Day 37 --TOK where the sun shines BRIGHT!

Strange looking mushroom

Coming into Tok--Sunshine!

Driving through Thompson Pass

Mountain stream

Valdez --almost clear enough to see the mountains!

Wednesday August 11, 2010. We left Valdez around 9:30am. It was raining, of course, but for
whatever reason when I first went outside, the fog had lifted enough to see some of the mountains around the campground. By the time I got a shower and went back out it was almost fogged in again.

We drove out of the valley up the high mountain road and surprisingly had few problems pulling the car.It was a beautiful drive out of Valdez, much prettier than the town itself. We came through Thompson Pass, where they have the record snowfalls and it was a real climb up the pass. The waterfalls were gushing down the mountainside everywhere you looked. What a beautiful area with the mountains so high all around the roadway you could hardly see the tops. The mountain streams were numerous and crystal clear. I can only imagine how much water comes out of the mountain in a day with the snow still on the mountains and the rainfall together.

We drove 115 miles to Glenallen on the Richardson Highway, RT 4 . Instead of turning onto Glenn Highway, RT 1, the highway we drove from Anchorage, we continued on RT 4 which goes to Tok. Tok was 140 miles from this intersection. We drove in the rain for awhile and then the sun would dimly shine through the clouds and then it would rain again. The farther we drove the brighter the sun. We pulled off the highway at a turn out and stood outside with the sun shinning brightly and rain falling on our heads. I figured having the sun was at least a good omen. As we drove into Tok, the rain had quit,the sun is out and it is just beautiful here this afternoon. We
pulled into the Tok RV Park about 3:30pm. We stayed here on our way into Alaska. It is a very
pretty RV Park with many, many trees and very clean. When we pulled in there were about 3 or 4 rather large mushroom looking things growing by the trees at our campsite. They were white and almost looked like cauliflower. The next time I have internet I will try to look them up. We have internet here but is only good for ONE hour. WOW, after being without internet for 3 or 4 days, one hour does not quite satisfy my needs!

We had not had lunch so I heated my quesch that I bought from Megpies Bakery yesterday. Larry had hot dogs. My quesch was wonderful! Too bad for Larry that he does not like quesch! After heating my lunch I thought I would set outside and eat at the picnic table. That was a wishful thought as the mosquitoes and no-see-ums are horrible. I even had the bug burner--whatever it's called--going and setting right next to me. I guess when you have this much rain the bugs grow bigger!

We relaxed awhile and decided we'd walk into the area where the gift shops are. We walked out to the highway and looked down the road and could not see anything. We quickly decided to take the car off the car hauler and drive. It was probably 4 miles down to the shops so since we are not the great hikers of the north, we probably made the right choice to drive.

We looked around in about 3 different shops and went to Fast Eddy's and had the salad bar. We
came back to the campsite and the mosquito's from the whole state of Alaska are having a reunion right here on our campsite!!! We had to load the car on the hauler and I thought we were going to be raw meat when we got inside the RV.

Not sure how far we are going to travel tomorrow. We have to navigate the horrible strip of
highway back to Destruction Bay so will be slow traveling! We would like to put a few more miles behind us each day so we might have time to go to Hyder on the way home. Hyder is where they have a bear viewing platform out over the river. The bears come to the river to eat the fish so they are almost always there. I'm getting anxious to get home to see my family as I REALLY miss them so much!