A Grizzly Morning, Indeed

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Yesterday started out like most moving days. Up and at ‘em, dogs on the leashes and out the door, quick pick up before the slides can come in. Make sure the windows are all lock….what the hell! I looked out the dining room window and there’s a grizzly bear not 50 feet away. I grabbed the camera (which just happened to be right there) and as I was starting to snap a pic, Barry threw Maggie into the RV and breathlessly said: Grizzly, gimme a camera. Primed and loaded (the camera) Barry slammed the door and disappeared. By this time Phyllis and Larry had started to load the Toad onto the toad hitch, as were Anita and Roger toading up their load! With the grizzly sighting all bets were off.

Phyllis ran to the Lounge Lizard to gather her camera, unwittingly leaving the door open. For the first time in the entire trip, Roundy Girl decides to hop out and try some nice fresh Yukon grass. Fortunately she didn’t venture far, and Phyllis was able to snatch her up on the fly, so to speak.

Mr. really big grizzly bear just meandered about, picking and chosing, and digging large holes in an instant with those huge feet and wicked claws. After all the excitement had died down and all the chit chat about the bear, preparations to move continued, and we still pulled out at our designated hour. By this time we are good at going! Unfortunately, because of the consistently outrageous price of libations, and due to the fact that we’ve been moving in and out of customs, we have not had our usual happy hours….sigh…. A woman in a local grocery told Barry that things don’t get any better inland, so I guess we’ll be eating a lot of beans and rice, and I sure wish I had my grandpa’s recipe for moonshine! But! There’s no State sales tax…yea.

We headed for the US border. This leg of the trip has the unfortunate reputation of having the worst highway we will encounter…yeah. The legend lived on - it was terrible highway. Huge holes, frost heaves so deep you could hide a Volkswagen in them, stretches of washboard, loose gravel. For the first time, I became queasy. NOTE TO SELF: get Dramamine tomorrow.

When we went through Canadian customs from North Dakota, I was anxious - no prior experience. As the trip unfolded, and custom crossing more frequent, it was kinda fun to see the different people and how they did their examination. The crossing at Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory into Alaska was really something to see. First of all - absolutely no photo taking allowed. Big sign to that effect. Then, upon command, we drove our rig through two tall wide towers and as the truck cleared it, a red light flashed taking a photo of Barry and then a guard stopped us at a “drive thru” window to question us. He looked at the passports, the registration on the vehicles (that was a first), asked the usual questions about what we had aboard, asked if the dogs were vaccinated, and sent us on our way. Somehow I think those towers were scanners similar to what they have at airports. That begs the question: do they have a film of Barry, me, the three dogs and the interior of the RV? Horrors - in my Grizzly bear induced rush, I had failed to make the bed. The ONE time and they get it on film. Bummer.

As if to fly in the face of the terrible Canadian road conditions, a brand new beautiful blacktop greeted us, thanks. However, it was just a tease for no sooner did we adjust to the luxury of the newly pressed road top, we were slipped onto last year’s roadway. That led us into Tok - the whole town looked like last year’s roadway. What a depressed place that was. It did have one good restaurant, however. Diesel was under $7 a gallon, so it wasn’t all bad. Phyllis and Larry and Anita and Roger were in the process of laundry. We went to Fast Eddie’s followed by Phyllis and Larry. Our waitress was originally from Maine and was as nice as could be.

On the way back to camp Barry stopped for groceries, and I couldn’t go in, I had another attack of diverticulitis. So I went to bed when we got home and stayed the night. Tomorrow is another day, and we’re leaving Tok, so I needed the rest, and got it!!!!

From the MABarry - over and out!

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