Sleepy in the Teepee

When the Filthy Five arrived in Tok, Alaska, the rest of the crew decided that the imminent rain meant that we should end our journey for the day there. While I couldn't disagree with them, I wasn't about to pay the extremely unfriendly woman running their motel $72 for a crappy room (the cheapest room I would encounter in Alaska, BTW), so I went to the visitor's center in town for recommendations. They had a few suggestions, including the Thompson's Eagle's Claw Motorcycle Park on the edge of town. While the campground was rather primitive, I did get to sleep in a teepee, which was pretty cool.

Oh, one last thing I forgot when I originally posted this: I had my second "accident" of the trip here. I had just arrived and checked the place out and had spent some time chatting with Tommy, a guy from Washington State who had ridden up on a '65 BMW with his dog in a sidecar (fuckin' A!), and two French guys (names forgotten - sorry, chaps!) who had their Honda Africa Twins (bikes not for sale in the U.S. - bastards!) shipped over and had ridden across Canada to Alaska. Anyway, I thought the campground was a circular one (most are), and I tried to drive through but encountered a primitive bear trap (i.e. big fucking hole) instead. When I tried to back away from it on the soft gravel surface of the campground, my foot slipped on the slick gravel and off I tumbled, the DL falling beside me. The French guys were cool and jumped up to help me (while Tommy sat and watched, no doubt laughing at my foolishness) while I lay flat on my back in the rain, laughing my ass off at my own ineptitude. If you can't laugh at yourself, then you're in real trouble, right? The French guys must have thought I was a bit insane lying there laughing with my pride and joy in the gravel and mud beside me, but they were totally great about it and helped the DL and I get situated vertically. When they asked if I was OK, I replied that I was fine, but my ego was shattered. They made me feel better by saying that they'd been through the same things many times before (who hasn't?) and that all I needed was a good woman to bring my ego back to where it was before. I may be in a small minority when I say this, but I love the French! Viva la France! I hope those guys had a safe trip back to Montreal. I told them they could tell all their buddies about watching an American dump his brand new bike and lie in the rain laughing about it - I suppose they likely will, and that's OK by me...