Day 26: Fri July 29 "tombstone territorial park hike"

Day 22: Mon, July 25 "Fan Clutch recon in Whitehorse and off to Twin Lakes"

Thankful for the parking site at Hi Country RV park last night ($22)... And soooo thankful to find out that the showered are free... No loonies needed, AND they were clean and had ample hot water. Hurray! It has been a few days since we have all had a proper shower and Oliver's feet reek from wearing sweaty sneakers with no socks.

After such a late night, the kids were very sleepy this morning. Jonathan went and paid for our overnight since we rolled in after midnight last night, got the code for the shower building and went for a lovely long shower. I went next while he woke the kids up and got them eating cereal. I came back and collected the two of them and took them for their showers and scrubbed the dickens out of Ollie's feet with a bristle foot brush I brought along. Amelia doesn't enjoy showers and it was harder to get her properly soaped and rinsed, but we managed!

Left Hi-Country at 11:45am after waiting in the line up at the sani dump. We drove into Whitehorse and grabbed lunch at Tim Hortons. Met some folks from Maple Ridge. So many people up here are from places close to where we live.

Jonathan dropped me and the monkeys at the very large and fun playground by the river front and he drove off to search parts stores for a new thermostatic fan hub (clutch). We both had some stresses ... Jonathan trying to locate a part and then also figure out the fastest and most economical way to get it within reach on our route. He made plans with NAPA to have it shipped to Watson Lake and we could have them install it when we drove back through on the way home.   ... Me dealing with over tired kids and Ollie needing to go to the bathroom but not wanting to use the outhouse at the playground, or the visitors center bathroom, despite many return attempts at both places. With the bribe of a cake pop at Starbucks, he managed to agree to use the visitor centre washroom on the third try and had success. We also visited the toy store again, and as we entered Ollie told Amelia , "we're not buying anything Meemee, we are just looking ok?"   this did not stop him from asking to buy numerous toys he found. Even Amelia kept asking, "Meemee buy dat, right now!" we had to evacuate the store when I discovered Amelia quietly picking her way through the opening of a cardboard box on a baby toy.  We also visited a book store that had toys in the back area. Ollie was interested in a kid's  Wild magazine that had an article on moths. I was going to buy them some funny faces stickers when Jonathan rang and tried to explain his frustrations and trials with getting the parts. I heard the kids screeching and thumping each other over the little shopping cart in the kid section and had to hang up in Jonathan and haul them both out of the store screaming. Oh dear. Once outside, it took a little while to calm down but he managed. We agreed to try again and they were great. I bought the moth magazine,  but no stickers. Called Jonathan back and we agreed to meet at the playground. Amelia fell asleep in the chariot on the walk over.

In the parking lot Jonathan installed the New u-bolts he bought so that Ollie could have his car seat across from Amelia (so he can see out the window better and cannot touch Amelia when he "stretches and exercises".)

Ollie wanted to show daddy the exercise park beside the playground. The same one that he wiped out in a big dirty puddle and got his pants and jacket filthy in. Another small calamity in our afternoon out.

I searched Google for a NAPA in Dawson City and they have an affiliate store... So we ordered the fan part from there and it will arrive Saturday. Will get it installed in Dawson City. Hoping it will help our fuel economy. Cancelled the Whitehorse order.  After sandwiches, we left Whitehorse around 5:30pm with Ollie in his New seat position and Amelia beside the other window with a better view.

We decided to stop before Carmacks at Twin Lakes - a Yukon campground ($12) at km 308. It was 8:15pm and Ollie had fallen asleep sometime around 7:30pm in his car seat. We made made the call to stop sooner and attempt to put Ollie straight to bed for the night. Turned out to be a wise choice! We pulled into site #13 beside another site that had two families with kids around Ollie's age. We prepped Ollie's bed up top and managed to get him into his jammies and up into bed with no disturbance.

