Day 11, Watson Lake, Yukon

There wasn’t a lot happened today.  We drove the whole 26 miles into Watson Lakes and stopped at Tags RV Park and got set up.  We have full hook ups with 30 amp electric and it was only $23.10 with the taxes.  We will probably gain another dollar advantage when it is converted to US dollars.  It isn’t anything fancy, just a dirt and rock parking lot with hook up but it does the job.  We pretty much just laid around most of the day.  Went to a eating joint for hamburgers and Twila had fish.  It was good but not exceptional and get this, it only cost $23.05.  I don’t know how people get by up here.  It costs about twice as much for food as it does in Oklahoma.

We did go look at the sign forest and the Alaska Highway Interpretive Centre which are just across the street from the campground.  Thousands of people have put up a sign with either their name or the town they are from.  Some even show the mileage from here to their town.  It is probably the biggest draw they have to their town.  It all started when a solder named Carl K. Lindley from Danville, Illinois put up a sign in 1942.  The first signs were down by the lake but have now been moved to the intersection of the Alaska Highway and the Robert Campbell Highway.  The Interpretive Centre was really interesting.  They had a film on the construction of the highway and a museum with actual pictures taken during the construction.

This was set up to represent what it would be like to spend the winter in a cabin in the bush.

We went to the Northern Lights Centre at 8:30pm and watched a film on the Aurora Borealis and one on the vastness of space.  It cost $8 each and was interesting enough but I wouldn’t want to do it again.