Our time in Skagway is quickly coming to a close
July 14,2019
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| Rainbow over the mountains just behind our campground |
Well as we sit here on this Sunday afternoon looking off the Skagway
Harbor and Lynn Canal our 3/12 months as residents of this small little harbor
town is nearly over. Truthfully, we will be sad to leave the new friends we
have made here but we can hear the road a calling and we are ready to be
tourist for a while.
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| White Pass Railroad Old 73 Steam Engine |
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| Old 73 crossing Pitch Fork Falls |
Let’s see if we can get you caught up with what we have been up to
over the last month. Work has remained busy as we are in full swing middle of
the cruise season. There are lots of people from all over the world that come
to Alaska on a cruise, most are very nice and polite but some are not. They
just don’t understand why we don’t have fast internet, a Wal-Mart super center
and a drug store. Paula has become a skilled cashier and I along with Danny
Austin keep the store stocked with all the trinkets one would want to remember
your Alaskan vacation. The Top three questions we get asked everyday are 1) Do
you have a bathroom, (no take a left out the front door go one block and take another
left) 2) Since I am buying multiple items can I get a discount, (this is a common
question for those from India and Asian countries), 3) What is that on the
cashier counter, (we have replica orca teeth for sell on the counter in front
of Paula’s cash register which she gets quizzed about all day long). The
Corrington’s have been really good to work for and every time we see them they make
time to talk to us and ask how things are going.
The middle of June brought some visitors Larry and Karen and granddaughter
Skyler, we worked with Karen this past winter in New Mexico. We had dinner with
them one night and took them on a tour of the area one afternoon to Dyea and
out the Klondike Highway toward the Canadian Border where they got to see the
White Pass Train coming down the mountain. Karen and Larry and I also hiked about
a ½ mile of the Chilkoot Trail. The trail nice and flat and then disappeared
into the trees where we found out that it was straight up in to the mossy
forest so we continued up till we got to some flat ground and the trail started
down the ridge on the other side where we decided to turn around. It was a beautifull
hike thru the moss covered ground and tall trees. So we only had 29 ½ miles to
go to complete the historic trail. As we were not prepared for a long hike it
will have to wait for another day. We found Paula and Skylar resting nicely in
the comfort of the truck when we returned.
We also spent a day hiking with Danny and Stefahanee Austin. They
are full time RV’s from Florida that have been doing this for ten years. They
have a policy of always going to a different location to work each season. We hiked
to the Lower Reid Falls and to the point trail along the harbor.
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| Lower Reid Falls |
Paula and I ventured off into the Yukon one afternoon and went to
the Yukon Swinging suspension bridge which crosses the Tutshi River. This was a
neat afternoon trip and one that gave us a break from Skagway.
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| Suspension Bridge Overlook |
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| Tutshi River rapids under the Yukon Suspension Bridge |
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| Tutshi River looking to the east |
June brought the longest day of the year and our days are getting
shorter by about 3 to 4 minutes a day with sunset tonight at 10:05 pm.
The end of June and first of July brought a heat wave to Alaska. Now
I know you folks baking in 95-degree heat may scoff at one day at 90 degrees
but this was the first time on record Anchorage Alaska every recorded a 90-degree
day. There is no air conditioning so we had to break out the fans to try and
keep enough air moving to keep the stores cool. The down side to the heat and
low humidity is wildfires last I heard there were about 130 wildfires burning
in Alaska with most being started by lighting strike. We have not had one here but
the smoke has blown in from the fires in Canada and Alaska. One day there was
so much smoke and haze that you could barely see Harding Glacier one mile
across the harbor.
Unique to small towns like Skagway is they still have a Mayberry
hometown feel and this was very evident on the 4th of July as they
had an All American 4th of July parade right down Broadway not once
but twice and the parade was seven blocks long and then looped around and went
back to where it started.
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| Royal Canadian Mounted Police |
The parade was complete with floats, fire trucks,
antique cars, even a squad of Royal Mounted Canadian Policeman and a Scottish
bagpipe and drum band.
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| Pipe and Drum band with the SOS store to left looking down Broadway toward the Harbor |
We all went outside and took in the festivities from the
front of the store.
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SOS store crew left to right standing
Red Tee Shirt Danny, Jane in RED ,White and Blue, Brandon Black hat behind Jane
Sandy, Paula , Stefahanee and Tami
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The fireworks unfortunately were canceled due to the dry
conditions and fire danger. It wasn’t going to be dark enough until midnight so
Paula and I would not have seen them anyway. The Corrington’s did throw us a
very nice 4th of July celebration on July 6th at the
campground club house. Their son Scott spent 3days preparing the main course of
BBQ ribs and Nancy fixed a number of good side dishes and desserts with enough
so no one went hungry. Then after dinner we had a 7-round game of Trivia which
our team finished in third place.
We had a surprise visitor on July 9th as Ashley came to
town. Her tour company has teamed up with Holland America cruise lines to promote
the tours offered by her company. As a result, she was chosen to take two Holland
America cruises from Vancouver which happen to stop in Skagway as part of its itinerary.
So, she met us for lunch and then we spent the evening touring Dyea and dinner
before she had to board the ship. She will be back on the 16th of
July so I will be taking that day off and we will head to the Yukon country.
Paula celebrated her birthday on July 13, and the crew from the SOS
store all met at Northern Lights pizza for dinner and dessert to help her
celebrate.
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| Alaskan Wild Iris |
As our time closes out here, we are looking forward to the next
chapter of seeing this huge state and the beauty it has to offer. So, don’t expect
to see another blog posting before the end of August or first of September when
we get to Ketchikan and have real internet service. But be assured that we will be out making new stories and taking more beautiful pictures to share with you.
We will leave you with this quote form Mark Twain,
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that
you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream.
Discover.”
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| Ahhhhhhhhh............. |
Until Next Time
Ramblin Ruis
Allen and Paula