Made spaghetti for dinner and for Amelia ready for bed around 10pm... She was asleep about 30min later in my bed. Ollie had woken up while I was snuggling Amelia and I managed to get Jonathan's attention outside (he was finally back to working on his chain carving after many days hiatus). Jonathan came in and soothed Ollie back to sleep after feeding him some apples and cucumber. Yay!

We were outside for a bit and I heard Ollie calling for me. I crept in and went uo to snuggle him. He said his legs bothered him and then he rolled over and went back to sleep holding my hand. I woke up sometime later and started to creep back down the ladder. I found Amelia face first on the floor at the bottom of the ladder sucking her thumb and fast asleep. She had rolled off my bed and had enough duvet piled beside her that she must have just slid gently. Oops. I put her to bed and then said goodnight to Jonathan who had just had a visit from the neighbour, Devon, and I hit the hay.

Day 23: Tues July 26 "Twin Lakes, New Friends, And Windy Day!"

Amelia was up again early and snuggled into bed with me this morning... The temperature drops quite a bit late in the night when the sun finally dips down. Will have to insist she wears her extra sleep sack tonight. 

We all crawled out of bed around 9am and had cereal for breakfast. Ollie was dressed in a flash after I told him there were some kids here to play with. The friendly folks next door have 5 kids between the two families... Age range 5 to 10 years old. As Ollie was peeking out the window the "gang" of kids rode by on their bikes. He wanted Jonathan to get his pedal bike down for him, and I grabbed his helmet. The oldest, Sally, came by and said hi and was super friendly and sweet. Ollie jumped on his bike and joined them on their bike ride along the camp road. It was so sweet to see him pedaling to keep up... He hasn't been too interested in his pedal bike as it is tricky to get started on his own. His new motivation to keep up with his new buddies was a perfect thing for him to get his confidence up. He was motoring around in no time!! 

We spied a site on the opposite side of the family we parked beside that opened up this morning and we moved our RV over so we could have a nicer view of the lake.

Jonathan pumped up the dinghy and used his awesome invention he crafted at home to quick-release the chariot wheels to, and we wheeled the boat down to the dock from our site up the hill. We were all geared up to go out and it was too windy. Our little electric motor was not powerful enough to combat the mini waves and on shore wind. So, we waited. And waited. Ollie paddled in the water and soaked his pants and hoody (still wearing his life jacket). He encouraged daddy to go swim with him... So dutiful daddy went to the end of the dock with Ollie and he jumped in. Yikes! Chilly! But Ollie jumped in like he said he would and almost panicked at the shock of the cold water. He held it together as daddy swam him to shore and Ollie climbed out. Once out, he was all smiles! Pretty cute.

We tied up the boat and walked back up to our site for some lunch. Our neighbours on the opposite side are an interesting older couple. The guy had said hello earlier when we were hauling our boat down. He had some advice on fishing for pike. They had been up at Ethel Lake and had caught loads. He was a big bellied guy with a grayish yellow ponytail and weathered face. He was rough but very friendly and invited Jonathan over later to chat about fishing. We had seen him picking mushrooms when we walked back to our site. When Jonathan popped over after lunch to say hello and get some more fishing tips, I went over with the kids, too. The couple were cooking up a huge fillet of pike and sauteeing batele mushrooms at the fire. She was a biologist and had worked for the peace corps and also for alaska fisheries. She knew all about the edible mushrooms around here and showed us the big batele mushrooms she was splitting up. Instead of gills on the underside, they have long tubular pores. They showed us all the food they were cooking up and described the delicious taste (but didn't offer a sampling, kinda funny). She told us about the shaggy mane mushrooms too so we would be on the look out. Oh, and they had two friendly Aussie shepherd dogs called Fred and Wilma. 

Jonathan set up the slack line and all the kids really enjoyed playing on it. (Grown ups too). Sally, Micah, and Ezzie tried to get Oliver to eat a soap berry (edible but icky), but Ollie was too wary to eat it. Amelia tries one and didn't seem too fussed about the whole deal.

