Day 78, Tuesday, October 25, Whitehorse, Day 30 of layover RRR
Sixteen degrees F when i got up this morning. Eight inches of snow on ground where i am. Not cold or snow enough, though, to make me wish for those 85 degree temperatures back in DC, yet anyway. But give me time.
As a habit, i always lock the rental car's doors at night and put the keys immediately in my right coat pocket. Last night, after dark, i discovered i had not locked the car for some reason. so I reached for the keys, but they were not where they were supposed to be. In fact, they were nowhere to be found. I rushed outside and using my vehicle snow brush, swept the snow on the 40 feet or so i had walked thinking they might have fallen from my pocket. No luck. I then tried to reconstruct my entire steps, starting with why i might have forgotten to lock the car doors. Then i recalled. I quickly returned inside and immediately looked under the bed. The keys were there. What was it that i recalled that led to my finding them after an hour? Let's just say it had something to do my discovering that Donner had helped himself to my just-purchased morning breakfast treat when i slipped the rest room at the Visitors Center for 5 minutes earlier in the day. In either fairness or revenge, i ate some of his cottage cheese, even though i never set it. Surely a sign of cabin fever setting in.
Now that there may be light at the end of the tunnel, i turned in the rental car today. It really was a lifesaver. An expensive one, but a lifesaver nevertheless. Aileen at the motel will loan me her red pickup if i need it to run errands. Rather complicated exchange of vehicles that took 2 hours and involved leashing Donner in my cabin twice for maybe 30 minutes each time. Of course, when i got back, i found evidence that he did not appreciate that. Enough said. He Is otherwise a good dog.
It was so cold that when i was cleaning the rental car with those moistened Lysol wipes, they turned to ice when they touched the inside door of the car.
Recall that on Friday morning, I received a call at 11:38 from Matt at John's Auto telling me that at least six more critical parts were needed. Twenty-two minutes later, a record, the parts were on the Fedex truck in NY for delivery Monday here, giving John's Auto just enough time to get the engine and the numerous auxiliary parts installed and road tested by Friday for me to make the weekly Monday ferry. When the Fedex customs agent in Vancouver called me Monday morning at 8:30 for the duties payment, i explained the urgency of the shipment to her, but she was unsuccessful in getting them on the 11:30 a.m. Monday flight to Whitehorse. I then called the Fedex agent here and explained the urgency of the shipment to him, and to save me precious time, he suggested that i meet him today at the airport at 2:00 p.m. so i coukd rush the parts to John's, so i planned to do just that.
I arrived at the airport early today so i would be there when the parcel with the parts arrived. They never arrived. They, and some other Fedex parcels, were bumped from the once-a-day Air North flight. Too many perishables, I was told, live lobsters mainly, which take precedence. (i will resist writing whst i wish to write.) The FedEx agent here assured me that today's bumped shipments would get priority tomorrow, but could not guarantee it. So i walked - limped, actually, with my sciatic nerve issue - into the Air North terminal and learned that tomorrow's cargo load was already full, meaning no doubt that items will get bumped again. I was prepared to buy a round-trip passenger ticket for tomorrow for myself to Vancouver and back and check the parts box as luggage. The Air North rep told me there was no need to do that; all i had to do was to assign custody of the shipment to Air North and they would fly it here as priority-guaranteed, which i did, thanks to Vincent at Air North and Shane at FedEx here. Again, the people here.
This delay of two days is crucial and jeopardizes the Monday ferry for me, a very big problem. Whereas i thought i had plenty of time this week to deal with unexpected things, i have exhausted every bit of that, and it is only Tuesday. Olaf can do nothing more until the new parts arrive.
Would someone please tell me how this saga ends? If i were writing a novel, i would not have had the gumption or imagination to write so many improbable incidents into it, although in all fairness, some of those incidents were quite pleasant, as is my stay in Whitehorse, but for the reason i am here.
By the way, when i was out at John's Auto today, Olaf showed me the source of my problem, a chewed up distributor gear, the very part that did not come with the new engine and had to be special ordered Friday. My guess is that it had been going for some time and was probably the cause of the Defender's not starting sometimes after a rain or stalling occasionally, and then the problem in Quebec and the slow starts after that. Let me tell you something about these guys at John's Auto, they found this right away. These guys are good. I sure was lucky this saga unfolded here.
Someone asked, How is Donner doing? While he is somewhat miffed by what is going on with all but one of the elements of his life changing rapidly, he is getting resigned to it. But, believe me, he is being treated rather well and enjoying himself. Unfortunately, he does not have the freedom of going off leash anymore as there are too many unleashed dogs in town, but he manages to bark at and react to them well enough.
More tomorrow.
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