Dawson City

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Of All the Campgrounds in All the Towns in All the North, They Walked into Mine

Today wasn’t a good day. I was tired, cranky, and grumpy from working every day for four weeks solid and I just wanted to be done with my day since I have most of tomorrow off. I’d just started the evening shift and was taking a reservation over the phone when I heard someone walk into the office. I turned around and my foul mood lifted as a big grin formed itself at the sight of someone I’d been hoping would make it to Dawson, but whom I never expected to see again: my roommate at the hostel in Tofino!!!

Unfortunately, she spent three days looking for me and is leaving tomorrow, but we still had a chance to go out tonight and catch up on where our last four months of travel have taken us. It was surreal to be sitting at Gerties with this gal I chatted with into the wee hours of the morning while overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

She went off to wash her car and next thing I knew some folks were coming to renew their stay. “Last name’s Church.” I felt a tingle and fumbled for their check-in card. It said Mike Church. I asked “Are you THE Mike Church?” They needed a bit more to say yay or nay, so I looked at his wife and said “Are you Terri?” Yes, indeed. I had the awesome pleasure of not only meeting Mike and Terri Church tonight, but also of making a complete fool of myself (according to a colleague) fawning over their wonderful book about RVing the north! 😀

I’d made plans with my friends G&F to meet them at Gerties tonight since they leave town tomorrow, but my heart hadn’t really been into it until M walked through that door and brightened my night. I’m not sure how it happened, but it wound up being a whole gang of us going to Gerties; two friends from Australia, G&F who are Chinese studying in Canada, J who is from Halifax, and M who is from Austria. I joked that had J not come, I would have had to use my French-Canadian accent to blend in with the other accents. 😀 We spent about an hour and a half talking and joking over drinks. I was ravenous so I decided to try the vegetarian lasagna, which was a very good deal at $12.95 since the generous portion included Caesar salad and garlic toast.

It seems that bad days have no shortage of good moments, or, perhaps, that good days can be infused with bad moments. 🙂

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Misconceptions about Dawson City

I spoke with two people today who really made me shake my head at just how little research some people do before making a journey. I like to get a feel for where I’m going and an idea of what there might be to see and do, but wait until I arrive to get the full lowdown on attractions. Some people apparently get in their car and say “I think I’ll go to Dawson City today!” and here they are. That tends to work out quite well in more populated areas, but if you’re heading to a remote place, a modicum of research is necessary, methinks.

The first person asked me where the Canadian Tire is and how late it’s open. When I replied that Dawson’s only chain store is a Home Hardware and that shops close early, he was appalled. “It’s only 7 and I don’t have a cable for my tv! What am I going to do tonight?!” I suggested going to Gerties in as neutral a tone as I could. He took my suggestion, but made sure to add “I don’t know how you can live like this.”

Then there was the person who called to get information on Dawson, specifically to confirm that we have more than a half dozen motels, hotels, and inns. “I thought Dawson was just this little blip on the map that you zip through en route to Alaska” she said (and I’m quoting her word for word). I replied that Dawson is the town with the most to see and do on the Yukon-Alaska circuit (a fact that I’ve read in  several locations) and that people rarely plan long enough for it. “Do y’all have restaurants?!” Yes, there are an inordinate number of restaurants in Dawson. “Museums?!” Yes. There’s the Dawson City museum as well as a score of other sites to visit (I’ll be starting my grand tour on Friday!).

There is easily enough to do in Dawson to spend a week and be busy every day with a couple of activities. A week isn’t long enough to try every restaurant or do every attraction if you only do one a day. Dawson even has stores, and the ones that cater to tourists also carry things locals would want to pay for.

I’m not sure what I expected from Dawson other than it be itself. I knew that its location at the end of the Klondike Highway would mean limited services, but I suspected that there would be a good amount of entertainment.  I got here with an open mind and an eagerness to try life in a semi-remote community. Some things have amazed me, but generally I take things in stride. I’m learning to live on Dawson time, which includes going out for ice cream and a walk along the dike at 9PM with a friend instead of hitting the mall and keeping my meal plans flexible to accommodate the treasure hunt that is grocery shopping here. How do I live here? Quite happily.

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And the verdict is…

Oh!

I like rhubarb!

I removed the outer skin on the stalks, chopped them into 1″ pieces, sprinkled them liberally with sugar, and nuked them for 10 minutes. They made their own juice and the whole thing tastes like a happy marriage of apples and raspberries. Tart, but not too much, sweet, but just enough. Over good, thick vanilla yogurt it is absolutely divine.

Thankfully, I have two huge bowlfuls and plenty of yogurt!

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Leafy Presents

The other day I noticed a note by the phone at work that look suspiciously like a Whitehorse shopping list. As an experiment, I penciled in ‘pineapple’ at the bottom of the list. When I came in to work last night, there was a pineapple waiting for me by the computer. Aw, they love me. 😀 (Pineapples are currently $7 in Dawson and nowhere near as pretty as the one I got from Whitehorse!)

Today, some customers offered me rhubarb. I accepted, imagining that they’d hand me a couple of stalks. Instead, I was the recipient of a ginormous pile of the stuff that I’m told was twice that size before other people helped themselves to it! I don’t have much experience in cooking up rhubarb other than as a filler in pie or muffins, so I think I’ll just stew up the whole lot with some apple and make a compote to serve over yoghurt or granola. I’m sure it’ll freeze well. Rhubarb is one of those things that I don’t think about until it’s in front of me. I don’t even know if I like it or just tolerate it or what. I’ll have an answer to that in about an hour, once I’m done peeling and chopping the suckers!