Had my normal breakfast, and the sky looked like it might improve in a while so we could go photograph the wonderful fall color nearby. Worked up a blog entry. The light wasn't getting any better, so we decided to move on down the road. We prepped the RV to move, then left around 10:20 and continued heading east on the Glenn Hwy.

We stopped at the Chevron in Glennallen at 12:20 to fill up the RV. We left at 12:30 and went ...

To the Omni Park's Place (grocery store) parking lot in Glennallen to have lunch. We left at 1:00.

We headed north on the Richardson Hwy, then turned east on the Tok Cutoff at 1:22. I listened to an episode of Car Talk.

We stopped at 3:00 to photograph trumpeter swans on a pond near the road. There were several swans in the pond preening themselves near the closest bank, and feathers were littering the water. One was nice enough to stretch its wings so I could capture some action (below left). We were about to leave and I had packed up and was cleaning up in the RV when J, who was still outside the RV, started calling for me to come back out because there were three swans flying by. They were heading away by the time I was set up to photograph them, so we stood by the Jeep waiting to see if they would come back. They didn't, but another pair did, and I was able to capture some really nice images as they flew almost straight towards us (below right) before they circled and landed on the pond. We packed up again and left around 4:00.


We got to the Post Office in Tok at 4:47, just in time to pick up our mail before they closed. J went inside to pick up the mail and I went online using my Verizon Wireless USB stick and posted a blog entry. We went through the mail, and sent off some things before leaving at 5:22.

We went to the Chevron in Tok at 5:35 to fill up the RV. I discovered that the bungy cord that holds the Protect-A-Tow finally broke. It had been frayed for several months where it attaches to the left front of the Jeep. After filling up the RV, I parked the RV away from the pump to effect repairs on the Protect-A-Tow. I used some small tie-wraps to secure the ends of the tied-off bungy cord, then used more tie wraps to make a loop for the clasp to hold it to the Jeep.

We had dinner right there of leftover cheeseburgers, potato salad, and three-bean salad. Did some last-minute things before leaving the US: let my credit card company know that I'd be traveling in Canada, and activated a Canada calling plan addition for my cellphone. I worked up another blog entry. We left at 7:23.

Headed east on the Alaska Highway. I listened to another episode of Car Talk.

We entered Canada at 10:09, 9:09 Alaska Daylight Time, and entered a kind of no-man's land because Canadian Customs is 20 miles (32km) down the road. There were big bumps on the road every now and then.

We reached Canadian Customs at 10:35, and were asked about alcohol, tobacco, firearms, pepper spray, our travel plans, and if we owned the vehicle. Our answers were acceptable, and we went through with no problems. :) We got underway again at 10:37.

We reached Beaver Creek at 10:38, and kept going to look for a boondocking spot. There were more big bumps on the road.

We pulled into a rest area at 11:10. There was a Class A RV already there, and we ignored the "No Overnight Parking" sign.