Fantasy Caravan Day 52 - free day in Haines, our last full day in Alaska

Monday was a free day (no scheduled activities by Fantasy other than a travel meeting at 7pm for our travel on Tuesday). It was also our last full day in Alaska.

We stopped at the RadioShack -- usually when there is a store with a sign outside indicating "RadioShack", it really isn't, but our bus driver the previous day said that it was... so Carl headed inside to check it out. The proprietor was busy working on a car outside and came in as Carl went in but wasn't interested in having someone "just looking around", so Carl didn't stay long. Carl said that it had a lot of RadioShack-type-stuff (resistors, capacitors, etc).

Our bus driver the previous day also pointed out the combination Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine / Liquor Store in the same building -- to medicate one way or another!

We wanted to get just a couple of things in the grocery store -- we had been told that the town gets supplies just once a week (on Tuesday), and since this was Monday, there may be some lack of goods, but we found the store to be quite well stocked with a large variety of goods. We got the couple of things we needed (I was making tomato soup -- it is chilly in Alaska! Apologies to any of you who are dealing with a heat wave, we wanted soup!), and headed back to the campground.

While I worked on the soup, Carl worked on trying to prevent a rock chip in Gracie's window from getting any worse. As you can see, the rock hit right where the Texas registration is stuck on the windshield, so we could not see it from inside the rig and we're not positive when it occurred (we think on the drive from Tok to Destruction Bay). We wanted to work on patching it as soon as possible, but the patch kit indicated that the weather needed to be above 50F and this was the first day that had happened. You might notice that we have a bulls-eye, and a crack, but they aren't connected. The crack goes from the bottom on the windshield (just a few inches to the left of the sticker), across the sticker, and on its way to the edge of the windshield to the right of the sticker. The bulls-eye is fully beneath the crack, so we think that it probably cannot cause any cracks that would go further up the windshield. Nevertheless, we had the patch kit, so decided to try patching it.

This patch kit had a device that you attached to the windshield with suction cups to hold it tightly so the cement would go directly into the chip.

... or that was the plan. As it turned out, the suction cups needed to stick right on top of the crack when the center of the device was over the bulls-eye, and therefore the cups would not stick. We had a friend from the tour helping -- Carl had also rigged up a shade with a paper bag as the kit instructions indicated that the patch should be applied *not* in direct sunlight, but then cure *in* sunlight. Since the rig was pointing south, it was in direct sunlight, and we weren't going to move Gracie, so the paper bag created a way to provide shade while he was applying the patch.

Finished product -- we are not sure that the patch "took" -- one of our fellow travelers suggested that there may be dampness in the bulls-eye or even dirt -- oh well, we tried!

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to a fish weir where others have seen bear over the past few days...

On the way, we took a wrong turn and found this view...

... and after we found the right place, we had passed the parking area, and had to drive further down the road where we found this view!

Jeep in picture to give perspective

We finally got back to the fish weir and found parking...

There were folks fishing nearby so these cautions seemed particularly appropriate.

Fisherman in the river

Fish weir upriver

This fish weir is for counting fish

We had been at the fish weir for a little while, and saw no bear. Our travel meeting for Tuesday was at 7pm, so we headed out so we'd get back to the campground in time for our travel meeting.

As we were heading back, we saw this view as we drove by, so made a U-turn and went back to take a picture...

... this was across the road from a home, I guess these are their chairs so they can enjoy the view.

We made another U-turn to head back to the campground, but this time we spotted a bear down by the river (not near the weir)...

Carl got out and took pictures (I didn't get out because I didn't want to make any more noise than necessary so as not to scare him off).

He came up to the road -- Carl said that he thought the bear looked small when he was down by the river, but big when he got up near the road!

A couple of videos -- short one -- Carl did this one -- you can hear the river:

A longer one -- I did from inside the car:

He continued down the road...

Friends from our caravan had come up and seen us stopped on the side of the road so they stopped too and got pictures and videos. I think the bear is giving a side-eye cuz he doesn't want to have his picture posted on Facebook!

He headed back down the bank on his way back to the spot by the river where we'd originally spotted him.

If we had not gone back to take the view picture, we're thinking that we would not have seen this bear. Sometimes going the wrong way and taking U-turns gives you benefits!

