First the disappointment. In Dawson City, when I got my oil change, the repair guy let me know that a couple of belts in the car needed changing as they were cracking. He told me to get it done as soon as was reasonable, but I wasn't in any particular danger. He also told me that it wouldn't be too expensive. Well, I went to a Midas place in Anchorage and inquired about getting it done and it's going to be about 300 dollars!! That's 25 percent of what I paid for the car. That's not really cheap, I'm afraid to say. Now I don't really know what to do about it. I know that in the end I will probably get it done, but, man, that's more than I really want to put into a ... read more

The rain came during the night, but I didn't have too much of a problem because I had gotten my tent up while it was still not raining the night before. The tent is fairly waterproof so far and only a little water came through the fabric. I was comfy inside with no difficulty. The only problem was getting it all dry enough in the morning to put away. But I did it. Then I headed off down the road. I decided on Anchorage and headed in that direction. Initially, it seemed it was just going to be a bit of a boring drive. The scenery got better though. I stopped at a turnout to have a view of a really nice river valley and met a man from California who was also enjoying the view. ... read more

The tour group I had met in Inuvik was also experiencing Dawson City. Some had taken a trip up the Top Of The World Highway the day before, and now they were back in town. One of them, Alice, hadn't gone and I met her the day before. She mentioned that she had heard of the Paddlewheeler Graveyard. That sounded intriguing and nostalgic. She was going to go and find it, and I asked if I could go along. I was welcome. We met at 9:30, along with their tour leader Tony, and took the ferry (another free one, do you hear that provinces?) across the Yukon River. Then we walked through the government campground and onto a path into the forest. When the river is lower it is possible to walk along the sandy bank ... read more

The evening got a bit more exciting when I was sitting in the cooking shelter at the campground before I went to bed. I was sitting quietly when I heard a bang on one of the garbage containers outside. I looked out and there was a wolf. It was skulking about, but didn't run off when I went outside to take a photo. That was really neat. I only got a couple of blurry photos of it, but I am very fortunate to have seen one. It doesn't happen often that a person sees a wolf. After I got up, I headed on down the highway. I soon passed Eagle Plains which was the halfway point and continued on down. I had been having a bit of a scare with gas mileage. On the way back ... read more

The perennial sunlight is wreaking havoc with my internal clock. It's really hard to tell what time it might be. So my sleeping time is moving gradually later and later. I ended up getting up around 9, but I really had no idea what time it was until I found my watch. The mozzies that had chased me into my tent the night before were still about and caused a hurried pack up and into the car. That accomplished, I headed down to the interpretive centre and had a look through the displays. It was quite intriguing. I heard a lot more from my friend in the centre. He told me more about the old days and how things had changed, mainly because the government had spoiled the people. The government gave the first peoples so ... read more