Stewart To Dease Lake and Yukon 1st stop

After breakfast Art turned on the laptop to download the credit card info as we have a payment due in a week or so. Somehow he managed to mess up the log in once again so he had to call the credit card company! Fortunately Skype was working fine and things were soon rectified. HOWEVER we had to wait one hour for the data to take effect, then we could log in again. Eventually we got logged in, down loaded and the balance and due date confirmed and the details noted. We should be good until next month!

It was almost eleven by the time we were rolling eastwards, back towards Meziadin Junction and highway 37 North. As we wound through the river valley Art spotted a black something in the ditch on the side of the road. The black lump proved to be a young black bear foraging for his lunch. Art quickly slowed and we had a good look but we had not yet got the cameras out so there was a missed photo opportunity.

Soon we turned left back onto Highway 37 and were northbound once again and another bear sighting! This time Gillian was ready with the camera and managed to snap a couple of poses through the window.

The sky cleared somewhat at the junction and we had quite pleasant weather for a while. Then the grey returned with a few scattered showers then improved again.

At Dease Lake we stopped for fuel—Art estimated from the state of the fuel gauge that would take about 160 litres. The pump clicked off at 172! He's getting pretty good at this. We had last fueled at the junction of Highways 16 and 37 near Kitwanga—630 kilometres back. About 25 litres per 100 kilometers for those that can make sense of that—We are still used to miles per gallon (though to be fair, in most other things we “thinKMetric” as the slogan goes). Our computer program that reads data from the engine computer says that we have averaged 9.0 mpg since leaving home. That is using US gallons; in Imperial measure that would be 10.8 mpg. We are pretty happy with this as our old 97 Commander gaser averaged 8.3 mpg (imperial) towing the car to and from Mexico. Our first rig, a 1973 Tripple E with a Dodge 440cubic inch with a 4 barrel carb got 6 mpg up hill and down! It will be interesting to see what we do on the entire 10 month trip!.

About 8 kilometers after leaving Dease Lake we pulled into the Water's Edge Campground—no water, no sewer, no electricity—BUT free wireless! The sites are spread amongst the trees, very similar to a Provincial Park in BC. The trees are a mix of spruce and lodgepole pine with a few aspen here and there. Lots of very pretty wild flower and each site has a hanging flower pot with pansies and petunias!

It lies along side the lake—Trekker loved the chance for a swim and was most intrigued by a black lab dock jumping from the jetty after a frisbee!

Dinner tonight was steak, cooked to perfection on our “Grill It” a “smokeless stove top grill”. It says so on the box. Nevertheless Art removed the smoke alarm first! Accompanied by pan-fried potatoes, asparagus and peas cooked in the microwave (gotta love that inverter and those solar panels!) and the remains of a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Ahhhhhh!

Dease Lake to Teslin

Up and at'em at 8:30—at least Art was. Gillian following protestingly shortly there after. The night before we had discovered what an experienced northern camper told us a few days ago: You won't notice the time—chatting with new friends, the twilight never seeming to get closer, until all of a sudden you realise it's 11:30PM—even though it's still light enough to read out side without artificial light!

However, by 10:15 we were climbing up the dusty gravel road from the campground to the highway and northbound once again. Not a lot of wildlife today, not a lot of great weather either—cloudy with a threat of rain that never quite made good.

Trekker once again was unhappy with the bumpy road, panting and trembling as he alternately stood and lay down beside Gillian. He has been very nervous and stressed on rough roads ever since the terrible roads south of Tampico, Mexico, last year which had things falling out of the cupboards all around him.

After an hour and a half we stopped at Jade City near the Cassiar turn off. Gillian said it was to give Trekker a break and let him nap for a while. Yeah, right. Seriously, it was a fascinating place. And she only spent 60 dollars! Jade City is a family affair, selling jade jewelery, works of art etc and cutting jade from huge chunks.

The fellow in the red shirt will be mentioned later!

In the pictures to the right the small piece of jade being cut will take 40 minutes or so, the large one most of the day! The jade comes from a mine some 80 miles east of the shop—the largest known Jade deposit in the world and supplying 90% of the world's jade. (The mine, not the shop)

There are some seriously large chunks of jade here! The one to the left weighs about 80 pounds. The white part is asbestos. Click to see the asbestos fibres. At the nearby town of Cassiar high-grade asbestos was mined until closing a few decades ago.

