Snores and snoring, Yukon#3

The topic of snoring. Reared it's ugly head the night before we set out for the Yukon. Trailer owner and I slept in one of the daughters back yard and I was informed that I snored. Ah well what could I do about that. Funnily, so did she! I discovered that when I am very cold I tend to be up and down to the biffy all night long! It did not make for a very restful night for sure. As time went on I suppose the snoring continued and at one point I offered earplugs but that suggestion was refused. I couldn't think of anything else to do and living in such close quarters we both had to just put up with some things. After all we were Camping!

In the first week at the Pole yard, I awoke one morning to hear my travel companion complaining to the others that “..it goes on all night and its driving me nuts!” I could only assume it was my snoring?? I don't know what else she could be talking bout but who knows?? I remember a sister-in-law once telling me that to live in confined quarters (like this?) one really had to like the partner. Well perhaps that had been a mistake on both our parts and in fact I did not know this person very well at all.

As time went on things escalated a bit and she even admitted to slamming the bathroom door (situated next to my head) in an attempt to wake me and stop my snoring. Well, that could only go down as another “cheap shot” in my book. One night she must have been particularly peed off and slammed it so hard I came right off the bed and for a second thought I had been shot! When I was next in the bathroom I thought maybe I should slam that sucker so hard it came off the hinges, however the good little angel on my right shoulder said “Well Joyce that would put you the same as her and it really isn't your style now is it?” So I did nothing - Again! Time and again I thought of the Serenity prayer ”God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference” Short of one hell of a confrontation I really could not change much and so tried for the serenity. In any case the lady was most determined to have her way and for the most part did. I did not go to the Yukon to fight about things and I didn't.

I suppose our goals for this trip differed a lot. She was going to have a visit with her son and so she did. She also thought it clever to have me along to pay half the food and fuel. To that end it worked well and she simply had to put up with things I did that annoyed her. However I had come along in hopes of seeing lots of things and was most disappointed to be camped in the said poleyard all day mostly on our own until the son and his partner came around. We did all four of us have suppers together and I enjoyed that and never had a bad meal - they were all delicious!

But I pined for Kaslo and often wished I was home again. The two months seemed very long indeed.

My partner must have been bored also and having had mice in her ceiling once before decided we should trap mice...but that is for the next story.~~~

Yukon #2

Hmm. That first post about the Yukon was received with mixed feelings. My traveling companions' daughters wrote on it “You have a nerve!” Obviously they did not appreciate what I wrote so I pulled it off of fb and went back to just writing about dogs again. However! MY friends and readers, clamored for more. Most people think my adventures were funny and I guess looking back they were. Each day I feel less and less upset about them and as one buddy pointed out they are MY stories! And it is how I lived them and perceive them so what the hell? Everything is true believe me! Only slight exaggerations here and there for the humor of things.My previous post was a lead up for more.

After several warnings about my NOT remembering to turn off the lights, said owner of trailer pulled the bulb out!

I could not believe it! Now I had to more or less “feel” my way around my cupboard looking for things. I was some angry and upset too!  BUT in true Libra fashion I said nothing to trailer owner. Daughter B was right behind me when I exclaimed “She pulled the effin bulb!” Later that night around the fire, sans owner, we talked about it a bit and I thought it would be time for me to try and get home again. I could see the writing on the wall and we would not be moving again (and we didn't). I expressed the thought that I could be home and happy! Sitting there in the dust and dirt of the pole yard was not my idea of a fun holiday. Ah, but how to get home? How much money did I have in the bank? Could I fly?  Bus?   I had only one plastic Walmart bag to carry my belongings in and the thought seemed challenging. I had a lot of clothes and things plus a brand new laptop I had thought to use while away. I had only been away for a couple of weeks by this time.  But to say the least I was not a happy camper!

