Preparations

We’re still in Whitehorse whiling away one more day before resuming our trip north.  Thursday, we stopped by the Yukon Visitor Centre again to check on the status of the ferries in Northwest Territories.  Their still not running.  The wait continues.

For us, Dawson City is a couple days drive from Whitehorse and there are several things we want to do when we get there.  Therefore, tomorrow, we’ll start heading in that direction.  We’ll do the remainder of our waiting on the ferries in Dawson City.

We’ll be leaving the Alaska Highway here in Whitehorse and taking the Klondike Highway to Dawson City.  We’ll skip the stretch of Alaska Highway between Whitehorse and Tok, Alaska for now.  We’ll get to drive that portion, which has the reputation for the roughest section of the highway, on our homeward trip.

Over the past three days, we have been working on lists, both “to do” lists and packing lists, for our trip up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, Northwest Territories.  We have decided to drive our own car and Gene was able to purchase a full size tire on a rim here in Whitehorse.  He was also able to work a deal whereby, if the new tire isn’t used, he can return it for a full refund minus the labor costs for installing it on the rim.

We’ve planned our meals as though we were backpacking--that is three meals a day for a week with nothing that requires refrigeration.  We’re not sure what facilities the campgrounds along the Dempster have.  Nothing is said about trash bins, nothing is said about bear boxes, and often nothing is said about drinking water.  We’re planning to take drinking water and planning to carry out our trash.  If there are no bear resistant food storage boxes, we’ll have to leave the food in the car.  Since Peanut and I are planning to sleep in the car, it may be a little crowded.

Yesterday morning we went to Walmart to pick up all the things on our food lists and we spent much of the afternoon getting it organized.  We did some repackaging in order to eliminate some trash, but not much since there seems to be fire pits at most campgrounds and we can burn the boxes and paper.

Totem in front of the library

After our shopping spree we went to the public library for internet.  We’ve been to two libraries for internet since arriving in Canada.  Both these libraries had WiFi so we were able to use our own computers.  That’s much more convenient in a lot of ways.  Both libraries had nice areas with tables and nearby electrical outlets so it was real easy to get set up and have a large space to spread out.  At both libraries we had to get a password from the librarian and in both cases there was a time limit.  At the library in the village of Banff the time limit was 30 minutes online.  At the end of 30 minutes you were automatically disconnected.  However, the librarian was happy to issue multiple passwords so you didn’t have to come back to the desk after each 30 minute period.  In Whitehorse, the time limit was one hour.  The librarian did not offer extra passwords.  We got the impression we only got an hour per visit.  At both libraries, the WiFi was slow.  At Banff, it was almost too slow to upload photos.

In both cases, we were glad to have a place to get internet and an hour is really all we needed.  It’s hard to say, but we might prefer the coffee shops.  The WiFi is usually faster, but it is noisier and there is less space to spread out.  We went to McDonalds once and that worked out fine.  It was like the best of both worlds, but no all McDonalds have WiFi.  We’ve been in 3 other McDonalds that didn’t.

A few words on the weather might be in order.  For the past week or 10 days, we have had great weather.  Bright blue skies and plenty of sunshine.  The daytime temps have been in the low 70s and in the upper 40s at night.  Yesterday, it was cloudy with showers off and on and it was probably 10 degrees cooler.  We had more showers overnight and it was still raining this morning.  This afternoon, the rain has stopped, but the clouds are still there.

Speaking of night--have I mentioned that it isn’t really getting dark anymore.  Even at 1:30 in the morning, it is still light enough out not to need a flashlight.  Of course, I’m not sure why anyone would want to be out at that hour.  Neither Gene nor I have a problem sleeping with the light.  With the shades down and the curtains closed, it’s pretty dark.  Peanut, on the other hand, is all confused.  We’ve had several nights of romping, playing, and caterwauling anywhere from 1 to 4 AM.  I’ve had to get up with him more than once to get him to shut that little mouth of his so he wouldn’t disturb the neighbors.

Got water and a scrub brush?

Today, we moved back to Hi Country RV Park.  We’re only staying one night--just long enough to recharge house batteries, computers, vacuum, and camera batteries, dump tanks, and take on fresh water.  It’ll be good to catch up on a little news, as well.  We’ve been pretty out of touch with what’s happening around the world.  Granted, not much news is worth watching, but we like that feeling of connectedness.  We like NBC news and that cable channel is coming from Detroit.  It’ll be hard to remember to turn on the nightly news at 3:30 this afternoon.

I guess I’ve run on long enough not to have done anything today except move up the road to a different campground.  I’ll stop for now.  Thanks for tagging along.