The Klondike Gold Rush may have begun in August of 1896 along the Klondike River, but the Bryan Northern Trek to the Yukon began on May 1st in the southern border town of Donna, Texas.  It was on that fateful day that we threw caution to the wind and ignored the advice of infinitely more rational folks and loaded up our 40’ diesel-powered dog sled and mushed off in a somewhat northerly direction in search of gold or, lacking that, some warm weather at the very least…

With fuel tanks and tummies filled to capacity, we’ll be back on the road bright and early Monday morning and the next words you hear from us will be from Alaska!  Ed and Cindy, better hide the beer, we’re closing in on ya!  See y’all next time.  Hugs, Chuck & Zookie

We may be a wee bit ahead of the season.  Perhaps we should have lent a bit more credence to the rantings of our neighborhood oracles.

However, we were in time to participate in the Great Bakken Oil Boom which has turned the once sleepy little hamlet of Williston, North Dakota, into a virtual boomtown of oil “mining” activity in which cornfields have been plowed under to make room for drilling equipment and housing for the thousands who have come to town in search of this latest subterranean treasure…

This place is owned by our friend, Dona Sun, an alias she uses to avoid detection by several UN commissions empowered to apprehend her due to numerous and flagrant violations of a number of worldwide endangered species protocols by serving them up as dinner for the local ne’er do wells and visiting miscreants.  We met Dona on our first trip to Alaska in 2003 shortly after she opened what has become one of the most popular restaurants in the Yukon (Hell, where else will you find endangered polar bear burgers!).  She typically opens on Mother’s Day each year and has a pre-opening gala on the Friday before to train new employees and work out any bugs in the system.  This “by invitation only” event is usually attended by the Prime Minister of Canada, Provincial mucketymucks and other world big shots.  However, since none of these folks were available this year she was relegated to inviting the local riff-raff and a couple of the imported variety, us!  If any of you folks should find yourselves in Whitehorse, you HAVE to eat here!!

We are concluding this first in a series of Alaska Updates at Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory where we are taking a couple of days off from our grueling travel routine to recoup in preparation for the final 400 mile run up to Tok, Alaska.  Naturally anything we do of a recuperative nature always involves incredible amounts of food and a bottle or 2 of fine wine (from a box with a relatively clean spout is fine enough) and our favorite spot to engage in this sort of revelry here in the frozen north is the Klondike Rib and Salmon restaurant here in Whitehorse (locally known as KRS)…

Many traveling circuses swing by bryan’s to purchase the latest styles in clown costumes and footwear.

Departing the big city confines of Edmonton, we soon arrived at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, British Columbia…

Damn, these Geezer Updates sure are educational in addition to being fun!

Edmonton, Alberta is one of those places that we have had on our “must see” list because it is the home of the world’s largest shopping mall/amusement park and one of the best roller coasters we have ever ridden…

Perhaps a word of explanation is in order about now.  We have titled this Update “Through the Lookin’ Glass” because a majority of the pictures we are including were taken through the windshield of our RV travelling along at supersonic speeds approaching 100 kilometers per hour.  Now, before anyone begins to concern themselves with our safety and sanity (that’s already a moot issue), a kilometer is one of those units of measurement that has no relevance whatsoever to anyone from the south…that would be south of the Canadian border.  We could as easily have expressed our speed in smoots per hour and it would be just as meaningful to our fellow Yanks. (100 kilometers is equal to 4728.36 smoots, plus or minus an ear)  In short, the quality of many of these pictures is somewhat lacking due to speed and bug debris and Oliver R. Smoot.  And for those of you out there who consider yourselves real Texans (Take that, Malia!), the conversion rate of bovines to smoots is two bovines, plus or minus a nose, equals one smoot.  One bovine is equal to the distance between the two points of an average Texas Longhorn’s horns.  (Next month we'll discuss conversion formulas from either quarts or liters to Zim snarks: a unit of liquid measure derived from the volumetric capacity of my brother-in-law's empty head.)

During our northern speed run we have encountered a few points of interest that may actually be found in the Guinness Record Book or some other collection of oddities.  These would include Stratford, Texas: Home of God, Grass and Grit; Slaton, Texas: Famous for thumbprint cookies; Broadus, Montana: The wavingest town in America; Amidon, North Dakota: The smallest county seat in America; and our personal favorite, Vegreville, Alberta: Home to the world’s largest Pysanka…

This is the point at which you embark upon the world famous Alaska Highway and its equally famous frost heaves from hell and critters by God…

   Lookin' Glass                                                                 May 12, 2013

This place also houses an indoor beach and wave pool, an ice skating rink and a full size Spanish galleon…

And if you don’t happen to be one that goes to the mall for adventure, there is always shopping…