Moving to Alaska: Day Twenty One

We left off last time with crappy weather and a low tire. Well, the tire was lower this morning and it seems we punctured it late last night so spent the morning waiting for it to be fixed at the only local shop. At least we have these issues near civilization, that is the only good thing I can say about them.

Since we had a little time I checked the road conditions and it looks like today will start out rough but should be better after about 100 miles. So again, hard to maintain pace. We have not given up on making it back tonight, but it would be a VERY long day to make that happen since it is close to 1000 miles to Anchorage. We decided that was ok even if we got in super late, just to get the drive done. I think we are reaching that point where it is no longer fun, it is a chore, mainly due to the weather.

As for the weather, it did go as expected; we talked to someone at a rest area after about 90 miles and she said she had been cruising along at full speed for 3 hours coming the other direction so we were encouraged for sure. And it was true; we cruised into Whitehorse in early afternoon and after a quick stop at the Yukon Brewery to pick up some "supplies" we pushed on out of town.

For about 10 minutes.

It seems we have a lot of shaking on the car and, of course, now the trailer has lost a tire. After a call to U-haul, we decided that rather than sit on the side of the road, it made more sense to hurry back to Whitehorse where the repair shops are located so we told U-haul to send someone to the Walmart parking lot since it was about five miles away and we still had most of the air, though it was going fast. We were told that someone would be there within the hour so we went and hung out in the parking lot. I actually wrote a couple blog posts and Thao surfed the internet; it was nice being in a town where such things existed.

About an hour after the initial phone call we got a call from U-haul to let us know about our hotel reservation.

Umm, what?!?

It seems that since it is a Sunday afternoon, we are screwed since no one is open!!! So now we get to spend the night in Whitehorse and get the tire repaired in the morning. Remember, we have been sitting at Walmart for an hour now so the tire is much lower but we literally have two blocks to go to the hotel so we go ahead and drive over. Not ideal but had we known, we would have moved it a long time ago. I am still not sure why it took them so long to tell us. Either they could reach a vendor or they could not. No excuse for an hour delay. In either case, we obviously will not make it home today since we are still about 800 miles from Anchorage and are a tire short. So like it or not, we are here for the night. And another annoying thing, even though U-haul knows it needs fixed, apparently I have to call them in the morning to let them know "when we are ready" for them to dispatch someone to fix it. Really? You can't just know that we have an issue still? But I would almost rather call to make sure they are dealing with it so we set the alarm for 6:45 and will call them in the morning.

First a flight delay. Second  a blown tire. Third an ice storm requiring ~150 miles of 25-30 MPH. Then a punctured tire followed later in the day by another blown tire, this time on the trailer.

A night in Whitehorse might have been fun but not without a car since there was not much within walking distance. Plus our frustration level was pretty high so we were not in the mood for "fun".

Start: Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

Stop: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

~275 Miles Driven

~1.4 Miles Walked
0 Letterboxes Found (First day of the trip without a Found Box)

1 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted
1 Tire Punctured
1 Tire Replaced (Pending)

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos