June 29, 2010 by Rae

A Good Day In Whitehorse

Today was awesome. I will share the awesome parts tomorrow when I’ll be able to upload pics. 🙂

Last night in the tent would have been okay if I didn’t have the noisy neighbours from hell. Every time I managed to doze off I’d be awaken by their loud voices, and, once, by their car alarm!

It was a surprisingly cold night, but I was dressed for it and have a good sleeping bag. It was time, however, to concede that I have passed the age for sleeping on the ground. 🙂 Since I plan to camp during my Inuvik adventure, I bought a self-inflating mattress at CDN Tire this morning.

I needed to be at Kal Tire at 7:30, so I headed straight there, then went for breakfast. The work was done by 10:30 and seeing the new front tires helped me accept the mechanic’s assertion that there is no reason to change the rear ones at this time since they have just about as much tread left on them. I was told to have all tires balanced periodically and eventually move the new front ones to the rear. The alignment made a huge difference to how the car drives. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize that there was a problem!

And, so, the tedious item knocked off my to-do list, it was time to see some tall mountains, touch prehistory, discover that I’m a natural at using an ancient weapon, and gaze upon some relics of Yukon transportation history. And all by 5PM! The pictures will be worth waiting for the story. 🙂

June 28, 2010 by Rae

Whitehorse Supply Run

I left Dawson in pouring rain at 8 this morning. There was a lot of construction between Pelly Crossing and Whitehorse, which stretched the trip to a nearly interminable 6.5 hour journey.

My first item of business was to have the toad’s tires examined. Thankfully there’s a Kal Tire in Whitehorse! The news was acceptable; I need two new front tires and an alignment. They should be able to do the work first thing tomorrow, so I should still be able to do some touristy stuff.

I’m staying at Hi Country RV Park… In a tent! 🙂 It’s pricey, $18 + tax, but I got a locals discount and showers are included. There is also wi-fi, which I’m accessing with my iPod Touch! The campground is nice, but I resent being sold a ‘tenting’ spot where the only place to set up the tent without being on rocks is on a slope. Our tent spots might be on gravel, but at least they are flat!

Tonight, I will do my non-perishable shopping, which includes things for my friends. I’d better get cracking!

May 8, 2010 by Rae

Never Again

The Whitehorse Walmart is officially the worst overnight stop, free or pay, that I have encountered in my cross-country journey. While my previous night here wasn’t too bad, last night was an amplified repeat of last year. There was a tractor ‘cleaning’ the parking lot for five hours last night, from ten to three AM. It was five hours of ‘whee, whee, whee, beeeep, beeeeeep, beeeeeeeep, whee, *scraaaaaaaaape*, bang, whee, beeeeep.’ Forget sleep. Even the cats couldn’t get past the noise.

The Walmart is a great location because you can walk to everywhere of consequence from it, even the Super Store, but this fall I’ll pay the $18 (or whatever it’s at by then) to dry camp at the only RV park within city limits (and that’s a stretch).

I had to be up early this morning to move the rig before I got pegged in by customer cars, so I got about two hours of interrupted sleep. Gah.

The propane place should be open by the time I finish my coffee, so I’ll head there, gas up, and then get the heck out of dodge. Whitehorse has once again failed to charm me. 🙂

May 7, 2010 by Rae

Toad Gymnastics Ahead

I pulled into the Walmart in Whitehorse and was about to unhook when ‘something’ told me not to. As it turned out, the toad would not start, something I discovered when the key fob wouldn’t lock the doors.

It seems like the battery is completely depleted. How I did that between Watson and Whitehorse is beyond me, but, then again, the car hasn’t run in a week other than when I unhooked and moved it around in Prince George and at Nugget City.

At any rate, I knew I wasn’t going to get a moment’s rest tonight unless I confirmed that the issue was a dead battery that would be solved with a boost. It made no sense to go through all the trouble of unhooking, jockeying the RV in position to boost the toad, doing a boost, and then manoeuvring the RV to rehook up when the battery wouldn’t really be recharged until I ran it a good long while. So, I flagged down a good samaritan who took five minutes out of her day to do the test and that confirmed it.

