Day 25: Thur, July 28 " Anniversary in Tombstone Territorial Park"

Day 25: Thur, July 28 "Anniversary in Tombstone Territorial Park"

Seems that the "sleep dart" (melatonin) worked last night and the kids slept in until 8:30am. We had a very slow morning with the usual coffee and cereal. I attempted to get onto the wifi with my password in order to upload some photos and the blog entries I had worked on last night, but had troubles getting anything to work. I gave up and went for my free shower (thanks Sally!)  There is something luxurious about having a shower without having to share it with your kidlet!  Yahoo! 

Check out was 11am and we were a little late getting out of our spot, but since we had "connections", all was forgiven.  That Gold Rush RV site must make a mint. That couple sure works long days though for the summer months, and get rewarded taking the winter months to relax and travel. A neat "retirement gig" that we have seen in other places.

Ezzie and his parents, Devon and Maggie, came by and asked if Ollie would like to join them for a walk to the river. He wanted to go, and so we said we'd be in touch via text. We moved the RV off-site and parked it in town where we could continue to explore. We stocked up on groceries at the "General Store" and had a wander into one of the gift shops. Jonathan had just texted Devon when we saw them come by the gift store and ask if I wanted to buy a kid. I said, "Yep, I'll take that one!" pointing to Oliver. They had a nice walk, and Ollie was very excited to inform us that they saw "Hairy Manes" (Shaggy Mane mushrooms) down in the grass by the river. He was excited to show them to us. Our little botanist.

We wandered into another gift store and had a nice chat with the gal that was working the till. She was super friendly and recommended  we hit up either Cheechako's bakery (if they were not already sold out) or Alchemy for an amazing kale bowl. Both options sounded fantastic for lunch. It was really nice talking with her… She lives in Dawson year round, and enjoys the sense of community there, and how everybody bands together to get by during the tougher months. (*on our return to Dawson after Tombstone, I saw the same gal in an ambulance attendant uniform riding in the ambulance on its way to a call)

Cheechakos was closed, so we wandered deeper into town to Alchemy, which was situated beside "the kissing buildings"… two old buildings that leaned together at the eaves and appeared to be kissing. I had almost bought a print of a neat watercolour featuring these two buildings.  Alchemy proved to be amazing… really cool interior with huge mortis and tenon beams, cool fixtures and very funky wooden tables. I chose a table that had a big pile of lego in the middle of it. Perfecto! The food was sooooooo yummy! Jonathan had the kale bowl and I had the dahl and rice. We shared a yummy coffee and a chocolate chip cookie too.

At 3:30pm we swung by the NAPA parts/Automotive place in Dawson, just outside of the town and made an appointment for Saturday for the Thermostatic Fan Hub replacement, and hoping that the part that we ordered by phone in Whitehorse would be arriving by Kluane Transport sometime on Saturday afternoon.

By 3:45pm we were on the road to Tombstone Territorial Park. This meant 40km back down the Klondike Highway and then turning onto the Dempster Highway and heading north for 70km on a very rough, bumpy dirt road (is this really a highway?). It was raining hard, and the light was really crazy… dark around us, but bright ahead. Jonathan drove carefully and expertly around potholes and over washboards the entire way. It was a long slow drive in our old gal… every bump made us cringe. The heavy rains stopped as we arrived into the Tombstone campground around 6pm. We managed to snag the last site. It was nestled beside a quick moving river, which we had to educate the kidlets about not going near. They were very good, and we kept a good eye on them, too.  We had a tent pad beside our area that the kids dug around in and piled gravel and leaves to make "castles" with their sand toys.  

Oliver was excited to ride his pedal bike around, and we went for a walk up a path that led to the interpretive centre that we passed as we came into Tombstone. We both carried bear spray with us on the short trek. We didn't see any bears, or any sign of them, but it sure felt "beary" out there! Along the walk we found lots of interesting things… various mushrooms, very red toadstools (very smurf-house looking), different lichen, puffer fungi (not the official name), and different plants that are used for healing and eating. Many of these plants had little hand made signs near them, explaining their benefits. Ollie quite enjoyed learning about all the plants, and liked the stick sculptures, too.   We found more of them when we reached the Interpretive Centre… moose and dear woven into the fence. The centre closed at 5pm and we peeked in the windows and tried to look through the telescope on the observation deck.

We wandered the trail back and ended up at "home" around 7:15pm. Made a steak and potato anniversary dinner (happy 3 years married + 15! Cheers!) and enjoyed playing with the kids and their gravel creations. Ollie made a very cool Transformer station that he worked diligently on while we made dinner. He didn't want to come inside to eat he was so focussed. He was making it for his helicopter Autobot. Jonathan went out and worked on it with him after dinner and had a cool decepticon and autobot battle out there while I put Amelia to bed.  It truly is the land of the midnight sun… there is 3 hours of darkness here. We go to bed at 1am and it's still light out. Crazy stuff.

Yukon campsites are $12 a night and have free dry firewood. This site was no exception.  We are excited to do some small "hike" walks tomorrow from the Interpretive Centre.