bobanddenisewanderlust

We woke to 65 degrees this morning, and it was cloudy. We left later today, at 10 AM, as we were going to two museums. The weather remained  in the high 60’s to low 70’s most of the day.

Our first stop was at the Yukon Transportation Museum. Out in front of the museum was the World’s Largest Weathervane, a Douglas DC-3. This plane flew missions in WWII and was used afterwards until it was purchased for the museum. It was mounted on a pedestal in 1981 and functions as a weathervane. The first picture is before we entered the museum and when we came out it was facing the opposite direction as seen in the pictures.

We entered the museum and paid $8 each, as the age was 55+ for seniors!  In the gift shop we found an aviation shirt for Bob.  We entered the museum and the first exhibit was this train which had a movie running inside. The movie was on the White Pass- Skagway railway. We had ridden this in 2005 when we were in Alaska on the cruise. The brochure states that it costs $246 to ride this train. We could take a bus trip from the RV Park for $135 and then take the train, but we could not see repeating something so expensive. It was fun the first time and is a must when visiting this area.

There were planes, trains and automobiles! Plus trucks and other exhibits. My favorite was the story of Helen Klabens ordeal.

She was a young lady in search of adventure in the early 1960’s. She and her pilot crashed, in the winter, in – 40 F, in the Yukon wilderness. They survived 49 days. Both were injured, they had minimal supplies with them, and they managed to survive! They said that they lived on water, which of course they had to melt! It was a very interesting story, which was made into a move starring Ed Asner and Sally Struthers.  Once rescued, she was delayed leaving the Yukon, by the RCMP, because she needed to pay the airfare from Ft. St. John to White Horse after her rescue!

We wandered around looking a various photos and exhibits. We particularly liked the sled dogs. Don’t these dogs look happy, with big sloppy grins on their faces!

We left the museum and went to lunch at the Chocolate Claim, a nice little deli/bakery. We had sandwiches for lunch, then returned to the same area to go to the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. Below a Woolley Mammoth statue.

This is a giant Beaver. These grew to the size of a brown bear!

We entered the museum, $ 5 each, senior rate. Beringia IC traces the  Ice Age in northern and central Yukon,  and Alaska. It was very interesting. Beringia is the subcontinent area formed when the glaciers used up the water and the land bridge between Asia and Alaska formed. That is a brief overview! Did you know that camels came from North America and migrated to the Sahara? Did you know that horses came from NA, became extinct here, and were re-introduced by the Europeans to the NA continent? This was an extremely interesting museum!

Above a Woolley Mammoth skeleton. Below, a Jefferson Ground Sloth. Named for TJ, as he was the first NA Paleontologist.

Much of the archeological finds are done by minors, who find items when digging in the permafrost. There is a very large dig going on at a place called Blue Fish Caves, which they talk about, but don’t give you a specific location, I guess to protect the site. It is located about in a northern area of the Yukon, only accessible by helicopter.

We watched two movies, both with my friend here.

The first movie was on Beringia. The second was on the animals, and was done by the BBC and Discovery Channel. Both were worth watching. We really enjoyed this museum and learned a lot about the Ice Age and how the world was populated by both man and animals.

We left there and went back to the motor home to walk the dogs. Then we went downtown, stopping at a local bakery to pick up some German Rye bread. Then we were off to the grocery store again to stock up. We will not have another nice grocery store until Fairbanks.

We  returned to the motor home and sat out with the dogs, as the temp was now 80. We had purchased a roasted chicken, ate part of that and cut up the rest. I was making a casserole, and the electric kept going out. While we were gone today, a large caravan arrived. They are hogging the electric and our power management system kept tripping. I finally gave up and used the propane stove, which made the motor home very hot! Finally got the casserole made and will actually cook it tomorrow night!

We sat outside until after 8 PM, then came in to watch TV, not that there was anything on…. We had to be very careful of the electric. It rapidly cools down in the evenings. It finally started to rain at about 9PM.

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