Month: June 2010

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Internet in Dawson City

The internet situation in Dawson City this summer is abysmal and I am spending a good chunk of my day apologizing for this and telling people to use our wi-fi for emails only. Guests are about as understanding as I was last summer, before I understood the internet situation in Yukon. It’s bad for business.

There is one internet provider in all of Yukon, Northwestel. There is also only one line linking Yukon to Outside. Finally, Northwestel is protected by Canada’s punitive-towards-the-customer competition laws. This means that Northwestel doesn’t have to upgrade the infrastructure, only has to provide as much bandwidth as it chooses, can throttle back users at will (even if the capacity for more is there), and can charge whatever it wants.

There was a big exposé in the Whitehorse paper exposing Northwestel’s ‘throttle back’ policy. People are up and arms about this, but what can we do? I experienced the exact same thing when I was living in the Gatineau Hills, a mere 50km from the capital of Canada. The only internet accessible to me was a 28kbs dial up connection for which I paid the same as DSL and efforts made to improve service was blocked by the government. I really think that the only thing that could fix the telecommunications industry in Canada would be for folks to band together and provide their own service. That’s what happened in the Gatineau Hills, with a few people who had access to a DSL connection linking up via repeaters to provide a high speed wireless connection to as many people as possible.

All that to say, the internet situation is really affecting tourism this year. We can only have about 20 people on our wi-fi at one time before it crashes and we can only run a couple of hard-wired computers. There’s just not enough bandwidth to go around. Some long termers have run their own private lines, but they are also experiencing slow speeds and throttling.

In the midst of all this chaos are folks like me who are connecting to the internet via the cellular network and who have experienced a grand total of five hours without service this summer, decent speeds, and few drops. I’m starting to be embarrassed. 🙂

Telus and Bell internet sticks work here, and some Americans have had good luck with their Verizon aircards. I don’t know what it is about Verizon in that it seems to provide service for some and not others; perhaps it has something to do with their package. AT&T definitely does not work up here.

Since satellite has the same issues as DSL or cable internet, it seems that cellular is the way to go to get online in Dawson City. I’m a little worried that getting the word out will break the system!

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Summer Status Update

This summer has thus far not been what I signed up for, but it’s been okay, and much better now that I have two and a half days off next week! I’ll not only be able to knock a couple more places off my bucket list, but also get some paint to start the decorating portion of the makeover!

Speaking of painting, I’ve been doing our bathroom floors as a special, after hours project. Which explains why it’s 10PM and I’m off to change into my paint-soaked gear, something that tends to confuse those used to seeing me look presentable in a skirt and tee-shirt. 🙂

My biggest accomplishment in the past six weeks has been the learning of one little phrase: ein dollar für drei minuten. As in our showers take $1 for 3 minutes and we have a lot of German tourists who have a hard time understanding that. It took only two tries for me to get the phrase down pat, according to my very nice German teachers RVing here in their German-plated dump-truck style RV. 🙂

It’s been a pretty mundane and ho-hum super crazy busy summer so far, with the weather not being nearly as good as it was last year, but I am in good spirits. I’m in the Klondike, my business is booming, and there is so much going on behind the scenes that I sometimes find myself smiling at the most inappropriate moments. As my friend Croft says, life is good!

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New Pentax Optio W90

It’s taken about a year of hemming and hawing, but today I finally placed an order for a brand new camera.

One of the things that made shopping so difficult is that I’m not a photographer and have no desire to learn anything about photography. My brain’s full enough as it is!

