It's No Joke - We're in Tok

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 – Today was a short 81 mile drive into Tok where we registered at the Sourdough Campground. It is a nice campground, set in a heavily treed area and a big improvement over the gravel parking lot style campgrounds we have been in lately. Driving the Top of the World Highway left both our car and motorhome cloaked in a thick layer of dirt. Think of an abandoned car sitting in a field for a year or so and then double the amount of dirt on it and you might have a good idea of how dirty they appeared. When we checked in at the campground the owner told us they have a coin operated car wash on-site. Well hallelujah that was the best $8.00 we have ever spent! Pam and Bill helped us wash our car and motorhome and then we helped them with theirs. With all the vehicles looking somewhat clean we settled into our sites. The “Milepost” has a description of Tok that says it should be known as the car wash capital of Alaska because of all the travelers stopping by to wash their vehicles after the drive from Dawson City. Once we got settled in I gathered up all the laundry and headed to the laundromat while Bill did some vacuuming and dusting inside the coach. The campground has a dinner each night featuring reindeer chili in a bread bowl and a piece of homemade pie for $7.00 so we decided to give it a try. The chili was good but nothing in it tasted any different than any other chili you have had so fortunately we didn’t pay a premium for the fact that it is made with reindeer sausage. After dinner we stuck around for the big event of the evening – the Pancake Toss. The staff brings out a stack of old pancakes left over from breakfast. The pancakes are placed on a bench in the dining pavilion and about 20’ ahead on the stage they place a bucket. Each guest gets two chances to toss a pancake into the bucket. Those guests who are successful earn a free breakfast for the following morning. Bill tried and got close but did not get his into the bucket. I was hesitant to try because athletic is not a word anyone would use to describe me and I really didn’t want to embarrass myself by missing the stage entirely or having the pancake end up behind me or something. Bill insisted I try saying, “You don’t know any of these people and you might earn us a free breakfast.” Well I put on my game face, tossed the first pancake and got close but missed, then tossed the second one straight into the bucket! I was one of only four people to get it in the bucket and the only woman. I was awarded my token for a free breakfast – a tiny little pancake about the size of a half dollar. Hopefully the breakfast will be worthy of my newly acquired athletic prowess.

Thursday, June 11, 2009 – We had the breakfast at the campground this morning and it was pretty good, especially the pancakes. After breakfast I went into “town” for a couple of errands. Their Visitor’s Center is very good and I was able to get a lot of information on activities and sites along our itinerary. I stopped at the Three Bears Market and did a little grocery shopping for the next few days. The food seems a little expensive up here but it’s still cheaper to eat at home than go out for all of our meals. Around lunch time Bill and Pam joined us to go into town and see what Tok has to offer. We no sooner got on the highway than we noticed what looked like a community picnic so we pulled in. It turns out that the local power company was having a Customer Appreciation Picnic with free hamburgers, hot dogs, sodas, and ice cream. They also had their Volunteer Fire Department people and their ambulance service at the event giving demonstrations. Bill and Pam Dickey and I had lunch while Bill became absorbed in talking to the Tok firemen. After we ate we continued on down the highway to find Mukluk Land. It is apparently the big attraction here in town and they even have a flyer about it in the Visitor Center but I couldn’t convince the other three that it was worth spending $4.50 (the senior discount rate) to check it out so we returned to the campground. We are having a layover here in Tok for a day or two while we wait for Pam’s mail to arrive. If it arrives today we will head for Fairbanks in the morning.

Friday, June 12, 2009 – We are held over in Tok for one more day so Bill and I made the 2 mile drive into town and went to a couple of gift shops. We didn’t really need anything but that is about all there is to do in the town of Tok. We did end up with a nice “Alaska” cap for Bill and then stopped at Fast Eddies for lunch. The food was pretty good and the waitress gave us a little bit of a picture of life in Tok. We learned that they never close the schools here for bad weather but when it gets to -30 the kids don’t have to go outside for recess and when it gets to -50 the parents have the option of keeping their children home from school. The waitress told us that it is kind of sad for the kids who live here because there is absolutely nothing to do. There are no bowling alleys, movies, sports leagues, or any of the things most kids enjoy doing. In the summer they have six weekends during which they can drive 108 miles to Delta Junction and go swimming but for anything else they have to drive over 200 miles to Fairbanks. When we returned to the campground I went in to pay for our extra night and learned from the owner that her husband was killed just over a year ago in a tragic snowmobiling accident. She and her youngest son are now running the campground and trying to carry on her husband’s vision. We have discovered that you have to be a very hearty soul to survive in Alaska in general but this is particularly true if you live in a place like Tok.