Ollie and Amelia did some rock art and painted a bug stick. Ollie worked quite hard on his painting and created a lovely work of art. Amelia watched for awhile (wearing her shell bead necklace grandma and papa had given them from Hawaii) and then squatted down and joined in. "Meemee try".

We gave up on the boating excursion. The wind never died down. The guy next door came over and drew us a little diagram on how to tie up our boat in this wind so it would not get damaged. We had already decided to go down and unload it all and haul it back up.

We socialized with the two families on and off during the day. Super nice folks... They love in Whitehorse and were headed up to Dawson City the next day too. Devon's mum owns and runs the Gold Rush RV park in the town. Sally, the 10 year old had already been pitching it to us as a place to stay and even said that if we say that "Sally sent us", we would get free shower tokens ;-).   We decided we would try our luck there anyhow, since it was right in town and we could poke around the city easily. 

Spaghetti dinner super late and kids into bed by 11pm. They went to sleep easily, which was lovely... They had such a busy day.

This was our second night at twin lakes... $12 per night. Pit toilets and free dry firewood. Self pay at the box. Pumps were not working for th water, but we had plenty in the RV tank  Very nice! 

Day 22: Mon, July 25 "Fan Clutch recon in Whitehorse and off to Twin Lakes"

Thankful for the parking site at Hi Country RV park last night ($22)... And soooo thankful to find out that the showered are free... No loonies needed, AND they were clean and had ample hot water. Hurray! It has been a few days since we have all had a proper shower and Oliver's feet reek from wearing sweaty sneakers with no socks.

After such a late night, the kids were very sleepy this morning. Jonathan went and paid for our overnight since we rolled in after midnight last night, got the code for the shower building and went for a lovely long shower. I went next while he woke the kids up and got them eating cereal. I came back and collected the two of them and took them for their showers and scrubbed the dickens out of Ollie's feet with a bristle foot brush I brought along. Amelia doesn't enjoy showers and it was harder to get her properly soaped and rinsed, but we managed!

Left Hi-Country at 11:45am after waiting in the line up at the sani dump. We drove into Whitehorse and grabbed lunch at Tim Hortons. Met some folks from Maple Ridge. So many people up here are from places close to where we live.

Jonathan dropped me and the monkeys at the very large and fun playground by the river front and he drove off to search parts stores for a new thermostatic fan hub (clutch). We both had some stresses ... Jonathan trying to locate a part and then also figure out the fastest and most economical way to get it within reach on our route. He made plans with NAPA to have it shipped to Watson Lake and we could have them install it when we drove back through on the way home.   ... Me dealing with over tired kids and Ollie needing to go to the bathroom but not wanting to use the outhouse at the playground, or the visitors center bathroom, despite many return attempts at both places. With the bribe of a cake pop at Starbucks, he managed to agree to use the visitor centre washroom on the third try and had success. We also visited the toy store again, and as we entered Ollie told Amelia , "we're not buying anything Meemee, we are just looking ok?"   this did not stop him from asking to buy numerous toys he found. Even Amelia kept asking, "Meemee buy dat, right now!" we had to evacuate the store when I discovered Amelia quietly picking her way through the opening of a cardboard box on a baby toy.  We also visited a book store that had toys in the back area. Ollie was interested in a kid's  Wild magazine that had an article on moths. I was going to buy them some funny faces stickers when Jonathan rang and tried to explain his frustrations and trials with getting the parts. I heard the kids screeching and thumping each other over the little shopping cart in the kid section and had to hang up in Jonathan and haul them both out of the store screaming. Oh dear. Once outside, it took a little while to calm down but he managed. We agreed to try again and they were great. I bought the moth magazine,  but no stickers. Called Jonathan back and we agreed to meet at the playground. Amelia fell asleep in the chariot on the walk over.