About an hour later we were on the road again and 40 minutes later a loud “BANG!” coincided with a large star shaped mark on the passenger side windshield. An unloaded flat bed was passing southbound at the time so we knew exactly what had happened. We will have it looked at in Whitehorse to see if it can be repaired or if it will need to be replaced. If the latter we will wait for a while as our insurance deductible is $200.00. No point in having it repaired until we have done with Alaska, the Yukon and the Alaska Highway.

Our next stop was at the BC/Yukon border, just a few kilometres before joining the Alaska Highway. Here we met up with a family (Mom, Dad, Daughter,Grandpa and Grandma and dog) who we had seen at Jade City. They had a flat tire on their trailer and as Art got talking he found that Bill (the guy in the red shirt at the Jade store) had many friends who sailed to Zihuatanejo, and asked if he knew about the sail boat thing that went on around Christmas, which he had heard a lot about from his sailing friends. Art immediately recognised this as an opportunity to give a way a spare Sailfest T shirt that he had bought for that purpose earlier this year. Bill was delighted to be able to show off the shirt to his friends and responded by giving in return 2 jars of organic pasta sauce made by his company in California! Mmmmm! Will report later!

By 3:25 we were east/north bound on the Alaska Highway! This was very nice road, much nicer condition than we had been led to believe. 100 Km/h speed limit, rolling hills for the most part, mountains in the background, small trees, many small lakes and streams in the foreground—beautiful. We can understand why people actually live this far north! The dark band on the top of the photo is due to the tinted windshield, not ominous cloud.

We didn't see much wild life—no bears but we did see one fox up close beside the road as we went by. Such a gorgeous bright orangy red fur. Unfortunately there was no time for a picture. Near the end of today's drive we crossed the Continental Divide for the second time. Rivers once more were flowing towards the pacific instead of the Arctic!

Three hours and 20 minutes after entering the Yukon we pulled into the Dawson Peaks Resort and RV Park. All the serviced sites were taken but for $14.00 plus taxes we could have a dry-camp space and access to the internet. The internet made the deal! And they have a restaurant!

They do have free wifi in the restaurant so here we are sipping on a "English Style Pale Ale" called Yukon Gold. Thought for a moment it may have been made from potatoes, but that's Vodka! Very nice in any case.

After the internet and beer, we returned to the rig for dinner. Gillian cooked salmon, rice and veggies while Art did a bit more on the computer and scrubbed the bugs from the windshield. A very large number of mosquitoes! We found we could access the wireless from the rig so we sent a few e-mails as well.

As I write this (on the word processor, not directly to the blog) the time is 11:20. Gillian is walking the dogs—no flashlight needed, and someone hasn't done the dishes yet.

More tomorrow from Whitehorse.

OK! Well!

So much for plans.

Our morning routine was, well, routine: up, wash, walk dogs, breakfast, pack up and stow for traveling. Yup. Routine. Right up until Art pushed the switch to bring in the bedroom slide in. The slide moved 2 inches then stopped.

Now began the non-routine part of the morning—a few mutterings, then dig out the manuals and start looking. Then manuals discussed fuses and their possible locations. Possible locations. Couldn't find them anywhere.

Under the dash was a mass of heater ducting an wires--no sign fuses. Next we checked the online manuals that we had downloaded shortly after we bought the rig. The wiring diagrams listed almost everything but the slides and stabiliser jacks (which use the same hydraulic system and which didn't work either). Also notably missing was information on the heat pump—but that is an earlier story.

Next to the internet where we e-mailed friends who have an identical rig. Then again to the internet to www.rv.net to leave a HELP! question on the Tech Issues forum.

Then we got Skype call from Don, a knowledgeable friend from home who suggested a poor battery connection. We cleaned all the battery terminals, which were OK for the most part, with no improvement.

By now it was well past lunch time and the restaurant would close in half an hour so there we went. Gillian found Art's pouting funny!

Returning from lunch we found we had received an e-mail from Wayne, our friend with the Horizon like ours suggesting a bad connection under the dash that he had had problems with. That appeared to be OK so Art gave up and consoled by the bacon cheese burger and beer for lunch took a nap while Gillian took the opportunity to do a little house cleaning. Hardly seems fair does it?

