Welcome to Your Dream or a Little Tok Goes a Long Way

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 – Day 29

We departed Burwash Landing under sunny skies this morning the temperature reading was 5C.  A chilly night as we must have tripped a circuit breaker during the night and that’s one of the things an electric heater needs to work.  We were on the road by 08:10 AM. headed for Tok, Alaska.  We had been forewarned about the highway to the border.  It did not disappoint!  Frost heaves, patches, dips, bumps and gravel limited our speed to between 50 and 80 KM/hour.  Because the traffic was light we were able to travel in the oncoming lane to avoid some of the worst frost heaves, many of which look like long, jagged scars on the road that could swallow a tire.

Just before we crossed the border into the States, we spotted a moose.  Now anyone who has been following this blog knows that we have a “spot the moose feature picture” every few days.  Here is today’s offering.  Note Click on the picture to enlarge.

When we arrived at the US border crossing we were asked the usual questions, “Do you have any firearms?”  “Are you carrying more than $10,000?” (Yeah, right!)  “What is the purpose of your visit?”  (What?; the RV didn’t give it away?)  What I actually said, “I’ve always dreamt of visiting Alaska!”  He finished processing us and sent us on our way with, “Welcome to your Dream!”  Kind of a nice way to enter the country!

We proceeded on to Tok without any incidents.  Let me tell you about Tok, Alaska. (It’s pronounced Toke – apparently named after a dog that belonged to one of the builders of the Alaska Highway.)  Lots of RV’s going in every direction.  Six RV parks: three RV repair shops. another half dozen gas stations with attached gift shops and a couple of liquor stores all located on Main Street (the Alaska Hwy) which they are currently tearing up.  Apparently the drinking and driving laws here are somewhat lax.  We saw one of the operators of a big Caterpillar road crushing machine sucking back a beer. Strange place.  And Dust. The few side roads are gravel and the dust just seems to billow from them.  Both our truck and trailer are filthy from the last few weeks of travel.  We had passed a gas station on the way into town which offered a free wash with each fill up.  Now, I wasn’t going to push my luck with the trailer but decided I’d get the truck washed.  So I filled up and then went to the office to get my free wash.  Let me tell you – It’s not like home. 

Out back beside the RV sani-dump they have a concrete pad with a leaking water jet wand and beside it is the wash brush in a five gallon bucket.  After I had sprayed off the large chunks of dirt, I went to use the wash brush.  When I lifted the brush out of the bucket a dirty brown mess starting dripping off of it.  At this point I decided the truck was clean enough and left.  It will have to wait till we get home.

Temperature today got up to 22C, with occasional showers.  Not too bad weather wise.