Month: August 2009

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Trying to Become a Yukoner

I’ve been trying for a month now to get my residency transferred from Quebec to Yukon. First step was vehicle-related since health care wouldn’t kick in here until September.

So far, it’s been a nightmare.

Insurance here works like in Quebec, so that seemed easy enough at first glance. I contacted a few insurance companies and only one got back to me regarding my request for a quote. They wanted experience letters from my current insurers as well as a driver’s abstract. I knew how to get the claims letters, but the driver’s abstract was new to me. I was told that it’s something the SAAQ (Quebec ‘DMV’) would be able to send them directly because ‘that’s what all the other provinces do.’

Well, that should have sounded warning bells, but it didn’t. I contacted the SAAQ and learned that they would only MAIL an abstract to my registered address and it would take ten days. If I wanted to change my address, then it would take ten days to process that and then another ten to get the abstract at the new address. I had the abstract mailed to my PO box in Gatineau. After a week, I emailed the guys at the UPS store and asked them to check if the letter was there and, if so, to please fax it to the insurance company. This was something I had never asked of them and I didn’t know if they would do it. They emailed me back within an hour with confirmation that the fax went through. Those guys rock!

Two weeks went by, which was much longer than I would have liked, but getting to a phone during business hours isn’t easy here. I finally got hold of the insurance company this morning and the lady had issues with the fact that I won’t spend the full year in the Yukon. She just did not understand what the full-timing lifestyle is, so this was a chance for me to educate her. After I did so, she seemed much more confident that she would be able to get me a quote for the motorhome because, as it turns out, the company that does my insurance in Quebec also does business in Yukon. She said she would check with them if they could sell me an equivalent policy here.

Also problematic was that I don’t have my Yukon driver’s licence yet. The reason for this is that I want to do both transfers at the same time since the SAAQ would see my change of licence as a change of address and possibly nullify my vehicle registrations since I’m no longer a resident of the province

I finally received quotes through email this afternoon. The motorhome was exactly the same amount as for last year and the car was about a hundred dollars less. That said, I will have to pay a hefty surcharge for the time I am in BC this winter. It’s a problem that the motorhome is going to leave the territory! Isn’t that what an RV is for, traveling?! To quote my hero, MacGyver, some people are scared of anyone who runs free.

So, Monday I should be able to get the necessary papers through the fax to go to the Yukon licencing bureau and get my new driver’s licence and vehicle registration papers. And then I can start to work on getting Yukon health care.

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Welcome Gifts

I wrote last fall about a wonderful Dutch couple that left me several bags of useful items. I’m still using the dish soap they left me!

This week, I was once again the recipient of much appreciated gifts! I met a wonderful, feisty RVer a few days ago when she brought in a bunch of books for our book exchange. She let me have first pick, so I took a couple of novels. Then, she came in this evening just after I started my shift with two more things for me. The first was dinner! She brought me a slice of pizza fresh from town!  She also handed me an unopened package of  fancy hot dogs that aren’t full of the junk regular hot dogs have. I don’t normally eat beef or pork, but I’m not a vegetarian anymore so I don’t turn down free protein!

As it turns out, they’re about to cross the border, so they can’t take any meat with them. The sausages were all they had left and rather than ‘donate’ them to customs, they thought that maybe the single gal would appreciate them. She does. 🙂

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Thoughts on Dawson City

Dawson is a town that attracts those with a ‘past’ who are in search of a new beginning.

So many people here are ex-cons, druggies, alcoholics, and gamblers needing a fresh start. I can’t imagine any other place in Canada being so welcoming of these kinds of people. If you come to Dawson with a willingness to work hard, you will be accepted. It is also easy to live on the fringes of society here; just move to a cabin in the wilderness and choose a solitary profession like mining.

This is also a town that appeals to those who are attracted to the romantic idea of the Yukon, of a hard life lived on the land where every action matters. There are people who live here without running water or electricity, something that is surprisingly common throughout the Yukon. When I often did without running water during frigid spells in the Gatineau Hills, I was pitied whereas here the melting of snow and hauling of drinking water from the village spring would be quite normal.

I lived in a small village in Quebec for four years and rarely ran into anyone I knew when I was running errands. I would enter a restaurant and be met with suspicious whispering. I was an interloper disrupting the the quiet sameness of the community. Dawson, however, was built by outsiders and it knows that this is where its strength lies. Dawson depends on outsiders for labour, for entertainment, for supplies. Soon as someone knows you, you are met like a best friend on the street or greeted as one on the phone.

I am someone who has always thought of herself as being something of a loner. I enjoy interacting with people, especially through the safety net of the ‘web, but I’ve always needed a lot of ‘alone’ time. Dawson has changed me into something I can barely recognize. Two months ago, I would never have imagined that I would ever go ‘into town’ after a long work shift and be happy to have my alone time on a bench by the Yukon with an ice cream cone be interrupted by an acquaintance wanting to catch up on gossip.

Dawson is changing me in ways so profound that I am almost regretting not spending the winter here. I think I will be more open to that idea next year….

I was once told that you shouldn’t have to travel to the end of the world to find yourself, but in my case this has proven itself to be false.

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There’s Beginner and Then There’s Complete Novice

After a year on the road, I consider myself an advanced beginner RVer. Today,  I met someone who made me feel like a pro. I feel awful blogging about this because it’ll seem like I’m making fun of the poor person, but this question really took the cake:

“I’m on a full hookup site. Is the hole in the ground by my site for dumping dish water or the toilet and where do I dump the other tank?”

In case any other very newbie RVers are reading this, unless otherwise specified a ‘full hook up’ site includes a sewer connection into which you can dump both your black (toilet) and grey (dishwater) tanks.

And, please, use a hose and not a bucket…