Up at the crack of dawn to pull up our jacks and begin our journey back to the lower 48.  Plans are to stay in Tok Alaska for two nights, then cross over into Canada for that horrid Yukon roads drive.   Big surprise came when we discovered that the road from Seward to Tok closely resembles the horrid conditions on the drive from Tok to Whitehorse Canada.  It appears that all roads in Alaska need repairs after the winter weather plays its havoc on them.  Every few miles we would see a sign that said, “Rough Roads next 9 miles” with dirt road areas, huge frost heaves, splits in the road, sink holes and the sides split off and sliding away.  Then we would see signs that said, “gravel on road” which meant that the road went from split, roller coaster pavement to gravel…no pavement at all.  One area of the road just outside of Seward was 18 miles of gravely washboard bumps the entire length.  My back did not appreciate the 12 hour bouncing ride.

Beautiful views of mountains, the Matanuska Glacier, blankets of lovely purple Fireweed flowers along the road side, all bouncing and porpoise-ing by our windows.

When we finally pulled up at Tok RV Village it was pouring rain, even though the weather report stated it would be nice for the next few days.   This is our second time at this RV Park and we are happy to be here and have 50 amp again so we slept soundly through the night.

The usual mishaps befell us along the way.  Wouldn’t be normal if we didn’t have something fall off, break or stop working.  When we stopped at Beluga Point, sadly missing high tide again, John opened the screen door and the handle fell off.  An easy fix with an Allen Wrench.  Another 100 miles and our passenger slide cover pulled loose from the wall and fell against the back of my seat.  At least I wasn’t driving this time.  We are really becoming experts at make-shift repairs.  One pvc pipe, white MacGyver tape and the insole padding from my shoes to secure the ends of the pvc pipe to the inside and outside RV wall.  Didn’t slip once the whole 300 miles to Tok.

I got to sleep in this morning and it was wonderfully quiet until about 8am when the dog musher demo showed up with his excited dogs barking frantically to be hooked up to the sled.  Once they were off and running, not a sound was heard.  We spent the day fixing things.   John came to the rescue again, fixing the passenger slide cover with a drill and a new screw insert.  I called our buddy Bob Tiffin again and he will be sending us two windshield wiper arms, gratis.  We will keep our fingers crossed that the other one holds up until the new ones arrive.  Making ready for our long haul into Whitehorse, Canada in the morning.