Cruises/Ferries

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And the tension is broken in Squamish…

Whew.

Total cost of the repairs was 250$ less than the estimate, including all new brakes, a new tire, an oil change, a full mechanical inspection, and a much needed wash. I pulled out of the garage at 10, gassed up, dumped, took on water, and hit the road.

There is one last hairpin turn steep descent after Pemberton. It was nothing worse than what I’ve encountered on the Alaska Highway, but my heart was in my throat. I did everything I normally do at the top of such a hill–overdrive off, gear down, pray–and away I went. I stopped a few times en route to Squamish and finally pulled over here at the Canadian Tire next to which there is a Starbucks where I knew I could get online.

No sooner had I walked into the coffee shop than I heard a familiar voice say “Rae!!!”

It was my neighbour from last winter at Pacific Border, Will Imanse, author of an ebook I helped edit, Full Time in an RV. Too, too, too funny.

I’m off to find a place to hunker down for the rest of the day and then the night seeing as the next ferry is at 3PM and I’ve decided that would put me in unfamiliar territory too close to nightfall.

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Scouting Ahead

I’ve discovered another good use for a toad: as a scout vehicle. From now on, I will park Miranda and use the toad to scout ahead 200km before engaging myself with the rig.

*tongue firmly in cheek*

It’s been a long day and it’s not over. I left Pemberton at about 9 after an internet check at the coffee shop and then I drove all the way to Horseshoe Bay, home of the BC Ferries terminal from which I will be sailing in short order. To give you an idea of just how far of a drive it was to West Vancouver, I was back in Whistler, 30km from Pemberton, by noon. 🙂

En route, I stopped at the Canadian Tire in Squamish to buy a new fire extinguisher. There, I was talked out of buying the biggest ass one they had for sale, but the new one is still twice as big as the one I’m replacing. 😀

The road ahead looks fine and I’m feeling a lot more relaxed about it, even though the whole ferry thing is still making me nervous. I had a chance to see what twists and turns to take and what lanes I need to be in, so some of the pressure is off when I arrive at the ferry terminal.

I stopped in Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, for lunch, and more about that visit will follow soon as I can upload pictures. 🙂

I then went back home to check on Miranda’s status and found work halted seeing as some incorrect parts were received. It’s therefore doubtful that I will be back on the road tomorrow. This is not a problem seeing as I’m welcome to stay at the garage as long as I need to beyond the point where Miranda is repaired. I’m just not sure just what I will do with myself tomorrow if Miranda is still on the lift seeing as there is very little to do in Pemberton and I’ve run out of reading material.

This incident has saved me from having to do my seasonal roof check. There is a break room at the garage which overlooks the service bays, so I sat up there yesterday with binoculars and made sure everything was okey dokey. Making lemonade out of lemons, I am. 🙂

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Good-bye, Farewell, and Amen

It’s a strange atmosphere here this week, frantically busy even as the tourist season is shutting down. We’re hosting the road crew paving Front Street, so the motel is bursting at the seams while the RV park is eerily empty. Nights are cool and days are sunny.  People are leaving in droves by RV, helicopter, motorcycle, truck, car, even horse. No one’s left by garbage truck yet, though. Points if you get the joke/reference on that last one. 🙂

Dawson is quickly shutting down. My favourite restaurants are closed, including the ice cream parlour. It’s very sad to go into town on a sunny afternoon and not be able to get a cone of Rolo ice cream to eat while I watch the ferry go back and forth across the Yukon!

At work, the staffing calendar marks Saturday as my last day, with a big frowning face with tears running down its cheeks; the manager’s attempt at making me feel guilty even though I stayed three months longer than planned!!! I’ve had four jobs since I left last year. One failed miserably, one was tolerable, and two were winners. I have high hopes for my winter on Vancouver Island.

I still have some preparations to make, but for some reason detrenchment this time around is feeling very easy.

Today, I took advantage of the manager’s very generous offer of the industrial washers to wash all my bedding. While that was tumbling around, I cleaned the ‘bedroom’, getting rid of a mountain of books and magazines, dusting, vacuuming, mopping up water on the sills with my Bissell carpet cleaner (for which I have discovered another purpose), and getting rid of the curtains seeing as I discovered that the window-side of them was mouldy!!! I’ll do without proper curtains for now seeing as a complete makeover of that area is in order this winter. The cats were delighted with the new open space and spent the afternoon spread out on their blanket enjoying the 180 degree view of the park.

