Sunday, May 22, 23, 24, 2011

We left Watson Lake, YT this morning about 7:45, and drove 212 miles.  We were all planning to drive to Teslin, YT and stay at the Yukon Motel and RV Park.  When we got there, everyone went in to the restaurant for lunch (grilled ham and swiss with a bowl of chicken soup for C$ 8.95 was delicious).  The RV park was expensive, so we drove to a rest area, and plan to go down to Skagway in the morning.  It is cloudy, has rained most of the day, so we will all have individual social hours in our own rigs.  We hoped that, at 3,000 feet, we would not need to leave in this:

We arrived in Skagway on the 23rd.  There was one cruise ship in the harbor, and in the afternoon, a ferry arrived at another dock.

 

After getting set up, Marilyn and I walked around town.  During the 1897-98 Yukon Gold Rush, 100,000 would-be miners came through Skagway trying to get to Dawson City to search for gold.  Some made it, some found gold, some went back home.  There were no roads, only very difficult trails; one through White Pass was 44 miles to Bennet Lake, the Chilkoot Trail was only 33 miles but steeper.  Both trails topped out at over 3,000 feet, and everyone still had another 500 miles to go to get to Dawson City.  The RCMP required everyone to bring a year’s worth of food, etc. on the trail.  This required multiple trips carrying 50 pounds on their back up each leg of the trip.  For dinner we went to the Red Onion Saloon for pretty good pizza and delicious Yukon Amber beer.   The Red Onion Saloon is in an original building that housed both a saloon and brothel.  After dinner, we went to see “The Days of ‘98 Show”, which was a nice vaudeville show.  Before the actual show started, we gambled with $1,00 in fake money.  Of course all of us lost except for Carol, who got the prize.

 

The ladies picked me for the audience participation part, and were very nice to me.

Today, the 24th, Marilyn and I started the day with the 9:00 showing of a film in the visitor center about the various activities related to the Yukon Gold Rush in which Sakgway played such an important role.  Then, for lunch we went to Liarsville for a Salmon Bake with entertainment.

  The salmon was all you could eat; they also had chicken, salads, dessert and beverages.  This was all for $49 because we had bought the Alaskan Tour Saver Book which had a 2 for 1 coupon.  After lunch, we did the National Park Ranger led walking tour.  The ranger talked about the gold rush, the false front buildings, and how after the rush the townspeople moved many of the original buildings to Main Street and turned to tourism.  After the ranger talk, Marilyn and I stopped at a store to look at shirts, and I just had to have a picture taken with a cardboard Sarah.

At 7pm, we all went to the Bonanza Saloon for a farewell drink to Skagway even though we had just had our first drink to Skagway the night before.

Type at you later.