Tales From the Yukon

Wheew! What a first week of school. It was busy. Between wrapping my mind around curriculum, hunting down books and getting to know the kids, I am exhausted! This last week had it's ups and downs like any other classroom would - but in all, I do have a good bunch of kids.

This past weekend I loaded up my truck and ran away to Whitehorse for a grocery trip ... I think I'll be back there in three weeks for more - cause even thought I had a list and I thought I bought everything I needed ... I was wrong. Oh well, that's life. And there are always people heading into the city too, so I could always beg them to pick up my forgotten items.

The trip up and back was pretty uneventful. Weather was pretty good, and the critters were well behaved staying in the woods and not on the roads. And it is definitely fall here in Yukon. The trees have begun to turn golden yellow and orange, and the temperatures are dipping down near zero at night now. But it sure is pretty to drive through.

And of course, on my way back to Ross River, I couldn't stop without getting a cinnamon bun. Last time I headed out, I got my cinnamon bun at the lil bakery in Braeburn .. this time though, I remembered my mom saying that I had to stop at Mom's Bakery to get a sourdough cinnamon bun. Yummy! It was very good just as it was, but even better once I got it home, and smothered it in butter and then grilled (fried?) it in a frying pan.



So, what do I have to get on my next trip into the city? More cinnamon buns and the rest of the ingredients I need to make my own sourdough cinnamon buns :-)

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Since I currently have no personal transportation here in Whitehorse (I am picking up my truck on Thursday). my options for transportation are a) walking b) taxi c) hitch-hiking or d) bus. Well ... walking would have been nice, but it's a 6km walk and I didn't feel like walking through Whitehorse starting at 6:30 am to make it to a 8:00 am meeting. Taxi .. yeah, I kinda want to keep my money - well as much of it as I can. Hitch-hiking, don't really think my mother would approve. Bus. Oh the bus. Yes public transportation. We all know my experiences using the bus this summer in Fredericton (well, at least those of you who follow me on twitter / facebook).

So, yes, i dared this morning. I took the bus. But first, I had to find the bus stop. I had a general idea of where I had to go, so I just walked through downtown before heading out to the transfer location. And on my journey through the downtown to my bank as I needed some cash I found the most wonderful place in the world!

I almost didn't even see it as I was concentrating too hard on finding the bank building. But, just out of the corner of my eye, I saw that familiar green circle and that nice looking lady in the middle





Yes, Starbucks. Hallelujah! Grande Hazelnut Latte here I come!



Happy and caffeinated, I continued my walk downtown towards the bus stop. I found it. However, I had no idea what side of the street I should be on. Now, I did have a map of the city and the bus route map .. but my mapping skills are not all that great. Thankfully, there was a huge bus schedule billboard there that told me if I wanted to go on these routes you should be on the side of the road with the Canadian Tire (well, the old Canadian Tire building).



The bus driver was very nice too and confirmed that I was indeed on the right bus ... I however had no idea what stop I should stop at, but he said not to worry and that he would just stop at the one I needed (Yeah!). And yes, i did make it to my location for the day.

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I'm here!

Control Tower at Airport

Soaring Eagle Mural

Hendrix Mural on the Northern Hemphisphere Building

Gas is the same price here as down East!

Timbo's!!!

Moose Dueling and Haut Couture

Dog Sledding Mural on Building

Mural on the Centre de la Francophone building

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And rightfully so.

I have just finished traveling over 3000km, crossing/entering not one, not two, not three, not four but five Canadian Time Zones (Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific) and I have no idea which way is up anymore. I’m pretty sure I got my watch on local time as I tried to keep up with it as the time changed while in the air ... and I think I have it. Fortunately, my cell phone is smart and has auto updated the time .. so at least I have one clock that is correct ... I hope.

So, the flights ... Where to begin.

The Fredericton to Toronto flight was quite uneventful .. which is surprising as every time that I take that Fredericton flight to XYZ something amusing always happens (like “Oh, you’re luggage isn’t going to follow you on this flight, it’s going on the Montreal connector instead and will be in Ottawa when you land” [does any one remember what happened here? Yeah, my luggage SO was not in Ottawa when I arrived there ... it was in Vancouver]). I do have to say, there is something about taking the Toronto early riser flight as it is just usually filled with business people heading back to Toronto for the week. And this time, the Jazz jet was comfy! Nice leather seats and leg room! What did I do to deserve leg room??!!

