The Road to the Yukon - Wheaton River to Dawson City

 

On every trip there are days when you are grateful to be away from home and experiencing new things and new places. There are other days that make you long for home. This was one of those days. The highway between Whitehorse and Dawson City was a mix of massive highway construction and surprising potholes. A drive that should have been six hours ended up being eight. The terrain was very similar to our many drives to Fort McMurray, particularly in the early years before the twinning of the highway. Thick boreal forest lined both sides of the road with overgrown weeds and bushes in both ditches. This overgrown foliage had been carefully manicured on the stretch of the Alaska Highway from Fort Nelson to Watson Lake.

The motel room is a striking step down from the Wheaton River Cabin, despite having power and running water. To be honest, we were looking forward to plugging back in with some stable wifi, but we can’t even connect here. My suspicion is that if I wake up in the middle of the night, I may get some internet time. Our cell signal bounces between one and two bars, enough to do the basics, but that’s it.

We were both hangry by the time the car was unpacked and the dogs walked. I zoomed into town, a short five minute drive, and found a taco place. I was hoping for a burger and fries, but when you’re this far north, you take what you can get.

In addition to the terrible wifi, they told us that we will have no water for a chunk of the day on Thursday. No wifi, no water. Hmmmm. Think they can provide a discount?

We will make the best of our time here, come what may. Perhaps we are just exhausted from the long drive through multiple construction zones. A good sleep might provide renewed enthusiasm.

Travelling with the dogs is like travelling with children, their needs are top of mind. When we are driving they reach a point when they need a break. There is no end to the number of pullouts where they can run safely and free. The trouble yesterday was that we ended up being in the front end of a stacked line of cars due to the long stoppages at construction zones. Seeing a potential pullout in time to make the turn safely proved to be a laughable proposition.

“There is one,” we said.

“There is another one,” we said again, as we looked at a pullout in the rearview mirror.

We started laughing at the same time.

When we wake up in the morning, the first priority is getting the dogs fed. When they need to go to the bathroom, one of us gets up and goes out. If we get restaurant food, it’s been 100% takeout. Going into museums and stores happens only when one of us volunteers to take the dogs for a stroll. In that sense, it is reminiscent of holiday trips when Dylan and Ben were little.

Each traveling adventure has a shape. That shape is greatly influenced by Coco and Shay. In not being able to comfortably eat in sit down restaurants and staying in economy motels, we are savings hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars.

As it turns out, our inability to connect to the internet and incredibly slow cell service has nothing to do with the motel. That knowledge doesn’t help our functionality but it shifts our perspective enough to make things better. The fact that it is a system-wide problem provides hope that it may get better later on during our stay.

We have become addicted to reliable connectivity, that is clear. We expect it. We feel we deserve it. We depend on it. Heather is waiting to do some financial things that need to be done. We will go into town (our motel is 2 km south) and find some free wifi so she can do those things and return to holiday mode.