In the parking lot Jonathan installed the New u-bolts he bought so that Ollie could have his car seat across from Amelia (so he can see out the window better and cannot touch Amelia when he "stretches and exercises".)

Ollie wanted to show daddy the exercise park beside the playground. The same one that he wiped out in a big dirty puddle and got his pants and jacket filthy in. Another small calamity in our afternoon out.

I searched Google for a NAPA in Dawson City and they have an affiliate store... So we ordered the fan part from there and it will arrive Saturday. Will get it installed in Dawson City. Hoping it will help our fuel economy. Cancelled the Whitehorse order.  After sandwiches, we left Whitehorse around 5:30pm with Ollie in his New seat position and Amelia beside the other window with a better view.

We decided to stop before Carmacks at Twin Lakes - a Yukon campground ($12) at km 308. It was 8:15pm and Ollie had fallen asleep sometime around 7:30pm in his car seat. We made made the call to stop sooner and attempt to put Ollie straight to bed for the night. Turned out to be a wise choice! We pulled into site #13 beside another site that had two families with kids around Ollie's age. We prepped Ollie's bed up top and managed to get him into his jammies and up into bed with no disturbance.

Made spaghetti for dinner and for Amelia ready for bed around 10pm... She was asleep about 30min later in my bed. Ollie had woken up while I was snuggling Amelia and I managed to get Jonathan's attention outside (he was finally back to working on his chain carving after many days hiatus). Jonathan came in and soothed Ollie back to sleep after feeding him some apples and cucumber. Yay!

We were outside for a bit and I heard Ollie calling for me. I crept in and went uo to snuggle him. He said his legs bothered him and then he rolled over and went back to sleep holding my hand. I woke up sometime later and started to creep back down the ladder. I found Amelia face first on the floor at the bottom of the ladder sucking her thumb and fast asleep. She had rolled off my bed and had enough duvet piled beside her that she must have just slid gently. Oops. I put her to bed and then said goodnight to Jonathan who had just had a visit from the neighbour, Devon, and I hit the hay.

Day 20: Sat July 23 "Tarfu Lake to Atlin"

Well our night at Tarfu Lake was nit the best. Jonathan had been complaining about a queasy stomach all evening and about 2am it hit him. Thank goodness for our bathroom. Poor guy. He figures it was something he ate that didn't agree with him. Amelia woke up crying at that time too so I had to deal with putting her back to bed before I could offer sympathy to Jonathan. Once Amelia settled, I switched beds with Jonathan so he didn't have to clamber. Up and down the ladder if he felt yucky again.

Got uo at 9:30am and had to ruse the kids awake. Decided on a quick cereal breakfast and packed up. Left Tarfu Lake around 11am and made it to Atlin around noon. Beautiful drive! Very cool mountain slopes. Apparently the road to Atlin had only recently been paved.

First stop in Atlin was the Pine Tree Services gas station (75L @ $1.35/L) and Jonathan bought brake fluid to top up the master cylinder. We popped across the road to the laundromat but all machines were busy. We then drove a few blocks and followed the signs for the
Norseman RV park which was located right at lakeside by the marina. As soon as we parked, a friendly older guy ambled over and offered us a local Atlin paper and inquired if he could assist us. We confirmed we wanted to stay the night and we parked in close to the "little green shed" that housed the WiFi router. We paid the extra $5 for the patchy WiFi. I asked Norman if he knew Helen Matson, (family friend and my former grade 5 teacher!) and he said he he did and he hadn't seen her yet but he thought she was in town. He pointed put her grey house on the water just up from the marina and said she had sold it recently was was staying next door!

