Arg... I can't sleep

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Day: 12/13

Distance: 4651 Miles

Good morning, eh. I got up this morning at 5:30 because it was nice and bright. I went to bed the night before at 10pm and it was nice and bright. Well technically, twilighty. You could read by it. I thought the other camper people were being weird for going to sleep early until I looked at my clock. 10PM! I don't think it ever got totally dark. This kinda puts a crimp in my plans to see the Northern Lights. I figure it's just going to get worse the further north I go. I wonder if I'll go bonkers like Pacino in Insomnia? You guys will be the first to know.

Yesterday after I left Toad River (I keep wanting to call it Toad Hollow) I took off down PR 97 toward Whitehorse in the Yukon.

There were plenty of trees, mountains, rivers, snow, valleys. All were fantastic and majestic. I wonder how it will be in Alaska? More rugged? The same? It will be interesting to see. It won't necessarily be a fair comparison since I'm not going to Inuvik. Another nice thing is that there was almost no traffic. However, there is one thing I've noticed and that is these Canadian drivers seem a little unfriendly. Here you are, out in the middle of nowhere (literally), you would think that they would wave back when you do your steering wheel wave, but noooooo. In Texas, when you are rural, you almost always get a wave back (if they don't beat you to it). Obviously, that rule does not apply to urban areas. Urban areas use a different type of wave. So I wave at these Canadians and they completely ignore Me. I had one trucker wave back (he's probably American). Other then that, nada.

The drive was mostly sedate with the occasional DODGE THE WILDLIFE rounds. I guess for counting purposes we can call this round #5. I took pictures of lots of animals. In fact, it got to a point that it was no longer a novelty. Even about bears! You see one bear, you seen 'em all, eh. 😊 Anyway, I quit taking pictures of the animals after a bit. The bear cubs were cute, the herds of buffalo were pretty cool even though they looked like they had the mange with the shedding of their winter coats. I even had one bear with supreme indifference, continue to eat as I pulled up next to him and took pictures. "Aaaawwww, he's so cute. Just like a fluffy teddy bear."

One wildlife creature didn't make it though. Driving along, and this (what I am assuming to be a robin) big bird pops up out of the grass and then proceeds to fly into my windshield. One large bang (scared the beejeezees out of me, let me tell you. It pops up over BB and plops down in the grass not moving (I hoped for a second). I wonder if the bears chow down on road kill? I felt a little bad about it, but I shook it off, said a prayer for its departed birdie soul and drove on.

When PR 97 crossed for the first time the highway became PR 1. I started looking for a place to camp about a 100km out of Whitehorse, saw a couple candidates but pressed on because it was still so light outside. It still hadn't occurred to me that it was I was moving into the land of the midnight sun.

I drive into Whitehorse and found it a nice little town (city I suppose). They even had a Walmart. They also had a competing superstore called "The Real Canadian Super-Store". I needed a rain tarp so I took a chance and went in to the Canadian store. Didn't have a tarp. So I went to Walmart. Had a tarp. Not to be too judgmental but the Walmart was way better stocked and had a much more diverse product range. (U-S-A, U-S-A, where number one!, jk)

The cool thing is I found a campground in the middle of the city right on the river. That was kinda of neat, though after I started setting up a man came up to me (I'm assuming a caretaker since he and a couple others slept in small campers) and said that the park doesn't officially open up till tomorrow (today as I write). He also said that it was cool, though a lady may come by in the morning to collect a fee. Never saw her. Maybe because I left at 7am. The traffic noise was a little much and at one point in the middle of the night a, what can only be a military jet aircraft, comes screeching over the city. The roar was huge and scarred the crap out of me. I had thought the world was coming to the end for a moment. There must be an airbase nearby. I don't know what the Canadian equivalent of the FAA is, but I can't believe they allow fast moving jet aircraft that low over a populated area.

After my sleepless night, I'm going to be taking PR 2 going north and west towards Fairbanks. Really no idea how far I will get today as I have to find a laundromat around here to wash some cloths.

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Photos

DODGE THE WILDLIFE, Round #5
I wasn't going very fast at this point since I had already slowed down from his brethren behind me. They didn't care. Took their time getting out of the way.

Getting near to Whitehorse
Still nice and light outside.