July 6 - in Skagway

We have had a delay in posting.   My wifi password did not work when I sat down to write this the night of July 6th, and tonight is the first chance I've had to catch up.   The current rub is this system is so slow, it reminds me of dial-up.

I'm going to try to put some notes down and do the photos later (I'll add an "a" to the date when it is amended).

We used the tandem to do the tourist thing on Saturday, July 6th.  Starting with the City Museum, which is housed in the first granite building ever built in Alaska.  They have a bronze cigar store Indian on display that was used during the gold rush on the Skagway sidewalk.  It had nicely put together displays.

We rode around the cruise and ferry docks to get an idea of where the cruise passengers have to walk and where we came into town on.  I had so much to look at when driving through the crowded parking lots & town streets, I didn't have time to look around.  We checked out all the City parks and the two other RV parks (I think we were in the best place for us this trip). 

Just outside of town is the Jewel Garden & Garden City Glassworks.  We intended to tour the grounds, but I thought the admission was a bit to steep (at $12.50 ea).  Something David had read before we went said $7.50 admission.  I thought that was a bit steep but would pay the $15 to see what they had.  I wasn't that curious at $25 for our admission.  But we went a bit further to the gold mining town and paid a much more modest amount to tour the grounds and the gold dredge.

I thought we were going to hit 20 miles for sure as we headed out toward the historical ruins of Dyea.  We got to the overlook and the street was getting very steep and rough.  We'd lost the pavement.  David thought there was a short cut to the airport area where there is a bridge (at Taiya Inlet over Skagway River) we'd been on earlier.  We found a local hiker to ask.  He said there wasn't any way that the tandem could make it.  I thought we were going to retrace our steps, but we wanted to get to the movie at the Park Service office, and that didn't leave a lot of time.  So David went with his gut, found a dirt path that was steep and rutted to the point we had to walk a stretch, but the tandem made it down.  It cut 5 miles off the ride and we made it to the movie.

I'd put some spare ribs in the crock pot this morning, and they were finger licking good tonight.  After dinner, I put my things together even bringing a stool to work on the blog outside where I could get a bit more comfortable than last night.  All for naught when I couldn't log on.  I was not a happy camper.