So when you last heard from us we were somewhere in Yukon Territory, Canada with a broken bike rack and M. requesting a rest stop…
Finally, our current driver deemed it appropriate to stop at this rest stop. Now excuse the digression, but QUICK, everyone, stop what you are doing, run out to the travel toiletries section of your favorite big box store and pick up at least one roll of mini Charmin for each of your automobiles. I found it a few weeks ago and now we have one in the car and since my travel purse is much bigger than my everyday purse, I also have one in there. Steve thought I was crazy…or at least that was his current reason for thinking I was crazy for a while…but gosh am I glad I had the mini Charmin. And yes, I can spare a square.
So more driving…and driving…and did I mention 490 miles today. On less-than-interstate-highway roads. Eventually we reached Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, Canada. For the second time today we passed “Our Lady of the Way Catholic Church”, once just outside of Tok and once near Haines Junction. I thought it was worth a photo op.
After mass quantities of sourdough pancakes and road snacking our way through Canada we had pretty much skipped lunch, so we stopped for linner in Haines Junction at about 3:00. We ate at the Kluane Park Inn , which served an odd combination of Chinese and bar food. Steve sort of forgot we were in Canada and freaked out at the $20 Chinese entrees. Also, the menu contained absolutely no description of any of the meals, just the name. So to be safe (or so we thought – more on that later) we shared 3 cheeseburgers and potato salad. Then the next decision: regular or deluxe? The menu gave us no indication of what the difference was & the waitress seemed to be annoyed that we didn’t know. Maybe it’s a Canada thing, I don’t know.
Interesting fact: Molson and LaBatt are domestic beers in Canada. Yes, logically I knew that, but it was still nifty to see on a sign.
The cheeseburgers weren’t bad, but the potato salad was very bland. I’m sure the potato salad was just as bad for us as fries, but we felt better about it. Oh, and Deluxe means lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle relish, if you are ever in Haines Junction and have the hankerin’ for a cheeseburger.
Linner over, we walked for a few minutes so Malley could stretch her legs, then the boys and I walked to the general store so they could spend the $5 Canadian that their new friends Tory & Teag Vest had given to them. How cool is it that Canadian money has hockey players on it?! The queen on one side & a bunch of kids playing pond hockey on the other. We may consider moving to Canada just for the $5 bill. The boys wanted ball caps and stuffed animals and all sorts of stuff, but opted to spend the $5 on junk food. Despite only spending about 4 hours in Canada, I got to have my “Stupid American” moment. Drew’s total came to $5.17 and since I knew Nate’s would be less, he borrowed $.17 from Nate. So we got $4.83 back in change – really change, no bills. Nate’s purchases came to $3-something and when I went to pay the cashier, I couldn’t figure it out. I thought I had been given $1 coins and I didn’t have enough. Now I have never claimed to be good at math, but even I can figure out that if we walked in the store with $10 and bought $8-ish worth of stuff that we have more than enough to pay. As I am stumbling with the coins in my hand, the cashier reached over and took the right amount from my stupid American paw. Did you know that Canada has $2 coins? I didn’t either.
Back to the car. I mention this brief walk because Nate is wacko. Steve & I have pretty eclectic music tastes & I have had a grand ol’ time loading my iPod with roadtrip play lists since we have one of those nifty contraptions that allows us to play the iPod through the car stereo. We have playlists entitled A Very 70’s Childhood, Hair, Punk-ish, Sing-a-long, Grungy, RoadTrip, and A Pirate Looks at 30-Something, and more. Well, Johnny Cash is on the RoadTrip playlist – along with, among others, Grateful Dead and Phish. There is nothing like a 25 minute song to make a trip go by faster. Anyway, as we are walking back from the store, our Nate, who was voted the family’s Most Likely to Join a Musical Theater Company seven years running, started singing “I Walk the Line” – in the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. I just about fell over on the side of the road. “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine…” That’s our Nate.
Back in the car, we noted that about 20 miles from Haines Junction was the last gas for 98 miles. We wanted to make sure to stop there to top off. One problem: we never saw that gas station. Yahoo, this is going to be close. After Haines Junction, the road goes up. Not a twisting mountain road, but a steady climb, for miles. And miles. As we go up we see lots of snow so we know we are getting pretty high up. The terrain changes to what looks to us like rolling, snow covered hills because we are now in the mountains and only seeing to top peaks.
