The Road to Chicken

Chicken, Alaska

The road to Chicken and then up to Dawson City in the Yukon is 167 miles of washboard gravel road. It's called the Top of the World Highway. The first problem is a flat tire on the Honda. I find the wood screw and patch the hole

We overnight in Chicken and burn all our collected firewood before crossing the border back into Canada. When we try to put out the main slide in Dawson City, it's broken again so we go to the hardware store and buy a handful of bolts to replace the one in the slide gearbox that's sheared off.

Mama killed a chicken,

Thought it was a duck.

Put it on the table

with the legs sticking up

- John Lee Hooker

We had just washed the RV and Honda back in Ninilchik about 600 miles back.

The views have been good.

Two things you never want to do after you hit 50 are sing Karaoke in a bar after midnight and start a collection of ceramic chickens...

 I take a six mile walk along the dirt road at 6 AM in Chicken and see a moose and several reindeer. When I weigh in upon return, I'm gratified to tip the scales at 199  which is down 41 pounds from February....when your little brother calls from Nevada to tell you that you look pregnant in your blog pictures it might be time to cut back on the calories

Burning up the firewood in Chicken

 Leftover stage from the last Chickenstock rock festival.

Trip Adviser says that this is the best place to eat in Chicken...

This moose finally wandered off to stand in the forest. I met her on my morning walk near Chicken.

The reindeer were more shy than the moose.

 167 miles of this from Tok to Chicken to Dawson City....

Passing truck....

 The Yukon....Remember Sgt. Preston of the RCMP? No? Not old enough? Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!

It’s All Too Beautiful

Sarasota, Florida

I get up at 4 AM and play with the computer. I nag some friends in England to send me MP3s from their two albums “The Firefly Sessions”. I look up the requirements for filing a tax return when you have a deceased spouse. I need to help Susan with her 2007 tax return in a few weeks. She is a classic innocent spouse. I’ve looked at her 2006 joint return and it seems easily doable.


At 6 AM I drive to a local bank and try withdrawing $100 cash from my American Express card. It works. I want Mrs. Phred to have at least two cards that work in ATMs when she goes to Venice, Italy on the 17th. Mrs. Phred’s sister in Venice has requested certain hard-to-get items from America. These include rounded toothpicks, a large jar of mixed salted nuts and a taser with an accessory belt battery pack.


At 8 AM we play doubles social tennis. It’s a round robin where you play a different position on each set. I go around five times for 20 sets. Mrs. Phred has a swollen knee. She won’t stay off it. We have an MRI scheduled for her Wednesday. Perhaps it is another torn meniscus?


At 11 AM my volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity begins. I help Amy with the bills and income reports. She’s smart. I would have considered hiring her at my last job as a controller. Amy is stressed today. She needs to do monthly financial statements, get everything recorded and order the 2007 tax forms for vendors and employees. They give me coffee and a nametag. I work for her 3 hours a day, five days a week.


At 2 PM I go to the local library and buy five hard covers for $5.25. I know I’ve read two of them before. A senior bonus of reaching my advanced age is that the 20,000 books and 30 billion estimated words previously read begin to fade out very rapidly. You can read the same thing twice now every ten years with only a vague recollection. In five years, I bet I can read the same book every two months without remembering any of the details. It's a storage issue.


I have to go to Tampa for a special procedure on a basal cell cancer on my temple tomorrow. Apparently cancers in the hair area are more difficult to excise. They say it will take all day. Cut and send the excised tissue to the lab to examine margins. Repeat as needed. I'll take two books and a turkey sandwich. If it takes too long I can probably read the first book twice.


Right now I’m drinking wine and listening to CD1 of the “this is Psychedelia” set. Mrs. Phred is not here to tell me it is too loud. She’s down at the pool watching the Elvis impersonators. Five of them are sky-diving in with the rocket packs that leave the cool smoke trails.


My only two New Year’s resolutions are to go to a three-day Kite Boarding Camp on the outer banks of North Carolina and try tandem sky-diving 30 miles south of Dallas for $169. I love the way Kite Boards catch the wind and pull you 30 feet out of the water. I never got a chance to use my chute in the Air Force.

It's all to beautiful, It's all to beautiful
I feel inclined to blow my mind
Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun
They all come out to groove about
Be nice and have fun in the sun
It's all to beautiful, It's all to beautiful
It's all to beautiful, It's all to beautiful
-Small Faces
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