from Whitehorse

On day four of our journey to Anchorage, Leigh and I have arrived in Whitehorse. We left Seattle on Sunday afternoon, slept over in Cache Creek at a cute little campground just off the highway then went on to Dawson Creek. The camping in Dawson Creek left a great deal to be desired, so we took a risk and went on down the road to Whisker's Bay Resort to sleep. This place was really great because our sight was tucked between two small RVs housing adults, children and dogs (so we didn't have to worry about bears) and it was right on the edge of a beautiful bay. The only down side was we didn't have access to showers, in spite of the place advertising showers. Anyway, it was pretty nice.

The third night we got a [very expensive] motel room in Fort Nelson because everyone, including Juneau the Cat, needed a break from being cramped in the car or the tent. Fort Nelson itself is a hole- it's muddy and everything is overpriced and under-par. We left early the next morning to put in a long day, all the way to Whitehorse (about 12 hours). Luckily we were well-rested for a long day of driving and Juneau was feeling better after having a proper dinner and some space to run around for a few hours.

Whitehorse was the first normal sized town we'd seen in days. It has a variety of businesses, so the inflated prices are less inflated, and the town sees a number of travelers from all over the world, usually traveling in RVs. Our campground is actually an RV park with cheaper "dry" sights. We're the only tenters here, but it's really nice because there are people around, it's near the road and just outside of downtown, so no bears and an easy drive to get food, etc. We've decided to stay here an extra night to take advantage of our long haul yesterday. There are hot springs just outside of town, a Starbucks and some yummy restaurants to check out. Plus our apartment won't be ready until Saturday morning and our only other option was to hang out in Tok an extra day. From what I've read Tok is a tiny town, so we're more likely to find things to do for the day in Whitehorse.

On another note, we've noticed a lot of texts translated from English and French (of course, this is Canada) into German. I've seen a lot of touristy stuff in German before, but usually in addition to Spanish and Mandarine or Japanese. Then we heard a lot of German being spoken around our campgrounds, not just our neighbors last night but several other couples and families. Finally I asked the owner of the campground in Whitehorse why this area is so popular for Germans to take a vacation. He said it's because there are two direct flights between Frankfurt and Whitehorse (a city of 20,500 people!) and Frankfurt and Anchorage each week! The flight is 9 1/2 hours and apparently very popular all year round. Wie uberraschend!