August 2 2009

We have reservations on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry to Skagway this evening. The ferry leaves at 8:30 pm but we need to be at the terminal by 6:30. We needed to check out of the campground by 11 am so we spent the morning doing some cleaning and getting the 5th wheel hooked up. We then went to a large pull-out on the road to the ferry and walked the beach for a while. We sat in lawn chairs and watched the water and read until it was time to go to the ferry terminal. This ferry is much, much larger than the one we took across the Yukon River at Dawson City. We rode the Malaspina which carries 499 passengers and 88 vehicles. It was very interesting driving the truck and 5th wheel into the belly of the ship. We were the longest rig on our trip. The dogs had to stay in the truck during the one hour trip to Skagway and they made the trip just fine. We arrived in Skagway about 9:45 pm but didn’t disembark until about 10:30 as we were the last vehicle off.

We finally got set up at the Garden City RV Park a little after 11 pm. This made for a long and tiring day. It is really smoky in Skagway from a fire in the Yukon by Whitehorse.

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