Of course we had arrived fairly late last night so there were no serviced spaces left. We were happy with dry camping as we are well set up for it. However we had not planned to sit for too many days so had not been concerned with power saving. The day was over cast and the trees around the rig limited our solar input so we ran the generator for a while to make sure everything was fully charged. We also ran the heat pump at the same time as it was still a bit cool.

So. It is now 6:00 PM Sunday, tomorrow I guess we call a service tech in Whitehorse and find out what a 180 kilometer service call will cost!

There is a provision for manually pushing the slide back in but as it involves applying 150 pounds of pressure to the slide for 10 minutes—well 'nuff said.

Yesterday we made use of the Silverleaf program, which uses data from the rig's engine computer, to see how various speeds affected fuel use-I won't use the term “fuel economy”! It is hard to say for sure for such a small test distance (about 20 minutes) but we got about 10.4 miles per US gallon on a fairly flat gently winding road with a small elevation decrease of about 200 feet over the test run. Since leaving home to the BC/Yukon border it was 9.1 mpg; from the BC/Yukon border to here, maintaining about 55 miles an hour with one 20 minute run at 50 mph, the burn was 9.2 mpg I think.

Interestingly enough the last test run was at 60 mph (100Km/h) which allowed the transmission to shift into top or 6^th gear. Most of the trip so far has been done in 5^th, which the Allison Transmission manufacturer refers to as "first overdrive". 6^th gear is "second overdrive". Earlier less carefully watched runs indicates that running at 60 mph up a hill or against a strong headwind uses a lot more power (and fuel) than running 5 mph slower even in a lower gear.We are hoping the long runs later across the Canadian prairies will allow us to get an accurate picture.

I should mention that the notebook computer that we use for this is on the dashboard in front of the passenger, not the driver!

One more item of interest; while driving Art leaves one of his ham radios tuned to a local calling frequency and so far has only made one contact—a camper from New Brunswick which passed us southbound as we were northbound on highway 37 while we chatted!

Stewart, BC and Hyder Alaska plus the Salmon Glacier

This seems to have disappeared! I'll check the log book and search the archives for photos!

Prince Rupert to Hazelton to Stewart

In Prince Rupert the weather continued sunny. We were only staying one day here so did the “whirlwind tour”. Unfortunately the Railway Museum was closed for lunch so we went off for our own lunch in a small but very good restaurant, visited the excellent museum and then drove to Port Edward to visit the old salmon cannery. We arrived just a bit late for the tour but hadn't missed too much so joined in for the remainder.

Back in those days of racial profiling and discrimination, the society was very structured. Fishing was done by First Nations, Japanese and white fisherman, but each group kept to themselves. Labourers were primarily Chinese. All management of course was white. And of course, each group lived apart from the others. Management each had their own houses and "naturally" the plant manager had the biggest house. Unfortunately for him, a few years later the fish waste rendering plant was built directly opposite. The smell must have been something else on a summer day!

Many of the old buildings are still standing and many have been fully restored.There was a company store where the company would offer credit to the cannery employees, thus ensuring they wouldn't leave--they always seemed to owe more than their pay brought in.

Next day we headed east on Highway 16 traveling to the Hazeltons where the Bulkley river flows into the Skeena. There are three towns here: Hazelton, often called Old Hazeton to differentiate it from New Hazelton a few kilometres away, and then there is South Hazelton which we didn't visit. Our campground was in the original Hazelton where we spent most of our time.

The road to Old Hazelton crosses a narrow deep gorge of the Bulkley River via a long, high single lane suspension bridge. This is the fourth bridge at this crossing. The first was built by the indigenous people before the arrival of the whites using poles lashed together with cedar bark rope. We are told by the historical stories that the women carrying packs crossed first to test the structure while the men scrambled about below with long poles reinforcing where necessary! After the arrival of the whites it was reinforced with steel cable, obtained from the crews building the telegraph cable. The bridge lasted 50 years before being replaced. The current bridge hangs 80 meters (262 feet) above the water. In the top right of the right hand photo you can just make out the supports for the previous (not the original) bridge. (click to enlarge)

The Ksan village is a reproduction of type of structures originally here. Ksan means “Place of the Mist” We took the tour here and found it very informative and interesting.

That evening we were able to use our Starchoice satellite system to view the TV news from home. (Note added later: this would be the last time for a while we would be able to get a shot at the satellite because of trees or mountains!)