Back to Alaska at the border crossing. They ask the usual questions and also ask if we were bringing any Canadian beef products with us. Ummm, no. As we pull away Steve wonders aloud about that question. It is then that I remember the Canadian mad cow scare a few years ago. Hmmm, sure wish I had remembered that before we ordered cheeseburgers for linner.
Almost immediately after re-entering Alaska the terrain changes. It looks very much like southeast Alaska, which looks very much like Kodiak. It is essentially a cold-weather rainforest with giant evergreens and lush green mountains and hillsides. It is beautiful, especially if you are only there for a few days and don’t have to put up with 350 days of rain a year.
As you may recall, we somehow missed the last gas for 98 miles about 90 miles ago and we are getting low! I hope Haines is open. We made it into town and the first gas station was closed. Great. I opted to find our motel rather than search for another gas station and run out of gas in the process. We found the Mountain View Motel and I had my first “Oh boy why did I just go by the ad” moment of the trip. It looked less than desirable on the outside. It was a small place of maybe 10 rooms with paint peeling all over the exterior. Now our boys have been on some wonderful vacations and we have stayed in some nice resorts, but for road trips we’re all about cheap and clean. Drew’s first reaction upon seeing the motel: “Umm, Mom, are we really going to stay here?” We were relieved to discover that the interior was in much better shape than the exterior. The room was a decent size with a kitchenette and very clean. The kitchenette had a nifty stove/fridge/sink. It was about the size or a typical range with the fridge where the oven would normally be, two burners, and a sink where the other two burners would typically be.
I jogged the dog while Steve unloaded the car & the boys had a chance to ride their bikes for a while. We ran out to the 24 hour gas station now that we had an exact location and I stopped into a liquor store to get ice. I love Alaska. The cashier looked at me with my bag of ice, asked if that was all I needed and when I said yes, she told me to just take it. I don’t know if it was Alaskan hospitality or a disgruntled employee, but I’ll take it.
Finally, our current driver deemed it appropriate to stop at this rest stop. Now excuse the digression, but QUICK, everyone, stop what you are doing, run out to the travel toiletries section of your favorite big box store and pick up at least one roll of mini Charmin for each of your automobiles. I found it a few weeks ago and now we have one in the car and since my travel purse is much bigger than my everyday purse, I also have one in there. Steve thought I was crazy…or at least that was his current reason for thinking I was crazy for a while…but gosh am I glad I had the mini Charmin. And yes, I can spare a square.
So more driving…and driving…and did I mention 490 miles today. On less-than-interstate-highway roads. Eventually we reached Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, Canada. For the second time today we passed “Our Lady of the Way Catholic Church”, once just outside of Tok and once near Haines Junction. I thought it was worth a photo op.
After mass quantities of sourdough pancakes and road snacking our way through Canada we had pretty much skipped lunch, so we stopped for linner in Haines Junction at about 3:00. We ate at the Kluane Park Inn , which served an odd combination of Chinese and bar food. Steve sort of forgot we were in Canada and freaked out at the $20 Chinese entrees. Also, the menu contained absolutely no description of any of the meals, just the name. So to be safe (or so we thought – more on that later) we shared 3 cheeseburgers and potato salad. Then the next decision: regular or deluxe? The menu gave us no indication of what the difference was & the waitress seemed to be annoyed that we didn’t know. Maybe it’s a Canada thing, I don’t know.
Interesting fact: Molson and LaBatt are domestic beers in Canada. Yes, logically I knew that, but it was still nifty to see on a sign.
The cheeseburgers weren’t bad, but the potato salad was very bland. I’m sure the potato salad was just as bad for us as fries, but we felt better about it. Oh, and Deluxe means lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle relish, if you are ever in Haines Junction and have the hankerin’ for a cheeseburger.
