Dawson City Here we come

June 15, 2014

Happy Father’s Day George!

What an exciting day.  We are headed to Dawson City.  Now this is what we expected.  A lot of pot holes the further north we get.  It’s an 8 hour drive and the roads didn’t get bad until 3 ½ hours outside of Dawson City.  One guy just ahead of us lost his hubcap as I am writing.  George’s quick “lightning” speed reflexes save us a direct hit.  And that my friends is why we learn the 2 second rule.  It’s a long drive but we have crosses the Yukon River several times.  Our pictures won’t come close to showing the beauty.  Here we are 10 days into our trip and finally our movie is opening up.  One of the clerks at the motel said his dad and uncle run a gold mine in Dawson and one of the other clerks said his grandfather smelters all the gold from Dawson City.  Those guys were so nice and very helpful.  FYI, it’s the Airport Chalet right on the highway.  It’s old but such a part of history. 

Now you are probably wondering if the trip is worth it.  It will be nice to say we did it, but we both agree, if we knew then what we know now, we wouldn’t do it… so far.  Dawson City has a lot of making up to do. 

The further north on HWY 2 to Dawson City, the more potholes and bigger.  We are following a guy pulling a trailer with a boat and I have to say it’s a little scary.  And again as I write the guy just lost his windshield and again another disaster avoided.  No we still haven’t learned the 2 second rule.  This isn’t the kind of excitement I was talking about earlier.  George isn’t real receptive to my backseat driving so it’s a little tense.  AAA is a long long way away and besides, it’s Father’s Day. 

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!  Picture the happy dance.  Dawson City is a joy.  Yes it is pretty much like we expected.  It is very remote up here and lots of little shops just waiting to pray on all the tourists.  We made a quick walk around the town and then ate one of our entrees in our room.  It has a microwave and refrigerator.  That was a surprise.  We went out afterwards and found a little Ice Cream shop and had a little sundae for $5.00 a pop which isn’t bad.   Then we took a ride out to Claim 33 and then went down to claim 6, which is free to the public.  George was busy giving panning lessons.  Most didn’t even know what gold looked like let alone know how to pan.  They were excited to see the fool’s gold.  They were more excited to see what the real thing looked like.  It was getting late and we decided to go back to Dawson and see a show and go to their “rigged” casino.  George played the slots while I watched the show.  I watched him win as long as the show was going on.  He was playing on $20.00.  He was up 50% but as the show was in the 2^nd half he was going down slow and then as the show came to an end… boom….his money was gone.  Apparently this is where Parker Schnobel comes and someone said he is known as “the heckler” at Gerties.  After we got done we stopped at Pan of Gold Pizza and ate a slice for $4 a slice.  It was really good. 

Here’s some interesting stats:

In the spring of 1897 population was 1,500. 

In the summer of 1897 pop was 3,500

In the winter of 1897 pop was 17,500

In 1981 the population was 697

In 2012 the population was 1,912