The view of the lake and little marina was so beautiful!! What a great little place. We loaded up three big bags of laundry in the chariot, with Oliver, and I put Amelia on my back in the ergo. Jonathan rested on the couch and the kids and I walked into the main part of town (very tiny) to the log house style laundromat. I was annoyed at myself for forgetting the laundry soap and Ollie helped me buy two boxes from the coin machine. They are good little laundry helpers! We managed to get two loads in and the machine for the soap vending jammed and we couldn't get a third. I strolled the kids over to the playground 2 blocks away and we played until we had to back and put the laundry in the dryer. Prices were good there... $2.75/load to wash and $1.50/load to wash. The kids loved the playground so much we went back again between loads. It had something for every age... Little mini playground structure for Amelia and a bigger one with twisty slide. Huge wooden and chain climbing structures that Oliver loved challenging himself on. He even mastered the swinging monkey bars!

On the way back to the laundry place we saw daddy zip by on his bike. He couldn't hear us  shout for him and we ended up completely missing each other. Kids and I collected our clean laundry and headed back to the RV. Turned out to be locked but daddy rolled in a minute after us.

We kept the one bag of dirty towels with us and packed the laundry soap and ventured off to knock on the door of Mrs. Matson's house in hopes of finding her home or at least leaving a note.

The entrance to the residence was above a garage, on a high deck overlooking the lake. We shouted hello when we heard some noises. A lady came out on the deck and peered down at us over the edge... "Mrs. Matson!!" I called. She smiled and looked puzzled and said, "yes!". I told her who I was and she was surprised and delighted to see us. We went in for a little visit. I didn't realize she and her late husband were both born in Atlin! Had a nice chat... Kids were not on their best behavior but not too bad. Kept it short... Snapped a photo to send to mum and left her place with a lovely fillet  of lake trout that she had been given and had in her freezer, along with three delicious muffins.

We stopped in the laundromat again for the last load and hit the playground AGAIN  with daddy. It really is a great playground surrounded by grassy fields and mountains. Jonathan zipped with Ollie on the bike to change the laundry over and after more playing they headed back to start dinner while Amelia and I retrieved the dry clothes. She is a good little helper bringing me each article one at a time out of the dryer, "heeeeya go mama!" each time. Xo. In the 5 min We waited for the dryer to finish we perused the extensive selection of romance novels on the book rack in the corner. I was intruiged by the book that stood out as quite different than the romances... "How to be an Executive's Wife" c.1968. Lots of great advice in there in how to elevate your husband's career and "how to shush the kids, behave at work socials, and make your home a haven for your husband to come home to".

Got back to the RV to find chef Jonathan starting on the yummy bbq'd potatoes, steamed veggies and pan fried lake trout.

We tried for an earlier bedtime (9pm) and it went terribly. The kids feed off each other's energy and we had lots of tears. I read Oliver some his transformer book and then went down to re-settle a hysterical Amelia that daddy was keeping guard over so she didn't escape her bed. By the time we got them asleep, it was almost 11pm.  We gotta change things up!! Tomorrow morning we vow to wake them earlier !

I tapped out yesterday's blog but was unable to post it because of patchy WiFi. Ah well.

Day 21: Sun July 24 "Atlin to Whitehorse, and a friendly meet up!"

Beautiful sunny morning wake up lakeside in Atlin. Rustled the kids awake at 8:30am. Jonathan cooked a fantastic pancake, eggs and fried potato breakfast for us all. Loving our morning view today! We have had an interesting array of breakfast views out our little "dining room" window... Amazing lakes, poplars, spruce, ponderosa pines, old wrecked cars, gravel desert, huge RV buses, government buildings, mechanic shops... !! This morning's view and the view from Muncho Lake are my favourites so far.

Oliver was very keen to visit the playground again so we promised a stop before we left town. (Though Atlin is not technically a town... It is unincorporated)

Had a great play for 30min or so att he park before we hit the road to get back north to the Yukon again and go to Whitehorse. Our plan was to patch up our 12ft dinghy and do a 3 hour float down the river to the Takhini Bridge. We had spoken with the canoe outfitters when We were last in town and they gave us a map and advice, etc. It seemed like an adventurous thing to do, and we we're told it was a slow easy float.