In the morning we packed up and backtracked about 40 minutes to the junction of Highway 37, our route north to meet the Alaska Highway. We fueled here then began the run up the 37, almost immediately missing the turn to Gitwangak, a small village with the largest collection of totempoles still in their original location. There was no place to turn around on the highway so we carried on. A little further on we turned off the highway onto the Kitwanga North Road to see an Historical site, Battle Hill. This once fortified village was occupied during the late 1700's and early 1800's. It has close historic ties to Gitwangak, the history being depicted on those totem poles.

By the time we saw the sign ” Historic Site” it was too late to make the turn! We continued on for a few kilometers until the road re-joined the 37 and we turned south—to make another attempt at Gitwangak and Battle Hill! In the left photo Battle Hill is the mound to the left of centre. The Kitwanga River can just be seen to the right. It flows into the Skeena just west of the 37/16 junction. (remember click to enlarge the pics.)

A little farther up the highway was the turnoff to the village of Gitanyow, another village with a large number of old totem poles so we stopped once again for a look and more photos. Some homes even had their own individual totem pole.

Having finally seen the sites, taken some photos and learned a little about the history we were northbound once again on 37 with Trekker keeping a close watch on the GPS and Silverleaf while Gillian was busy taking pictures through the window.

We made one more stop about this time, 45 minutes at a rest area for lunch. Here while walking the dogs Gillian noticed a duck struggling near the far bank of the fast flowing river, its head barely above water and frequently falling below the turbulent surface. We suspect that its foot was caught in some obstruction. It was very fatigued and would not last long. Unfortunately, being on the wrong side of the river there was nothing we could do. Very sad.

Some 150 kilometers later we reached Meziadin Junction and turned west on 37A to Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska. It was a picturesque drive and along the way we stopped for a closer look at the first glacier. At a very reasonable 4:30 PM we pulled into the Bear River RV park just at the outskirts of Stewart. We booked in for 2 nights and got settled in. Art tried the Starchoice satellite but the mountains were in the way. Oh well, the campground was equipped with cable so we were able to see the Vancouver news at least.

Port Hardy to Prince Rupert

MV Northern Expedition

We woke this morning 15 minutes before the alarm was due to go off, which was just as well. By the time we had made our ablutions, made the bed, brought in the slides and walked the dogs it was time to get ready to load BC Ferry's MV Northern Expedition for our 15 hour voyage through the Inside Passage to Prince Rupert.

Foot passengers wandered on first then the motor cycles, then a delay as a few more walkers arrived, then the cars started loading, one at a time as each boarding pass was checked. Obviously many people didn't have theirs handy-- they rummaged about as the patient staff waited. Every so often another few pedestrians would arrive and the cars waited until they had meandered down the ramp and along the car deck to the stairs or elevator. So the loading progressed. One vehicle, . . . then another, . . . and another . . . etc. etc. It didn't take long to see why they start loading a 6:00 AM for a 7:30 departure!

Although we had not arranged a place to meet on board Art found Gillian without any trouble, nursing her morning coffee. On the passenger deck just out side the entrance to the cafe we were surprised to find a table providing free coffee and tea as the restaurants would not be open until 7:00 AM. Nice touch—especially as they charged us $20.00 to park overnight in the lineup!

Shortly after departure we made our way to the cafe for breakfast. Nothing spectacular but reasonable cafeteria food. We were pleased to find a few tables against the wall with accessible power plugs for the laptop so we decided to take the opportunity to bash out a few more words on the word processor, ready to cut and paste to the blog when we next get internet access.

As we passed Cape Scott, the northern end of Vancouver Island, we entered Queen Charlotte Strait. An announcement advised that the we may feel a bit of motion as we entered this section of open water and pointed out Pine Island light house on the mainland side, one of the few known nesting places of the rhinocerus auklet. Yesterday's sun was long gone, no sign of its re-appearance this morning. Soon the mainland to starboard was only a blue grey silhouette a few miles away while to port a grey sea met a grey sky with the blurred outline of a ship on the horizon.

As the morning progressed the sky slowly brightened and by the time we had finished breakfast things were looking up. Returning from our first trip down to the car deck there was a lot of blue sky and soon we were out on the deck watching the scenery go by. It was still cool so before long Art returned inside and in a bit we went back to the cafe for lunch. Food has been ok, though so far we have spent over $50.00 on breakfast and lunch with dinner still to come! After lunch it was time to go below again.

