Month: May 2010

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Out and About

It’s amazing what you can do in a couple of hours on a HOT Dawson afternoon!

I needed to pick up a package in town (more on that in my next post), so I decided to treat myself to lunch, opting for Sourdough Joe’s. The food, while excellent last year, was much improved, especially in the French fry department! I enjoyed a chicken burger made with a real chicken breast as well as sweet dark brown Quebec-style fries. Lunch with tip came to a reasonable $14.

Next, I went to pick up my much anticipated package and then off I went to meet up with my friends G & F, whom I met the day I arrived in Dawson and took to the dump.  We crossed the river on the ferry so they could show me their digs at the hostel. They weren’t happy with their accommodations so I suggested we drive back to Bonanza to speak with the manager to see if she could give them a good deal for their last three weeks here. Of course! That settled, I promised to go pick them up Saturday morning to move them back here and then went back into town to drop them off at the library.

Now, I have a half hour left to play with my new toy. Care to guess what it is? Andy Baird is not allowed to guess, if he’s reading this. 😉

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Making Further Progress at Becoming a Yukoner

The cats were getting on my nerves this afternoon, so I decided to pop into town for an ice cream. On a whim, I went to see if the library was open. I tried to get a card several times last year, but the library was never open when it was supposed to be.

Lo and behold, the library was open and I had everything I needed to get my borrower’s card!

The library is quite a good size and has a lot of recent tomes, a decent French selection, and an excellent DVD collection. I didn’t have much time, so I grabbed a French novel, the latest Kathy Reichs, and two books about the Gold Rush. Borrowing terms are generous; you can take out 28 items at a time for almost four weeks, and it’s possible to renew online from home.

Slightly related to my afternoon, I was asked last night by a Texan ‘how much snow there is in Dawson right now.’ I’ll just say that it’s hot (17) and sunny today, and even the days when it hasn’t been I’ve been wearing the same thing: a tee-shirt, a light cardigan, and sandals. Snow is a distant memory. 😀

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Settling In Day

Today, I was able to move to my ‘permanent’ spot for this summer, just two spots over from where I’ve been parked all week. It doesn’t matter if you have to move three feet or three miles, the same amount of work is involved!

Deciding on this spot wasn’t easy since the other spot I had my eye on had a lot of advantages, too. What settled it for me is that this part of the park is the last to shut down, so once I was moved, I wouldn’t have to go anywhere again until September.

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Pre-Season Fun at Gerties

Last night was the first set of can-can shows at Gerties, kicking off the summer season. I went with a gang from work, including a gal who grew up in Dawson but is now from Nova Scotia, and whose mother used to have the contract to make all the dresses for Gerties shows.

This year, there are two new dancers, but ‘Gertie’ herself is the same. I was thrilled to see this because the singer/actress was born for the part and is an excellent host.

The shows and costumes were comparable to last year, but the songs were different. The song I remember best from last year was ‘Anything Goes’ (from Indiana Jones) and this year’s most memorable is ‘Moon River’ (from Breakfast at Tiffany’s).

There is something about that ‘Gold Rush’ music that sends a shiver down my spine. Combine that with the colourful swirling skirts and the mile-long legs kicking sky high and I’m pretty sure I won’t be getting bored with Gerties any time soon!

I tried to take some pics and video, as I did last year, but I don’t have the equipment to take pictures in the dark. There are some good ones on the Diamond Tooth Gerties site.

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Spinning Fruit

Tonight, one of my friends invited me to go to Gertie’s. I’m going tomorrow for the pre-season opening show and had some work to do, so I said I would ‘think about it, but to save me a spot.’

I finished what I was working on an headed over an hour later. Another friend was there as well as an RV park guest (my neighbour, in fact), and we spent some time gabbing over drinks and pizza. Finally, I decided to go try $5 worth of luck in the penny slot machine that paid me back last time I was at Gertie’s.

I fed the machine my bill and selected ‘maximum bet’, which was 45 cents. The machine spun. And spun again. And again. I was a bit bewildered, assuming that it was broken. The guy next to me laughed and explained that I kept on winning free spins! Someone said that I had ‘won big for that machine’ and that didn’t register; I was just too amused by the spinning bars, fruits, and diamonds. That was enough fun for the night and as the machines spun I hit the ‘cash out’ button so that I could get back $4 and play the other 55 cents.

Next thing I knew, there was a casino employee by my side handing me one of those big cups that hold coins and tokens for the slot machines. Seconds later, the machine starting spitting out tokens at me. *clang, clang, clang, clang, clang* I’d had this happen to me at the penny slots in Vegas, but there I was being paid in quarters. This machine was paying me in tokens worth $1 each. It finally stopped with my container about half-full.

I hurried over to the cash out booth and while the machine there calculated my gains, I applied for my free season pass.

Care to guess how much I ended up making on my 45 cent bet?

I walked away from the teller with $67, meaning that I came out of Gertie’s tonight with $62 more than I’d walked in with! Not bad for penny slots!

It’s rare for me to gamble, even on penny slots, so I’m pretty sure I’ve exhausted my luck for life! 😀