On the road away from Atlin we stopped at Marsh Lake 1-2pm for a little picnic snack and to let the kids play at the little wooden playground. We went down a little path to the beautiful sandy beach and dug in the sand, collected little water snail shells and sticks that looked like "dog dogs". Lots of tiny flies there...  We had to hold our breath as we walked through clouds of them back up the path.

We had heard a grinding noise near the back of the RV and so we stopped in at John's Automotive, forgetting it was Sunday. Two very friendly mechanics wandered out and chatted with Jonathan and suggested a couple things. They open at 9am tomorrow and we will swing back by there tomorrow to get it looked at.

Into Whitehorse, Jonathan dropped me and the kids at superstore to stock up on milk and other things and he zipped over to home hardware. We found Amelia a new pair of rubber boots size 7... She can barely fit into her little ones We brought. We lucked out... They had 3 pairs left, all size 7, and They were on sale for $4.97! She emphatically chose the pair with the cats on them.

After getting picked up by Jonathan We drove over to the river side and parked by the cultural centre. We got the dinghy out and Jonathan repaired the little hole with a patch kit an lots of tuck tape. We unloaded all the life jackets and snacks and warm fleece etc. Jonathan drove the RV to the bridge while the kids and I played by the dinghy in a grassy and gravel area. We were in touch with our friends Paul and Caroline from vancouver who were in Whitehorse celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. They were going to join us on our expedition and Paul had picked Jonathan up at the drop site. While waiting for them to arrive back at the boat launch, a very nice older gentleman rode up on his bike. He had paniers full of stuff and hanging caribeaners and things. He seemed very outdoorsy. He stopped and assessed the scene... He asked how many chambers our boat had. (Three) and 

Tbc 

Day 19: Fri July 22 "Whitehorse to Carcross"

Jumping ahead a little... It is too tiring to tap out the past few days of information involving the RV breakdown. I will try to fill that in another day! Here is the lowdown on yesterday instead!...

We had a good night's sleep last night after visiting the Takhinni Hot springs. Had a great little campsite at the Hotsprings Campground surrounded by thin poplars with gently rustling leaves.

Amelia slept better in her sleepsack combination and slept in until 8:45am... Whew! Jonathan made us a lovely pancake and eggs and sausages breakfast as per his specialty. The friendly  office staff came by at 11:15am to advise us it was past check out time but that she would not charge us the extra $20 fee of we could clear out by noon. So, we did our best to pack everything up... Jonathan doing most of it while I tried to dry dishes at the picnic table while also engaging in Oliver's game if freeze tag that he was trying to teach Amelia. She was quite delighted to chase him around. He then changed the came to hide and seek in the thin forest at our site but I was not comfortable with him wandering off and ducking out of sight! - so he and Amelia and I walked a short  path to the base of a large rocky hill and climbed to the top. Pretty exciting stuff. On the way back to the RV Oliver suddenly shrieked and dropped the stick he was carrying. I thought he got a sliver or something. He was crying his eyes out and said, through sobs, that something hit him on the finger. ??? I figured a bug or something but he said no. Just then, a pinecone fell from the tree above us. A little red squirrel was scurrying around and plucking them off, eating the seeds and chucking the cones. One had hit Ollie right on the knuckle and left a mark! Kinda funny. (Ollie was only convinced this was ok after daddy told him it was good luck to be hit by a squirrel cone).

We filled the water tank and emptied the black and grey water tanks at the Sani station there and finally rolled off the property around 12:45pm. Still avoided the extra night fee.

We drove to Whitehorse again to return some parts at NAPA and get money back on the old master cylinder we returned to recycle. I popped over to the liquor store to buy a bottle of wine for us to thank Denise at NAPA who was the wonderful lady there that Jonathan talked to over the phone from Nugget City and who found us the right parts and hooked us up with her customer, Erin from Watson Lake Motors, for the quick and free delivery of the part that night.