The generator is probably fixed; a fresh tank of fuel will confirm this. I’m ecstatic!!! Learning how to do proper maintenance on this thing is making me eager to learn how to do the oil changes on my vehicles as well.

The next big RV chore on my list is to flush out my water system with chlorine and then fill the onboard tank completely seeing as I hate the water in Watson Lake. 🙂 It’s pretty bad here (overly chlorinated) but that’s better than the iron-rich water down south that stains everything!

Inside, I’m doing a major cleaning and purging so I can take advantage of the Free Store. I already have a huge bag of clothing and sundry items to take there. I’ve been donating extra books to the RV park book exchange seeing as I’ve made full use of it this summer.

Sunday, I’ll pull out when I pull out. I hope to get to Whitehorse, but I won’t push myself. I’ve been working six hours a day seven days a week and I’m beat. I might make it to just shy of Whitehorse on Sunday, allowing me to get into the city early enough Monday to run errands and be on my way again. There won’t be another decent grocery store until Prince George, so it would be wise to stock up especially since I’ll be in Watson Lake a couple of weeks.

My bank account is much too lean for the journey ahead, but I will make do. Things will be so different next year when I leave Vancouver Island knowing just when my next pay cheque will be. I can finally budget properly.

This new life of mine is slowly coming together. My Klondike summer might be drawing to a close, but a new adventure is not far ahead and this satisfies me greatly.

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The Top of the World Highway (and Chicken, Alaska)

Several things came together this week to give me an excuse to drive the Top of the World Highway from West Dawson to Chicken, Alaska today!

My neighbour is moving to Anchorage and wanted a spotter behind her rig (a very nice Airstream) in case she ran into problems on this reputably rough road. She had driven the Top of the World before and knew that there is pavement shortly after Chicken and that Chicken is doable as a day trip from Dawson. So, not having had a day off since I got back from the Chilkoot and wanting to go to Alaska in memory of my dad who would have been 60 on the 24th, I found myself with ample excuses to go for a drive. Dad loved to go for drives and he would have enjoyed today’s trip so much!

The Canadian portion of the road is easy, mostly paved with a few gravel sections. The US side is essentially a dirt road, but we got lucky in that it had just been graded. Lately, people have been arriving at the campground from that road with their nerves fully frayed, but there was none of that today. The weather wasn’t the greatest, but I preferred a bit of mist and drizzles to having to keep my eyes glued to the road!

We left at about 10:30 and got lucky at the ferry, being able to drive on immediately. This was my first time since childhood going onto a ferry with a vehicle and it was good practise for this fall when I go to Vancouver Island! It was a most peculiar sensation to be moving forward without pressing any pedals!

It took us two and a half hours to get to the border at Poker Creek. She sailed through surprisingly quickly. I was asked where home is and it was lovely to not have to skirt around the question and reply “Dawson City.” He asked me where I was going and then why when I replied “Chicken”, shrugging when I said “Just to say I’ve been.”

It’s 40 miles from the border to Chicken and it took us almost two hours to get there as we followed two identical fifth wheels that exercised an overabundance of caution (not that I can blame them). We stopped at the new gift shop to get a free chicken (think keychain-sized plucked rubber chicken!) promised to us if we presented a brochure signed by the manager here. We then continued on to ‘downtown Chicken’, which includes a couple of very nice outhouses, a kitschy gift shop, a saloon, a chicken coop, and a café offering pretty good grub. Chicken has a year round population of 15, no flush toilets or phones, children are home schooled, the injured are medivacced to Fairbanks, and the old grump has left town. It’s an interesting place that had me hearing dueling banjos, if you get my drift…

The drive back was much quicker, even though I stopped at the pitifully few pull-outs to get pictures and to marvel that I was there, in mainland Alaska. It’s been an incredible summer!

The re-entry into Canada was easy as the border guard was a French-starved québécoise more interested in chatting about how long Dawson has been home than in whether I was trying to smuggle anything into the country. She did get around to asking me if I had any booze (no). It was surreal to cross from Alaska to Yukon in French!

