Day 53, Friday, September 30, Whitehorse
Spent the day working through the numerous tasks of orienting myself to my home for the foreseeable future....getting cash, checking in at the visitor's center, finding a gas station, locating a place to shower and do laundry, scouting out the grocery and hardware stores, checking out possible hotels, renewing my rental car, visiting the Wolf Creek camp down the alcan where I will have to move tomorrow, looking for a place to recharge my iPad since my rental car does not, etc. Also concentrated on the routine I will follow so as not to waste time each day. Thank goodness the sky has been clear because doing these things in rain or snow would not have been fun. The temperature during the day gets to about 50.
I also visited Travis, the owner of John's garage, to tell him that I ordered all of the suspect parts for deliver next week. Then I got the bad news. It's none of those things. It's the engine. Something about the cam shaft going haywire and blowing out something or other in the engine meaning I need a new engine. Lots of luck finding an engine up here quickly. We are talking weeks now, not days. However, I am determined not to abandon the Defender here and will think about my options over the next several days since the different options are not especially easy or attractive.
I will not spend any time trying to figure out what went wrong. I do know this, though. I have treated that magnificent machine with kid gloves since the very beginning. This didn't happen as the result of negligence or oversight on my part. I also now know that that red check engine light that came on after I had the distributor replaced in Quebec was trying to tell me something more than it is time to check my emission controls, which is the only thing it signaled the two times before when it came on over 23 years. The mechanic did find, however, that the ignition coil was wired incorrectly. Oops.
In light of the bad news, I spent the rest of the afternoon stocking up on some miscellaneous supplies, an alarm clock, since I cannot waste iPad battery using that, and because I cannot use daylight up here to wake me at 7 since there is no daylight until about 8, a thermometer for obvious reasons, more propane, and an electrical cord I can take into the local Starbucks or Tim Hortons to charge the iPad.
It was almost if I was anticipating something like this before I left because I moved all my appointments at home back 10 days to mid-November and moved more cash into my bank checking account to cover this exact contingency. I also retired my lightweight jacket in Anchorage for a heavy duty winter jacket my brief travel companion Stefanie picked out for me. Good planning, but bad luck. However, I will deal with this like all the other big problems in my life, and then move on.
I intend to camp out while here no matter what the weather, and keep the rental car to provide transportation for chores in this spread-out city, a mobile kennel for Donner since I cannot park him on the street while I run errands, a place to charge my battery chargers, and a place to warm up. however, at some point I may have to bite the bullet and move into a pet-friendly hotel and give up the rental car.
The good news in all of this is that I am prepared experientially, physically, mentally, logistically and financially, more than most would have been. And I have no deadlines that cannot be changed. I did not hope for this, but it is now mine to handle, so I will. My hope now is to get back on the road and finish my planned trip so I can achieve my number one goal, get home safely.
Sorry for any errors in this message.
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