We went to bed last night about 10:00 PM and it was still light outside. We were up at the crack of dawn again today although it's hard to determine when that is since it's already light at 4:00 AM. At about 11:00 PM last night, it was still light. I guess we'll be getting in a lot of fishing, right Oscar.Just to digress for a moment, it reached 69 degrees here in Watson Lake around 4pm yesterday and we could have lounged in the recliners and gotten some "rays" if we had had time. We almost felt like we were back in Arizona, except for the 6 foot snow banks right behind us. Also, I am just a tiny bit confused about the statement in the Mile Post that says to watch for critters at dawn and dusk. If it is still light at 11pm, and and just barely dark during the night, and light agian at 4am - when is dusk and dawn?
We left the Downtown RV park at 730am and stopped at the intersections of The Alaskan Highway and Campbell Highway, on the north side of town to take a picture of the Sign Post Forest. People from all over the world have posted signs from there home towns. There are over 61,000 signs there.
The preferred mode of transportation, in the winter, through the area of the Alaska Highway that follows the Rancheria River must be the snow mobile because both sides of the roads are covered with snow mobile tracks and their cars, trucks, whatever are burried in snow banks. This road from Watson Lake was windy but a little less bumpy than yesterday. We had the Cassair Mountain Range in front of us for quite awhile - absolutely beautiful.
We made a pitt stop at the Continental Divide Rest Area which divides two of the largest drainage systems in North America, the Yukon River and Mackenzie River watersheds. We took a picture of a sign at the rest area. The Alaska Highway dips down into British Columbia at Swift River for approximately 42 miles. Judy took over driving at 10:30 AM. At mile post 751.2 we crossed back into the Yukon from BC. That's the last of 7 crossings back and forth of that border.We stopped at a rest area at 12:00 PM and had some lunch. Judy continued to drive. Bob was napping and about 15 miles south of Whitehorse, YT, Judy woke him up to tell him the truck was running hot. She pulled over as soon as she could. We let the truck cool down for about 15 minutes then Bob started driving again and again the temperature went up to hot. We stopped again and let it cool down again. We added about 2 gallons of water to the radiator and thought maybe it was just low and we forgot to check it. We took off again and got about 1 mile or 2 when white smoke began pooring out of the exhaust pipe and under the hood.
We pulled over as soon as we could right in front of Pioneer RV Park. Fortunately for us it was CLOSED. We had no cell phone service since before Watson Lake, and were stuck as the vehicles whooshed by. We have Good Sam Emergency Road Service but you have to be able to call to get help. We walked up to the RV park and there was a pay phone in front that was working. After about 1/2 to 3/4 hour on the phone they finally found a tow truck service for us. We waited about a 1/2 hour when a BIG tow truck showed up. After about 1 1/2 hours, the driver finally got us hooked up. After having to drop the drive shaft and towed us to Wal Mart parking lot in Whitehorse, YT and dropped the 5th wheel, then towed the truck to the local Ford dealer ( They actually have one here) but they were closed. So he dropped the truck in their lot and gave us a ride back to the 5th wheel. We went into Wal Mart and talked to a manager about our predicament and he said we could park there until we got the truck fixed. So now we wait until tomorrow to get with Ford about repairs. Of course it's Friday and they probably don't have any service until Monday, so here we sit in beautiful Whitehorse, YT until ??? We were going to take a couple days rest when we got to Haines Junction, YT today but like is not what we had in mind. We are both concerned about our present predicament - no cell phone, no services, no way to move the 5th wheel!!!! Everyone we told about our trip to Alaska said it would be an "Adventure of a Lifetime". They were sure right about that.
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