MEANDERING MOOSE

     ...of Lake Labarge, I cremated Sam McGee."--Robert W. Service.  The 1907 poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee" is, by far, the most famous poem of Alaska and the Yukon Territories.  I had to look-up "marge" to discover it meant "margin" or "edge."  It seems that most places we traveled in our northwest journey there was some reference to the poet or the poem.  However, nowhere was it more in-your-face than Dawson City, YT.  It was Dawson City that everybody was rushing to in the Klondike Gold Rush from 1896-1899.  The town was full of either gold miners or those smart enough to "mine" the gold miners.  Robert Service was there for the action and provided much of the entertainment in the local bars by orating poems for the patrons.  His name became intimately attached to Dawson City and the gold rush. What is a "gold rush" town without some bars babes dancing around and showing their underwear? Panning for "

And the real ones are much larger! Actually, except for 2 days, the mosquitoes were non-existent.       Sadly, it is time to depart Alaska.  Fairbanks was our last stop and it was fun as well as productive. Fairbanks is more like a large town than a city, but it has all the services and is a great jumping off point for a lot cool opportunities.  We ended up staying 12 days and took advantage of everything Fairbanks had to offer, including a few repairs to the rig and car in preparation for our journey back to the lower 48. Downtown Fairbanks, AK. A Chena River sternwheeler.      First, as a Denali postscript, upon arrival in Fairbanks we learned that a stretch of the 92 mile road in Denali suffered a major landslide stranding visitors and employees for several days.  Since the road is narrow and is often perched on the edge of sheer cliffs, this was a dangerous situation.  We were glad that we didn't get caught on the wrong side of that catastrophe. The pipeline.