We crossed from Canada into Alaska!  There is a border marker monument and looking across the landscape in both directions from this monument there is a mowed and tree-cleared area delineating the line where the U.S. meets Canada.

John jumping for joy – finally we’re in Alaska!

Steve at the Alaska sign in 2012

After taking pictures we met Paul from Arkansas. This man had worked a career caring for anteaters at a zoo. He said he always wanted to name an anteater Arlo and he was finally able to. He also named his little trailer Arlo. He was a quick wit and didn’t skip a beat in telling us anteaters and aardvarks are NOT the same thing! The closest relatives to anteaters are armadillos and sloths. The closest relatives to aardvarks are elephant shrews, golden moles manatees and elephants. The things you learn along the Alaska Highway! We told him we would keep an eye out for him during our travels as our paths were possibly crossing a couple more times.

Today was a long day filled with challenging driving on rough roads and road construction. Frost heave after frost heave, then came the TAR. Yes, fresh sprayed tar all the way across the highway with no way to avoid it.  REALLY?!?! Many frustrated people at the campground trying to figure out how to get the tar off their vehicles and RVs.

FROM VICKI:

We arrived at Sourdough Campground after the stay at Congdon Campground on the Kluane River/Lake. For Vicki that Campground was awesome. Scenery beautiful, serene, and restful. So here we were driving into Tok with tar all over our trucks from the road construction. All Fran and John could talk about (outside the &%$@* tar all over) was the pancake toss. I was skeptical.

After the 3 hours of John and Fran scrubbing tar and two trips to several shops to buy sold-out bug and tar remover, John wolfed down a plate of nachos, and Fran and Vicki barely got 3 bites in, and it was time for the famous sourdough pancake toss. So we shoved everything back in the camper for later and headed over to the sheltered area that had 12 long picnic tables set up in two columns of six. After a quick finding out where everyone came from, and how they found out about the Sourdough Campground, the game began.

Basically, everyone got 2 shots at tossing an 8 inch pancake into a big 5 gallon bucket. The first shot, is practice, and you get a high-5 and good wishes for the second throw, that if made, would get you $10 off the price of your breakfast in the café the next morning. Later we found out that if you made it either the first or the second time, you would get a little WINNER wooden coin to be redeemed for your $10 off. Everyone else got a LOSER wooden token. (Boy, wouldn’t the psychologists have a hay day with that! But this is Alaska!) We were at the campsite for 2 days, and out of 12 tries by the 3 of us, only one pancake tossed by Vicki made it into the bucket.