Get to Toronto in normal time ... except for that I only had 25 minutes by then to report to my next gate. And dude! Pearson International is one huge airport! I swear I must have walked at least two kilometers to just get to my departure gate which was at the completely opposite end from my arrivals gate. By the time I found my gate after searching for 10 minutes to find an open bathroom (aparently cleaning bathrooms happens on the hour) I didn’t have much time. Sadly, I had to forego my Java fill-up as the Timmy’s line was snaking throughout the airport as usual, and Starbucks wasn’t much better.

Boarding the plane to Calgary in Toronto went off without a hitch. My seat on my flight from Toronto to Calgary wasn’t the greatest .. seat wise it was quite nice - comfy, leg room, and I even had the power outlet so I could plug in my computer ... however, the two people I got stuck between - well... i guess it could have been worse. On my left I had ‘Mr. I am wearing to much Axe’ and to my right I had ‘Mr. I’m gonna keep trying to send and receive messages / calls on my Blackberry throughout the whole flight’.

And then things just kept getting worse. We got delayed for almost two hours in Toronto as two passengers ‘decided that they weren’t gonna be traveling with us today’ (as the pilot put it) so they baggage handlers had to take all of the luggage off of the plane and go through it all to find these two missing passengers bags. First we were told the delay was going to be 10 minutes... then 20 minutes ... so far so good .. only 30 minutes behind schedule, still tons of time to hit up Tim Horton’s and call my Grams in Calgary when I land ... then the next thing I knew I was an hour into Star Trek and we still hadn’t taken off. Now I begin to wonder if I am going to make my connection. If we take off in the next 20 minutes, I can still make it without too much difficulty. Yeah right. Another 30 minutes pass before we finally taxi out to the tarmac. By now my flight that was to leave at 8:00am EST was now leaving at 9:30 EST. Wonderful. There goes my layover in Calgary.

The flight was alright. Watched Star Trek - it was ok, wouldn’t have paid to see it in the theater though, but it was alright and watched an episode of Flashpoint before I passed-out for a couple of hours. And of course, I woke up with a great body jerk (ya know when sometimes your body just spazes our for no reason what so ever when you are sleeping? Yeah, that was me).

Of course, I was not the only one in this predicament. Although I was the only one running off to Whitehorse, there were several other connections to be made that were going to be very tight. Thankfully, they did make an announcement that for those who had to connect to XYZ to leave the plane first and for everyone else to remain seated. Well, we all know how well people listen to instructions right?

Off running I went. As we all entered into the terminal calling out ‘Where is XYZ’s gate??!!’ our names are being called across the PA “Passenger ABC just arriving from flight 117, please make your way to Gate 123 immediately’. Yeah, immediately my butt. I had to go pee (I can’t stand using airplane loos .. just.. ick!. So I dashed to the loo then dashed to my gate.

Once I got onto my Whitehorse flight, I had the oddest seat in the whole jet. I basically was in the next row down from where a single row of seats turns back into a double row of seats. So I had no seat in front of me (bummer, where will I put my laptop?), which also means I have no on board entertainment system either (oh what am I supposed to do with myself for two and a half hours?). Luckily for me, our flight was only half full so I switched seats (went across the row to the open window seat. I quite enjoy having window seats. I didn’t enjoy the kid that wouldn’t stop kicking the back of my seat ... but I was able to stand that kid more than the other kid that sounded like Caillou’s human clone. So I spent my time watching Flashpoint, Monsters vs Aliens and playing Resistance on my PSP.

After 12 hours of traveling I finally touched down in Whitehorse. What a relief it was to get off of the planes. I spent a good 11 hours on them today and it was time for a stretch of unbelievable proportions. I hurt. All over. I get into the Whitehorse terminal and then I start to wonder if my luggage actually made it here. I did only have a couple of minutes to make my sprint to my flight, so did my luggage follow? Well, the luggage gods were looking over me today. My luggage arrived with me! Whoo-hooo!

I grab my bags and hop onto the shuttle to the Gold Rush Inn, drop off my bags, grab my sneakers and head out for a little walk around town to stretch. While walking I discovered where Whitehorse Motors was (and I think I saw my truck), the Superstore (which is huge - and I mean huge), Staples, Shoppers Drug Mart and of course Tim Horton’s (my favorite place in the world ... well, second favorite).

Now I’m just hanging out here in my hotel room debating wether I should go to sleep now (it’s only 6:00pm here, 10:00pm in NB) or if I should try to stay awake a little longer. I have a feeling sleep is going to win this battle.

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