It is 3am again. Meow. Meow. Meow. We closed the bathroom door tonight to keep Thomas out, as he spent most of the previous night meowing in the can. Well, here we go again. We had both woken up a couple of hours earlier, thinking it was later than 1am. In the process, it was quite noticeable that the cats were quite well-behaved. No such luck a few hours later. Thomas at least had a nice back window that kept his interest for while. The crying was a lot less intense than the previous night, and he let us get back to sleep about an hour later.
The thought on why Thomas would cry in the bathroom. At the old condo in Anchorage, there was a light fixture over the sink and toilet. It was strong enough to hold the weight of both cats. Sam would put a mat or a towel up there and both cats would spend hours lying up in the bathroom light. There was a big dresser in the corner of the bedroom as well. We stuck a mat on top of it. Thomas’s favorite places to sleep in the condo were these two places; high up. Neither motel room had something equivalent to these two places, where Thomas could lay down at the highest point of the room.
So, we woke up late today. There was no rush. Only about 150 miles to Haines. No point in hitting the road at the crack of dawn. I called to management to get a late checkout, so I could watch the ACC Championship Game. A noon checkout was fine. Shower. Coffee. TV. Wait, that Score channel told me yesterday that the game started at 1 Eastern Time. We crossed a time zone into Pacific Time Yesterday. It is now 9:45am and it appears the game is 8 minutes into the first half. What is the time zone for the Yukon Territory? Are these clocks right?
I’ll make this next part as short as possible. Begin Rant. Georgia Tech lost by 65-61. I hate Duke. GT was obviously the more talented team. We turned the ball over an insane amount of times during stretches of the game. We missed a lot of free throws early on. Despite all that, we still hung tough the entire game and even made a late run to cut a 10 point deficit to 1. Of course, the Dookies shot a full dozen more free throws than Tech, and it wasn’t from intentionally fouling late in the game. Of course they did. They are Duke. They always get the free throw advantage. Naturally, because they are Duke, they shot free throws extremely well. This is the part you will never hear from Dickie V on ESPN. The ONLY reason Duke won that game was because they shot free throws extremely well. Then again, if GT hadn’t beaten themselves over and over that game, we would have won it in impressive fashion. Sam’s reaction to the game: I wish Duke would stop getting to shoot free throws, because I don’t like these close-ups of that Singler kid. He is ugly. Yes, Duke was at the line so much in the second half that even Sam, who hates basketball, made comments about how often Kyle Singler got a close-up due to free throws. End Rant.
We packed the car (3rd different way in as many days), filled our travel mugs full of coffee and were on the road a little after noon. There was a sign leaving Haines Junction, heading toward the Southern Canadian/Alaskan border, saying “When lights flashing, conditions dangerous due to snow and high winds.” There were two red lights at either side of the sign. They weren’t flashing, but the left light was on and the right light was off. Ummmmm, what does that mean? The first part of the drive was clear and the scenery was up to the usual high standards of driving these Northern Highways. We were stopping at least once every 15 minutes for pictures. We drove slow, taking our time, knowing that the drive was short today. Eventually, the road went from pavement to white. Snow was blowing across the highway due to high wind. Ah, so this is what the sign meant. Not really dangerous, though. Just don’t drive too fast. At one point on the drive, we saw nothing but white. Road was white, the mountains were completely white, the sky was white. It was an incredible sight. The road still seemed fine. We had studded tires and all wheel drive. The side of the road was marked with these poles with reflectors on the top of them on either side. No traffic. It was a fun drive. At one point, we even saw someone off the side of the road, para-skiing. He was on a frozen lake, scooting around on skis with a parasail. It looked like a lot of fun. Lucy was up to her usual whining and trying to tear up anything in reach of the kennel in the back seat.
