Populate this!

Anchorage has about 350,000 people. Not an insignificant number.

Next on Alaska's list are Fairbanks and Juneau, both with 30-something thousand.

Not too many people live up here's the point.

Especially true for the Yukon. Population 37,000 -- of which 23,000 live in the territory capital of Whitehorse.

All of this is interesting or not, but it becomes important when on a road trip and having to worry about little things like food, fuel, lodging and bears. Oh my.

Fortunately, there exists -- and Laurel has -- this insane book called The Milepost (http://www.themilepost.com/). It lists pretty much everything. Mile (well, KM in Canada -- with KM, sadly, standing for kilometer, not Kate Mara. Imagine if there were thousands of Kate Maras in the Yukon? I would only want a few!) 388.4: Whisper Creek. 562.5: Site of old communications cable connection. 813.3: You will get a flat tire here. 813.6: You will get mauled by a bear.

OK, so maybe the book doesn't help with the bear problem, but it's crazy useful otherwise.

And it prepared us to make strategic stops in such metropoli as Tok (in Alaska, pop. 1,258), Destruction Bay (pop. 51), Haines Junction (pop. 593), Whitehorse, Johnson's Crossing (pop. 15), and Teslin (pop. 122). 

The population of Storrs, Ct., is 15k-ish. Maybe a bit more.

And Storrs has produced key members of Weezer (Rivers Cuomo) and the Monkees (Peter Tork), putting us into the conversation of which territory has better bands (see other post from today).

Anyway, this means one might end up an interesting eating establishments. Including those with a "lounge" off the main dining room ("you don't need to sit in the lounge in order to get a beer," our proprieter tells us), a couple of chained-up dogs (with requisite "beware of" signage), and a "pond" out back ("Keep an eye out for moose!").

Plus, an Elvis obsession -- see above pic.

And an Alf obsession? Or at least a satiated curiousity around the issue of what it would look like if Elvis, Alf and the Ghostbusters' logo ghost had a child.

CNN was on. The proprieter asked if we were Trump people, as The Donald was being featured. We answered with a resounding "no!" She asked if he was going to win. Again, "no!" She said he makes them uneasy. Well, they do live on the other side of a national border from Trump, so that stands to reason -- though it also could be argued that Trump never would have any desire to again venture beyond said borders.

Anyway, the cashier -- wearing a Richard Sherman jersey -- asks us, "Where are you from?"

I say, laughing, "The U.S.!" 

She gives me a WTF look.

"Yeah, so am I."

I looked at the bill, looked up at the restaurant, panicked and fled. And was promptly thrown in front of a train by Kevin Spacey.