The dogs of course are not permitted above the car deck so they were left to snooze the voyage away. There are set time where the car deck will be opened for 15 minutes so we will have time to check on them once in a while and let them out for a few minutes. The first two breaks, one at 11:00 and the second at 1:45 proved to be futile in the attempt to have them relieve themselves—they seemed to believe that they were still inside, though the floor was steel not wood, tile or carpet and they would not go.

Back up to the passenger decks Art returned to the cafe for coffee and lemon pie while Gillian carried on to the sun deck where Art later joined her.

The day progressed, the weather improving minute by minute. We took dozens of photos--one day I'll figure out how to setup albums in Picassa and how to link said albums to this blog. One day. Then I'll comeback and setup the links. Meanwhile:

























The photo on the left is of Butedale






The voyage wore on--long but enjoyable, thanks in part to the beautiful scenery, enhanced by the warm sunny weather. The vessel itself was very pleasant, new, clean, very up-scale. The staff too were very friendly and helpful.

Four times during the trip we could go down to the car deck to care for the dogs. The third time down Gillian took the opportunity to raid the fridge for the remains of the fruit pizza made at Buttle Lake. Back up above the pizza stayed uneaten and soon it was time for dinner after which we had no room at all! The food was excellent, so during the last permitted trip below for the dogs (for which we interrupted our dinner) Gillian brought the pizza back down, placing it on the dash while she got the leashes for the excited dogs. See it coming? Tia had another pee but Trekker knew that no matter how much we coaxed him, this was "inside" and he wouldn't go! Gillian even stayed beyond the alloted 15 minutes but to to avail and eventually returned topside.



Eventually we began to see signs of civilization again and were soon called to the cardeck to get ready to disembark. Gillian went directly to the car as she didn't want to upset the dogs by arriving then leaving again while Art went to the motorhome. We would meet up at the RV park less than a kilometre up the road. Art was greeted at the door of the motorhome by the pups. "Who, me? What pizza?" All he could do was laugh and take a photo!



At the campground Gillian already had us registered by the time Art arrived with the motorhome so she took the dogs for a much needed outing on the grass while Art set up the rig.

Week One of "Mexico, the Long Way Round"

We were a little late getting started this morning. Due in part to a barbecue last night at the neighbours we were a tad late getting to bed!

Hopes (dreams?) of rolling by ten or eleven soon gave way to reality; we pulled out of the drive a few minutes after 2:00 PM! Rather than negotiate the winding Mark Lane with attendant risk of on coming traffic forcing us to stop, unhook, backup etc, Gillian set off in the tracker, Art in the rig, meeting at the top to hook up. As we climbed back tothe motorhome, finally really on the road, someone exclaimed "Damn! My purse in on the dresser!" As we didn't have a dresser in the motorhome Art quickly realised that this wasn't good news!

Unhook, Gillian went back the 6Km or so to the house in the tracker. Returning, we hooked up the tow car again and set off--at 3:ooPM

We made a quick stop at Cassidy to meet up with niece Angela who had a pair of boots that one of Art's sisters had left behind. We arrived at the Light House RV Park at Fanny Bay at 5:540 and got set up, Art filling the water tank while Gillian walked the dog.

Art noticed spots and traces of oil on the hood of the tow car, which on inspection, proved to have come from under the hood of the car and not, fortunately, from the rear engined motorhome!
We had had a service and oil change on the car last week; the dip stick wasn't firmly seated and it apppears that the low air pressure area behind the motorhome had sucked some oil out!

A quick wipe with paper towels and we were ready to head off to deliver the boots and spend an enjoyable dinner and evening with Art's sister and family who live just up the road. We remembered to return the boots! Had had visions of them accompanying us on our trip!

Back at the rig we soon went to bed--sleeping in until almost nine next morning! There had been rain over night but it was all over by the time we got up, the day promising to be quite pleasant.

There is wireless internet here,hence the quick postings. We will spend part of today (and many others!) sorting out "stuff" that didn't have a place but we wanted to take; one large box and a couple of grocery bags of, among other things, various chargers, papers, tools, etc etc.




Art also took the opportunity to wash the oil off the car. Later that afternoon all the Island siblings arrived for a visit with us at Light House RV Park at Fanny Bay so we were able to spend some time together before we leave the Island for 10 months.

