Visit to the S.S. Klondike & RV windshield repaired

This morning George from Glass Magnum came to the campground to repair a couple of rock dings in our RV windshield. We saw him last night repairing a windshield in an RV and arranged for him come to the RV park to repair our windshield.  George found a 3rd place in the windshield that needed to be repaired and it cost us $135 US to repair the 3 dings & he did a great job. Before George had finished with our windshield, a couple more people in the RV park talked with him about repairing their windshields.

.After lunch we drove into Whitehorse to tour the sternwheeler, S.S. Klondike. We paid $6.05 CAD each to go on the guided tour.

From S.S. Klondike

The S.S. Klondike was built in Whitehorse in 1929 by the British Yukon Navigation Company and operated between Whitehorse and Stewart Landing and later to Dawson City. She would take passengers & freight from Dawson City and silver-lead ore from the Mayo Mining District to Whitehorse. The ore would then be transferred to rail cars to go to Skagway.

In 1936 the S.S. Klondike sank in the Yukon River and the S.S. Klondike II (a carbon copy of the original) was built to continue between Whitehorse and Dawson City. In later years she became mainly a passenger ship until 1955. In 1966 she was moved from the Whitehorse Shipyards to her present site. Because she was so tall and could not pass under the bridge over the Yukon River to her present location, the S.S. Klondike was moved through the town of Whitehorse.

From S.S. Klondike

Maureen was our guide for the S.S. Klondike and she was very knowledgeable about the steamship.

She explained the operation of the steam boiler

From S.S. Klondike

and the steam engine.

From S.S. Klondike

We saw displays of the types of cargo the ship carried. I especially liked seeing this box of explosives surrounded by boxes of gasoline!

From S.S. Klondike

We learned about the accommodations for the 1st and 2nd class passengers and the crew.

From S.S. Klondike

From S.S. Klondike

From S.S. Klondike

The last stop of the tour was up to the pilot house. I stayed down on the cabin deck (the stairs up to the pilot house were more ladder than stairs) while Mike went up to the pilot house.

From S.S. Klondike

After our tour of the S.S. Klondike we stopped at the Visitor's Centre to check on the status and condition of the roads north of here.

Several people in the campground told us they had checked with the Visitor Centre and were told that because of road repairs on the Alaska Highway the driving conditions weren't too good; so they were going up to Dawson City to take the Top of the World Highway and then the Taylor Highway down to Chicken and then south to the Alaska Highway. That route from Dawson City through Chicken and south is about 160 miles with 45 of those miles on gravel & dirt.

When we asked about the road conditions on the Alaska Highway we were told that the conditions were good even with some road repairs being done. We're going to stick with our original plans and continue west on the Alaska Highway tomorrow.

Before returning to the campground we stopped at the Real Canadian Superstore (similar to Wal-Mart Supercenter) to stock up on some groceries.