Saturday, June 30, 2007

Morning folks. Even though the little wireless thingy on the bottom right is telling me that there is no signal, and the speed is 1.0 Mbps ( how does that work?), I seem to be on here. I did try it at the laundromat and it was no better, so I'm in my usual spot in the Bear, working on my usual cup o' joe.

I should explain what I think happened yesterday, and the night before, when I was so out of it. I'd forgotten about Thursday being one of the days I take my "head-pills". Normally if I get a reaction to them I just get real sick, but this time I felt not too bad, but was totally disoriented. It was a good lesson really, and one to remember if I'm travelling, because if I'd been driving yesterday I probably would have had the Bear up a tree.

For that reason I didn't go to the gold dredge yesterday, but no matter, I'm here long enough to do that and many other things before I leave. I'm only starting day 3, with 27 to go, which is good because the more I learn the more I want to learn.

Such an interesting place rich with history. I've sort of made friends with a lady at the museum that came here many years ago as a nurse. So when I want to know more about whatever I've just explored I go see her.

I found this interesting. The Klondike gold rush started in 1896, and by 1898 the population of Dawson City was 40,000. Today the year-round population is 1800. Hey, where did everybody go? They're still mucking for gold here, but with modern machinery it is not so labor intensive.

Before I go further and risk losing everything, I'll try posting this and if it works I'll come back later with some pics of the machinery they used back then. Wish me luck, here goes.

Well, that seems to have worked, so here's the pics I mentioned:

Ah poop! Had them up and captioned, then lost the connection. Hope you guys aren't getting tired of this, because I'm okay with it, besides what else would I be doing at 4 in the morning, nobody wants to come out and play. Wait...hey museum lady...heh heh.

Try again, got my fingers, legs, and eyes crossed.

Here's an example of the primitive machinery they used to dig the truly awe-inspiring mountains of rock up here.


With today's modern dozers, like a D11 Cat, being able to level a large building with hardly a grunt, can you imagine what this poor little thing could do. Hell, I think I could push more dirt with the Bear.


This is what they used for a dump truck to build their roads.


How would you like to lay 70 miles of this wooden "pipe" by hand?



Trucker Bob blogged at 3:53 AM

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