Day 62, Sunday, October 9, Mountain Ritz, Whitehorse, Yukon
Heard loud voices and noises last night from my next door neighbor at about 2. Continued for an hour. Sounds like he was doing some interior redecorating, like my neighbor at home. Got out the pepper spray just in case. Remember, my front door does not lock. Animals are not the problem, people are. Everywhere. For the first time on this trip, I told myself, be on your guard. Little did I realize how much. Fortunately, the tirade stopped at about 3.
I decided to try out my new daily schedule today. I work best when I have a schedule, framework really, for my days, although I reserve the right to be flexible, and am more often than not.
Up at daylight, after 7:30, and after the first of Donner's 10 daily walks, breakfast for the two of us, and loading my valuables into the car (again, my room door key is broken), we set off down the ALCAN the five miles or so to the splendid Canada Game Center for my shower and, for the first time, a brief workout so I can retain the new strength I picked up on days one to 46.
At the Center, I always go for locker 82, which is right at the end of a row and closest to the shower stalls and within eye-shot of the sinks, so I can keep an eye on my locker all the time there since there are no locks provided, even though my trust in the good people of Whitehorse cannot go any higher despite the little "Help Prevent Theft - Lock Your Locker" notice pasted uniformly on every locker, the only such warning I had been given. This morning, since I had brought along my workout clothes for my expected 10 minute workout (I am a great believer in short workouts), I stuffed my jacket with all my valuables, pants, boots, and old orange laundry bag in 82 and my backpack in 81, and headed right into the marvelous and almost empty workout room nearby.
After my brief but welcome workout, I spotted a scale, the first one I had seen since I left. I could not resist knowing my weight. I knew I had lost some weight, but now I was going to find out how much. The only evidence I had until now was that before I left, the end of my belt reached the 3 o'clock position around my waist, but lately it has been going to the 5:30 position, sometimes 5:45. In April, when I started the intense preparation for this trip, I tipped the scales at 210, 10 pounds more than my driving weight. On the day I left, I weighed 196. Great, I thought, I hope I can lose a few more, maybe even get down to my 9th grade weight of 189. Well, I got on the scale, dressed, and the scale read 175. Wonderful. My 8th grade weight. And I still have 1/3 the trip to go. I feel absolutely terrific at this weight and hope to God I can figure out someway to keep it off when I return to life in Washington.
Elated over the good weight news, I hurried back to the locker room to shower and get back to Donner, who was waiting patiently in the car. What happened next I could not believe was happening to me, on this trip anyway.
After I undressed, I reached for the orange laundry back in my backpack in locker 81. It was not there. Ah, I remember, I left it on the bottom of locker 82, the one on the end, so I open 82. It was not there either. At first I thought I was experiencing the biggest headache of all on these road trips, of something not being where it was supposed to be, but then I looked up the locker and was horrified by what I saw. I took a hurried, close double-take to make sure I was seeing what I thought I saw. In addition to the missing orange laundry bag, the entire locker was virtually empty. My pants and jacket were both missing as well. In my jacket were my wallet with all my credit cards, all my cash and IDs, including drivers license and Defender registration, my passport and Donner's papers, and the keys to the car and room, although the later key was useless except to a crook who would have the room number of the place I was staying.
This event happened so few hours ago, I can reconstruct exactly went through my mind over the next seconds. I instinctively put on my workout pants and t-shirt. I then figured that if I was gone only 10 minutes, the thief could still be around. I did not want to take the valuable time to search the locker room for my discarded things or the thief, so as I ran out of the locker room, I started shouting continuously as loud as I could, "Someone stole my gray jacket, stop him. Help. Theif." Barefoot, I ran across the mezzanine and down the long staircase to the first floor and entrance desk, still shouting to get everyone's attention. Between shouts I yelled to myself, "How could I have been so stupid...my wallet, my passport, my keys... " Since this is a family blog, I will not repeat what I wished on the thief, his firstborn, and every other member of his immediate and extended family.
I ran to the front desk, continuing to shout in a loud voice to get everyone's attention, and directed Chris there to call the RCMP. Still barefoot, I ran outside to the parking lot to make sure the thief was not trying to steal the car with Donner in it. I saw from a distance that the car was still there, with Donner's pointed ears visible, probably hoping for a walk or treat when he saw me, so i ran back inside and pleaded with one of the attendants to stand guard over the car to not let anyone near it.
By this time, another Center attendant had joined the front desk. For some reason, though, no one had called the RCMP and everyone seemed so calm about this, as if it happened every day. Whatever, we hurried upstairs back to the locker room to assess the extent of my loss and to search the locker room for my discarded things, stripped of my valuables.
Upstairs, the first thing we did was to open locker 82, which was partially empty when I hurriedly exited before. To my surprise, and I must say delight, my jacket and pants were back in place. I took an inventory and nothing was missing. Nothing, not even the $300 or so I had in it.
After this, I learned from at least five sources that such thefts are common at the Center. Despite its facilities, the Center is not an exclusive club. It Is a community center and they have had a lot of trouble with disadvantaged youth out looking for spending money. I just wish I had been warned in person about this before. I fell into the habit after three prior visits of leaving my locker unlocked while I was in the locker room and I changed my routine without changing my need for more security as I left the room. Habits are bad things to fall into.
I have two theories on what happened.
First, the thief was still in the locker room, probably in one of the stalls, about to go through my stuff when I came back and started shouting. Knowing that he was otherwise alone in the room, and on the camera just outside the door for the target time period, he decided that he could not get away with this and so he returned everything.
Second, the Center's personnel do this routinely to train people to read the warning signs, but don't admit it. The fact that no one called the RCMP makes this a possibility.
I am a betting man, and I bet on the first. I was extremely smart to act as I did because that behavior brought this thing to a happy conclusion. That made up for the fact that for a period of 10 minutes, I was the dumbest person in Whitehorse today.
Regardless of what actually happened, I will no longer have blind trust on these road trips. But this event does not change my high impression of Whitehorse. Indeed, now I know that these good people suffer from the same social cancers that we do, 22 parallels of latitude below.
Being the magnanimous person I am, I forgive the thief, although he taught me a lesson I should have known. But I still wish those unspoken things on him, his firstborn and immediate and extended families as well. It's only fair. This was a scare I did not need. Not on this trip.
Things recovered, weight loss confirmed, body slightly toned by my 10-minute workout, Donner given another walk, I went about trying out my new routine, which I will only outline in the interest of time and battery.
- stopped of at Home Hardware for a lock for reasons that should be obvious.
- visited lovely River Port park for a long walk with Donner and met Stacy, who briefed me on the many walks to take in Whitehorse.
- stopped off at Starbucks for some coffee and wifi. The Visitors Center was closed today.
- went shopping for my dinner and Donner's daily cottage cheese at the Independent Store.
- stopped at SS Klondike Park for a long walk with Donner and to eat dinner outdoors on this absolutely splendid day.
- came back to "camp" at 5:30, minutes before the sun disappeared to settle in for the night. Donner got two more walks before he sacked out for the night, on my bed.
(it is 11:00 and my neighbor is doing some more interior redecorating. Time to get out the pepper spray. It's the people, not the animals, we have to worry about here.)
Photos tomorrow when I get wifi.
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