Tales From the Trail - Day 48 & 49

July 1 - Day 48

Tok to Skagway

Well folks here is where JJJ (Jeannie's Jolly Jaunts) takes a little blurp. Well not really a little blurp a pretty big one. It all started early in the morning of July 1. Now remember this date as it becomes ssignificant as the story unravels. As stated in the previous blog "we got a long haul today." We are expecting to be driving at least 10 hours according to good old Jill and usually the way we stop and piddle around on the way you can add 2 more hours to that. Well Lee was supposed to have the gas tank filled up as we are heading for remote areas to say nothing for the fact we are going once again through "frickety fracking" Canada where I have to do all my conversions from kilometers lites etc to figure our gas mileage. So the plan is we are getting up at 4:00 am finding a place somewhere along the way to get coffee (have I mentioned anywhere along the way BC Jeannie is a veritable 'itch?) and hit the road. So I am so the alarm goes off at 4:00 after one of my "having trouble sleeping nights." Seems I have those when we have a stressful day the next day. Anyway alarm goes off, feet hit the floor and Lee says "I forgot to get gas" lets sleep for a couple of more hours." So I lay back down. FORGET IT I CAN'T SLEEP NOW. I get back up start Jill up to see where a gas station is. Good old Jill! She even furnished phone numbers. Good news is I have cell service here. I call the first number a Chevron station and get Daryl who in his welcome southern accent says "Yes Mam I am open 24 hrs a day and yes Mam I have coffee." I get Lee back up and said lets roll. We pack up and out the door to Daryl's get our gas, coffee, tea for Lee and a couple of greasy spicy egg, sausage, cheese sandwiches. Well with my delicate stomach I seem to have developed that didn't sit well. After a few bites I wrapped mine back up and put it back in the bag. We will deal with the rest of that one later. So on the road with my coffee and an unsettled tummy we try to see if we can keep on the time schedule Jill has set for us. We are traveling over some of the worst roads we have had since the TOW/TH. Remember that one from a few blogs back. We will be traveling along at 65 - 70 mph when bingo orange flags on side of road (if we are lucky. sometimes we hit the bad part with no flags) and we are all of a sudden on gravel road. Pot holes big enough to sink a full sized loaded Semi with trailer. We followed another car for a long time which was good cause he acted as a pilot car. When he would put on the brake lights or start shaking we knew trouble was ahead. Presently we came to a flag person who stopped us for one of those stops where you have to wait for a pilot car. Well Ms flag lady had a pet seagull that she was feeding. She told us the seagull comes every morning for breakfast. I gave up the rest of my sandwich and sat and watched the seagull eat every bit of it except the meat. Didn't like the meat. The pilot car came presently and led us over road that was far better than we had been traveling on with no pilot car. GO FIGURE! So back on the road again traveling faster than we should I am keeping my mouth shut. Got a long way to go. So late in the day we are closing in on Skagway. We are now going through Whitehorse and I am looking at the paperwork for the Ferry that we are supposed to catch first thing in the morning. Looks to me like we have to be at the ferry landing REAL early in the AM but it is a bit confusing as to exactly what time we must be here. One place says 3 hrs before sailing which is 7:00 am and one place it says 1 hr before sailing. We decide we better call. Damn good thing I did call. So I'm talking the the Ferry agent and he says "Well I have you for Juneau to Bellingham but Skagway to Juneau was cancelled." Well in my little snippity voice and waving my paper work around (which he can't see) I am saying OH NO NO NO. I would not have cancelled this trip. How would I get to Juneau without the ferry. "Yes Mam he says. We have you as a no show" Oh no I have my confirmation right here. We are sailing (and I look down at my paper) on Oh shoot! July 1 at 7:00 am. Lee said I did not say shoot. I think I did but he assures me no I said something else. So I start wheedling and groveling and telling him as to how as soon as my husband turns loose of the steering wheel he is going to surly kill me. So my friend Sean on the phone says well for a nominal fee we can change this one. But make sure we are not late for the next segment as we will have a long wait in Juneau cause all those ferries are sold out. So all's well that ends well for that little blurb. And good old Lee is just laughing at me. So we roll into Skagway to the Ferry terminal and get our tickets. Oh yes those folks know all about "the Lewis's" Guess word travels fast when some dumb tourist screws up. I don't know how I did that. So far everything as been working like clockwork. We have been where we were suppose to be when we were supposed to be there. With the Yellowstone exception that got us off our schedule and that wasn't due to poor planing it was rock slides road closures etc.

Border crossings! Now that is really funny. Coming into Canada we get this agent who gives us the 3rd degree. Wants to know were we are going. Said to Sakgway. Why are you going to Skagway. To catch a ferry to Juneau. How long are you staying in Skagway. One night. Now What earthly business is it of his to know how long we are staying in Sakgway. Last time I checked Skagway is in Alaska which is part of the United States we are Americans so why should he care how long we are staying there. So we get past the Canadian Border Nazi and be bopping along. Well when we come to the American Border they don't even stop us no flags no nothing. We just breeze right in. CRAZY! Oh and did I mention we got to Skagway in 9 1/2 hrs instead of 10.

July 2 - Day 49

Ferry

Not wanting to miss this boat even after Lee set an alarm clock I set another one. Well I was awake 1/2 hour before the first one went off and was up, dressed and had everything packed and ready to go before the second one went off. Lee got up and off we went to the ferry. We were second in line and was entertained by watching the woman who was moving to Anchorage and stopping by to visit her children in Juneau. Anyway I digress. We watched her wash her truck using rags and a bottle of Windex. We couldn't talk her into doing ours which was really bad again due to the Alaska highway. OH and I forgot to mention on yesterdays segment. We got two cracks on our windshield from rocks being thrown up by trucks which along with the huge dent will have to be fixed when we get home. So getting to Juneau we checked into our room and went in search of a car wash and a place to get some fruit etc to take on the ferry southbound in 3 days. I had forgotten how bad the weather is here. Don't know why anyone would want to live here. It is cloudy and rainy every day. YUK! There are supposed to be fireworks here tomorrow. How they can do fireworks when it doesn't get dark is beyond me but if we can find out what time they will happen we may go see them.

Well That's all for now.

Happy Trails and will see you all soon.