Stranded in the Yukon

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

When it rains it pours. Both figuratively and literally. I can’t lie; I could use a little less bad these days. The past two weeks have been rough.

First, some good. We are safe. We are healthy (for the most part). We have food, water, and shelter. And things always work out.

And I’ve said it before, and I hope I’ll get to say it many more times: if life on the road has taught me anything it’s that there are far more good people in the world than bad. More on that in a moment.

Lucy:

Two weeks ago we drove 4 hours to the nearest vet because Lucy fell while running on the wet pavement. She wasn’t putting any weight on her back leg. The vet had no openings, but enter good people #1. Hearing our situation, the staff at Palmer Vet squeezed us in at the end of the day and made sure they treated Lucy. The vet did a physical test and likely ruled out an acl tear. An X-ray ruled out a break. So, she’s been on 2 week bed rest. September 1 will be 2 weeks. We haven’t seen much improvement, but she’s been sassier than ever. Fingers crossed.

Car Troubles

If you’ve ever been to the Yukon Territory you know it’s vast with not a whole lot. Miles between civilization and a lot of zones with no cell service. The perfect place to breakdown, right? 🙄

Friday: We started overheating about 30 miles from a “town” - Haines Junction.  A town with no mechanic. Within minutes of being stranded (for the first time), enter the 2nd good people into our lives. The sweetest couple, Brian and Jumi, with our brand RV saw us with our hood up, pulled over, and asked what was wrong. They drove to that “town” 30 miles away to get us coolant, and brought it back. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate them and vow to find a way to pay it forward.

That allowed us to get to that “town” to buy more coolant which then allowed us to trek 90 miles to the next city, Whitehorse- the capital city of the Yukon. With fingers crossed and all of the coolant that Haines Junction had to offer we set off for Whitehorse.

We made it.

Saturday: After topping off the coolant we got a car wash. We were hoping it was a clog from all the dust and bugs, and things seemed to be doing much better. We ran errands, and camped about an hour away to test it. All good.

Sunday: The next morning our friends were headed to the next town- Watson Lake- about 4 hours from us. We decided to travel with them. But, they were running late and neither of us had cell service, so we ended up leaving without them figuring if we broke down, they were coming behind us, and they’d see us. And about an hour from Watson Lake we had issues again and Caryn and Beau found us and pulled over.

A mechanic happened to be at the rest stop and spent about a half hour looking, but without his tools couldn’t detect much. We limped into Watson Lake shaking and smoking.

Monday: We got a mechanic to look at us and he said he can’t work on it because it’s Ford- and no one in town will either- you need a certified Ford mechanic. And it’s not drivable. Great. It’s one thing to have car issues, but when it’s your house AND your dog is injured and can’t walk… we hit an all time low. We spent the whole day on the phone trying to find a tow company to get us to Edmonton (16 hours) or Calgary (19 hours). And we requested that the driver let us and Lucy ride along. Otherwise one of us would have to take a 5 hour shuttle back to Whitehorse, rent a car, and pick up the other and Lucy.

Oh, then the wildfire smoke rolled in and sirens were going off- we couldn’t evacuate even if we wanted to.

Somehow, we got a driver willing to 1. Take us 16 hours 2. Take us and Lucy with him 3. Convinced the insurance company to work with him because we are in Canada and the providers that work with our US insurance are limited.

Tuesday: Today is the day! We woke up to the smell of wildfire smoke, but a lot of it had cleared.

A tow truck should be here in a few hours and we'll start our journey to Edmonton.

We are so thankful for friends in Calgary who are again opening their home to us while all this gets sorted out. We love hanging out with them, just wish it was under better circumstances!

Here we come Beca, Dion, Penny, and Louis!!

To be continued...