Jonathan did the NAPA exchange while I took the kids to a little playground at the elementary school across the road. Those two rascals just light up when they get to a new playground. They have been to some super fun ones!

When we got back to the RV, Jonathan was inside chatting on the phone with Al and explaining some our our misery we had been through at Nugget City. He then called Grandma T for a minute and she had Vinnie and Billie Rose visiting! Ollie and Vinnie got to exchange hellos.

We had decide to take a little detour and head south via Carcross, YK to Atlin, BC. We reached Carcross around 4pm. It was very strange to see the landscape change... Sand dunes!! In the middle.of the mountains! We rolled in and parked by the stairs that lead down to the beautiful sandy beach. The wind was blowing and waves rolling across the lake. It felt like home! We met a group of tourists and they were quite interested in our old RV. One of the couples had an old camper van too and Jonathan gave them a quick tour while I took the littles down to play at the beach. What a neat little town! We stayed for a couple of hours just milling around and exploring. We visiting the oldest working General store... Met the lovely family that runs it. They are from Kelowna and come up each summer to run the place. Very friendly. We bought Jonathan a new checkered hoody fleece, since his went missing in the Bermuda triangle that was Nugget City, and a cute little red fleece hoody for Amelia and some very yummy ice creams!!!

At 6pm we were back on the road and heading south back into BC to reach the litw community of Atlin. It was farther than we thought and we made the decision to pull over and camp at the next available Yukon site after Snafu Lake. It turned out to be Tarfu Lake and was 4km in off of the main road we were traveling. It was a windy gravel road that got a little bumpy but not bad. We found a site we liked and parked. I heated up lentil soup (toot soup as Oliver calls it) for the Kids and leftover spaghetti for us while Jonathan zipped down and paid our $12 in the self pay envelopes and box.

It was pretty windy in there. Neat forest... Very scrubby. Ponerosa pine. Not many people there camping , but we did end up with a neighbour later in the night.

We attempted to put a tired Amelia down at 9pm or so. Now this is EARLY for these monkeys these days. It looked promising and then NO. Jonathan had take Ollie down to the lake to see the Bat box and so I brought Meemer out in the ergo for a cuddle walk around our site. We didn't have a neighbour at this point and it was a little bit creepy in the middle of nowhere. I didn't wander far! Amelia was getting closer to snoozing when Ollie and Jonathan returned (Ollie wearing Amelia's new coat) and that was it. Hopeless to continue the bedtime attempt. We made a cool dirt city instead... Ollie mastered setting up twigs in a teepee formation. Amelia set out speci rocks very carefully placed. It was very fun. Unfortunately we missed any kind of opportunity for a relaxed bedtime. We felt bad for our neighbours... Both kids had meltdowns. We got them to sleep eventually! And hit the hay ourselves soon after.

Day 14: Sun July 17th "Still Grounded, But Neat Day"

In an attempt to convince Amelia to get to sleep last night, Ollie slept in my bed (couch bed) beside her pack n' play and when Jonathan and I finally went to bed, I didn't want to move Ollie so I braved the Lion's Den again. It was not so bad up there above the cab. I seem to be managing my claustrophobic tendencies much better!

Amelia woke up at 5am shouting, "mama OUT!" but was still lying down in her crib. I tried to wait it out, but eventually climbed down and gave her a snuggle. She went ended up in between Jonathan and I up top where I realized her diaper had leaked through her jammeia and she needed a change. After insisting on her pink monkey jammies, she eventually snuggled in and fell asleep. We did not sleep well with the little wriggle worm, but it was ok.

Crawled out of bed sometime after 9am and Jonathan biked over to "our cabin" to retrieve the last of the contents of the fridge (mainly beer) and make sure nothing was left behind. Ollie spent a good 20min in the RV catching horseflies in a cup and releasing them to the outdoors. He is quite keen about insects and adopted a particular "pincher beetle" as a friend today... Playing with it with his little transformer toy.

