(July 26)
Dear Folks,
Here are some images from today. But first, a bit more about our stay at Ft. McPherson. We were apparently an object of interest. We had drawn our curtains on the side facing the houses. At one point, we could hear children. Then a little boy popped round to our side without curtains, peered in, giggled, and ran. Shades of Boo Radley. Later, two ladies in a pickup stopped to see if we were all right.
We hadn’t gone far this morning when we came to another ferry. The river was wider here and the ferry a bit more elaborate, with a little tower. This one runs from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. These pilots know their stuff. They have to angle upstream to let the current help them. Everything goes on these ferries: from motorcycles to RVs, to big rigs. There was an oil tanker in front of us. The driver–a young woman with a French accent–jumped out of her truck and asked where we were going. She said to go ahead of her.
After the ferry, we drove for a few hours. The gravel road was mostly good. At times, we actually got up to the 90 kph speed limit. We had a reservation at Jak campground ( pronounced “Jack.”). We missed the turn initially, perhaps because we were in shock. This small stretch of the Dempster is actually paved! What we noticed first was the striping on the road. Then realized how smooth it was. We retraced our route and found the Jak.
We had reserved our space back in March. At that time, we didn’t think that we would need electricity. But now…. so we needed to stop at the office and explain. But the office is in a building accessed by a flight of stairs. We asked a man who was camping if he could ask someone in the office to come out. A young g woman came out and we had quite a visit. There were a few spaces with electricity available for when we are here. So we chose one and paid the difference: electricity costs more. And the space is a pull through–no need to back up. I said to the young woman that she must have seen me drive. 😇
There is nothing fancy about the space with electricity: just a post with outlets. We were able to plug in Karma and she started gulping power.
While in Ft. McPherson, we had called around for auto repair in Inuvik. The guy at CMS Auto was rude. Although his website said he had Saturday hours 10 am to 10 pm, he said that he didn’t know if he would be around. If he was, MAYBE he could take a look. That didn’t inspire confidence. So we looked and called some more. We found Donovan Archie. He looks like a young man to you, but to us he looked like an angel. He said that we should get settled at the campground and then call and he would come to us. He did very promptly.
The 12 volt extension that we had bought had burned. When it did, it blew a fuse in Miracle. Donovan said that we were lucky that we didn’t have a fire. He replaced the fuse. Then we tried our converter of 12 volt to 110 amps. Fine. We also tried our coffee maker–fine.
He also torqued our wheels and checked Miracle’s fluids. Everything looks good.
We had a nice little visit. Small-town NT is a lot like northern Maine. Donovan has been here his whole life. He says that the population grows when people come here for work, fall in love with the place, and stay.
The young woman in the office here said that we could access free WiFi and a cafeteria at the hospital. The hospital has a teepee on its grounds. It is also small and brightly painted. I thought, “Ah, an accessible flush toilet.” The kitchen at the hospital closes at 6:05 for dinner. We didn’t know if we would make it, but we wanted to try. There was lots of accessible parking near the door: no room for our ramp, but we parked on the end and hurried out. They had automatic openers: that’s Dusty’s strong suit. But we were stopped at the door. The security guard said that we could not bring dogs into the hospital. I explained that they are service dogs and can go anywhere. I said to look up the law: Canada has an excellent service dog law. People called supervisors: they did not know. The people were very nice and polite, saying that this had never happened before. Finally, someone did check the law: and we were in. They apologized profusely. I explained that I am a teacher and that this was a teachable moment.
We got to the cafeteria with two minutes to go. What they had vegan was salad. No vegan dressing, so we will have it with humus and cheese. And the restroom was very accessible. The hospital grounds were also a good place to run the Girls.
When we were checking in here, I said, “You don’t get many wheelchair users?” She said a few, but they always have Someone with them to help. That kind of hurt the Girls’ feelings.
Tomorrow we hope to make it to Tuk. Stay tuned.
Hugs and wags.
The Lowman Family.