Whitehorse

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No Need to Dawdle

The internet in Whitehorse is pretty bad, so I had a frustrating night there trying to get work done and ended up going to bed way too late. I needed to be out of my spot by 11 Thursday morning and still had errands to do, so the morning was pretty painful. I managed to get to two stores and then lost time back tracking to Canadian Tire to get my debit card. It’s the new kind with a pin number and I’m not used to not getting my card back immediately after it’s slid through the card reader. It was therefore much too late to get groceries and beer. I decided that I could get some beer in Watson Lake and that I didn’t need to ‘stock up’ on groceries since I’m heading back into civilization anyway.

So, I pulled out of Whitehorse at 11 and headed straight for Nugget City. I stopped in Teslin for lunch fixings and a nice picnic since I’d been given a ton of veggies before pulling out of Dawson. Teslin is still the prettiest spot in the Yukon in my mind!

Teslin Lake

Sometime after Teslin I started to get quite sleepy, so I pulled over for a leg stretch at George’s Gorge:

George’s (Gorgeous) Gorge

The ride from Whitehorse to Nugget City is one of my favourites; the road is in good shape and you can actually enjoy the scenery. It’s not a technical drive at all, so I was still reasonably coherent when I pulled into Nugget City. It’s a good thing for that since my friend Amber threw herself into my arms the second I stepped out of the rig! We haven’t seen each other since May of ’09!

Forget setting up beyond plugging in the rig; I was quickly spirited away to the lake where a pair of trumpeter swans were swimming.

The male got spooked by a beaver and took off to make sure everything was good.

beaver coming up for air

After two days of hard driving, it was great to get off my butt and get some exercise in fresh air! By the time we got back to the main part of the property, I was famished, so I headed to the restaurant and grabbed a beer after putting in an order for a chicken stir fry .

Amber works late hours so she came back to see the cats on her break around ten, then showed me the digs she’s had all summer. It’s a fifth wheel, the second one I’ve visited this summer, and I have to say I really like the way they are split into several levels…

Since there’s no cell service at Nugget City, I couldn’t get online, so I went to bed at a much more reasonable hour and slept well. This morning I had time to eat breakfast before Amber scared the living daylights out of me by sticking her face up against my back window and then rocking the rig so I’d noticed her. I just about hit the ceiling! She helped me pack up, we did the round of good-byes, and then she became the first ever passenger I’ve carried in this rig, traveling with me from the RV park to the restaurant.

I pulled out of Nugget City around 11 and drove to Watson Lake. After getting gas, groceries (including the black bread and gyoza I can only find here), and enough Yukon Brewery beer to get me through to next spring, I’m now parked downtown and plan to do at least an hour’s worth of work. I’ll then meander down to Liard hot springs, then I will have a couple of overnight options. I’d really rather not go much further than Liard tonight since I’m beat. I need to start boondocking; I’d forgotten how expensive it is to stay several nights in a row at an RV park!

And, so, another summer in the Yukon draws to a close…

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The Whitehorse Slog

I was up early by my standards today (7:30) even though I couldn’t leave early since I wanted to check out the post office one last time. I did some work then went into town. My package wasn’t there, but the mail clerk offered to go through the pile that hadn’t been sorted yet. I told her that wouldn’t be fair to the folks waiting in line and made her promise that she would let my friend pick up the package for me when it finally arrives.

Speaking of mail, my friend convinced me to keep my box in Dawson until I have firmer plans for next summer. She’ll check it for me and forward the contents as needed. One less thing to think about and lots of money saved!

I pulled out of the RV park at quarter to eleven without any problems. I didn’t even have a single one of my usual worries. Miranda behaved as she normally does prior to departure: well. I did top up the truck battery since it was a bit low and had a feeling that it would not restart when I shut it off at the gas station.

Gas at AFD was a ridiculous 112.9, vs. 139.9 in town so I was able to take on 130 litres for less than $150, a great start to my trip.

The Klondike River glittered against the amber poplars as I made my way south, feeling nothing but deep satisfaction as I left the Klondike and Dempster behind me. I had followed my dream to its limit so there was no regret at moving on.

