We spent 2 nights in Tok, Alaska resting up from the bumpy road conditions of the last few days.
I walked across the street to a bait shop and while I was there, 2 guys drove up in a pickup truck with a 300lb brown bear they had shot that morning. They had already skinned it. When they held up the hide it stood 7’ tall. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me.
I did minor repairs on the RV and Abby did some laundry. You would think a few hours at the Laundromat would not result in controversy but leave it to Abby, she found it!
The machines cost $3.50 and after two machines ate her money and wouldn’t work, she was rather pissed. A man came in and she thought he was cleaning the sink. Actually he was cleaning his grill she found out later. She asked him if he was the maintenance man. He said,” Do I look like a maintenance man?” Abby said, “I didn’t know that there was a certain look to a maintenance man, as I had several maintenance man friends and they looked just like us”. He said, “Next time I’ll wear my Gucci shoes and Rolex watch in here so I won’t be mistaken”. She told him, “you don’t need to, I’d just think they were knock off’s anyway.” He said “why don’t you go back to Minnesota where you came from”. Abby said,” I didn’t come from Minnesota, nor did I come from a place where people had attitudes”. At that he stomped out of the laundry room and slammed the door. Three ladies in there burst out laughing and said, “what an ASS”!!!!!
I said she should have told him “we know several plumbers that wear Rolexes and Gucci’s. They are ex doctors”.
Monday morning before we left, we stopped at the on site RV wash station to pressure wash the ALCAN Highway off the vehicles. Abby went into the office to pay the fee. I pulled out the ladder extension that affords me the ability to climb on the roof of the RV. Abby came out, handed me the wand, turned on the machine and I began to wash the roof air conditioners, satellite dome and the entire roof structure when all hell broke loose.
The owner (grandma the grouch) came tearing down the gravel road, skidded to a stop (in a cloud of dust, thanks grandma) next to the RV, jumped out of her SUV with hair net flying around stuck to her hair curlers and proceeded to turn off the pressure washer. She yelled “Get down off the top of your RV. We can’t have that, we just can’t have people washing the top of their RV’s because of liability purposes.” I haven’t been yelled at like that since we pissed off the Scottish woman in Dornach Scotland in 1994 with Ray and Judy McGady for conducting happy hour in her B&B with her husband's consent. But I digress.
Grandma jumped back into her SUV and took off. Made me think of the Lone Ranger series except she wasn’t saying “Hi Ho Silver”! She did provide the cloud of dust though.
Abby went inside to have her input heard on the matter and I (cowardly lion) stayed at the RV to stay out of the line of fire. I can only imagine how that conversation took place.
An hour later, properly chastised, we departed for Fairbanks. The ride was very pleasant with good weather. We spotted our first moose (mooses, meeses? Take your pick), anyway there were multiple animals and one sow with a brand new baby moose.
As we crossed the Richardson River bridge, we were surprised to see ice still covering the majority of the river.
We are staying at the Rivers Edge RV Park until July 5th. It is a large quiet park situated on the Cheyna River in Fairbanks. Nice restaurant next door and our Las Vegas “fire starter” buddy from Muncho Lake, parked next to us. Weird duck.
The cats, Spencer and Stella, are having a very difficult time with the Northern latitudes. Sunset is 12:40 A.M. (yes A.M.) and sunrise is 3:04 A.M. It never really gets dark. Those of you with cats know where I’m going with this.
It is a cat’s duty to wake up their owners (you are never their master) when it gets daylight. Spencer is constantly jumping on the bed and letting us know it is time to get up even though we just went to bed. One positive feature of this behavior is Spencer has learned two new words. WATER BOTTLE. I have been keeping a water bottle beside the bed and squirt him from time to time when he gets really obnoxious. I no longer have to squirt him, I just say “water bottle” and off he runs.
Yesterday we drove to the town “The North Pole”. I sent an email with the satellite communicator yesterday to all of you so you should have seen the Google map with the location marked.
This is a real town with its own Post Office. We haven’t been to the post office yet so I don’t know if it comes complete with Elves. Might be an improvement in the service!
There is a Santa Claus store with Santa in residence. Abby sat on Santa’s lap yesterday to tell him about her friends and who has been naughty or nice. I’m a little concerned. It seems Santa knows too much about The Woodlands and Spring for my comfort. I think he might be taking side trips in the off season and Abby did sit on his lap for a long time.
We also saw a Polar Bear.
I never thought I would say I would look forward to shopping at a Walmart or Sam’s Club. We need to restock the pantry. More later.
The wifi is being for lack of a better word rationed, so the pictures will be limited.