How I narrowed down my choices was by listing my ‘must haves’ and then eliminating cameras one by one until only one remained. My list will make photographers laugh. The new camera must:

-Have easy to access buttons. I have big fingers with little dexterity. My current Exilim is excellent–it has a few, very well defined, well spaced out, buttons;

-Be easy to hold. My Exilim isn’t. I like how the Canons have a curvature in the front that makes them easy to grip;

-Not use regular-type batteries. I’ve taken thousands of photos with my Exilim over three years and am still on the original Casio lithium battery that lasts me a week taking hundreds of pictures a day;

-Make it easy to transfer the pictures. My Exilim has a dock that plugs into my Powerbook and iMac via USB. I just put the camera on the dock, click a button on it, and iPhoto opens;

-Be small. I can tuck my Exilim into a coat pocket;

-Have enough memory to hold several hundred pictures at a time;

-Be able to take many pictures in rapid succession, which is where my Exilim fails miserably. It’s a camera that only takes pictures when it’s good and ready rather than at my convenience;

-Have a big view screen. The Exilim’s screen is almost as big as my iPod Touch screen;

-Have enough megapixels to take pictures that will look nice when reduced to 500×500 or so on a blog;

-Be robust; I didn’t like having to worry about my camera last year on the Chilkoot;

-Have pleasing aesthetics;

-Price isn’t the foremost consideration, but less than $250CAD would be great.

And the winner, coming in at a reasonable amount over $250CAD is…

Pentax Optio W90 in Pistachio Green!

I debated waiting till August to get the camera since it will be coming out in orange, but decided that the green will do. 😀

I was going to order it off of amazon.ca for 299.99USD+shipping, the best price I’d seen, but further Googling revealed Abes of Maine, which had it on sale for 241.99USD+shipping. At that price, it was worth my adding a 4GB memory card (my current camera has just 1GB). The invoice just landing in my inbox and the total is 306.89USD. Even with the memory card, I’m at less than what amazon.ca would have charged me! Joe at Abes and I have been emailing back and forth all morning tweaking the order and I am thus far very impressed with the service.

The camera won’t be here for my trip next week (days off, yay!!!), but I will have it for my journey to Inuvik in August. I’m rather looking forward to seeing if the Pentax’s pictures of Tombstone will be any different from the Casio’s.

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La Table on 5th

La Table on 5th is the best restaurant in Dawson and quite possibly in all of the Yukon. It is attached to the Aurora Inn, which offers the finest accommodation in Dawson. To say it’s out of my budget is putting it mildly.

Well, I was invited to dine with someone at La Table tonight, so I got a chance to see what the fuss is all about. Oh. My. The offerings are the difference between ‘cooking’ and ‘cuisine.’

We started by splitting the ‘summer salad’, which had spinach, endive, pear, walnuts, and gorgonzola. That would make a meal unto itself. There’s nothing like the salty-sweet pairing of pears and gorgonzola with nuts for crunch!

As a main course, my companion had beef, potatoes dauphinoise, spinach, and red onion compote. I had the butternut squash gnocchi which came in a creamy goat cheese sauce sprinkled with pancetta and topped with spinach, roasted asparagus, and roasted red peppers. Divine.

We then had a 12 year old whisky (Scotch!), a Glenlivet, which is one of my favourites as it is so smooth and peaty. My companion made an honest effort but didn’t enjoy the drink at all. I loved the look on the server’s face when I said I wanted it neat, a look I always get when I order whisky neat. Heck, if I’m going to drink something with that kind of a price tag I don’t want it watered down! As an aside, that’s what uskeba (in my email address) means, whisky that is. I created the word as an anglicised version of usquebaugh, or whisky. 😉

The meal ended with a ‘dessert tester’–mango pineapple compote, chocolate volcano-type cake with strawberry coulé, and their version of tiramisu (which was like no tiramisu I’ve ever had). All were delicious. 🙂

Service at La Table is personal, unhurried, and attentive which, together with the fine offerings from the kitchen, make the La Table experience worth the price tag. Dining there tonight was a treat I would hope to repeat one day.

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The Dawson City Museum

Curiosity got the best of me this afternoon and I decided to use my break to check out the Dawson City Museum. As side note, this was the first time I had to pay admission to a Dawson attraction. The fee is $9 for adults, but I was given the student rate of $7.50. Even at nine bucks, I wouldn’t have squawked!

