Going To The Doctors

So yesterday I went to Whitehorse to see two doctors. I had my regular appointment with my GP and then I had to see an Obstetrician because I am having another VBAC. They have both recommended that I go “down south” for the birth because I have support down there for childcare and anything else I might need. I would probably drive just because I would be gone a month or two and the sheer volume of stuff I would have to bring for the baby and kids makes it easier. Also there is the problem of my van being left at the airport and not having transportation while I am away with my family. As soon as I hit the Alberta border I have friends and relatives so it is just getting through the Yukon and B.C. which would take 2 or 3 days of driving. About 2000 km to get to Alberta and then I have to go to the other side to get to my mother’s house. The doctor’s say that medically speaking my pregnancy is fine. It is just all the “what ifs” that they are worried about. Doctors up here have to look at the whole picture as many people live in remote places without any facilities and in this case they just want to make sure I have the least amount of stress possible.

So I took some pictures of my trip to Whitehorse. I only go through one town so it is just the highway. It is the middle of April so although it is “spring” that means something different. It is a time of changeable weather. Basically it snowed for parts of the trip.

This is the highway from the side of the road. This is heading in the direction I needed to go.

Here it is the other direction with the sign indicating where to turn to get to Faro. It wasn’t snowing at the time that was just what was left from winter and from the night before.

The Robert Campbell Highway. There aren’t any shoulders and in the winter when you never see the highway (they don’t clear down to bare road) you drive down the middle of the road until you see an oncoming car. They sand the middle of the road only in most cases.

On the left is the beginning of Little Salmon Lake which is frozen. It thaws out sometime in June. The road begins to wind around the lake for about 35 km.

This is the unpaved bit which doesn’t look much different except there aren’t any lines. There isn’t a lot of gravel on it but it wasn’t as rough as it can be particularily at the end of the summer.

Then it started to snow.

The Klondike Highway. This is the second major highway of the Yukon after the Alaska Highway. The snow had stopped obviously.

This is another frozen lake called Fox Lake. The rivers are starting to break up a bit but the lakes are pretty much frozen over still.

After my appointment I decided to drive back but around Whitehorse it was snowing quite a bit. That cleared up a ways out of town and was pretty much a repeat of everything above. I only saw one animal on the drive and that was a moose outside of Faro. I couldn’t find my camera before she (?) ran off.

So there you go. That is how my trips to the doctor go. It is 350km but pretty much looks much the same with different mountains and lakes as you go along.