So back to Canada
“How do you spell Canada?” “C eh N eh D eh”
They even refer to their national team as the “Eh team”
OH Canada....
We decided to wiki the word Eh....and here is what we found:
The only usage of eh? that is exclusive to Canada, according to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, is for "ascertaining the comprehension, continued interest, agreement, etc., of the person or persons addressed" as in, "It's four kilometres away, eh, so I have to go by bike." In that case, eh? is used to confirm the attention of the listener and to invite a supportive noise such as "Mm" or "Oh" or "Okay". It essentially is an interjection meaning, "I'm checking to see you're listening so I can continue."
"Eh" can also be added to the end of a declarative sentence to turn it into a question. For example: "The weather is nice." becomes "The weather is nice, eh?" This same phrase could also be taken as "The weather is nice, don't you agree?".
Depending on the speaker's tone or the dialectal standard, eh can also be perceived as rude or impolite, as "Repeat that!", and not a request.
Further examples of Canadian usage include: "I know, eh?" (Agreement), "Yeah, eh?" (Agreement; tone of voice changes meaning slightly). "I know. Eh!" (Pause between 'know' and 'eh' and emphasise 'eh'. This is an excited agreement.) Although technically questions, these are also said as statements.
The usage of "eh" in Canada is occasionally mocked in the United States, where some view its use - along with aboot, an approximation of a Canadian raising-affected pronunciation of about - as a stereotypical Canadianism.
Funny.
Anyways....
Back to the Yukon. Our next leg of the journey was from Watson Lake on up to Dawson City.
A night of Camping in Whitehorse. Cute little campground. Me and chris were perfecting our salsa, and the old couple next to us insisted that we take their radio (from the 1970's)...while not exactly salsa music, it was a nice gesture. Campground camaraderie....gotta love it.
And they made sure to tell us all about their trip through the top of the world highway (where we are headed) and to make sure that we stop in Chicken, Alaska. Okay, great...will do, thanks.
They were about the 3rd set of RVers that have said the same thing....go to Chicken...must be a cool place, that Chicken.
And how many times can two people cross the continental divide really? Its ridiculous. It must be divided into hundreds of little pieces.
The road up to Dawson City was not as bad as we had anticipated, but creepy, it was.
There were just piles and piles, and piles of dead trees all piled up. And there was smoke. Everywhere. And there was this car full of drunk boys that tried to mess with Chris while i used the potty at a rest stop. Kids these days, I tell ya. [Seriously, drunk...leaving the gas station with 2 bags of ice for their leftover beers.]
And then the epitome of strange days, or daze.....Dawson City. want to talk about creepy.
There was this music festival going on....basically a town full of drunken mad youngans. So much aggression filled the air. It is an old mining town that really has not changed since the late 1800's.
Dirty...literally. Dirt roads and all. Drunken people lined the streets. We were told by these nice guys to make sure to go to this one bar, and this one casino that had has a show...Diamond Tooth Gerties.
They also told us that if we slept in the car to make sure to leave the keys outside the car or you can be charged with a DUI....hum. [Put the keys in your gas cap area they say!]
And after being harassed by a few boys walking down the street, we decided to duck into the bar. I think it was my favorite bar ever. Dark, Red, Old, Dank, really Dank, and The Barnacle was playing the piano. I love barnacles...except when you get hit in the head by a wild buoy covered in them that knocks your mask off and punctures your skull while surfacing in 10 foot waves in the middle of nowhere....buts that is another story. I once saw a barnacle the size of a grapefruit that was scraped off a turtle. crazy.
but The Barnacle was this old pirate that played the piano and sang some tunes in his pirate voice.....He was amazing. Barnarific.
Hey, did you guys hear about the new pirate movie coming out?
Its rated RRRRRRRRRRRR. Get it? rrrrrrrrrrr matie.
Then, as we were sitting there drinking some of Canada's fine brew (their beer sucks) the boys from the road walk in. Great. I look over at Chris and we begin to devise a plan of how we are going to whop their booties if they try to mess with us. I was going to take the short one down with a beer bottle to the head, and Chris was going to take on the other 5 with his kung-fu ninja moves. We were prepared.
They were drunk as drunk can be, loud, obnoxious, etc....so we decided to blow the joint, but we had to walk past them to get out. Here we go....almost out the door....and out the door..... and “Hey, Denali!, Hey, Hey, Denali!” Of course I knew they were talking to us. I turn to look, and one stumbles out.... “Hey, is your name Denali?” [He nearly fell over the bouncer to get to Cori...so drunk. Meanwhile, I'm thinking, great...kung fu time.] Uh, yeah dude, how did you guess? Dumbass. Then a slightly older sober fellow rushes outside and shews this guy back into the bar. He then begins to explain that they are all military boys (He is the commanding officer for all of these belligerent cadets).....he apologizes for their behavior explaining that they don't get out much, and therefore don't really know how to act in public quite yet. Great. Canada's finest. Ha. [Really, thank God that dude walked out, it would have been kung fu kane (me) meets canada, eh!.]
Onto the show at Gerties. Really, we dont think this place has changed much in the last 100 years. And honey, it ant over until the fat lady sings, no ma'am. She was pretty good actually. But what the show mainly consisted of were 4 scantily clad young ladies shaking their tails. Of course it did.
After all, what would a gambling town be without alcohol, money, and half naked ladies.
We slept in the car....it was pretty nice actually....just really really bright. They sky remained at around a normal 5pm sunshine for the remainder of the night. Strange. But pretty cool since you don't have to worry about having a flashlight. You can read a book at 4 in the morning if you like.
At breakfast the next day, chris persuaded this poor old lady to have her photo taken. He is in love with her....stares at her photo all the time. sick. [i can be self-demeaning at times, and that photo makes me feel like a care bear inside. a sunny one.]
We stayed to catch one chick sing a bluegrass song about a dog that died on the mountainside, and then i went and chatted with this local goldsmith ....so unfair....she just goes out and pans for gold, and brings it back and makes stuff out of it....give me some!!!! And then, we were out. Oh, and I finally found a 1979 penny that morning as we were cleaning out the car....it made me happy. finally.
[that was kinda weird.]
Top Of The World, here we come, ready or not.
IT was fantastic. Really, it did feel like we were on top of the world. The whole area around there had been devastated by a fire a year or so ago, and you know what that means.....FIREWEED!!!!
These crazy flowers (Epilobium angustifolium), ingested by the natives for its high vitamin C and A content, and used to get the pus out of wounds. (Happy Kari?, that was for you!!!)
Pink mountains folks, think pink mountains. and you are driving on top of them. niieeece.
Im on top of the woooorrrlllldddd! okay.
Out with the old and on with the new kinda thing. Old growth down, new growth movin on in.
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