July 16,2008

I know you are wondering why it takes me so long between posts. It's all about the Internet availability! So here we go will catch you up again.

As I said we were on our way to Skagway. We made it and spent 4 days there. Skagway is a little town with a lot of history. It used to be a start for thousands of people on a trek to the Yukon for a gold rush in Dawson City. There was no gold in Skagway but there is a port in which many came in by steamer from Seattle, Washington. This was in 1898. Well there was this character who also went to Skagway, his name was Joseph Smith. He was a con man and moved to Skagway when he heard about the gold rush as that is what he did, conned all the prospectors and many lost all their money before they even started out on there trek to Dawson. One of his cons was selling soap with money strapped around it. Two of his men would go up and find money in there soap, $5.00 oh I got $50.00! Then everyone would rush up and buy his soap. His men who posed as buyers would return him the money. He became quite wealthy and opened a saloon. This is why he was called Soapy Smith! Any way he did many types of swindles and robbed many of the miners. The towns people got tired of this and wanted to run Soapy out of town. Not on your life Soapy said, this is my town. Well he got shot in the heart and he shot his killer in the groin and he died 12 days later. This is a true story and there more to it but it is one of the highlights of this town. We went to a play which was about this character, it was quite cute and comical. Before you go into the play you gamble with money they give you when you come in. You get $1000.00. You can play black jack, roulette or a game call 4 5 6. The actors are the dealers. Well we played roulette, I lost Mike won. We payed black jack, I lost Mike won. We played 4 5 6 and I won some and Mike won more. He won the most of anyone in the room and got a poster with kisses on it. Very cute.

The stampede it was called in 1898 of people coming to mine for gold in Dawson. Thousands came in that year and a few years after. Pretty serious at first as these fellows walked over mountain passes carrying hundreds of pounds of supplies to last them the trip. Many died, one pass they took pack horses. The pass was so bad 3000 horses perished in one year. The trip to Dawson was 1500 miles from Skagway. Walk and raft down the Yukon river to get there.

Skagway is also a port town. Which means cruise ships come in everyday, at least two at a time and as much as 4 when we were there. So with the exception of a few places it is fine jewelry, furs, carvings etc. typical cruise port.

Our last day there which was Monday, we took a boat trip from Skagway to Juneau. This is an 80 mile trip. We went on a boat with about 40 other people who were also there as RVers. It was a lot of fun. The captain pointed all all kinds of wild life. We saw sea lions, harbor seals, humpback whales, many Bald Eagles, Dall porpoise, dolphins. The trip is all in a Fjord so the sea was very calm. Mountains on both side the whole way. We saw fishermen fishing for salmon. That was something too. It took about 3 hours to get to Juneau. A bus waiting for us, took us into the city where we had lunch at this place called "The Hanger" which is right on the water. Well in front of this restaurant is about 4 sea planes. They left and came back twice while we were having lunch. Just taking people out for a ride. Each plane held about 10 people. Chaching!!!! Anyway for lunch we walked around the city a bit as we only had about 1.5 hours (not nearly enough time for me) to shop. Then we met the bus and it took us to a glacier. This glacier was kind of interesting as we could see the burgs it dropped in the water. I learned that all these glaciers we are seeing are from a mini ice age we had 3000 years ago. So that old ice and of coarse it is shrinking, one however is advancing. Got back on the boat and came back to Skagway seeing more wildlife on the way. It was a great way to end our visit in Skagway.

One more thing, that train you see Mike standing in front of is a train snow blower!!! It clears the tracks in the winter. Saw a short film on it, the snow was as tall as the train.

The last two days have been travel days, nothing exciting not stories there. We are in a town called Tok. This town was named after a dog. The Alaskan Highway was built during WW2.

Tomorrow we are heading to Valdez. Sound familiar? It's about 250 miles from here. So stay in touch, haven't heard so much from ya'll.