For Dads

To the Dads of all the people I love.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. Hopefully you got to cook red meat on an open fire to celebrate.
Or got a phone call from an offspring or two. Or a card. Or an e-card. Or an actual gift that you don't tie in a knot around your neck.
It is nice to be remembered in any form on any day.

A new way to have fun.

We went to Whitehorse Friday night. We arrived at 10:15, about an hour before sunset. We got a hotel right away and zonked out. We were supposed to be at the repair shop (air conditioning) promptly at 8:00 am. So we arrived at 7:45. The owner and three employees proceeded to move several vehicles around. They used a forklift as a tow vehicle to move one old car. The forklift was left running while other things were done. We think other things were done, as the four men were all moving about from place to place. A truck was moved out and parked on the street, and left running for at least an hour that we know of. The forklift was still running, but no longer in use. The owner asked me to move one of the buses into the first bay of the garage. There was a minivan on the lift about four feet off the floor, so I just stuck the nose of the bus in. Then Peggie and I sat in the other bus and watched the fun. One of the young employees lifted the hood of a pickup, then went inside the garage. Nobody did anything to our bus. Then the young man came out and looked for something that he apparently couldn't find in the engine compartment of the truck. Then he went into the garage. The owner and another youngster put air in the tires of a derelict and pulled it out of what looked like the waste and junk pile along the back fence with the forklift. Which was still running. On the hood of the derelict 80's model was a box with what looked like a transmission in it. The owner and the young man messed with the driver's door for a while. Then they both went somewhere else. Then one of them carried what looked like a tank of freon (or whatever they use nowadays) over to our bus. They opened the hood. Then they went somewhere else. The kid with his head under the hood of the pickup still couldn't find what he wanted, so he went inside the garage. Then he came out and looked around some more. After about six repeats of this procedure, the owner stopped by. Words were exchanged and the owner tapped something in the engine compartment and walked off. Apparently this was what the kid looked for, because he went into the garage and returned with some kind of electronic meter, hooked it up and stared at it for a while. Then he did about three more repeats of the look under the hood, go into the garage routine. Then he came out with twelve feet of cable, which he coiled on top of the engine. Then he looked at the ends of the cable. Then he looked at the engine. Then he got under the engine. Then he got back out and looked at the ends of the cable. Then the owner, who by now had hooked the freon (or whatever they use nowadays) to something on the bus, came over. Words were exchanged. The owner showed the kid where the cable ends plugged into something and disappeared again.
Two hours went by like this while Peggie and I visited and watched. I have never seen four people accomplish so little for so long. It was like a staged comedy. Then the owner came over and told us the bus was ready to go. So we took it and went shopping and to lunch. Then we got a call to return to the shop. The other bus was missing a key piece, which can be in Whitehorse by next weekend. So we paid and left at about 1:00 after a quick stop at the Superstore.
We stopped in Carcross to have coffee at Heike's. She took us over to a museum and we watched a video about the Tagish people and looked at the stuff in the museum. Then we continued to Skagway. We saw a bear just out of town. Then another one beside Tutshi Lake. When we got back to Skagway and stopped to refuel the buses, we spoke with another driver who had seen three bears on her tour today. She was pumped. Then we had to wash both buses. But the road construction zone was dry today, so the oily mud was not too bad.
Now it is bedtime again.

Happy Flag Day

We have no flag to fly. But I will remember that if I was at home, I would fly the flag tomorrow. Or today if you are reading this then. Or yesterday, if you are reading this the day after tomorrow. And so on.
The weather continues to be unusually warm. We love it. Not like being in Tucson when it is unusually HOT.
However, the heat seems to keep the bears out of sight during the day. Bad.
Worse, the road, which badly needs to be repaved, is being repaved. Washing the buses after going through the oily mud is impossible. We think they may be getting permanently stained. And it takes 3 times longer to wash them, eventhough we can't get them clean. Frustrating.
But the weather makes for great views of lakes and mountains, of which there is no shortage. And I believe I have mentioned that our new buses have air conditioning. That cuts down on customer complaints. Two older buses do not have a/c. Peggie and I get to take them to Whitehorse on Saturday to see if we can get the a/c fixed. We will get to have a nice meal at company expense. Cool. If you need anything from Whitehorse, just get us the money and your list before Saturday at 6 am.

