Dawson City

by

Busy Weekend at the RV Park

This should be our last ‘busy’ weekend of the season. It’s a long weekend called ‘Discovery Days’ to honour the 1896 discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek, without which there would have been no gold rush and no Dawson as we know and love it today.

The motel was fully booked for the whole weekend, so last night I ‘hung out’ at the office until most of the stragglers had come in. Normally, I would put keys in the door of the reserved rooms and put a list on a white board of who goes where. But when we are booked solid we are concerned about people ‘stealing’ rooms, so if at all possible, someone hangs out in the office until pretty late. Since I work the evening shift and start at a civilized hour, I was happy to stay late yesterday, finishing at 12:15AM, and then coming in an hour later than scheduled this morning (noon!).

Normally, the office ‘closes’ at 8, at which time I cash out and do the night audit, while remaining available for late check-ins and people needing change, and then I lock up at 9. Yesterday, there was a steady stream of people and phone calls until 11:45. I cashed out at midnight, once a lull set in. I couldn’t imagine staying that late at the office if it wasn’t busy, but the time flew by yesterday!

Tonight was much less manic and I got out at 9:30 since most of the people who booked in yesterday are staying the full weekend. I can’t even begin to count the number of calls I got enquiring about room availability. We’re full, town is full, and the Klondike Lodge 40km down the highway is also full. The nearest available rooms are in Tok or Whitehorse! We are doing steady business of people sleeping in their car or in a tent!

The season will start to wind down on Monday. Sometime early next week, I need to move to a site closer to the office because I will be taking the emergency phone home next weekend overnight and the signal doesn’t reach my present site. I would have had to move in a couple of weeks anyway as we will start to shut down sites and mine was on the list.

June passed so slowly, but the rest of the summer has flown by and I am shocked by how much I didn’t do that I had planned on doing! Hopefully, I can squeeze in one more mini road trip before I begin the long journey south to my winter home.

Crazy as these weekends can be, they are fun, too, and time goes by very quickly!

by

A Change of Attitude

I made a call this morning to complete some finance-related transactions and it was like pulling teeth. It had been a while since I dealt with this company, so I didn’t have all the information they wanted on hand, like the amount of the last transaction or even the home phone number they would have on file.

Both myself and the agent’s tone was growing gradually more frustrated and I made a conscious decision to dial it down a bit because I needed to save my energy for the insurance company! 🙂 Finally, the agent and I made a breakthrough and we got on to the first part of what I wanted to do, change my address. Soon as I gave it, the lady’s demeanour changed completely.

“Wow. That’s a big change!” she exclaimed. “How do you like it?” I replied that I’d wanted to come to the Klondike my whole life, so this was a dream come true. We continued to talk business for a bit and when it was concluded she said “Thank you for your patience and live your dream, young lady!”

I love people like that who show admiration for someone else’s dream instead of putting it down or joking that the person is crazy!

by

A Useful Item to Pack for a Summer North of ’60

Coming north for a summer? Buy a sleep mask!

Night is slowly returning to the north, sneaking in through smoke and adding just a drop of darkness at a time to the day. I’ve needed to turn on a light to read in bed for about a week now and I’ve finally been able to put away the sleep mask I bought in Whitehorse.

I think that a sleep mask is a must-have item for anyone visiting the north who cannot sleep when there is light out. I bought mine at Walmart, figuring that it would be easier to get used to wearing the mask than to try to jury-rig curtains at my cousin’s. The mask was also useful on the Chilkoot seeing as it never really gets dark in a tent.

Unlike some people, I didn’t go crazy trying to darken my home this summer, just blocking off the overcab area, but leaving the rest of the rig as is. The mask was more than sufficient to block out light and I noticed that my sleep improved considerably. It didn’t take long for me to get used to wearing it.

Now that I know I like using a sleep mask, I’m going to look for a better model made of a breathable fabric. A nylon mask on a hot night did not stay on long. 🙂

I’m going to miss the sun, but it’s good to see the moon and stars again.

by

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.