We were scheduled to leave Skagway on the morning of August 3rd. We woke up that morning to the thickest smoke we'd seen yet that summer. We'd had such warm weather that we could often see and smell the smoke that had drifted over from the Yukon, but that morning was especially bad. So bad that when we arrived at Wings of Alaska, we were informed that none of the pilots were going to fly in through the smoke. Long story short, we were stuck in Skagway until the smoke cleared. Instantly my mind was filled with worst case scenarios...we have a plane to catch in Juneau! My brother's wedding is next week! Disgruntled, I left with John-Mark to play tourist as we wandered off to kill time by wandering through downtown Skagway.
Later that day, one brave pilot punched through the smoke clouds with his 6 passenger plane and we were able to finally escape. As anxious as I was that afternoon, I've reflected since that being stuck in that "airport" gave me one last chance to learn what Alaska had tried to teach us all summer...although the "lower 48" maintain a different pace, many Alaskans remember that they aren't tied to schedules and to due dates. In the 4 by 22 blocks of Skagway, John-Mark and I used the summer to slow down.
Our pristine "motor coaches" also wouldn't travel up the Klondike Highway at speeds greater than 10 MPH when fully loaded-another thing that helped us to take things slow. Real slow.
