Day 59, Thursday, October 6, Wolf Creek Campground
Sorry, I lost track of the days and dates in my last several postings. I omitted Tuesday. Sorry about that. Dates and days have no role in my life these days. I think I got it right today. As for the trip day number, tomorrow I will reach my record, 60, set in 2002 with Leben and Erde during our first trip to the end of the road in Labrador. I still have at least 40 more days to go and I not only have not tired of this, but I am energized and well rested to go on, with the Defender .
I got up early this morning expecting them to lock the gates in the camp today, but they did not. I still will be able to camp here when they do, but it will pose a minor problem of a longer walk back and forth to the temporary Defender. But that alone is not the reason I would move somewhere else.
First thing I did after breakfast was to get on the phone with Brad at Atlantic British and order another mass air flow sensor just in case the one I ordered from England is held up at customs or it is the wrong one. (As it turns out, it has been held up 3 days in Vancouver, I later learned.) I also ordered 2 oxygen sensors from Brad. What I am intent on doing is to make sure that nothing else can interferes with Travis's job of getting the Defender back on the road where it belongs in excellent condition.
On the new engine, the ironic thing is that I have heard for years that you can get 250,000 miles out of those engines. Mine had 204,000 when I left so I thought I was home free. And expecting to add 16,000 miles on this trip, I was planning to replace the engine at some point in the near future. I guess I failed to take into consideration the 110,000 or so miles i put in on my seven prior road trips, mirectgan 20,000 miles on rough dirt and gravel roads. However, I thought that the Defender would give me some advance notice of tiring out. Maybe it did in the form of that red check engine light, 7,000 miles wort, starting in Quebec. In a large sense, I guess I am thankful that Land Rover Calgary did not have the computer to read the red codes because if they did, and told me my engine would fail soon, I clearly would have ended my trip then and there and missed the adventure of a lifetime. Go read my postings for when I left Calgary to see my frame of mind.
My plan today was to start looking for a place indoors starting next week when the weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse. The weather here every day since I arrived ten days ago has been absolutely splendid. I really don't want to move indoors as it will break my stride and be out of character for these trips, and I really don't want to have to pay $120 a day for a place to sleep when I have one and another m$100 a day for a rental car, which I need with Donner, but my better judgment tells me I have to. I am not looking to find some cozy, quaint vacation cabin because I am not on a vacation. I am on a road camping trip. Big difference.
As luck would have it, just before I hit town today, i passed Mountain Ridge Motel and RV Park. Eileen the manager, after she heard my story, offered to let me stay in essentially a storage room with a bed, table, electrical outlet and portable heater for $25 a night. To be sure, it is not the Ritz Carlton, but it fits this trip. For the few days, I will use it to just store things and then at some point, fold up my tent here at Wolf Creek and move there. It reminded me of the abandoned place my Russian guide Sasha and I found on my 1997 backpacking expedition in the wilderness in Kamchatka. Boy, did we welcome that place to get in from the rough weather we had for three days. Everything is relative. In the meantime, I will save $10 a day on gas not having to run the engine to get some heat and electricity to recharge my batteries.
Later, I went into town to explore ways to avoid having to cook Donner rice each day on my outdoor stove in the cold. I visited the vets and they sold me some canned dog food which I know he will eat, eventually anyway. Continuous Process Improvement, again. It is amazing how much joy I get if I can figure out some way to save 15 minutes a day or avoid some petty irritations like cooking outside in 28 degree weather.
After the vets I spotted a white Defender-90 heading into a shopping center (see photo), the third Defender on this trip, and waited for its owner to return to exchange Defender stories. 488 (aka, Michel from Whitehorse) and I exchanged a few stories and he was awarded an On the Road patch for listening to mine.
I also ran into Mike, my barber, at a grocery store. Small town. I will award him an On the Road patch for a great haircut.
My universe in Whitehorse is expanding rapidly.
Beyond the logistics af getting around and establishing my new routine, one of my three tasks here, I spent virtually no time on Plan A, moving on with the Defender, other than the above few things . That plan is locked in and I am confident in it. However, I still need to spend time on improving Plan B, but I have at least 10 days to do that. But here's what are the givens...
- My and Donner's health and safety are paramount
- I will leave here driving the Defender .
-I will finish the trip as planned, more or less, including not driving the Defender back to the US except to the ferry
- the Defender will make another road trip next year.
Now that my routine and plans are settling down, I hope to explore Whitehorse more, with Donner, meaning that I will not have the freedoms that a dog-less person would have. But the joy of traveling with a dog on a trip like this are unimaginable. However,it sure does complicate matters enormously, I have to admit. Enormously, especially if one is traveling solo like I am and the dog is a reactive dog like Donner. I am running out of excuses to offer people when he reacts to other dogs as if he were still chained up in that Los Angekes back yard before I got him.
One final note. I really appreciate all of the emails, blog comments, messages, and phone calls some of you have been making to me, including offers of help. I try to read and respond to all of them, and apologize if I missed some. I wish there was something I needed help with. Maybe there will be. For the time being, though, the resources in this wonderful little town, especially its people and their hospitality, will get us back on the road as soon as possible. I will miss this place when I have to leave it. As for the reason that brought me here, I am in a sense happy about it because it was,the test I needed to learn somethings about myself that I did not know.
Photo...oops , I could have sworn I took 2 photos today of Defender -90 488 next to my humble rental white Ford Escape, but I guess not. So here's one from the web. (I was momentarily tempted to borrow the engine for 40 days.) But since you are looking at that screen shot, take a look at that battery reading on my iPad, 49, now 53, percent. I feel rich.
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