Thursday, June 16, 2016

Pam and I decided to travel down the South Klondike Highway to Skagway and visit the area for a few days. Our friends opted to travel down the Haines Highway and skip the ferry ride in a large RV. Retrospect indicates they were wiser than us. Check out some of the photos below. We all traveled back up the Haines Highway to pick up the Alaska Highway and continue our journey.

We can now truly say we have checked the ferry box on our bucket list. Not sure we want to do that again. According to our neighbors from the campground, who also loaded their RV on the ferry, we had the worst situation for ferrying a large RV. They are from the Seattle area and use ferries all the time. Seems most of the ferries there have doors on each end making it a straight shot to drive on and drive off. Not so with the one we took from Skagway to Haines. I was sitting in the motorhome and Pam in our car waiting to be signaled to move onto the ferry. Most of the cars were loaded first and while I watch I am thinking, "glad we don't have to back on". Wrong! All of a sudden they signal a truck and trailer to back on. Oh no!
Waiting for the ferry

Our car going on the ferry

Our neighbor backing on

Me going down the ramp

Pam was already on the ferry and had one of our cameras taking a few photos of me boarding. Above you see me going down the ramp. The two ladies had me go very slow at the end of the ramp just in case the back of the motorhome contacted the ramp. They were prepared with boards to drive the rear wheels up on if that happened.

Short video going down the ramp

Not much room to spare

They had to adjust the ramp

Still my heart

Video of what I see as we turn the corner

Almost there

All packed in

Leaving Skagway behind

My friends cheer our arrival

As you maneuver onto the ferry you quickly learn to watch and listen to the person directing you and forget any thoughts you have about being your own pilot. The ferry employees who load and unload the ferries are very good at their job and we are thankful for that. We have been taught to "never say never" so it is possible that we will use a ferry for the RV again in the future. Lets just say we are not motivated in that direction.








2 comments:

  1. Taking a ferry ride in our coach is way down on my list. Glad it worked out for you guys.

    ReplyDelete