Linner over, we walked for a few minutes so Malley could stretch her legs, then the boys and I walked to the general store so they could spend the $5 Canadian that their new friends Tory & Teag Vest had given to them. How cool is it that Canadian money has hockey players on it?! The queen on one side & a bunch of kids playing pond hockey on the other. We may consider moving to Canada just for the $5 bill. The boys wanted ball caps and stuffed animals and all sorts of stuff, but opted to spend the $5 on junk food. Despite only spending about 4 hours in Canada, I got to have my “Stupid American” moment. Drew’s total came to $5.17 and since I knew Nate’s would be less, he borrowed $.17 from Nate. So we got $4.83 back in change – really change, no bills. Nate’s purchases came to $3-something and when I went to pay the cashier, I couldn’t figure it out. I thought I had been given $1 coins and I didn’t have enough. Now I have never claimed to be good at math, but even I can figure out that if we walked in the store with $10 and bought $8-ish worth of stuff that we have more than enough to pay. As I am stumbling with the coins in my hand, the cashier reached over and took the right amount from my stupid American paw. Did you know that Canada has $2 coins? I didn’t either.
Back to the car. I mention this brief walk because Nate is wacko. Steve & I have pretty eclectic music tastes & I have had a grand ol’ time loading my iPod with roadtrip play lists since we have one of those nifty contraptions that allows us to play the iPod through the car stereo. We have playlists entitled A Very 70’s Childhood, Hair, Punk-ish, Sing-a-long, Grungy, RoadTrip, and A Pirate Looks at 30-Something, and more. Well, Johnny Cash is on the RoadTrip playlist – along with, among others, Grateful Dead and Phish. There is nothing like a 25 minute song to make a trip go by faster. Anyway, as we are walking back from the store, our Nate, who was voted the family’s Most Likely to Join a Musical Theater Company seven years running, started singing “I Walk the Line” – in the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. I just about fell over on the side of the road. “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine…” That’s our Nate.
Back in the car, we noted that about 20 miles from Haines Junction was the last gas for 98 miles. We wanted to make sure to stop there to top off. One problem: we never saw that gas station. Yahoo, this is going to be close. After Haines Junction, the road goes up. Not a twisting mountain road, but a steady climb, for miles. And miles. As we go up we see lots of snow so we know we are getting pretty high up. The terrain changes to what looks to us like rolling, snow covered hills because we are now in the mountains and only seeing to top peaks.
Back to Alaska at the border crossing. They ask the usual questions and also ask if we were bringing any Canadian beef products with us. Ummm, no. As we pull away Steve wonders aloud about that question. It is then that I remember the Canadian mad cow scare a few years ago. Hmmm, sure wish I had remembered that before we ordered cheeseburgers for linner.
Almost immediately after re-entering Alaska the terrain changes. It looks very much like southeast Alaska, which looks very much like Kodiak. It is essentially a cold-weather rainforest with giant evergreens and lush green mountains and hillsides. It is beautiful, especially if you are only there for a few days and don’t have to put up with 350 days of rain a year.
As you may recall, we somehow missed the last gas for 98 miles about 90 miles ago and we are getting low! I hope Haines is open. We made it into town and the first gas station was closed. Great. I opted to find our motel rather than search for another gas station and run out of gas in the process. We found the Mountain View Motel and I had my first “Oh boy why did I just go by the ad” moment of the trip. It looked less than desirable on the outside. It was a small place of maybe 10 rooms with paint peeling all over the exterior. Now our boys have been on some wonderful vacations and we have stayed in some nice resorts, but for road trips we’re all about cheap and clean. Drew’s first reaction upon seeing the motel: “Umm, Mom, are we really going to stay here?” We were relieved to discover that the interior was in much better shape than the exterior. The room was a decent size with a kitchenette and very clean. The kitchenette had a nifty stove/fridge/sink. It was about the size or a typical range with the fridge where the oven would normally be, two burners, and a sink where the other two burners would typically be.
I jogged the dog while Steve unloaded the car & the boys had a chance to ride their bikes for a while. We ran out to the 24 hour gas station now that we had an exact location and I stopped into a liquor store to get ice. I love Alaska. The cashier looked at me with my bag of ice, asked if that was all I needed and when I said yes, she told me to just take it. I don’t know if it was Alaskan hospitality or a disgruntled employee, but I’ll take it.
No comments:
Post a Comment