Eventually, we crossed over from the Yukon Territory to British Columbia and then to the border again. I predicted earlier in the trip that the Canadian Border Officers would be nicer than the American Border Officers. Of course, I was half right. The American Border Officers were pleasant, but we had an issue. Rather, I had an issue. We were asked the usual questions. Where are you coming from? Where are you going? Why are you moving? Check the passports. That is where the questions ended for Sam. Further questions asked of me: Can I see your Social Security Card? What is your birthday? What did you do in Anchorage? Do you have any proof that you are an attorney? Can I see your bar card? I need to get my supervisor. What is your middle name? Do you have a brother? What are your brothers’ names? What are their middle names? Have you ever had any problems crossing the border in the past? Door closes and the two border agents talk amongst themselves. Can you step out of the car, please? Me to agent: Is there a Matt Ellis out there with an arrest warrant? I was not given the courtesy of an answer. Do you have a distinguishable scar? No scar on your left arm? I thought they were about to have me take off my shirt in the snow. How much do you weigh? Where were you born? When was the last time you were in Indiana? My answers seemed to satisfy the agents who decided that I was not this person who probably committed some crime in Indiana. They were even nice enough at this point to give us a booklet on things to do in Haines. We were on our way, again, Southward and Downward to Haines.
There was definitely a weather shift as we headed down the mountain pass. The snow turned to rain as the temperature went up a bit. Road was wet, but easier to manage without snow and ice. As we pulled into Haines, it was obvious that we had left the Alaska climate we were used to. Welcome to the Northern most point of the Pacific Northwest. We saw the water. Mountains jetting up immediately from the coast. Low cloud-line. And it was raining. Coming into Haines, we saw about a half-dozen mature bald eagles. We kept our stopping at a minimum to get the cats into a motel room.
We pulled into Haines at sometime between 4 and 5pm. The town looked a lot like Seward, Homer or Kodiak, but a lot more worn down. Those former 3 towns are probably a lot more tourist friendly. We tried a few motels trying to keep the price down below $100. Half the hotels in town were closed for the season. That turned out to be impossible if we wanted someplace that didn’t look like a rat hole. We checked into the Captain’s Choice Motel, which has a nice view of the water. They apparently don’t change their prices by season. The woman at the front desk was nice, and cut the price down on our room and didn’t charge us for the cats. Just over $100. She was from Oregon and was here because of her husband. The 3 of us had a nice little chat about how much we like Oregon. In the room. Cats happy. Because the ferry doesn’t leave until 10pm tomorrow, we decided to pay $65 to check out at 8pm Monday rather than the usual 11am. That should keep the cats content for the day. They are about to spend the next 4 days in the car on the ferry. We’ll pony up a bit of extra money to give them some room for a few more hours. The rooms have become progressively nicer. The corner of the room even had a shelf over the clothes rack. Perfect place to put the mat for Thomas to have his perch. He was up there for all of five minutes, before he was more interested in looking out the window.
Now that I could get internet on my iphone, I checked the NCAA Tourney bracket. GT got a 10 seed and apparently was one of the last teams to get in. Dook got themselves a 1 seed with that win today. There is the difference between an underachieving team and an overachieving team. At least we are in. The basketball gods smiled on me a bit, though. GT doesn’t play until late on Friday, meaning we will be off the ferry and settled in Sequim when the game is on
We had kept our eating to granola bars and chips. So, we were starving. Not a lot of places to eat in Haines this time of year. The motel manager told us about a pizza place. There was a sandwich and burger place just down the street, but she said it was nothing special and expensive. Pizza it is! The pizza place about a mile back down the road looked more like an espresso stand than a pizza joint. $20 for a 12 inch pizza. Took it back to our room, watched the Simpsons and had wine for dinner. The pizza was surprisingly good. We crashed out early with the Northern part of the drive now over. Nothing to do tomorrow but pack back up, do some grocery shopping and get on the late ferry.
The cats are being good, too. Both of them seem very content in this room. The window gives lots of cool stuff to look at, as people and dogs keep walking by our room and down below, by the water. The high perch on the shelf seems to be helping, too.
Up Next: A day in the life of Haines, Alaska. The Marine Journey begins.
M.E.
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