Alaska trip Sunday 6/14/15 Watson Lake Yukon

STARR TREKS Sunday 6/14/15  Watson Lake

After writing yesterday’s log, we went to the nice visitor center to use their internet (for 15 minutes!)  it was after 7:30 and they closed at 8.  We walked around the Signpost Forest a little while— a lot of people had put license plates up, street signs from their hometown, or home made carved signs — saw some from NM, but there were a LOT of signs.  The “forest” was started in 1942 by a homesick GI working on the AlCan hwy during WWII.  Interesting that he was from Danville IL— very close to where Larry grew up.  Now there are >72,000 signs — more signs than people, since the population here is only about 1500~

We may never catch up with Everetts (another couple from Alamogordo who are driving to Alaska, but came up a different route thru Montana)— we were so pooped last night, and rather discouraged by the mud and gravel all over my poor car— I think the whole windshield is somewhat etched.  After we got back from the visitor center last night, it started raining again— and it rained HARD — hopefully cleaned off our vehicles pretty well.  I did laundry since we have hookups, and am still doing sheets and towels this morning.  Today, it is a sunny blue sky — yay!  We will see what there is to see in Watson Lake— it is surprisingly, the 3rd largest city of the Yukon — settled in the late 1800’s by gold seekers.  

After finishing laundry, setting up the crockpot for supper, we went over to the Liard Evangelical Free Church — it is on the same block as the “Nice Motel”, the Big Horn Hotel, and the Yukon Liquor Corporation(!).  The RV park operator told me that is where he and his wife attended, so the office would be closed from 10-12 noon.  It had been several other churches in the past— a Baptist Church, Northern Canada Evangelical  church, a free Methodist, and now is nondenominational.  There were about 30 people there— some young, some old — everyone was dressed pretty casually except one lady in her dress and hose.  John, a man in his 70’s, welcomed us as we came in, and invited us to sit anywhere— it was small and plain inside with a podium and a piano.  The young lady at the piano sat with a 2 yr old on the bench next to her.  A lady gave announcements and took prayer requests, and welcomed us as visitors.  Several people had prayer requests and volunteered to pray.  When John prayed, he prayed for us, the visitors, which was very nice.  We sang 4 hymns during the service and people sang out.  The minister, Ray, looked late 30’s, early 40’s.  He preached nicely on David and Goliath.  We went down in the basement for coffee.  Larry chatted with a man who runs a hunting service who had actually been down in Alamogordo in January visiting with some local hunters— the Hisaw family.  I visited with Ray — he says he is a minister and has been there 9 years, right after he got married.  His wife is an MD(!) who was born in Iran, fled with her family in the late 70’s during the iran Iraq war as refugees to Germany, then to California— she attended Oral Roberts University, then medical school in England.  They met on line and moved here in between her studies.  Now she is in Chicago staying in the north downtown area taking courses so she can pass her Step 1,2,&3 and then get into a residency match program.  He has other jobs— owns a tow truck service and other odd jobs, since the church surely does not pay him much.  

After lunch, we walked over to the Northern Light Centre — it reminded me of our planetarium in Alamogordo— they had 2 Imax type films projected on the dome— one on Black Holes and the other on the Aurora borealis.  They have 6 shows a day!  There were only 5 of us at the 1 pm show today.  We walked back to the Sign Post forest and found a few more NM license plates & signs.  We walked thru that to the Visitor Center to spend time looking at the old photos from the Gold Rush days, and building railroads and the Alcan.  We spoke with one of the docents— had met her at church this morning.  Then had a nice film to watch.  We then walked over to Wye Lake and took the easy 3 km trail around the lake— they had nature signs identifying plants and flowers — we actually got warm!  It has been a nice relaxing day.  

signpost forest

the church we attended

hike around wye Lake

wished we put this cover on yesterday!

When we got back to the RV, we decided that we needed to get out the tow car cover that we had purchased (not cheap!), that we should have used yesterday.  We managed to get it attached to the car — it covers the whole front hood and windshield, and there are 2 separate side mirror covers.  The RV park had emptied this morning — we’re about the only ones that stayed a 2nd day.  By 1 pm, it was filling up again.  So we will walk back to the Visitor Center to use their limited internet to send this off.