About 75km shy of Dawson, I passed a couple of cyclists who seemed to be having tire issues. At first, they tried to convince me that they were fine, but the more they thought about my offer of a lift, the more it obviously appealed to them. They had doubts that all their gear would fit in my car, but I had every confidence it would. Check out the pictures for proof! 😀

We had a good chat as we continued on to Dawson, amused by the added serendipity that they were picked up by a fellow French speaker (he’s French, she’s German). They had planned to camp in West Dawson, but were happy to come here, to Bonanza Gold, when I told them that we have hot showers and laundry facilities!

The ferry crossing took no time at all, but it was 8:30 when we got back to Dawson. I suggested that getting food would be a good idea and they offered to treat me since I’ll be driving them around a bit tomorrow to find parts for their bikes. I think the dump will be a good place to start looking!

Today exemplified why I love this life so much; each morning is full of possibility for adventure and new encounters. Days like this just didn’t happen when I was doing the daily grind in Gatineau.

In the toad, crossing the Yukon. My first time since childhood on a ferry in a vehicle!

In the toad, crossing the Yukon. My first time since childhood on a ferry in a vehicle!

Slowly climbing above the treeline.

Slowly climbing above the treeline.

Slowly entering tundra.

Slowly entering tundra.

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So pleased I finally caught a Welcome to Alaska sign!

So pleased I finally caught a Welcome to Alaska sign!

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Boundary, just after the border. In summer, lodging, gas, and food can be found here, but it was closed today.

Boundary, just after the border. In summer, lodging, gas, and food can be found here, but it was closed today.

I had this image of a village of chickens...

I had this image of a village of chickens…

entering downtown Chicken

entering downtown Chicken

Downtown Chicken, part one

Downtown Chicken, part one

Downtown Chicken, part two. Of two.

Downtown Chicken, part two. Of two.

Chicken's chickens. And duck.

Chicken’s chickens. And duck.

Look at those purple mountains!

Look at those purple mountains!

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This is why it's called 'Fireweed.' The flower is bright purple in the summertime and turns to these fiery shades in the fall.

This is why it’s called ‘Fireweed.’ The flower is bright purple in the summertime and turns to these fiery shades in the fall.

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the edge of the world

the edge of the world

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I told them everything would fit if we put one bike on the roof.

I told them everything would fit if we put one bike on the roof.

They were amazed at my ability to gauge how much I can fit in my car. Apparently, the limit is one bike on the roof, one in the trunk, two people in front, one person in back, two huge backpacks in the trunk, and small items scattered throughout!

They were amazed at my ability to gauge how much I can fit in my car. Apparently, the limit is one bike on the roof, one in the trunk, two people in front, one person in back, two huge backpacks in the trunk, and small items scattered throughout!

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Emergency Exit Strategy

The fires raging through both BC and Yukon are making me think about what I would do if I suddenly had to evacuate as many in BC are doing presently.

In theory, evacuating with an RV sounds ideal. If you are a full-timer, then you can just drive your home out of the evacuation area. If you’re a part-timer, then you can at least know that you will have comfortable surroundings wherever you end up.

But how long does it take to pack up an RV? How quickly can you actually get it on the road? When I’m settled somewhere, it doesn’t take long for me to need at least an hour to get on the road. Moreover, I’ve been parked for two months so I’m sure that my tires need air. I also don’t have that much gas in the tank. I’m in no shape to hit the road quickly.

Then there’s the issue of exit routes. In Dawson, the choices are few depending on where the emergency is coming from. There’s the non-RV friendly Top of the World Highway that can only be reached by ferry. RVs are low priority for the ferry so the chances are good that it would take me days to get out of town. Another option would be to take the Dempster highway to Inuvik. The final, and most ideal, option is the Klondike highway back to Whitehorse.

What I’ve learned in the past few weeks is that I need to get a bit less comfortable when I’m parked for a long time as getting too entrenched undermines the mobility I craved so much. I need to check my air and battery levels and park with at least a half tank of gas. It’s also a good idea to have a few days worth of food on hand as well as cash.

Thankfully, the situation in Yukon does not thus far constitute an emergency, just a smoky nuisance.