Being behind the wheel felt normal and stress-free, and even though the drive to Whitehorse was long as ever, it wasn’t hard. I am tired of this twisty, frost-heave strewn road, though, and look forward to trying out new ones next year.

I made it to Whitehorse in my usual seven hours and decided to get gas and propane instead of having to come back into the city tomorrow. I like to go to Integra Tires, about two thirds of the way down Two Mile Hill. You can get propane then circle around the back to get to the gas pumps. Price was the same as in Dawson (!!!), and they are full service. It’s very luxurious to go for a leg stretch while someone else fills the tank and washes your windows and mirrors! As a side note, I didn’t come anywhere close to running out of propane this summer, yay!

I made good on my promise never to sleep at the Whitehorse Walmart ever again and headed back to Hi Country, where I tented back in June. I splurged on a pull-through spot, one that I would never have gotten into with the toad attach. It’s a nice RV park, but tight!

Even though I was pretty tired by this point, I went back into town to get some supplies. I’ll do groceries and beer tomorrow, then head on to Nugget City, keeping me on schedule. There’s really no reason to hang out in Whitehorse.

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Last Trip to the Free Store

I went to the free store this afternoon not to ‘shop’ but to drop off yet another large basket of clothes and other items. It’s been a great summer for decluttering and while I still have more to do, I’m just about ready to completely take the rig apart and reorganize it.

I’ve made serious inroads into mastering the dang wardrobe and am proud that I gave away about twice as much clothes this summer as I brought home. I did manage to score a full new wardrobe for less than $20 this year, which made it easier to give away older pieces I was tired of wearing.

I’m happy to report that the wardrobe now looks 100 times better than this!

Next up on the list is to go through my books. I have so many free sources for books in Dawson that it’s been easy to go overboard and bring home more than I’ll ever have time to read. With my iPod Touch doubling as an e-reader, there’s no sense in keeping anything but the most special print books on hand.

I expect to have a lot of time on my hands in October, so more decluttering, organizing, and decorating will be my priorities when I’m not working. After working seven days a week for four months, it’ll be nice to have time to get back on track with my homekeeping duties!

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Summer With An Aircard

The internet is down again in the Yukon, and will be down for an indeterminate period of time. Obviously, you don’t see me whining about it, and I am trying really hard to feel sympathy for the poor souls dependent on Northwestel. 🙂

I discovered yesterday that there is a port on my aircard for an amplifier, which means that I could have possibly had even better service this summer! As it is, I can’t complain. Yes, my connection is slow and occasionally drops, but I’ve been without service a matter of hours only this summer and the only things I haven’t been able to do easily are stream video and download large files. I will look into getting a booster when I head south since they can apparently increase my coverage.

After a couple of months on the 2GB plan, I decided to just go all out and pay for the 5GB even though I’ve only ever used at most 2.5GB. I’m sure that if I had more speed that let me download more, I’d be able to max out the 5GB, but for now it’s nice to be able to just surf and not have to worry about my usage. The difference between the 2 and 5GB plan is a fraction of the cost of going over by 500mb every month, so paying for the extra GB is worth my while. I intend to continue my service in the upcoming months, never wanting to be reliant on park wi-fi ever again!

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Prepping the Paint Prep

I bought some paint in Whitehorse:

They are very close to some of the paint colours I had in mind back in Campbell River. They are also the exact type of paint I wanted–kitchen and bath with a mildew agent added. They were found in the ‘oops’ section at the Home Hardware for four bucks each!!!

There will be enough of the blue and lavender, but I’m pretty sure the pink and green will run out. What I will do with those is take them to the Home Hardware here in Dawson and have them match the colours as best as possible, then mix the two batches together. The lavender is going into the toilet room, the pink into the dressing room, the blue into the loft, and the green into the study. What a find!!!

The front room needs rethinking. I had thought of doing the kitchen in yellow and the library in orange, but one of my wonderful readers sent me on a tangent and now I need to rethink what I’m doing for that room, wall colour-wise. I’m starting to have a lot of different colours with little relation between them, so it’s time to pause and start focusing on fabrics.