Bin Laden and his cronies are clearly going about it the wrong way by shooting and blowing stuff up. The obvious way to bring the great USA to its knees is to steal all the deep fat fryers in the country and hide them in a large hole. In turn the nation would slowly starve.... There is a point to this rant, and it is this. It is seemingly impossible to get any form of nutrition in this country unless it has first been passed through the experience of a deep fat fryer! Seriously, even if you want a piece of fruit, first it will have to be deep fat fried. It is (or was I should say) slowly driving me insane, but with crossing the boarder I now feel the excitement of having some form of food stuff which will not fill up a pint glass with oil if squeezed vigorously for 1 minute.
Anyhow on arriving in Valdez in South Eastern Alaska I stared in wonder at the views of the mountains, canyons, bald eagles and old people but then realized that the town had nothing to offer anyone in the form of entertainment unless you were very rich of had a serious addiction to Halibut, of which there were many. I camped over night feeling pleased with myself that I had seen an eagle and left the next morning. I was riding back the same way in order to head up to a place called Chicken so was riding over the same old freezing mountain range when joy of all joys what should I see, and almost run over but a Wolverine. Yes they are real and not a figure in a cartoon. For those of you who don't know, they are the toughest bastards this side of the Atlantic, with only an African Honey Badger taking the trophy for being slightly tougher. They are in the same family and about the same size. They will take on anything including a Grizzly without so much as a whimper. Due to this I did not stop to patt it but admired it from a slow speed. Having seen it the locals tell me that even they hardly ever see them and they are really rather rare (almost even rarer if it had taken on the front end of my KLR). So I was most chuffed. After riding another 350 miles I arrived at Chicken 100 miles west of the Canadian boarder. This was a strange place. A few buildings, with a few locals in a bar with about 4000 pants and bras on the ceiling that they capture of unsuspecting women and shoot out of a real cannon they have by the door. It was funny here, so I camped in there car park and had a few beers with the locals. After which one of them (not sure if it was Cletus or Ricky-Bobby) decided to show me his gun collection tossed on the back seat of his pick up (loaded I might add in case zee Germans come!). This amounted to a large bore rifle, a magnum hand gun and a machine gun. He let me play with them all. (see photo)
That evening two old chaps rocked up on their Honda Goldwings, god knows how they drove them down those roads, but they did and very slowly so they tell me. I had a chat with them and they gave me some tips on places to stay in the USA (lower 48). I left them and rode on the last 100 miles of gravel I expect to see till Mexico. What a lovely feeling, and would you believe after only 12 days or so I already am desperate for a new rear tyre, so thats what these roads do to them (2225 miles so far).
Anyhow I am currently in Dawson City 60 miles over the Canadian boarder in the Yukon. The river is REALLY high due to snow melt and you have to get this tub of a ferry over from the Alaskan side to the town. This town seems funny. Its really old looking from the gold rush day (to some extent a bit touristy) but I found a campsite and am now in town. Tonight I'm told I have to go to the Casino, yes the CASINO and drink a shot with a human toe floating in it! Apparently people bequeath their big toe in their will to the bar where it is placed in a shot and you down the shot and kiss the toe at the end. They keep said toe in formaldehyde to stop it getting stinky. Lovely.
The weather has also warmed up loads so no more freezing nights for the time being, but plenty of mosquitoes instead.
I plan to stay here a couple of days then take the high road towards Whitehorse where I can get my new tyre. From there who knows but I plan to be in Vancouver for the 25th ish.
Right thats all I have to say now. I just feel lucky I have found a good Internet connection so thought I would write.
bye.
ROAD KILL COUNT: 1 (sparrow, in flight I might add)
TYRE COUNT: 1
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