After the great Motorcycle Museum, we drove to Watson Lake. We needed gas and also heard of a place where people hang signs (“The Sign Forest”) to show where they are from. I saw a picture in Milepost; it looked okay, nothing crazy.
The Sign Forest was at the Watson Lake Visitor Center. We showed up and got out of the van. We saw a lot of signs posted in front of us. Whoa...cool, we thought. Then we kept walking and kept walking and could not believe the vast enormity of the Sign Forest. It was never-ending. We walked around for way too long reading all the hometowns, trip details, years, and random artifacts people left. We found a lot of Minnesota signs: Bloomington, Long Prairie, New Prague, Minnetonka, Minneapolis, Faribault, and the list goes on. There were signs from Colorado, Florida, Germany… pretty much everywhere. The Sign Forest was just that, and we were impressed.
This also means we felt it necessary to leave our mark as well. Awhile ago, near Anchor Point, Adam swerved the van and jumped out screaming. "An alligator, an alligator!!" he shrieked and then chucked something small and rubbery at me. This of course made me scream and freak out.
Allison Peisert (the alligator), became a member of our trip and a common tool for trickery. We decided she was the perfect way to leave our mark in Watson Lake.
Allie and the painter.
Can you spot Adam by the one and only Allie Peisert? First person to take a picture by her wins a beer.
After Watson Lake, we drove east to Liard Hot Springs. We had to stop along the way because a herd of buffalo were blocking the road. This was a new problem for us.
Liard Hot Springs was a place everyone we met told us to visit. We spent the night there and loved it.
And while we were there, we met this guy Ben. We were talking with him for a bit and told him about the Motorcycle Museum. Another man overheard us and came over to me later. He told me he was friends with Jack (the museum owner)! Apparently Jack has another house with even more motorcycles.
It turned out that of the 3 people we met that day, 2 of them were friends (and we met them 350 miles apart). Adam later said, “Yukon is just a really really big small town."
(Here are pictures of how van living is going... for all you wonderers).
...had to be sure to include the salsa bowl.