Day 14
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
On the Road to Watson Lake
Mel, Dot, Robert, Bet, Jenna and I left Laird Hot Springs about 9:30 for a short 126 mile trip to Watson Lake. We all planned to stop at Cold River Lodge for breakfast. Cold River Lodge, like Testa Lodge, didn't meet my expectations of what a lodge should be. Here, there was a concrete block building that served as the gas station and a converted trailer that was the motel and restaurant. I purchased $50 worth of diesel at $1.82 per liter - that comes to $6.88 per gallon. I could have put it more, but I heard it was cheaper up the road so I got enough to get me there. Meanwhile, the others went in and ordered breakfast. Again, shortly after I got in, 8-10 other rigs from our caravan arrived, and we took every seat in the house. The man who helped me get my diesel came to our table and asked me to come to his shop when I finished. Mel was certain that I had done something wrong and delighted in telling me I was in trouble. When I went into the shop, the man gave me a hat pin marking their location on the Alaska Highway. He apparently noticed my collection of pins and thought I needed one from his place of business. Sorry Mel. I bought $50 worth of diesel and you bought $180, but I got the pin.

The drive on in to Watson Lake was spectacular. Beautiful green mountains and majestic valleys and vistas were everywhere. We saw a couple of buffalo, and a motorcyclist going the other way pointed out a black bear up ahead.

We arrived in Watson Lake about 1:15 and got into our spot. Only then did we find out that there was no water in this part of the park due to freezing ground from the winter. I finally found a site that had water and filled our fresh water tank. I returned to our assigned site and got set up pretty quickly. Setting up and tearing down every couple of days or more often gets you pretty adept at it. I did some laundry while Jenna cleaned inside the trailer.


 

Next we went to the Signpost Forest. Karl Lindley of Danville, Il. was a U.S. Army soldier working on the Alaska Highway in 1942. He placed a sign on post in Watson Lake with his name, hometown, and the number of miles it was to his home there. With that sign, the signpost forest was born. Today there are over 70,000 signs posted in the forest, and more are added each day. It is said to contain the greatest number of stolen objects of anywhere since many of the signs have been stolen from hometowns across the world and posted here. Our tailgunner's wife made a sign for out group, and several of us posted our own signs as well. There are signs everywhere on poles about 12 ft. tall. We found one from many places in Texas including Waxahachie; however, we didn't find one from Corsicana, but there is one from Corsicana now.

We had our travel briefing tonight, fixed a little supper, and I started on the blog. Tomorrow we go to Whitehorse, a distance of 268 miles, so it will be a long day. I'll report on tomorrow's drive tomorrow. Till then - Happy Trails!!

 






Welcome to Watson Lake
 






I posted our sign on the top of a pole in the Signpost Village
 






There is now at least 1 sign from Corsicana in the Signpost Village
 









We even found a sing for Waxahachie and the mileage is about right.
 














There are thousands of signs in the Signpost Village. It contains more stolen merchandise than anyplace on earth - mostly stolen town and street signs.