Day 63, Monday, October 10, Mountain Ridge Motel, Whitehorse, Yukon
Today was Thanksgiving Day in Canada. I get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year, once here and once in the States, assuming I am back in the States by then. From this trip alone I have more than enough things to give thanks over, and did today, with Donner.
I experimented with my part of new daily routine today. Still need to work out some kinks.
The streets were almost devoid of cars today. It was a good day to wander the streets by car to see what is down the side streets. Most all of the services I need are on or just off the two main drags, 4th Avenue and 2nd Avenue, including the splendid parks where Donner and I have become daily fixtures. There are 17-20 side streets we drove down today, the most interesting being Main Street. All the store fronts there and elsewhere seem to be in old Klondike style, probably because this is the Klondike.
Once again, for the 14th day in a row, the weather was absolutely splendid, bright sun, clear, blue sky, fresh cold air. The temperature at night is dipping more into the low 20s, and today the daytime temperature hit the high 40s. We sat outside for hours in a park, I writing, Donner looking for dogs or reacting to them. (When will this guy learn that he is no longer chained to that fence in those Los Angeles backyards? )
While I have learned the northern lights have been running wild during my stay, having seen them twice already, I do not want to sacrifice a good night's sleep just to catch a glimpse of them, maybe. Priorities.
I continue to meet interesting people from Whitehorse, all of whom are gracious with their time in giving me suggestions and well wishes. Nina Reed, a budding film maker, a man I will call G until I get the correct spelling of his name, who wrote a book about the female astronaut from India who died in the Shuttle crash back in 2005 or so, and the list goes on.
I have my work cut out for me this week. In addition to polishing up Plan A, including starting to plot the route I will take home, I have to flesh out Plan B, although I am confident I will not need it.
As for the route home once I hit Seattle, the biggest problem I foresee is that the many of the campgrounds will be closed. But I'll manage. I probably will not even give serious thought to this until I am on the ferry with the Defender so as not to jinx things. My broad plan is to drive from Seattle to the San Francisco area, staying in one or two of the National Parks still open, including Yosemite, and then head for home on the interstates as much as I can. Although this was my plan all along, it is more so now because of the unpredictable weather in the northern states and, to be sure, Canada. It will add an extra 5 days to the journey home, but I want to have a safe journey home instead of a short one.
Earlier tonight I posted a chronology of the trip so far with a few annotations. It is really for the benefit of those just coming on to the blog.
I have not written about this except by referring to a leg issue I had to deal with before I left that popped up for me last December without warning, but my mobility on this trip had been hindered by a pinched sciatic nerve, which I have been wrestling with since I was 17. Despite three epidural shots just before I left and 40 PT sessions, it affected me greatly for the first few weeks. Then, after I left Anchorage, nothing, until today, that is. Unfortunately, yesterday at the gym, I sneaked in a few exercises I was warned about and I had a terrible flare-up today, at times unable to take a step. Fortunately, walking and one particular exercise seem to help it, as does sleeping on my left side. It is more of a nuisance than anything else, but this just compounds an already difficult trip.
More tomorrow. As for now, it's lights out.
Photos tomorrow when I get wifi.
No comments:
Post a Comment