July 13 Day 22 Alaska Trip

About 15 miles outside of Fairbanks exists the town of North Pole, Alaska. It is Christmas here all year. The street lights are huge candy canes. Santa is huge also, there are two of him facing out toward the Alcan, both standing a good few feet taller than "Jolly" the Green Giant. There are live reindeer too. Main Street is called Santa Claus Drive. Whip out all your Credit Cards, Ladies and Germs - you are gonna need 'em! Also, a sleigh to haul all that crap home with you! I got outta there just barely with only buying one thing, 'cuz we were on our way to Chicken, Alaska! For starters, there were some fast twisties and we got to use the rubber from one edge of our tires all the way to the other edge. Then..., Dirt Happened! This was not a lot of fun, more treacherous than yesterday, with rocks the size of golf balls in places. It felt like both wheels were off the ground at the same time, I was bouncing around on the Wing so much. The washboard road went on for over ninety miles and both Leroy and I got plum tuckered out! If I didn't know so many swear words, I honestly don't know how I would have survived otherwise. I am not so sure that Chicken was really worth it... One Bar, One gas pump, One cafe, One mangy three-legged dog, Four outhouses, and Twelve permanent residents. It took all of mebbe two minutes to walk the whole 50 yards of Main Street. There were three chickens running around that looked about as lost as we felt! They did have good ice cream, then on we went to the Border with Canada. The only thing that kept me going was that Leroy told me the road was paved, starting at the Border for the last 65 miles to our destination Dawson City. Big Surprise..., It Was Dirt The Whole Way! We were driving on the so called "Top of the World Highway". It sounds really beautiful, but all I saw was about 20 yards in front of me of dirt road while trying to carefully pick a line through the rocks, mud, gravel, etc... Okay, I am finally done whining now! I feel soooo much better! We caught a small ferry crossing the Yukon River just before rolling into Dawson City. We found us a nice cabin in town that is fairly reasonable for a touristy town. BTW, only crazy people come in the back way like we did. ...Leroy assured me there is a Paved Road leaving town tomorrow -- Woo Hoo! Total 376 miles traveled today.