Dawson City--June 28

We woke up to rain on the roof and it looks like it will be here for a while so our briefing will be on the CB. I had to come to the office area to be able to get on the net, but come to find out our leader had inadvertently given us the wrong code for the RV park's internet. Bob should be manning the CB while I am still in the office.

Since it was raining and there was no building to get together one of the ladies in our group volunteered her coach as a gathering point for our location to make our flag pins. It was 12 ladies and Bob. It was not hard and our tailgunner's wife Madi taught us how to do them. It is a little tedious and the beads are small but it was fun. I even made two of them.

Afterwards we went back to the coach and got ready to go and see things. First off we went down to the Palace Theater to buy tickets for wherever we wanted to go. There is a set of three so we bought that which got us the tour of the Palace Grand Theatre and two other places. The Palace Grand has been reconstructed by the government and is really nice. It was opened in 1899 by Arizona Charlie Meadows. In the entrance was a long bar on one side and the rest of the front open and separated by a long curtain across was the entrance into the theatre and the seating. The area was U shaped where the next two balcony floors were located with box seats. Charlies's living quarters were on the second story as well as apartments for the top name performers. The first floor balcony seats were for those who had made some money from the gold rush but the top story was for those who had really made it and wanted to be seen and to look down on the masses. Then she showed us back stage and told us more stories about the people who performed and worked in the theatre. It was very interesting to hear about the life of times of people back then. We then went out to the audience seats and watched an old video of Sargent Preston of the Yukon. That was fun for all who remembered that show.

We went to lunch and walked around some of the downtown in the rain. Lunch was ok but not memorable. Afterwards we rode with Marvin and Dee out to see Dredge #4 on Bonanza Creek. This is the largest wooden hull dredge in North America. This huge piece of equipment digs up the rocks and dirt with huge buckets attached to this long arm which makes a complete revolution 8 times every minute and dumps out this stuff into an opening which then takes it into a long round tube with holes into which water is forced and the mud dissolves and then the rocks and gold goes into another hopper which shakes and eventually catches the gold or most of it. Then out the other end is a long sleeve type mechanism. The excess rock is carried up this sleeve which moves side to side as it empties out this excess behind the dredge and what it creates is miles of tailings which from above look like snakes while down below it just looks like hills of different sized gravel. This was used until the late 1950's or early 60's when it was left where it was and after a dam burst up stream and moved it and buried it about 12' into the water it froze in the ice. The Canadian government came in and in about 2-3 years dug, cut and blasted the ice away and dug it out of the muck and set it upright again and then cut the ice out piece by piece inside and now it is a museum of sorts. This thing is huge and everything on it is massive. All the pieces and huge wheels were shipped here from all over the world and brought here on steamers, trains and any mode necessary and assembled. It just seems like such a feat. This was well worth seeing and the park lady who led us thru had worked in the mine fields and lived in tents thru the winter up here when she was younger.

We then went checking out gas stations for the price of diesel and where it would be handy to go buy it after which we went back to the Visitor's Center to view a couple of films about gold mining and the dredge.

Marvin and Dee went one direction for lunch and we went another. We had found a Greek restaurant called The Drunken Goat and it was the best gyro I have had in a long time followed by the best baklava. We may go back there again today it was so good. This was followed by another vaudeville show at Diamond Tooth Gerties'. It was more song and dance and less of the slapstick humor but it was really good. We went into the balcony and had great seats without the fear of getting pulled on stage by the girls. Lots of fun.

We had just gotten back to the coach when a knock on the door said a bunch were going up to the Dome of the Midnight Sun so we were going with Dee and Marvin but one other couple needed a ride so we took Barry and Monique with us and we all trouped up the mountain. It was a beautiful view. No animals. We came home and went to bed.