On the 14^th we proceeded to Butle Lake in Strathcona Park for a three day rally of the Vancouver Islanders, a chapter of Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) The evening was rainy in fact down right soggy. However we had an enjoyable time, barbecuing steaks, with baked potato and salad to compliment them.

The morning dawned bright and sunny. Dinner tonight was to be a potluck so all we had to do today was a casserole. Gillian made a sweet potato and cranberry casserole which we had sampled for the first time last week and had begged the recipe with this in mind. Trekker was ecstatic with the proximity of the lakes and his own personal bay and gravel spit to play in and on!



The 16^th was also a nice day, spent relaxing and visiting. Dinner was spaghetti with sauce, salad, garlic bread supplied by the organizers and followed by a dessert contest:

Desserts were to be cooked by an “alternate” method—anything but using a stove was acceptable. There was everything from home made solar ovens to home made cardboard and aluminum foil BBQs! Gillian's fruit pizza cooked on our regular BBQ won a prize.

The solar panels and controller are performing well, the batteries fully charged by end of the day even with high mountains and tall trees. The sun is not over the mountains until 8:30 and is behind the trees by 3:00PM—still several amps going into the batteries at that time.

Then we back tracked to Comox to visit an old friend who we haven't seen in many years. Here we took the time and opportunity to do some laundry and have a luxurious shower without worrying about water and let the dogs run around in the yard with Tawny, a geriatric Malamute cross. Then we stopped off at an off leash dog park where Trekker and Tawney chased a tennis ball for a while before being confined to the cars while we went out for dinner.

Now our trip started in earnest. We turned north again enroute to Port Hardy, to catch the ferry to Prince Rupert. First however we stopped off at London Drug to buy a few items--including a new camera. This to replace the Cannon that disappeared a few weeks ago. The last time Art saw it was when he piled a handfull of stuff on the roof of the car when he needed a free hand to open the door. He remembered packing other things away but doesn't remember the camera!

The new Nikon is 14 megapix with a 26 X optical zoom and will take a while to get used to. At the sight of the 200 page manual Gillian commented “This looks ominous!” and started with the “quick start guide” as we set off, hoping to at least get down the basics.

We arrived in Port Hardy in plenty of time for a look around town, looking for, in particular, a car wash. None to be had in town! South again to the ferry terminal at Bear Cove we stopped at the turn off at the Welcome to Port Hardy sign for a photo of AbqL.

Photo of Art holding AbqL in front of the Port Hardy sign. (Click the photo to enlarge)

Now I guess would be a good time to explain "AbqL"

Back in Albuquerque, at the FMCA South West Convention, the North West Area had a booth advertising their up coming North West Area Rally in August of 2011 (yes, next year). They had a basket of rocks displayed with Abq written on one side. (ABQ is the international aviation identifier for Albuquerque Airport and Abq a common abbreviation for Albuquerque.) We signed up and were the 50th to do so, so we chose a rock from the pile, the number 50 written on the other side and AbqL was born. (50 being L in Roman numerals)

The idea is to photograph your rock on your travels, e-mail in the photos and location, and at the Rally in 2011 the most traveled rock will win a prize!

We arrived at the ferry terminal by 5:00 PM, checked in and paid $20.00 to park over night in the lineup! Loading starts at 6:00 AM so Gillian set her alarm for 5:30. Having seen Gillian's morning start-up speed Art was a bit worried but hoped for the best.

We had un-hooked for loading in the morning so the Tracker was parked a few lanes over. Soon a truck towing a large boat arrived, the drive bought his tickets then un-hooked the boat and took the truck to town in search of dinner. Art had a close look at the boat and was very tempted! (click the photo!)

Since the batteries were full we fired up the inverter and set the satellite dish to searching for the StarChoice satellite and within a few minutes we were watching the 6 O'clock News from home. At seven we shut it down and took the dogs out, had some appies and a drink then thought about something for dinner—the last of the Mazatlan prawns with pasta and red peppers and the last of Art's “Margarita Salchichas” as the sauce.

Sometime around here a small mink made an appearance near the garbage bins and in spite of our best efforts with our new camera we managed only one picture of the little thing from the back and a closeup of the bottom of the garbage bin!

Since we had to be up so early in the morning we had planned to get an early night. Those plans were put off when the incoming ferry made it's appearance some time after nine. By the time it had finally docked and unloaded any chance of an early night was long gone—we finally made “lights out” at 11:30!