June 20: It was great to be able to “sleep in” this morning and then work on updating our blog. Also, we skipped the tour of the gold dredging operation and gold mine and took naps instead. Then we worked up a worship service for Sunday (my hat’s off to you, Roxy!). Dave and I are on the “Worship Committee” for this group, and this is our first weekend in charge of planning the service. We will be spreading the joy among our other committee members in the coming weekends, believe me! After a fairly quiet day, we turned in early, anticipating a 4:30 a.m. rising time in the morning.

June 21: We were up earlier than usual this morning to be ready for a 5:30 a.m. departure to the ferry landing. A short ride across the Yukon River saved us about 600 miles of backtracking to get to our next stop: Tok, Alaska. The single ferry held only 2 coaches and towed vehicles at a time (Dave has some cool dash-cam video of driving onto the ferry), and there are 21 coaches in our group. Yep, you do the math … it took over 3 hours to get everyone to the other side and on their way along Alaska’s Top of the World Road. It was raining when we got up and kept raining all morning and into the afternoon, so given the dirt and chat gravel surface of this 2-lane road, the venture was challenging in many ways (see photo of coach and car below). The scenery was beautiful, but with clouds and fog outside and a layer of mud on the windows, it was often hard to see. 🙁

The wet weather also caused a sad incident for one of our Motorcaders. The man was traveling alone and was just ahead of us, although out of sight most of the time. The roads were very wet and muddy in spots. As we rounded a curve, the repair tech’s coach and parts trailer as well as another of our coaches were parked in a pull-out area. They flagged us down and ask that we go directly to our destination (Tok, 70 miles away) and send the tour director back immediately—that there had been an “incident” with one of our coaches and a truck. Just a few miles farther along, I happened to spot said coach lying on its side just off the road. Trees had halted its roll down the mountain, and there was no sign of anyone around, so we motored on. Later, we learned that our traveling companion was not injured, just really bummed! He had apparently misjudged his distance when he eased off the highway slightly to allow another RV (not a truck) more room. The soft shoulder gave way and the coach gently tipped onto its side. The late model Jeep he was towing went, too, of course. Cool head that he is, he kicked out a window, crawled out and thumbed a ride into Chicken, Alaska. There he found plenty of Motorcaders to help him. He’s staying in a local motel, at least for tonight. This will probably end his tour, and I can only imagine the financial mess there’ll be to straighten out. But we’re just grateful that he’s fine, although more than a little perturbed with himself.

On a less important note, the line at the park’s RV washing area late this afternoon was so long and moving so slowly that we never did get ours washed. Ugh! Dave did rinse the car enough to disconnect it, and we’ll wash the coach tomorrow. Is it bedtime yet??? I’m exhausted! What a day it’s been!