Foxy Peggie

Peggie's tour saw a fox today in Carcross. Okay, Carcross isn't much of a town, but it is a town. With dogs all over the place. So it is surprising that a fox would feel comfortable trotting down a street.
I saw Candy and Billy today. Candy was without any cubs, so I guess all three have moved on. Or at least they were deeper into the shrubbery.
Road construction begins tomorrow on the Canadian side of the summit. They will tear up and reapply the asphalt. It will be messy for a while, but the road is so badly potholed that it will be a relief to have graded gravel. Even mud and/or dust.
The last of the ice is disappearing on the lakes in Tormented Valley. I expect it will all be open by end of the week. We are having a heat wave. I don't know the "official" temperature, but it feels like 80. Remember that is very hot for here.
Besides the dandelions, that don't seem to be attracting many bears, lupine, showy jacobs ladder and many other flowers are blooming along the road. Fireweed has started showing the green part of the plant. All the trees are leafed out now, except the alder at the highest altitudes, which are budding.

internet woes

Sorry to be so slow in posting, but we have such inconsistent internet connections that it is hard to get on.
That should be fixed on Monday when we get a router that is hard wired to the system. This was supposed to be done in May, but we finally gave up and got it ourselves.
So, Peggie has been driving every day this week and having a ball. The other day she was at a stop on Tutshi Lake when she saw a family of five caribou swimming across the lake. She also got a great bear sighting including a cub that climbed up and down a tree while they watched.
We had friends from Tucson in this week. They are riding the ferry and spending time in each of the towns and are now going to Anchorage and Denali. They rode along with Peggie yesterday and saw no animals. Today we took them on a drive and saw two bears. We had a picnic on West Creek under the glacier. It was a beautiful, mild, sunny day. We went all the way to Carcross, where we got coffee to go with Dave's birthday cake. It was the perfect day off.
Tomorrow is one of those slow work days. Peggie will man the office until all three rental jeeps go out, and I will drive a summit tour with six guests. (It is my turn.) Then we will have the rest of the day off. Of course, tomorrow we have a 60% chance of afternoon rain. That is not a complaint, just an observation.
Oh, I have named two bears, so far. One, near Fraser is Candy. Because she has (had) three cinnamon cubs. One is Billy (or Billie) because he (or she) hangs out near William "Billy" Moore Bridge.
And, we got our coffee in Carcross from our friend Heike who now has opened a coffee shop/sandwich shop in addition to her duties at the B&B she and her husband operate in Tagish. I first met her in '09 when she was wrangling at the ranch where we took people to ride horses. Peggie and I stayed at the B&B in '10 when we drove south at the end of the season.

Rarest of all sights.

On Thursday we got to see two bears on tour, bringing me to nine.  On the ferry, Peggie got to see a sea otter sleeping outside the terminal, and two whales on the way to Juneau. 

But, I also got a very rare (not seen by me before) sight: a caribou swimming across Windy Arm.  We watched while she swam the last third of the distance, came out, shook like a dog, and trotted into the woods.  Everybody was very excited. My camera didn’t know what to focus on, so it didn’t. One of my passengers had a better telephoto lens and agreed to email me her photo.  If so, I will post it.

Now that the first month is over it is clear that Heath has been able to greatly increase the business. Most days I have two tours with full or nearly full buses.  Usually, all four of us have at least one tour, with all but Peggie getting two. The timing of her tour prevents her from getting two. But for her first year, that is probably a good thing. The new buses are great.  They have A/C for those hot (72) days.

The ship schedule has the busy days from Tu-Fr  so we often will have a day off with one or two days on either side that are so slow that only one driver has to work. We take turns.