Back in the USSA!

About 20 minutes before we left our shady motel in Watson Lake the internet kicked back on for some ambiguous reason. If it was a trick by the management to get us to stay longer, it worked. We ended up getting breakfast in the adjoining restaurant and since it was already 11 a.m. we quickly became part of the lunch rush and

were forced to do our last bit of internet updates in the lobby of the hotel. Next stop on our agenda wasn't even 3 blocks away. It was the Watson Lake Signpost Forest! This place was amazing and

bigger than any picture or brochure can convey. It was started around the visitor center and is still growing everyday. Katie and I walked around for about 45 minutes taking pictures and looking at all the signs and license plates. Surprisingly we didn't find any Chicago messages, but we did find a lot of Michigan ones including Dearborn and Troy, no

Livonia though that I could find :( After we had our fill sign posts we hit the road again traveling through the Yukon toward its capital, Whitehorse. Following the

Milepost as usual, we made a few stops along the way, the most memorable of which was at Johnson's Crossing for some world famous cinnamon buns! Katie had nothing to do with this decision - I promise ;) We got to Whitehorse about 6ish and decided to go for a 3 mile walk around the river, fish hatchery, and the dried up SS Klondike. Afterwards we hopped back in the car and tried to

sniff out the Yukon Brewing Company. Their ad in the Milepost said that they were 500 meters past the Walmart and after driving all over the industrial district we decided to give it up for the night. The brewery closes at 6 everyday anyway, so we were just scoping it out so that we would know where to travel the following day. Anyway, we grabbed a quick dinner, we both had salads for the first time in a while, then drove the van over to the Walmart parking lot and bedded down for the night. In the morning we headed to trusty old Starbucks to get some morning coffee and use the internet, half in part because we wanted to google the location of the Yukon Brewing Co. We went to 2 different Starbucks, all that the Yukon has to offer, and found out that neither of them has internet. We figured since the town was so small we would be able to find the brewery even if it took us the whole 10 minutes to drive down every street in town, so instead of searching after a wifi hotspot, we enjoyed some coffee and read for a little bit, at least I did, Katie filled out postcards and updated her scrapbook. Now, as I'm sure you all know, the Yukon Brewing Company offers FREE tours daily at 2p.m. We figured we would go there and try a

beer or 2 and then take the tour. However, the brewing company does not have a bar and is merely a storefront with a brewery behind it. The lady behind the desk directed us to a Tony's Pizza down the street to waste some time before the tour started. We did and upon our return, the place was packed. Apparently this little tour is a big deal. And when I say little, I mean little. We went into the back room, made 4 stops along the way, and were back upfront before we knew it - less than 10 minutes round trip. But the real fun took place in the shop area. There we got to sample every beer they make. Even if they didn't have it on tap, the tour guide would break open 3 bottles and fill our cups. The beer was alright and since Katie didn't like half of them, I got to try most of them twice! After the brewery we headed back on the road with the intention of making it to Alaska that night... where in Alaska, we didn't know. The drive was relatively uneventful to the border. The road conditions were horrible for about the last 100 miles before the border and I was forced to drive very slow and had to pay attention to nothing but the road, making driving a little more dull than usual. We still made all of the noteworthy stops that the Milepost suggested, including a lookout of a river valley that is noted for having a high concentration of bears. We pulled off and looked over the lookout and saw nothing with the naked eye. I took up the binoculars and scanned the river, not very hopeful, when all of a sudden a huge black bear came running downstream. He was booking it pretty fast and for a long time. Katie and I each traded turns watching him until he plunged into the river and began to swim. We saw him swim a short distance and then during one of our switches, POOF - he was gone. He must have got up the bank in a hurry and retreated into the woods. We still have no idea what he was running to or from. We watched for about 10 more minutes, searching for him or anything that may have scared him, but nothing. Soon afterward we made it to the border. We were relatively unprepared for customs, since our last run in with them was just a series of rehearsed questions and we kind of figured it would be the same this time. And for the most part, we were right, except when he asked for the registration. We had told him we were from Chicago and the van has MI plates. I am sure this is what raised his question. Now, we do have the registration, but where we had it was a question that would prove to be harder to answer. We looked in the glove box, which is where we originally placed them and could not find it. We found the insurance, but no registration. Eventually the custom agent must have decided that we weren't a threat and that we weren't driving a stolen car, or he just wanted to get back to his TV show that was playing loudly in the background, but in any case, he told us that we were fine and to just go, and so we did. Eventually it would be revealed that the

registration was in the glove box, but had gotten jammed into one of our CD cases which caused the momentary panic. After our customs order, we had officially made it to Alaska! We quickly found out that the roads here were just as bad if not worse than the Yukon roads and were forced to make our trip as slow as ever. After driving a bit, and having gained an hour crossing into Alaskan time, we decided to take a hike to a place called Hidden Lake. It was 2 miles round trip and we started the hike at 9:30p.m. Good thing the Alaskan sun doesn't completely set until about midnight, but still starting at about 9 until about midnight, there is a seemingly unending twilight hour where the sun just doesn't want to set. This gave a little creepiness to our hike. It was just a pull off on the side of the road and there were no other cars around and the night was completely silent. Exactly the setting that you would picture yourself walking up on a bear in. Fortunately for us that was not the case. We made it to the lake, saw a few beavers swimming

around and watched the fish jump for a while then headed back to the car. Because of our stops, our destination for the night became Tok, Alaska. As we were pulling up into the city about 5 miles away, I spotted our first moose!!! I turned CJ around, not an easy task on a 2 lane highway at night, and tried to get Katie a good picture. Though we were only about 20 ft. away from it, we could not get a good picture in the darkness. Eventually she gave up and I turned around again. Not even a mile later, we saw 2 more moose, this time a mother and a calf. Again we tried for the picture, this time I shined my brights on them, but apparently that was too much, and before Katie could snap the shot, they had retreated behind the brush. After the excitement, we made it to Tok and bedded down in the van again.