WHITEHORSE

DAY 10

 

    We made it a lot farther than we anticipated so thought we could take it a little easy this morning.  Our drive to day will be really short, 115 miles, so we decide that it is a day to do laundry.

   We start off by treating ourselves to a nice breakfast in the café.  Just what you would imagine in the Yukon.  Hearty, full plate, steaming hot and cooked to perfection.  Nothing fancy, but plenty of it.

   After Breakfast, we take our laundry to the laundry room and become perplexed on how the coin machines work.  $1.50 per load with strange sized slots for the coins.  Of course, Canadian money.  And they take quarters, Loonies and maybe even a Twome. Canadians have substituted $1.00 and 2.00 coins for paper bills.  Thus Loonies and Twomes.  Why these names we never figure out, other than guess that the Twome is slang for Two Me’s, meaning 2 bucks.

   Finally get the proper coins and start the machines.  Jim leaves and goes over to the Café to work on the blog and see if he can send out one of the ones already written.  The major problem we figure out is that the blog is fine to send out, but when we attach pictures, it is takes too much bandwidth.  So we will continue to write and will send out when and if we can.

  On the road at 11:00am, refreshed and full of energy.  We know we have a short day ahead of us and look forward to more relaxation time.  At 11:45 the odometer changes over to 3000 miles.   It reminds us as to just how long the journey has been so far.  We are averaging 300 miles per day and feel like long haul truckers.  Maybe a little more comfortable.

                                                                   Frozen Lake just outside Teslin

   We pulled into Whitehorse at 12:30 and go directly to the visitor’s center.  We want to take the train to Skagway tomorrow and want to make sure we get it booked and organized. 

On the road from Teslin to Whitehorse

    Whitehorse is not what we envisioned.  It is a bustling small city of about 28,000 and is the capital of the Yukon.  Need we say it is also the largest city in the Yukon?  After a couple of wrong turns on the busiest street downtown, we find the signs to the Visitors center, right next to the Yukon river. 

     Irene is at the wheel and does not like driving in traffic.  We drive past the visitor’s center and note that it has quite a few RV only parking spaces.  Quite a few filled with pickups and cars.  We quickly come to the conclusion that these vehicles should be given tickets equivalent to Handicap parking tickets.   

 

   There is one space that is open but it appears to be way to skinny for us to fit the motor home into.  We circle the block and have to make two  left turns in traffic without left turn signals.  Irene is seething at this point, how stupid they are, just like in Santa Monica, no wonder they have traffic problems.

    We arrive back at the visitor’s center and she decides to try and fit into that skinny parking spot.  I am telling her  not to but if she does she needs to take a wider turn into it.  Against my best hysterical advice she pulls into the space like a pro.  Plenty of room on both sides and we can even open the door to get out. Pushy Broad.

    Parked 2 spaces away are, you guessed it, Jim and Shirley. They have been eating lunch in their motor home and were watching with horror as this monster RV ( theirs is 28 feet) tries to park in a spot that is too small.  As we turn into the spot they realize it is Irene driving and marvel at the cajones she has to try and park there.  When we get parked and get out of the MH, they coming running up all excited, laughing and talking about what a great job she did.  Jim remarked that he would not have tried it.  Shirley does not drive theirs and gushed with pride at her new found friend.

   We toured the Visitors center and then walked about ½ block to the train station where we booked our tickets for the following day.  We learned that it was a bus/train tour and that we would be picked up at our RV park at 8:30am. Cool, we do not have to find transportation to the train.

    We drove to the closest RV park, one that advertised a 15 minute walk to town.  It is Hi Country RV park and it is one of the very best we have seen.  Trees shade campsites and it is as clean as can be found .  The pine needles and leaves are constantly raked with the RV sites looking like they have just been cleaned for the next guest.  Kind of like room service.

  Really recommend this RV park

    The restrooms are spotlessly clean and even have fresh flowers on the counters.  Lots of hot water and the wash rooms are heated.  Give this place an A+ in all respects.   Except one.  It is all downhill to town, about a 2 mile walk.  Then it is about a 45 minute walk back up the hill. Both ways walking across the freeway with a light. 4 lane road down the hill.  False Advertising on this issue.  No Problem, the only reason we want to go into town is to see the follies and they do not start until mid June.

   Day is ending and we want to retire early.  Taking the train to Skagway is an E ticket for both of us.  Jim is most excited to see the Chilcoot trail and the White Pass and Irene is really looking forward to the train trip .  Sleep comes easy even tho there is almost no darkness

10:00 PM in Whitehors, still sunlight