Preparing for the ride to Fairbanks two days later was the same dilmemna facing us every day. Wet weather gear, warm and insulated or comfortable and risky. Dell went for the motorcycle jeans and I opted for the heavy duty pants. Initially it showered, then it stopped, then it started again but the temperature was definitely improving and I eventually lost out as I got hot and had to shed some underwear. We stopped at Skinney Dick's Bar before Fairbanks as some travellers had recommended this 'novelty' stop over for lunch. As you can imagine from the name it was lurid and stacked full of suggestive and imaginative 'skimpy' clothing and the walls and ceiling were totally covered in one dollar bills with people comments. I acquired a sticker for my helmet that read "Getting married requires commitment. So does insanity".

We also spent an hour at Nenana a cute little place with some real characters including the owner of the Bric-a-brac shop who had not only spent more than 30 years in town but documented in her autobiography ("About Men and Money") which we bought. She was a forceful ol' dear with a dry but delightful sense of humour. We both acquired windcheaters from her as she politely put it "buy this one and I give your wife one for free". Now that was a good deal.

Fairbanks was a mixed blessing as we found a great campground called Go North and the BMW motorcycle agent as I had discovered that the guys in Anchorage had fitted my rear tyre back to front. They couldn't touch it for a week and promptly recommended a guy called Adv Cycles (Dan Armstrong). He was an experienced BMW mechanic who had attracted a lot of business from Anchorage as their service was not receiving particularly good reviews by locals.

Dan reversed both of my tyres as I was running a rear (120/90/17) on the front as well. I had fitted this tyre myself according to the directional arrow. Dan in his direct manner exclaimed that a rear tyre on the front should run 'back to front'. Did you get that!! Anyhow, I returned to the campground to find the rear tyre valve stem leaking. Dan had another go at reluctantly removing the tyre and replacing the valve stem. He was very critical of my decision to fit an incorrect (dual sport vs road touring) tyre size and to our utter disgust the tyre would not pop onto the rim. Two hours later he gave up suggesting that I either get a new road tyre or try fitting another old tyre. He found me a S/H Tourance which I was completely happy with and it popped on immediately. There is a lesson there somewhere for me!! I kept the dud and intend fitting it down the track on a very hot day somewhere.

The Fairbanks Museum is outstanding and we spent most of the next day wandering around looking at the exhibits, history and explanations of phenomenon such as the northern lights. The art work was exquisite. So too was the Visitors Centre with some very entertaining films about the history of life in Alaska. It poured that afternoon making it difficult to contemplate riding back to the campground until 10pm. It took us more than 3 hours to pack up and leave the next day heading for Tok and return to the Yukon. The roads improved as we headed SE as the country was relatively flat and forested. Dot Lake ended up being our camp for the night where we watched a moose grazing in water up to her belly in the lake. It was very peaceful siting watching the sun set at 11pm. I sensed that I was going to miss the long days very soon as we progressively travelled south and east towards Newfoundland. But first we had to ride the 'Top of the World Highway' between Chicken and Dawson City. Aptly named the road traversed very high mountains for more than 150kms and felt remarkably as though we were in fact on top of the world. Three quarters of the road was gravel and fortunately for us it was not raining just this once. Dawson City just happened to be hosting their annual Folk Festival attracting every hippie, dippie and yippee for a thousand kms. The music was average but it was a friendly and entertaining venue for the festival. We camped on the opposite side of the mighty Yukon River requiring us to ride the ferry several times each day. Dawson has a well documented history involving the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890's. Some stampeders were very lucky and became wealthy. Most failed and returned a lot poorer and sorry. But Dawson lived on as a transit centre for a thriving shipping port utilising paddle steamers until mid 1950's. The towns' buildings and relics are well protected and little has changed since I last visited the port in 1986.

We made inquiries about heading north to Inuvik to access the Artic Circle as we were both disappointed about not being able to ride the Dalton Highway in Alaska. But the weather persisted as we approached the beginnings of the 1400km return trip on the Dempster Highway we were strongly advised not to attempt he rough muddy road as it had rained constantly for days and the thick coat of mud on the mining truck parked beside us was testimony to the content of the track.

So feeling a little deflated but content that our decision was the right one we headed south to Whitehorse and Carcross to stay with our friends Paul and Jeanine again. It rained for more than half of the 500km trip but we sensed that the weather would improve as we moved south. Spending a few day with friends would recharge our batteries and let us relax before the big ride across Canada. I helped Paul get his outboard motor repaired for his sail boat and Dell played with some glass art with Jeanine. The sun was shining and the temperature had finally risen to a very enjoyable 27 deg C. Our little cabin on the edge of Crag Lake was idyllic and we kept thinking that we would love to return to this place in the winter months to experience the opposite weather conditions. Paul had described up to 6' of snow in the winter giving the setting a completely different perspective. We had an evening in Whitehorse to watch the Canadian Air Force acrobatic display and a visit to the Transport Museum. Finally Paul and I lugged the outboard down to his yacht and we successfully took it on a test run. A week previously Paul and Jeanine had experienced a very unpleasant crash into the Carcross bridge because their motor had failed causing them some real dilemna's.

After 3 days of relaxing we decided to head east. It was approximately 6,000kms to Newfoundland and I was expecting this trip to take us more than 2 weeks. The bikes were running perfectly and we were both ready to put in some big days for we had decided that our priorities were to get to Novo Scotia before slowing down again. And that would be a l o n g ride.