The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Grocery shopping in Whitehorse, and Sherman's welding job is done!

We had an 8:30am appointment at a local auto body shop, but when we got there and he actually saw the job, he recommended a welding shop on the other side of town.

This problem has been with Sherman since before we bought him in 2007! And it's a common problem on all of these types of units. But it got worse with all the bumping around in Mexico this past winter and I've been wanting to get it repaired for quite a while.

It's actually the lower mounts of the rad support. The design right from the factory was poor, and the one on the driver's side was broken and not properly repaired before we bought Sherman. The passenger side had also been repaired at some point.

And I had made a bolt on brace before heading down to Mexico, but all the bouncing around ended up breaking one of the welds from someone else's repair job, and my bolt on brace did no good.

The problem is that the steering column mounts through the floor and is braced at the firewall, and the floor section at the firewall didn't really have any support. So when you went over a bump, you could feel it through the steering column as the floor would flex a bit at that point.

So we went over to Tamarack Welding here in Whitehorse to see what they could do. Chris looked at it and said "yep, it's a common problem and we've fixed lots of them". He said they had a busy start to the day though, and he would send us an email sometime around 3:00pm for us to return to get the job done.

So then we went to do some grocery shopping.

Whitehorse is a city of about 28,000 people. So, it's big enough to have a few major grocery stores. Everyone had warned us that grocery prices would be higher up here, and so far that's been true in the smaller centers that we've visited.

But here in Whitehorse, it wasn't as bad as we were expecting, provided you shop around a bit.

There are three major stores really close to one another. The Real Canadian Superstore has a big store here. And there's a small Walmart, and a small Save-On Foods. There's also a Your Independent a little further away.

We went to the Real Canadian Superstore first because they have a points program and we knew we had a $10 credit available to use. There, we found that if you shop around and buy some stuff on sale, prices were not any different than what they would be in any major city on Canada. So we did most of our shopping there, and then went to Save-On Foods. We definitely found them to be more expensive than the Real Canadian Superstore, but we still picked up a couple of items. And then to Walmart. But the Walmart in Whitehorse is not a Walmart Superstore and just has a small grocery section. The milk was cheapest in Walmart.

Overall, the prices were cheaper than what we had been led to believe they were going to be.

Then, we went and wandered around town a bit. We walked the path along the river for a little ways.

Ruth, by the Yukon River.

The modern Whitehorse Museum, built around an old log cabin.

Totem Pole.

Raven Steals the Sun by local artist Philippe Leblond.

It is to remind all Yukoners that despite the long winter nights, there is always the promise of the return of the sun come springtime.

Then we walked over to The SS Klondike II, an old sternwheeler vessel that was in service on the Yukon River from 1937 to 1955.

It's now mounted on land, and is run by Parks Canada, with free admission.

Ruth, with the huge paddle wheel.

The SS Klondike II. 

Us, with the SS. Klondike II.

We were just about to enter the boat when I received a message from Tamarack Welding saying they were ready for Sherman! So we quickly went back to Sherman and drove back to the shop. When we got there, Chris told us to pull the front end into the shop, and we could stay in the motorhome while his guy did the repairs. 

I couldn't believe how fast they got it done. I was expecting two to three hours, and this guy was done in 1.4 hours, and that's what they charged us for. 1.4 hours, at $124 CAD per hour plus materials and tax came to $208 CAD ($165 USD).

We are happy campers, and so is Sherman!

We decided to stay close to town overnight. Our friends Jean and Art are about 10 kms the other side of town, so we went up to the college public lot and parked overnight there. School is out at this time of year so it's pretty quiet up there.

Sherman, parked at the local college.

Beautiful blue sky this morning, so we're going to head out to Miles Canyon and go for a hike! Then, we have an appointment with Yukon Tourism at 3:00pm this afternoon!

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Dremel tool on sale!


And in Canada...




17 comments:

  1. Nice to have Sherman all fixed up, and stocked up. I heard once that at the White Horse airport there is a stuffed bear to warn visitors of the size of these beasts and to treat them with respect...

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    1. It is so nice to have Sherman's little welding job all done. He doesn't have many squeaks now and it will make driving the Dempster Highway much more comfortable for Kevin.

      We haven't been to the Whitehorse Airport before so we don't know if there is a stuffed bear there or not. We will be near it today maybe we will go and see.

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  2. I love that they built the new museum so that the log cabin is preserved! What a great idea!

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    1. We love the way they did that as well. It is actually very new because they are still working on the inside part of the museum. We may even go there today to visit it.

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  3. So fun to see the trip in better weather! We were 2 years ahead of you and 2 months later in the season - RAIN! 52 consecutive days of rain!, but that's part of the adventure. You are getting me inspired to do it again, not so sure about Fran :) Looking forward to your visit to Dawson City and Top of the World, we missed both due to flooding. Glad you took the day to have Sherman fixed, it's a long way between service up there.

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    1. Luckily we haven't had as much rain as you had but since arriving in Whitehorse it has been overcast and rainy so it was nice to see some sunshine on this day and yesterday was even nicer. I read that July is normally the wettest month of the year so there may be rain in store for us too.

      It is going to take us time before we get to Dawson City, there are still things to see here in Whitehorse and then lots of stuff on the way up. The Top of the World Highway won't be until we return from Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk providing the road will be open for us and in decent shape. And then of course the Top of the World Highway will need to be in good shape as well, our fingers are crossed.

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  4. Good deal on the welding! I suppose they see a lot of results of rough roads and have learned to make proper repairs.

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    1. We were very happy with the price of the welding job and happy with the results of it as well. It seems like they do lots of work on trailers, not travel trailers so much but on flat bed trailers, probably taking equipment up to work sites on all the dirt roads. Surprisingly enough the main road is in half decent shape for the most part.

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  5. "we found that if you shop around and buy some stuff on sale, prices were not any different than what they would be in any major city on Canada." Does that mean expensive? ;)

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  6. Loved your pics of Whitehorse, especially the modern museum built around the cabin.
    I know you're having a great time (except for minor inconveniences, like fixing a motor home!)

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    1. Thanks, we are enjoying our visit here in Whitehorse. We like the innovative way they built the new part of the museum around the old telegraph office as well.

      It wasn't really an inconvenience, it fit into our schedule fairly nicely and we are glad that we finally got it done after all this time. :-)

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  7. Nice to get that welding job taken care of after all this time. Preventive maintenance pays off . Shopping the sales is the way I buy groceries, and the Super Store and No frills around here are great with their rewards program gets us a lot of free groceries every summer. Keep enjoying a travel safe.

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    1. Yes, it was nice to finally get that welding job done and it is so much nicer. We will put the weld to the test over the next couple of months but it seems pretty strong and we are happy campers.

      It is always a little harder shopping the sales in a different town because you don't always know what is on sale at each place but if we want something and it is too much at one store then we will just pop over to the others and see if it is cheaper. The stores are all close together so we don't have far to walk and we have the time. It is nice to have the points card, it sure helps lower the grocery bill. :-)

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  8. I loved the mammoth exhibition!

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    1. We went to see it yesterday, it was very good, Kevin should have the post up on it soon. :-)

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