Old Crow: John Tizya Centre

Every visit to Old Crow should include a stop at the Peter Tizya Centre. It's not just the amazing and informative interpretive displays that make it worth a visit, it's the friendly people who work there, too.

An interpretive display outlining the lay of the land.

Ice-age bison skulls, beadwork, and ratting canoes - Oh, my!

Everything (that isn't behind glass) is hands-on. It's a great place for kids, too.

It's amazing the things you can learn here! Who knew that you could eat cave carrots to get your daily dose of iron and calcium!?

I'm not exactly "Mr. Fashion" but even I know that jacket's amazing. What incredible beadwork!

Speaking of incredible beadwork!

Custom headphones for those chilly winter days.

It's the little details that make this place so amazing.

What I've shown here is just the tip of the iceberg. As I said at the start of this entry, every visit to Old Crow should include a stop at the Peter Tizya Centre.

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Inuvik: First Base

As the plane descended, I craned my head to see around the person sitting in the window seat. I was looking for recognizable geographical landmarks on the approach to Old Crow. Spying a large body of water off in the distance and an unusual number of lakes, creeks, and rivers, it didn't take me long to figure out that we were not landing in Old Crow.

My mind raced. Did I doze off and miss our stop in Old Crow? Did I, somehow, get on the wrong flight? The plane was about to touch down and a bunch of large, unfamiliar buildings whizzed by. Where the heck are we?

It was then that I remembered that Air North's Monday flight to Old Crow stops in Inuvik before looping back to Old Crow, Dawson City, and then Whitehorse.

I was in Inuvik! My first time in Inuvik!



It was a short visit; just enough time for the passengers to disembark, the ramp crew to exchange luggage, the plane to be fueled up, and the passengers boarded for the next leg.

I didn't see anything of Inuvik on our short stay - aside from the airport. I can say I've "been there" but I haven't really been there yet. It was sort of like the traveling equivalent of reaching first base. Maybe not even.

I have no doubt I'll make it to Inuvik for a longer visit someday. In the meantime, I'll keep visiting Inuvik Phil's site, inuvikphotos.ca. When I do make it back, I look forward to taking some more pictures of my own.

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It's a Wunderful World...

I first heard about this ad on CBC's "Age of Persuasion" and just had to look it up. If you want to add a little levity to your day, run the video below BUT DON'T WATCH IT THE FIRST TIME - JUST LISTEN!



Good ads make people want to buy and right now I want to buy one of those. I wonder what my wife will say.

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Applied mathematics.

Inspired by the accommodations where I was staying last week, I developed the following mathematical formula. In terms of practicality, I think it rivals anything Einstein ever came up with. E=mc²? Psht.

Solve for x, where x is x times grosser than any other gross smell you've ever smelled.

lim	f(x)	=	am(1/d)
d--> 0

where

d = distance from baseboard heater (cm)
m = number of males who stood while urinating since the last time the baseboard heaters were cleaned
a = the Aim Factor

The Aim Factor

a = h^wb

where

h = average height of males
w = amount of water consumed (L)
b = amount of booze consumed (L)

Assumption: The baseboard heater is on.

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It's all in the branding...

I picked this up at the grocery store today. I wanted to try something new. It was Fawn who pointed out the great tag line.

Now 50% more "hygienic" than the leading brand!

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Into the storm...

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It was a gloriously warm and sunny day as I began my drive back to Whitehorse from Beaver Creek.  As I got closer to Kluane Lake, the wind began to gust.  It was a strong wind and I could feel it pushing on my car, trying to force it off the side of the road.


I was driving under a baby blue sky but could see nothing but dark, grey skies past Burwash Landing.


By the time I passed Destruction Bay, the imposing grey dominated the skies.



Then, just past the lake, the stretch of road between the head of Kluane Lake and Haines Junction started to disappear in near white-out conditions.


As the snow accumulated, the wide soft shoulders began to disappear making it nearly impossible to tell where the road ended and the ditch began.  Vehicles heading in either direction started using the middle of the road - or at least what they thought was the middle of the road.


As I pulled into Haines Junction, the storm vanished as quickly as it had appeared.  The rest of the drive into Whitehorse was fast and pleasant.

There's nothing like a little inclement weather to make a road trip more memorable.

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