Almost Home

Actually, I am home. This is the last post I wrote while traveling.  I'll update and add pictures tomorrow.
 

Haines Junction, July 23, Monday

Yukon Territory campgrounds are the BEST.  They are clean, quiet, easy to find, and they provide free firewood. For $12.00 that’s a bargain.  Tonight we are camped right before Haines Junction.  I would take a trip back to Whitehorse any time.  I didn’t stop and see much.  It surprised me how much I chose not to do because I wanted to be considerate of the poodz.  They didn’t have a choice about coming.

I finally got to wash my hair.  It’s amazing how good that feels.  When we were camped at Fort Nelson, we were under a birch tree that was sapping all over everything, including my head.  I wondered why my hair felt crispy.  There was sap on everything – the truck, the trailer, the chair, me.  Sappy, sappy, sappy. 

Today was the first time I’ve hit the wall while driving.  I had to stop and take a nap.  After the nap, it was back to normal.

As we near Alaska, the days are longer and cooler.  I’m grateful for both!  A campfire feels just right tonight. 

Yesterday I was looking for the old road – not much looking required today. There’s even a short bit you can drive on ( I did not).  In some places, it’s pretty obvious why it was moved, but other places made me wonder.  The new road is smooth except for ^^^^^^ those bits, and it avoids the steep ups and downs, but the creeks and rivers are so far down you really can’t see them.  I either saw or dreamed or remembered dreaming about a clear, clear stream running over black-flecked white granite rocks.  The water was clear enough to be almost invisible.  I’ve seen some clear water, but nothing like that.  Here, the water is tea-colored like it is in Anchor Point.

Mosquitoes.  Deet.  Benedryl.  That’s all you need to know about that.

Duct tape has been my friend on this trip. From taping up the front of the trailer to keep out the rain to keeping the vent and cupboard door from flapping open to keeping the Kleenex box where I want it on the counter – I can rely on good ol’ duct tape to do its job.

It dawned on me today that my finances are going to be a HUGE mess when I get home, and I won’t be there to sort it out for a while.  Ah well.  The bank will have tons of fun sending me emails I won’t get and phone calls I can’t answer.  I thought I’d organized that part pretty well, but having my credit card jacked sort of threw me.  If I ever do this again, I’ll be more prepared for those kinds of surprises.

I’m glad I took as many books as I did.  I’ve read 6 so far and quite a ways into The Beautiful and the Damned by Fitzgerald. Because the internet is so scarce, I’m totally out of touch with the news.  I did hear about the shooting in the theater.  It makes me wonder if things are worse than they ever were or if they just seem worse because we have news 24/7 from everywhere on the globe.

I’m excited to be almost home, but already feeling kind of sad about letting go of this experience.  Tomorrow is Tok, then Anchorage, then home.