Alaska -- Day 10

These raindrops pretty much tell you about this day in Great Falls, MT.

 

 

The temperature was 42 degrees when I woke up.  I think the day's high was 45.  Now, at about 7:30 pm, it is 39. 

 

It was a good day to stay inside and not go anywhere.  We did do the laundry—three machines full, then four dryers worth.  John prepared postcards for our grandchildren; I finally wrote thank-you notes for Mother's Day gifts.  John did more genealogy research and I read a magazine.

 

When we had a period without rain, we walked around the campground, getting in a couple of miles.  I tried out a new recipe for dinner.  That is about it.  For the past 25 days we have traveled or had repairs done or visited family or been tourists.  Today, we just lived our life.

 

Monday, we will be going into Canada.  We don't know how often we will have internet access.  It will mainly depend on whether we are in commercial RV parks or provincial parks.  Even when we can get a signal on our Verizon MiFi, I learned it costs $20 for each 100mb of use!  We won't be doing any surfing or reading blogs at that rate.  And cell phone coverage will be limited to areas along major roads and probably not exist in the Yukon.

 

Eight years ago when we drove to Alaska, we put away the cell phone in Houston, BC,  when I discovered that unlimited roaming means it is unlimited as long as you have more minutes of non-roaming calls in the same billing period.  We relied on payphones for the rest of the trip.  And internet was only available by plugging into a jack on the side of a payphone or getting the RV park staff to let you plug into the fax line.  I remember that AOL provided a way to download all your email, without opening them, then we read them offline.  I don't think that is possible today. 

 

When we were in Anchorage, the park had instant telephone hookups.  We got one and used dial-up internet a lot.  Today, we don't have dial-up access.  And Bear Paw RV in Valdez had DSL lines available to campers.  I made the 2-block walk from our "Adult Only" section to the office once or twice a day.  When we were in Petersburg, AK, on the Inside Passage, the harbor master's office let us use their fax line to check email.

 

I know it will be better this time.  But we are still going to be experiencing a change in our daily routines:  no satellite TV and limited internet.  It will probably be good for us, don't you think?