Tatchun Creek to Watson Lake, YT: Chicken revisited

This was a "mad bomber day." We needed to put on some miles on the Alaska Highway to prepare to head south on the Cassair Highway. Tires and oil needed to be changed, and Watson Lake seemed to be the right spot to do it, as we had been here before on our way north. Just before Whitehorse, we turned east on to the Alaska Highway. After a stop in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, for oil and lunch (and a failed attempt to see the whitewater rodeo--we were a day late), we powered through at a blistering pace to Watson Lake for a 400-mile + day, which is far on our single cylinder machines. But not before getting gas in Tetlin...

We were riding fast and it was smoky, so I didn't take any photos, but I do have a story to tell, and it occurred in Tetlin as we were getting gas. Those of you who know my husband are well aware of the fact that he can be a little "scattered" at times. I mentioned early on in the trip that he had dropped his wallet in the highway and I found it. Well, since that time, he has amassed quite a record of lost items which I will not list here for the sake of protecting my hands from a certain case of carpal tunnel syndrome. His traveling companion, who seems to find said lost items, has grown somewhat tired of this.

Rewind about 800 miles and a few days to beautiful Chicken, AK. Just as Mark and I were about to leave the town, Mark said to me, "Oh, I don't have my wallet," so he rode back down to the place where we ate and zipped right back to tell me, "Phew, it was in my pocket." So away we went.

It is important to note that as we approached Tetlin, we saw some running shoes in the roadway that someone obviously failed to secure properly to their vehicle. I was paying for gas at the station when I heard a guy say to Mark, "Hey, were those your running shoes in the road, and do you have your wallet?" Then Mark says, "Oh my gawd, Annie, this is the guy from Chicken who found my wa....." Oops! Turns out, Mark DID lose his wallet in Chicken, and the guy who found it was at the Tetlin gas station standing right next to him!! He knew that I would blow a gasket if he told me he had lost something else, so he told a little fib, but was busted 800 miles later! I was almost crying I was laughing so hard, and so was everyone else in the gas station.

Odometer: 7721 miles