One saving grace was daughter B's liberal sharing of her phone. I had a cell phone a friend gave me but it wouldn't work in the poleyard, only in Whitehorse. I was able to phone home and also a couple of friends that were worried about me and even talked to my brother in Alberta! He was not sympathetic and actually got several laughs out of my dilemma. At this point I must mention that there is a LOT of daylight in the Yukon in June and July AND there was a more than ample solar thingy on the roof of the trailer. It was explained to me that there is no way we would run out of battery! So why pull the bulb? Was this a female “pissing on posts” thing?? If so, I have no time or interest in such shenanigans and thought it was a cheap shot at best. Bro was all into how you have to conserve everything when living in a trailer but I doubt he lives as roughly as we did. But talking to my friends helped immensely!

Meanwhile back at the poleyard, we got busy erecting a little  shower house(tent thing).  Once up, THE PAIL was ensconced in it. Now I must tell you, THE PAIL, was purchased in Walmart as a porta-potty!

It was exactly that..a five gallon pail! But this one had a minature seat to sit on and even a lid! Whoopdedoo! We now had out own private(??) bathroom. Well not so, as it was just behind the trailer. To my credit I did try it out a few times but I was never able to really manage the wiping part! I mean really! I have a bad back, bad knees and crappy shoulders and none of that helped. Travelling partner said it was too far to the outhouse for her but thereafter I made the little walk whenever necessary. There is not much to “running” an outhouse and I KNOW how to manage that! Of course I “heard” about leaving the lid up and the flies etc.on the porta-potty. Give me a break this was nothing short of gross!

I have camped before and if I had my drutheres I prefer my trips with friend Ann that we did with the horses. There was always water and beautiful scenery and it was so wonderful for the soul! There in the pole-yard I felt my soul die a bit each day. It seemed like a jail sentence and a whole month more seemed endless! The next morning with hat in hand, so to speak, I told partner I would like to go home.She seemed shocked and actually did not say a lot, to me at least. Again, at night apparently she told the family and they pointed out the lightbulb incident. In the end my plea was basically ignored and of course she would have to take me to Whitehorse in order to get out! BUT she did lighten up on me a bit and there were not too many other incidents until nearing the end, by which time I had something to shoot for.

Next post sleeping and snoring! ~~~~~

Yukon #1

My Yukon holiday has been a series of lessons. One is Appreciation. Another is to look carefully at things that seem like “an opportunity of a lifetime”. My brother says I always assume too much. I admit to being an optimist and a bit of a dreamer. When this trip first came up I thought of seeings places and things and a leisurely trip to the Yukon-possibly even seeing friends along the way? Just the name Yukon,seemed exciting.    And of course I have not gone many places. Instead, we tore up the highway stopping at a reasonable hour at mostly decent campsites and were there in six days.
Having been told I would have my own bed, I actually thought I had my own room. “Fine! thought I, “I will be able to escape at times.” Not so, there were two small beds a lane way apart and that was it. My companion laid down the rules quickly. There would be no toilet paper going down the toilet and it was only to be used for number one. Okay, and then what of the “other”? Well that was done in outhouses. Upon arrival in Lumby and getting to the trailer that was to be my home for almost 60 days, all my clothes were stuffed into a series of cupboards above my beds and all bags and the one suitcase were put in partners car and left in Lumby. Lights were not to be left on even though there was ample battery life in the form of a solar panel. 

I assumed her son lived in a normal house and we would hook on to water and power upon our arrival. I assumed he might live in a beautiful spot. Not so. In no time at all we were ensconced in a
pole yard.  Don't know what that is?  Well its an old sawmill site filled with decks of spruce logs that the son cuts into fire wood for campsites.
 I was not impressed. The “view” was of skinny sickly looking spruce trees all around, the road was totally bumpy into camp and the son was no better off than we in fact worse as all the pipes had frozen in his travel trailer and the fridge was buggered. No power to be had unless you fired up the generator or on occasion the welder.

I was told what water we had in the holding tank was all we had until something could be found to fill it.  I assumed this meant rationing and drank no water or very little all the way up to the Yukon. By that time I was getting seriously dehydrated. Luckily daughter B that came with us on a motorbike bought bottled water by the case and shared with me liberally.
Eventually water would be brought in on the back of the flat deck from a subdivision nearby in the biggest bottle you have ever seen!

Stay tuned for next edition of “Joyce in the Yukon”