This is the 23rd in a continuing series about our trip through Canada to Alaska
Let’s start with a Top of the World Highway update from the Yukon Highways and Public Works site:
Highway 9, the Top of the World Highway, motorists are advised that the Taylor [Top of the World] Highway in Alaska is now open from the Yukon/Alaska border through to Tok. There will be a pilot car operating from roughly MP 81 to MP 91. Expect delays. There is no camping or stopping on the Taylor Highway between Chicken, MP 67 and the Boundry/Taylor Wye, MP 95, except in designated BLM campgrounds.
Rv.net reader Dave had mentioned that he was expecting to get through Sunday following a pilot car. Since WiFi in the area is intermittent, we can assume he hasn’t been able to report further. However, he did email to say, “The Taylor and Top of the World Highways are now open, with a pilot car escort through the bad sections. Come to Chicken and Eagle Alaska. They need the business!”
In normal times, I check facts and spelling fastidiously. That’s difficult on this trip, so if you see errors that need correcting, please use the comment section to get the correct information out to readers.
From the “Small World Department” of the RV blog come these two coincidences from recent days.
While in Anchorage we visited the Alaskan Heritage Center, which is an excellent way to learn about the cultures of tribes and clans in the state. In 
one of the replica habitats, Bob Babbitt got into a discussion with the young presenter (I think he said his name is Sean). Bob mentioned that he did his internship in dentistry on the Ft. Defiance Navajo reservation in eastern Arizona.
The young man, an Athabaskan native, said to Bob, “Maybe you know my 
mother.” He did indeed know her. Aurelia had been a dental assistant in his office during that residency. It just so happened that she was there that day visiting her son, which brought about a surprise reunion. His mother now works with the public health service in Alaska.
And the second coincidence concerns my long-time friend Sam Casey, a veteran truck-camper RVer and a representative of Signtronix along the East Coast of the U.S. Sam established an internet friendship with Margie Goodman of Anchorage, who recently bought an RV and plans to travel to the East Coast.
Sam mentioned to her that he has a friend traveling in Alaska who is writing a blog about his trip. Margie replied that she has been reading a blog written by a guy who is on an Alaskan caravan. The coincidence of two people thousands of miles apart who had never met being linked to us is incredible.
Today we delved deeply into the history of the Homer area at the Pratt Museum. Some excellent displays, but we were magnetized by presentations on video and audio that kept us listening for at least an hour. Then we visited the cabin at the museum, where we listened to a resident who had been here since 1954 telling visitors about the hardships people endured years ago homesteading before there were services and roads.
Sunday we joined about a dozen members of our group catching a charter boat to the tiny village of Seldovia. We departed the Homer Spit in the rain on a two-hour trip across Kachemak Bay to the 265-population Seldovia. Once a Russian fishing village and later the center of the halibut industry in Alaska, now it is about 10 businesses that cater to boatloads of tourists. On the way over, “rafts” of sea otters lounged on the balmy bay watching over numerous, varied flocks of sea birds. If you’re coming this way, plan to stay a few days in Homer to take in all the beauty and history this area has to offer.
The Historic Boardwalk in Seldovia, "I'm Otter Here" and Swarms of Seabirds Watched Us Go By
While we were enjoying our cruise, another group from our caravan was out catching their limit of halibut on a very successful fishing trip. Tuesday we hookup for a long drive to Palmer, looking forward to new adventures.
Shot Taken from the Boardwalk -- Too Peaceful to Ignore
From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.
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julie
We are new owners of a 40 ft allegro bus, never had a Rv before. My husband wants to take a trip from Fl to Alaska but not through Canada, we have been there.
Please give me your experiences and what time of the year is best.I will follow this blog is very educational and fun, we have no friends that have Rv’s
Walter Chledowski
Good morning to you Barry and Monique and all others reading this Blog,
I have been reading and following your progress through Canada to Alaska and I have enjoyed every minute of it. It makes for a great coffee break reading. I live in Grande Prairie, Alberta which is about one hour’s drive, east, from Dawson Creek. My wife and I are planning a trip to Alaska in 2012. Since I am reading these blogs on my office computer, I have not saved any of your information. Would it be too much to ask you if you could make available your writings, some time in the future so that I could save it all on my home computer and give my wife a chance to read it also? It appears that you have had much fun and enjoyment on this trip, and I would like to know if we could join the caravan in Dawson Creek, the next time it travels north? Many people from the Lower 48 travel through Grande Prairie and we get to meet them and enjoy their stories too. We met a couple, in St. Joseph Catholic Church, three weeks ago, retired ranchers from Montana and asked them to join us for Brunch. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. What a wonderful time we had. Hope to meet up with you folks some times in out travels. Safe travels and enjoy these beautiful countries of ours.
Walter
Sharon
While in Homer, I would highly recommend a trip to town and the Homer Brewery. They have some really good tasting brews there at fairly reasonable prices. When we were there last summer we did not stay on the Spit, but at a wonderful small RV parkk across from the lake.
Nancy Giammusso
In your last blog you mentioned some people turned back instead of taking the Taylor Highway. Was that due to severity of road conditions or because of heights and narrow roads with no guard rails. My husband has a problem with heights but we so look forward to taking this trip when I retire in 2 years (he is already retired) but if there are dangerous drops and scary heights we may have to think twice.
Lynne schlumpf
You know, I was thinking about you today as I was mowing my lawn in between the Alaskan raindrops, and I wished something for you.
I wished that you had come to Alaska last summer. It was 70 degrees and sunny for months on end. No rain. Beautiful, blue skies. We were actually able to have a September with no rain as well, and it was so warm we actually got to see the leaves change and stay on the trees. They usually fall off so fast we don’t get to see the colors very much. I felt like I had taken a trip to the East Coast for one fall.
The year before, 2008, was exactly like this summer. Beautiful May, then rain rain rain rain rain one sunny day rain rain rain overcast overcast overcast….UGH.
I felt sorry for you today, and I do wish so much that you can come back someday soon and enjoy a real Alaskan summer. It is a crapshoot, but I do hope you’ll be able to experience that.
I know your trip has been beautiful and life-changing, but this I wish for you. And I am sorry for the weather you’ve had to experience this year.
Hope it clears up for you on your way back to the Lower 48. You’ll love Palmer. The mountains are breathtaking. And the Glenn Highway on the way back is amazing! Mount Drum in Glenallen. ….WOW.
Enjoy everything to the fullest.
Lynne