops along the way.  Our average moving speed for today was 33.9 mph.  It took about 2 1/4 hours to drive 78 miles with the road conditions and the poky drivers ahead of of us. The roads did improve the closer we got to TOK as we turned onto Highway 2 across from the TOK RV Campground.

The owner of a Tok fuel station opened up just for the caravan to fuel up. The woman there grumbled she couldn't sell  enough chips and soda to pay someone to keep the station open any other time.  With the fill up we received a free RV wash at the campground. Almost everyone wanted to wash their RV after travelling the Top of the World Highway. While LeRoy went to join all the other guys with the rig washing party, I got myself in a little predicament while in line.  One of the guys in our caravan told me not to proceed because I didn't make a wide enough corner and I was about to
crash our car into a huge rock.  I got LeRoy to help me out of my predicament.   He kept saying take  a picture, take a picture.  I was way too embarrassed to take a picture.   Now you know why I don't drive the bus.  (Afterwards, when I thought about it, I should have taken a picture.)

After we settled into our site and I headed over to the Wagon Master's for bead looming.  I am struggling with making a bracelet as my practice project.

Tok (rhymes with poke) is just 93 miles from the Canadian border and is often called the "Gateway to Alaska".  it began as a construction camp for those who worked on the Alaska Highway in 1942.  Its current population is about 1,435 and its economy relies on tourism.  In 1990 there was a forest fire around here and all the town residents were evacuated.  Story has it that a "miracle wind" blew in at
the last minute and spared the town.  All totalled, that fire burned over 100,000 acres.  Tok is known as the "Sled Dog Capital of Alaska" because many residents are involved with sled dogs and mushing.

We walked to Fast Eddy's for dinner.  I chose Alaskan crab legs.  Delicious, but it was like taking an aerobics class.  After wrestling with 3 huge crab legs, I think I have satisfied that craving for a while.  A local musician, originally from Vermont, sings songs about Alaska each night here at the campground.  We listened to his down home music and stories for a while, took a walk and retired to our coach.  It was a beautiful day in Alaska!