When I walked into the restaurant at Rancheria, the gal looked at me, reached back on the shelf behind her and said, “Oh, we have your credit Card”. What a wonderful and welcome phrase.
How many places could you leave your credit card; come back five days later; and, not only did they still have your card, they knew it was yours when you walked in?
I started breathing again!!
Instead of retracing our steps back down the Alaska Highway, we hopped onto Highway 1 west and headed towards the Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Highway 37) and Prince George, BC.
Dare I say that the wilderness and scenery along this winding hilly road is more spectacular than along the Alaska Highway?
We started to relax again at Boya Lake Park – a wonderful little campground with intensive blue water reflecting the hills on the other side.
Our site came complete with its own Whiskey-Jack and wildflowers and no rain!
Back on the road, our spirits were lifted and we planned to stop at a couple of First Nations Heritage sites before we left Highway 37 and headed towards civilization.
And then it happened – Boom! After we found a place to pull-off, we discovered that the inside rear tire had blown!
OMG – now what do we do? We have Road-side Service (won’t leave home without it) BUT – how do you contact the Service if there is no telephone or cell serve?
Then folks we had met at the Jade Shop we stopped at pulled-in.
“Got a Problem”? they asked.
After about an hour and a lot of help, we got the spare tire on and went on our way with no spare. (Oh, it had stopped raining for a couple of hours) – so much for exploring anything.
We checked every tire shop in Smithers but they had no tire to match – we got a mismatch in Houston, BC that would do us until be got home.
Well, that’s our Yukon Adventure and it was an Adventure.
We are both glad that we went but (at this point) doubt if we would consider doing it again.
Things I forgot to remember
• Cell phone connections are sparse in unpopulated areas. Be prepared to be out of contact with the outside world for significant blocks of time.
• Also Road Service does little good if you cannot contact them.
• Make sure the tire jack is strong enough to jack up and hold your RV. Carry wood to block up the jack.
• Likely the next place to repair or replace the tire will not have a tire to match.
• Prices of fuel (as well as other things) are significantly higher in remote locations.
• The weather will never co-operate.
• Even though the road is paved, there are potholes big enough to swallow a semi-trailer. Big potholes mean blown tires.
But it was a great trip anyway.
2 comments:
I liked the Cassier. Rule #1 in the North- go slow enough to see the potholes and frost heaves. You see much more that way.
Jaimie
What a trip! Read all the blogs and felt we went along. I almost needed to dry off & kept looking outside, relieve to see it was still sunny. Probably won't make the trip, but now I felt like we already have. Thanks Lynn.
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