The museum is housed in the old Territorial Administration Building and contains enough exhibits to occupy an hour or two. It is the ubiquitous museum found in capital cities that discusses the history of the area from prehistoric times to today.

when gazing upon this magnificent structure, remember that in the early 1900's, Dawson was the largest city west of Winnipeg and north of San Francisco, and was the Territorial capital!

when gazing upon this magnificent structure, remember that in the early 1900s, Dawson was the largest city west of Winnipeg and north of San Francisco, and was the Territorial capital!

"By 1900 most of the rough edges of early Dawson had disappeared."

“By 1900 most of the rough edges of early Dawson had disappeared.”

descriptions of the routes to the goldfields

descriptions of the routes to the goldfields

Plaque about Percy Dewolfe, 'The Iron Man of the North' who for 35 years carried mail between Dawson and Eagle, AK

Plaque about Percy Dewolfe, ‘The Iron Man of the North’ who for 35 years carried mail between Dawson and Eagle, AK

Percy Dewolfe. There is a dog sled race held in his honour every year.

Percy Dewolfe. There is a dog sled race held in his honour every year.

Plaque supporting my earlier claim of the importance of Dawson in the early 20th century.

Plaque supporting my earlier claim of the importance of Dawson in the early 20th century.

When a telegraph wire finally linked Dawson and Lake Bennett, Dawson had contact with the outside world and the newspaper industry boomed.

When a telegraph wire finally linked Dawson and Lake Bennett, Dawson had contact with the outside world and the newspaper industry boomed.

I've written before about the British Bank of North America and how it started in a tent. This is what the tent looked like. :)

I’ve written before about the British Bank of North America and how it started in a tent. This is what the tent looked like. 🙂

the money sent to fund the bank was stamped with DAWSON or YUKON to identify it in case of a hold up

the money sent to fund the bank was stamped with DAWSON or YUKON to identify it in case of a hold up

a couple of panels about the geological history of Dawson, which neglects to mention how man and his dredges created the landscape we see today

a couple of panels about the geological history of Dawson, which neglects to mention how man and his dredges created the landscape we see today

the North West Mounted Police kept law and order in Dawson; there was very little violent crime

the North West Mounted Police kept law and order in Dawson; there was very little violent crime

description of placer mining, as opposed to the type of mining done in Val D'or, QC (my first stop on my RVing journey)

description of placer mining, as opposed to the type of mining done in Val D’or, QC (my first stop on my RVing journey)

:)

🙂

interpreters demonstrating a 'rocker box'

interpreters demonstrating a ‘rocker box’

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$20 worth of gold!

$20 worth of gold!

this was my favourite part of the museum

this was my favourite part of the museum

plaque discussing how museums often only display the best stuff

plaque discussing how museums often only display the best stuff

rows and rows of artefacts, awesome

rows and rows of artefacts, awesome

there was a large exhibit about prostitution in Dawson

there was a large exhibit about prostitution in Dawson

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entrance to the courtroom

entrance to the courtroom

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the courtroom is still used every few months when the circuit judge comes

the courtroom is still used every few months when the circuit judge comes

plaque about the history of the Territorial Administration Building and its architectural style (typical of the era)

plaque about the history of the Territorial Administration Building and its architectural style (typical of the era)

a grand old staircase; typical of the government building architecture in Dawson in the early 20th century

My trip to the museum answered one of the most burning questions I have been pondering about placer mining: why were shafts dug in the winter when the ground had to be thawed. Surely, that was a lot of work! The answer is that by digging in the winter, the miners didn’t need to build supports for the shafts.

The Dawson City Museum is a respectable institution that offers good value for the admission charge. It sums up most of the other attractions and is probably the one thing you should see if you only have an afternoon in Dawson. But, oh, what a shame that would be. 🙂

I still have quite a few attractions left to see, but am glad that I have now nailed down all the big ones!