Apparently to become a sourdough (whatever that is) you must pee in the Yukon River, so the three of us, after breakfast, did just that. I wonder what's the next step. Probably wrestle a grizzly bear, or moose or something.
The Yukon River restaurant, lodge, and gas station is an old camp from the pipeline days, and quite austere. No phone, no wifi except in the common room, and a common shower. No control over the heat either, so even this Vegas heat lover slept warm. I needed to remember that as the day ran on, cold with intermittent rain, not enough to don rain gear, but messy enough to ruin visibility.
Off we went, back down the Dalton Highway and at around 200 miles, Jim ran out of fuel. On dual sport bikes, they have a petcock that turns to off, on and reserve. Should you run out, the reserve tank holds... some gas. We have 45 miles to go. Does Jim have enough?
20 miles later Mel ran out, and a few miles after that I did too. I did the math, guessing at our reserves, and figured Mel and I would make it and Jim would not. Bingo! Okay, less drama. He carried three liters of gas for just this reason. We all made it to The town of Fox, complete with a gas station.
We stopped at North Pole, Alaska and toured the Santa Claus House or something. I'm Mr. Principles, so it galls me to have a Christmas shop open year 'round. Don't we overdo it enough anyway? We wandered through it and Jim got a few things... Visited the reindeer. Brother. We rode off, me with a stupid Christmas song stuck in my head. Santa's giving me coal, for sure.
I didn't sleep well last night, and neither did Mel, him with a great reason, he took the floor. Anyway, I did something I've never done before. I fell asleep on the bike. Only for a second or two, but it hit a dip in the road, startled me and scared the liver out of me! Jeez. Need to stop and rest. Yet between the cold and rain, how can one rest? I stayed awake after that.
We arrived in Tok and unloaded at a cool cabin, courtesy of Mel, who sweated every detail. The guy upgraded us to the Denali cabin, complete with a Jacuzzi tub. I'm going to give that a shot. If I fall asleep there, good.
4 comments:
Kevin forgot to mention that, while at the North Pole today, we saw the world's largest Santa, which is originally came from the Northgate Mall in Seattle.
I looked at the list that Santa was holding, but didn't see Kevin's name. It could have been the "NAUGHTY LIST", however, so I guess there's still hope for Kevin getting more than a lump of coal in spite of his Scrooge-like attitude
Fun to see what's going on during your Alaska adventure, Dad! Bummer you had to sleep on the floor. :( Hope tomorrow's better.
Kerri
WAKE UP!!! You are having too much fun to fall asleep. I was falling asleep in a stinky dump truck with spotty ac and a super loud exhaust. Jamie thinks the Parsons Men have narcolepsy, and she has about 300 examples to back up her theory...
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