If such and such happens I’m moving to Canada!

Well we have made the leap. We are officially moved to Canada. I know none of you expected this but we had to keep it quite as we did not want to get turned around at the border.

To much has happened in the last few years to stay living where we have been.

We left our friends at Slide Mountain July 5th and have been making our way to the border.

Our first stop was the lovely town of Tok Alaska. Apparently I had promised Shawnda that it would be like an African Safari on the way there concerning the wildlife. I only remember saying that there were lots of rabbits, I have been known to exaggerate but I don’t think the lynch mob was necessary. I saw tons of wildlife, mosquitoes, butterflies, dragonflies and two rabbits.

Everyone was excited to be moving and even more excited to be staying at the Sourdough campground. Apparently they let you toss pancakes into a bucket to try and win free breakfast! I’m not really one for group activities but moving to Canada was mostly my idea so if I wanted this to work I better just play along.

So 730 rolled around way to fast after getting set up so I reluctantly headed over to the camp pavilion to see what the deal was. Now I know nothing is free so figured they were going to try and sell us a timeshare or something.

Well turns out no scam and there was plenty of pancakes to be tossed. Both the kids won free breakfast and apparently Shawnda did as well.

I just lost on purpose to make everyone else feel good. Did not want to show everyone up as I have secretly been tossing pancakes professionally for more years than I can remember.

Well al the winners went home happy with dreams of free breakfast.

We hit the road again the next morning headed for the border, after free breakfast of course, we’ll I paid for mine just to make everyone feel good, and so I did not get arrested. First stop Chicken!

So he story goes that they named the town Chicken Alaska because no one in town knew how to spell the name of the state bird, tarmigan, termigan, Thailand, ptarmigan. You try and spell it, not that easy.

Chicken is an old mining settlement on the Klondike trail. There was not a lot there but managed to find a little gold and see the sights.

Time to get going, the border closes at 8 pm.

This turned into the longest 100 or so miles I think I have ever driven. Unpaved road for the first 90 miles, pot holes, washboard, ditches, narrow and no shoulder. As we were driving 35 most of the way to try and not tear the camper completely to pieces everyone else seemed intent on doing 65 mph at us and passing us. They must have just been excited to be moving to Canada too!

The landscape changed from the sharp peaks of the Alaska wilderness to rolling mountains and valleys. Forrest fire has destroyed much of the forest in this area and it will be a long recovery period before the spruce trees return.

Well the border crossing and immigration process went a lot easier than I thought. They never once tried to take our kids away from us, searched our vehicles or hindered us in any way. Just a ” welcome to Canada and please be safe”.

Finally we were in Canada our new home. Time to learn the local customs so that we fit in. Put beer on your pancakes, drink maple syrup and the locals favorite sport is baseball. Should be easy enough!

Our goal for the day was to reach Dawson in the Yukon. Well bumpy or not it was an adventure as always and even though it took a bit longer than we thought we reached West Dawson and waited for the ferry to cross the Yukon River.

Arriving safely on the other side we attempted to find an RV Park but all in town were full so we decided on a provincial park just outside town.

No power and no water but there is always Yahtzee! I whooped up on everyone to make up for the pancake tossing fiasco. And yes that is me eating out of a pot!

On to explore Dawson tomorrow. The boom town of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Everything is so great here in Canada glad we will be living here for the next week, no we did not move to Canada. I’m not even sure who would believe that.

Or did we?

John