Day 48
Monday, July 25
On the Road to Destruction Bay

Destruction Bay?

 
Who ever heard of a town named Destruction Bay? Well, there is such a town (pop. 38) in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The story goes that when they were building the Alaska Highway, one of the construction camps was located at this point on the road. A freak high wind from the west blew in one night and blew the camp across the road and into a large lake. The entire camp was wiped out and totally destroyed, hence, the name: Destruction Bay. Now the lake across the road is not part of the ocean, nor is it a bay, but that doesn't seem to matter.

Our drive today was not as bad as it had been made out to be. From what we had been told the entire road was nothing but frost heaves and washboarded surfaces. In truth, only about 40 miles of the road was that way.  

But on that 40 miles there was red flag after red flag warning of frost heaves. The vast majority alternated between good highway and long stretces of graveled surfaces. Our Wagonmaster and Tailgunner both insist that it is highly improved over the road conditions of last year. I really thought that, except for that forty miles, the road yesterday was worse that today's road.    However, when we stopped for lunch we found that two cabinet doors had come open. Lots of stuff was all over the floor.Luckily none of it was breakable.

These roads with lots of construction sure make for dirty vehicles. The truck and trailer have never been this dirty.
 













We stopped at the Kluane Museum about 10 miles from Destruction Bay for a tour. It mainly consisted of dioramas of animals found in the Yukon Territory. Each area had information about that particular animal. I did learn that grizzly bear cubs stay with their mother for about 1 1/2 years. Then she pushes them out because she is about to have a new cub or two. The young grizzlies are often eaten by older males who don't want them around during mating season. In the center of the museum they had a mountain diorama built and I found some old goats wearing Adventure Caravan jackets.
 

 















Upon our arrival in Destruction Bay we found out that problems were occurring for some on our caravan.
 
Art & Jill had a hole in their radiator, Gen and Marge thought their turbo-booster had burned out, but it turned out to be a stopped up oil filter, Ron and Jackie had a flat tire on their tow vehicle, Leslie and Janice had a hole in their windshield from a rock, and we got dinged in the windshield too. I put scotch tape over the hole hoping that it won't spread.   Maybe I can find a repair place in Skagway.

At 5:30 we met for a travel briefing and at 6:00 the owner of the RV Park had our entire caravan in for dinner. He had prepared green salad, smoke baked potato salad, baked beans, bar-b-qued roast, sourdough rolls, and apple crisp with whipped cream. What a feast!! That makes 3 nights in a row we haven't had to cook dinner. YEA!!

We are going back to the lodge where we had dinner in a few minutes for entertainment. The RV park owner will sing, tell stories, etc. We'll see if his entertaining is as good as his cooking.

Tomorrow we go to Skagway, Alaska. Back in the U.S. for 4 more days. Then we'll be back in Canada for the duration of the trip. I'll let you know what we find on the way to Skagway in tomorrow's blog. Till then - Happy Trails!!