I know it’s a day late, but Happy Birthday America 241 years old.  That number caused a small age meltdown or the number in 9 years did, when the US will be 250 years old.  I had a flashback to 1976 when I was 8 years old and the USA was 200 years old.  I remember thinking back then in 50 years that is far away, 58 is so OLD.

Let me clarify this for EVERYONE 58 is not old, and 50 years goes by QUICKLY!

Kinda fun how a view changes as you age.  Ok, after that realization we headed downtown to see the parade in the rain.  Roy was so cute he said the parade will be smaller because of the rain and there will be fewer people watching.  He hasn’t been exposed to alot of small towns 😀.  The parade was a blast it started with a Military Color Guard, firetrucks, candy, dogs, animals. After the parade we decided to find some grub but not at the park, rain does not mix well with burgers.

At 3pm they had a race down the river in homemade rafts that was fun to watch even though I almost got talked into participating.  After the fifeteen minutes of fun it was still early so we headed out to the mining area featured on Gold Rush. On the way back into town we took a detour because of a sign that said ‘come stop by for some food, talk, and a visit at the blue house’.   We found the house no one was home so we left a note. Once home we had a king crab dinner we bought the legs yesterday, and steamed them in the electric skillet.  Where there’s a will there’s a way.

Today is laundry day, picture prep day, and grocery day, rafting tomorrow.

at the Hammer Museum in Haines Alaska.  After Roy clawwed his way in he had a ball.  He was able to show me some of the hammers he used to own.  He even learned the name of a hammer he owns that he has had for ever.  It is a fencing hammer.  I was impressed with an extend-a-hammer which is also called a bill post hammer.  You would put the nail and bill or poster on the side of the hammer which is at the top of a long pole tap it to release the nail then turn the hammer to tap it in.  Here’s some info about the place  http://www.hammermuseum.org  There was even a geocache outside and I will be getting pictures posted hopefully tonight.

Where do you go to get local info not just tourist info?  I went to the local gas station I left with a hand drawn map.  Small town friendly America is out here in Haines AK.  It started by me asking if he was a local and ended with me getting the directions to some of the mines featured on Gold Rush.  It turned out to be an awesome day of shopping and visiting museums in downtown Haines.  Check out the details of my visit to the hammer museum.  

We are planning the Gold Rush journey for tomorrow, and the next day I am taking a raft journey down the river through the Bald Eagle Preserve.  Today is the 4th of July and it’s small town parades, burgers, brats, dunk tanks, and rain.

Quick update from the 2nd, Roy and I ate lunch at a garden and tea room  interesting concept.   He humored me because it was also a glass blowing place. We then headed to the ferry dock to wait for our coach to arrive.  It did a little late but at least we wouldn’t be setting up in the dark because it doesn’t get dark until about 11pm.  The crossing itself was fairly quick under 45 minutes, now loading that took some doing.  If you were pulling a trailer you had to back onto the ramp and into your space just listening to the direction of the crew. For most not that easy the guy in front of us took 10 minutes and at least 3 tries.  I was impressed Roy did it in one shot, he is so AMAZING!

Once we checked in and got setup headed into town to grab grub.  I had my not cooked to death buffalo burger (in Canada they have to kill the meat when cooking), Roy had more seafood he is happy.

We then decided to go bear viewing and exploring drove up to Chilkoot Recreation Area saw some scat and other signs but no bears. Then as we are getting ready to head home we saw 3 camera shy cubs across the river.  The locals say there are three sows with a one cub, two cub, or 3 cub tail.  We never did see momma. Heading back to town coming round a curve we see a bear jump out in front of us he saw us at the same time so we avoided each other.  He by jumping back and us by slowing down.  The look on his face was ‘OMG HOOMANZ OH SH*T’ the look on our face was ‘OMG BEAR SH*T’.  We stopped and swung a uturn and waited for him to cross he did but was to quick for my camera.  Today we are going exploring the other side of town.  Gold Rush fever.

Open field running.  There is always a reason to put fcfs (first come first serve) nights in the trip plan.  We weren’t going to spend the night in Skagway because of all the cruise ships.  Changed our mind and we will be spending the night it’s only a three hour drive and we were able to get reservations.

Tonite we are in Teslin  Yukon, we have power so I can use the keurig.😆.  The propane coffee pot is a pain in the butt. I have to get it set just right so it drains had a mishap this morning so electric is good. In the morning before we take off we are having a geocaching meet and greet for Canada Day.  We have one other person attending. So it should be fun.

Animal count today was zero, unless you count the ravens.  I am surprised I haven’t seen any bald eagles yet.  SOON when we get to Haines. 

30 days down only 60 left going by way to quickly.

with no internet, or electricity, or our keurig. (True boondocking.)  We were suppose to camp outside of Watson Lake in the Provincial Park, with cottonwood trees and my breathing add mosquitos then a gravel road and soft mud we passed.  Drove up to the continental divide, I took another picture of the sign.

We had an abundance of wild life on the way up today.  Five bear, all black bears even though one was brown, the wood bison herd kinda small  there were two babies just starting to get horns.  Around Muncho Lake I saw 5 caribou swimming in the water must of missed them crossing the road by 5 minutes.  Right before we ran into construction we came round a corner and saw a porcupine scurry across the road scraggly little ‘prick’.  There were also a few bison here and there on the side of the road,

Amazing day of travel, soon we will be hitting Alaska

The morning of the 25th we had a send off from the local herd of elk.  They walked into the field by our campground in a herd then went to seperate corners to feed.  I of course missed the enterance but was able to get good shots.  In fact one of the cow elk was very prego I felt sorry for her.  She hung out behind our trailer for awhile then moved on, we saw the same herd on the side of the road on the way out of town to Prince George.  This journey we saw no animals except for a dead moose which was sad because it happened recently.

It was time for a Walmart run and Roy needed an oil change.  We decided to boondock in a parking lot just kinda a down night.  Got up early on the 26th to head to Moberly Lake Provincial Park.  We didn’t stay because there was so much cottonwood blowing around that I could not breathe even with a mask.  So it was a nice day and we just decided to drive until we got tired.  Things happen for a reason, because if we stayed it would of turned into a muddy mess.

We ended up a little north of Pink Mountain BC after driving through slush and rain, UGH. So two nights of real boondocking. On the way to Pink Mountain we saw two beavers. Got up and headed up to Fort Nelson unplanned stop but we are staying at the same place we did last year.  Through the rain we were lucky to see 2 camera shy black bears.  Tonight we are sitting here at Triple Gs and the rain has stopped so we are drying out.

Tomorrow we will be in Toad River Lodge and I will post pictures of the hat collection.