View of Haines as we returned on our way to the campground

We were late for our travel meeting, but were glad we got to see a bear out in the wild!

Fantasy Caravan Day 51 - Bus, Boat, Train, and Skagway

On Sunday, Fantasy had arranged a tour for us to Skagway, Alaska -- another 12 hour tour day -- are they *trying* to kill us??? A bus picked us up in the campground and took us to a passenger ferry...

... where he dropped us off, the Cunard Queen Elizabeth was docked -- wow! We get to go on that???

... No, we're on the Fairweather Express I.

Since we had a boat trip scheduled, of course it was rainy!

Carl and I went to the upper deck where we could look over the shoulder of the captain.

When we got into Skagway, we saw that there were several cruise ships in port.

"Welcome to Skagway, Alaska"

We walked into town with others from our group... this proved to be problematic later in the day when we were returning to the harbor -- we had not paid attention to our surroundings!

We found ourselves on the main street (Broadway)...

... the buildings have been fronted to look as they would have during the days of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Except if you looked down the street toward the harbor and saw what looked to be a cruise ship about to come up Broadway!

Looking the other way up Broadway.

There were several buildings in town part of a National Historic site, one was Reinert's Mascot Saloon.

Again, it was set up to emulate its look in the gold rush era.

You might have wondered about the electric lights...

... but that was part of the time!

Headlines from a paper April 13, 1910

A coin-operated player piano

Women (and children) could not come in the front door of the saloon...

... but there was an accommodation made via the Family Entrance around the side!

Many of the retail establishments in town were essentially gift shops provided by the cruise ships -- we had been told to look for the "Buy the Bear" symbol that marked locally owned and operated stores.

We saw interesting statues in one store -- made of metal figures cast inside Lucite...

... they were beautiful. (https://starliteoriginals.com/)

There's a video about their manufacturing process on their website: https://starliteoriginals.com/manufacturing-process/

In the afternoon, Fantasy had arranged for us to take a ride on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad (https://wpyr.com/).

We were all seated in one car (other passengers were in the other cars) -- the lady who handled the boarding congratulated Juli (our Wagon Master) on having a very organized group!

Along the route we passed the train yard where one of the old steam locomotives was located.

A view of the cars behind us as we passed around a curve and over a bridge.

At the border crossing (some miles from the actual border), a sign had been painted on the rocks, "On to Alaska with Buchanan"

This sign is referring to George E. Buchanan, a Detroit coal merchant who began bringing boys and girls to Alaska on adventure trips in 1923. For fifteen years, groups of approximately 50 young people, mostly boys, made the annual summer excursion from Detroit to Alaska. Reportedly, the boys from one of the summer trips painted the sign "On To Alaska With Buchanan" on the side of the mountain to commemorate their inspiring leader. (https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg11/id/17921/)

Stove (probably kerosene) in each railroad car provided heat

Outside area available for getting fresh air or photos! Note that there was no outside standing room for the car in front of us as the locomotive was in front of us.

Our group in the car

View of the folks outside from the next train car -- we were cautioned not to try to cross between train cars while the train was in motion.

A view along the way

Another train coming down the mountain as we were headed up

Looking ahead as we were going into a tunnel

An old bridge...

... thankfully no longer in use!

Guy holding onto Cindy (we were kidding that he was keeping her from jumping, but he was steadying her for taking pictures!).

Back in town -- a railroad snowplow

We had heard about the loss of the Princess Sophia when we were on the boat back from Juneau on Saturday.

Another view down Broadway (you can still see the ship at the end of the street) -- so much prettier in the sunshine!

This is a picture of what Broadway looked like in the Klondike Gold Rush era.

Artist's depiction of one person's story

We were told that the stampeders were stopped at the border (at the top of the mountain that our train traveled to) if they did not have sufficient supplies to meet their needs -- it took them many journeys up and down the mountain to the border to have enough goods (1 ton) to cross the border -- and they still had many hundreds of miles to travel after they crossed the border to get to Dawson City where the gold had been found.

For many (most?) of them, by the time they got to Dawson, all the claims had been filed, and they just had to turn around and head back home.

We caught the "fast ferry" back to Haines, had the same bus driver who had picked us up in the morning (but a different bus, the accelerator pedal on the morning bus had split apart so he had to pick up a different bus!) and got home by about 9pm -- tiring but enjoyable day!