Jonathan came back with lousy news that Roger the Mechanic was super sick and in bed and we should try again at noon to see if he was available.

It was already hot and blazing Sun by 10:30am and Jonathan cooked us eggs and sausages and toasted bagels on the camp stove and bbq...yum!!! After breakfast the kids played a bit of lego inside and when I located our big magnifying glass I  suggested Ollie may want to look at bugs with it. Jonathan got the idea of wood burning with it. He immediately set to work making a Tenta family sign. If we end up back in Watson Lake we will post it in the sign forest.

Jonathan went up to the main site and office to check on roger's status and also to call BCAA about any further suggestions and the possibility of having a tow to Whitehorse, and to send a message to Jonathan's friend in Whitehorse.

While J was back and forth I set the kids up with a bin of water to make "pinecone soup" and they had a blast dumping and stirring mud and rocks and twigs together for their "restaurant". Oliver is an excellent server! He found me a Spiderman colouring page for the menu and told me about the soup of the day (chicken) and their excellent lentil soup with bagels. I also ordered a chocolate ice cream with a cherry (pinecone) and smarties (pebbles) on top. Really great service!

We also made jello, which was very exciting to Oliver. He helped Amelia wash her hands and he tried very patiently to teach her how to make it (she was not remotely interested). Unfortunately, Ollie lost his privilege to eat the dessert after throwing a bike bell at his sister's head when we were inside the RV for a minute.

After realizing that having Roger work on putting our master cylinder back together was not going to happen today, we made a plan to walk to Butterfly Lake where Jonathan and Ollie attempted fishing last night. Jonathan carried Amelia in the c
Backpack carrier and Ollie hiked the whole way, tooting his explorer whistle to warn any bears we were coming through the woods. Jonathan and I both carried bear spray just in case. We did not meet any bears or see any sign of them during our 3 hour excursion. Nor did we catch any fish (trying for pike). Jonathan had borrowed some awesome lures from Larry the carpenter, but it was so swampy that it got snagged easily. We enjoyed the lake visit though... No beach to play at, but it was beautiful to look at from our little grassy outcrops.

On the way to the lake I spotted some unusual pellets which Jonathan guessed to be moose or elk droppings. We found four piles along the path... Some very dry and one pile less so, but not super fresh.

On the way back I spied a pile of dried up, hairy looking pellets that turned out, upon pulling them apart with a stick, to be fur balls. White short fur like a large cat... Cougar? Mountain Lion? Hmmm. Ollie was very interested, especially when we found a bone fragment in one. And even more interestingly, we found a large canine tooth in another pellet. It was about the size of a German shepherd tooth. Or large wild cat. Neat and kind of freaky to come across the furball of something that possibly ate something so big. We kept the kids even closer and took the short cut back to the RV!

8:30pm dinner of mongoli grill style chicken and veggie stir fry by daddy.  Ollie had earned his dessert back after being so good with his sister on the walk, and hiking with out any complaints (she was bagged and has refused to nap earlier and slept only a bit on my back in the ergo : she was great on the walk but soooo tired).

Amelia had a quick RV bath and Ollie and daddy went to the showers to get cleaned up. (Ollie was so dirty! So much mud and sand and grit. He soaked himself at one point and ended up playing in his skivves for a small portion of the afternoon! Thank goodness we are kind of out in the boonies in this gravel RV lot).

Kids had trouble falling asleep again (Amelia worked herself up but Ollie was just fidgety and well behaved). They did finally konk out.

Oh and I need to mention that Jonathan has been carving a chain out of a single stick of wood... It is quite impressive and a fun way to spend some of the down time we have.

We have been told that Scott will come and tow our RV back to the shop in the morning. Fingers crossed that Roger is feeling better and can get something figured out.