More bits and pieces

I have a few more minutes on our second internet hour coupon at this campground.  (1)  Border crossing back to USA.  We had to peel our one orange and give the evidence to the officer.  No citrus peels allowed, but we could keep the yummy part.  We were not asked that coming back into USA from Ontario.  (2) Saw a spruce grouse lazily crossing the road in the Yukon.  Hoped it was a ptarmigan, but it was so very tame (Ho hum, someone has stopped and it taking my photo), and it had a bit of purple over the eye that we knew it was a spruce grouse.  Saw them on top of a couple mountains in Maine when hiking.  (3)  The Alaska highway for about 100 miles is very rough but there are big crews working on it.  Once it AK it smoothed out.  The campground here in Tok, AK is very enterprising.  For $10, you can use their mini car wash with pressure hoses and brushes - we so needed it.  They also are putting in cabins, have an ice cream window open in the evenings and a gift shop. (4) Bob has done research and thinks he has found a couple of potential places in Fairbanks where I can get into the water on the 15th, the Feast of the Assumption.  "Get into the water and ask Mary for healing," according to Bob's late aunt Sister Mary Brendon.  She was tiny, still very Irish and along with very spiritual maybe a bit superstitious.  Well, she passed the baton and I always get into water on the 15th. (5) Many rivers and streams in the Yukon have wide flood plains and shallow braided streams.  There is evidence of high volume flow with rocks, huge driftwood and lots of silt being carried. There are still some snow and glaciers in the mountains but spring run-off must be amazing.  (6) We had lunch at Buckshot Betty's, Beaver Creek, Yukon.  Delicious soup and sandwich.  We stopped by the visitor center and chatted with the three folks there.  The younger woman says that it gets to 50 below for a week at a time in January.  "Thank heavens for internet and satellite, " she said.  She also said that they use a treadmill in summer and winter.  Her dad does not like to run on the roadway due to fast traffic and grizzlies.