As it turns out, the campground I want to stay at is opening tomorrow (!!!) and it apparently has some pull throughs. So, I will go there, pull through a site, unhook, boost the toad, leave the toad running while I move the RV into another site, and then recharge en route to where I’m heading.

In other news, there’s a circa 1986 Royal Classic sharing the Walmart parking lot with me tonight! The owner came by to see how I like mine and asked if I had the same battery set up as him and, if so, if I had any tips for him. Unfortunately no, and no.

Since I’m here with walking access to both a Walmart and a Canadian Tire I went through my list of stuff I need to bring and realised that I was missing something vital!!! I bought a new water hose and a new water pressure regulator, but forgot to grab the third key component to my fresh water system. I ran out last week in Campbell River. This item costs all of sixty-nine cents (plus tax) and is, of course, Teflon. 🙂

While at the CDN Tire I ran into my cousin’s boyfriend, how funny is that?! We’ll be meeting up in July when I make a run back down to Whitehorse for a supply top up.

Last, but not least, I decided that, really, I hadn’t bought enough toilet paper and I went to stock up. Rationing the stuff is no fun and it is outrageously expensive in Dawson! 😀

May 7, 2010 by Rae

Watson Lake to Whitehorse, With a Nugget City Stopover

After pausing in Watson Lake yesterday to check the status of my online stuff, I gassed up at the Tags in front of the Sign Post Forest and then rolled into Nugget City, twenty minutes north of town, for the night.

I was a week earlier than last year, so the owners hadn’t arrived yet, but Dave the Chef winters there as does Rog the woodworker and mechanic, so I still got a warm welcome. I was invited to plug in behind the restaurant since the RV park isn’t open yet and gladly did so for the chance to top up the batteries even though I hadn’t intended to unhook.

Since I had free power for the night and knew I’d have coffee and toast for the asking in the morning, I treated myself to dinner, which included Dave’s awesome fries. We caught up a bit and I took some time to walk around the property and see how my paint jobs have weathered the winter (not bad!).

Two other rigs pulled in and plugged in beside me for the night and people came and went to get food. Nugget City is a happening place with a good reputation, and it is favoured by many who travel back and forth along that stretch of the Alaska highway. It really does feel like home and I got more than an odd stare from guests when I’d pop into the kitchen to get a glass of water or drop off a dirty dish.

I ran one oil heater on low last night and was super comfortable, sleeping in just shorts and a tee-shirt instead of long johns and socks! I wanted a reasonably early start today and Rog promised to show me what he’d been up to all winter so I dragged my butt out of bed at 8. Ms. Tabitha was not pleased. 🙂

Rog’s big winter project really impressed me. He rebuilt a VW ‘bug’ from scratch! I couldn’t believe it; that thing had been an empty shell last fall and now it was a car! He added several personalized details for the recipient, one of the owners’ daughters. That is going to be a very sweet ride for her!

I rolled out of Nugget City at 9:30 and took it nice and easy to Whitehorse. It felt weird to just roll through Teslin, but I did stop at the rest area just west of town for the first time in order to have lunch.

Right now, I’m parked at the day use area just east of town. I’ll stay here for a few hours and get some work done, then move to the Walmart. I’m doing it this way because I intended to spend two nights at the Walmart since I’m going day tripping with the toad tomorrow to scratch another item off my bucket list. I had thought to move to a Territorial campground that would have enabled me to scratch yet another thing off my bucket list, but I forgot that I’m too early for those campgrounds!

There isn’t much for me to do in Whitehorse. I already have all the supplies I need for the first half of my Dawson summer, or at least as many as I can carry! I will top up the onboard propane tank, though. I didn’t do that last year and ended up having to fill up my little tank at a usurious rate. I would love to head up with both tanks filled, but I don’t like the idea of having a full propane tank in the trunk of the car, even if it’s apparently ‘okay’ because I have a hatchback.

I can’t believe that this time a week ago I was en route to Nanaimo! I had no idea I’d be in Whitehorse this quickly! The weather has cooperated, that’s for sure! I’m definitely taking my detour tomorrow and am considering another toad road trip in a couple of days, but am not stuck on that idea. I’ll see when I get nearer to the junction to that road.

It’s good to be back. 🙂