The Black Rooster RoadhousePRINCE RUPERT, BC -- It was raining and getting dark fast. We had just driven off the ferry into a town we'd never visited before. We were tired and hungry and we hadn't made any reservations for the night.
I wasn't worried, because it's the off-season and because Prince Charming had done a lot of research on Prince Rupert. Every night for weeks in the Skagway Public Library he'd pored over information on the town and various interesting and reasonably-priced lodgings.
He'd even made some printouts, at a quarter per page, of likely spots for us to spend the night.
I knew he had things under control, and could take us right to where we needed to go.
Silly me.
The printouts proved about as accessible, and as helpful, as the Dead Sea Scrolls. There we were in the dark, in the rain parked on a street in a possibly-bad neighborhood in an unfamiliar city while the Prince stood with the hatchback open, rooting around in five-months-worth of luggage in search of his Prince Rupert printouts.
After 14 years, I have grown to expect these sorts of glitches, which doesn't mean I enjoy them.
While I tried to refrain from saying what I really thought, we wandered around town for a while, hoping the Prince would spot something familiar.
Finally I discovered a tourist booklet on Prince Rupert in with some other maps in the passenger side door.
I looked up the lodgings section and began reading off names. Finally one rang a bell: The Black Rooster Roadhouse. It was on 6th Street and we happened to be on 5th. The Prince, knowing he was in big trouble, followed orders exactly as I navigated us just a few blocks to the door of a boxy and colorful building.
It was a clean and comfortable and reasonably priced. Our room had free wi-fi and this big black box with a picture on the front. A television! We hadn't watched TV in five months!
We were alarmed to see a weather report predicting a serious cold snap. Then we noticed the map of Michigan and Ohio behind the weathercaster. Channel 7 out of Detroit, for some reason, is very popular with Canadian cable systems.
Several of our favorite shows were on, and we didn't seem to have missed much since our last television experience in April.
Monday morning, our readjustment to the real world continued. We found a Safeway supermarket and marveled at the good quality and low prices of the produce.
I'd been rationing my last tube of toothpaste in our final weeks in Alaska. In Prince Rupert's Safeway, I was able to buy a new tube for less that half of what cost in Skagway.
Gasoline is 20 cents per liter less here than it is in the Yukon Territory locations where we bought a lot of gas this summer.
We might be able to afford to get home after all.
I just have to remember not to depend on the Prince to find our house.
I wasn't worried, because it's the off-season and because Prince Charming had done a lot of research on Prince Rupert. Every night for weeks in the Skagway Public Library he'd pored over information on the town and various interesting and reasonably-priced lodgings.
He'd even made some printouts, at a quarter per page, of likely spots for us to spend the night.
I knew he had things under control, and could take us right to where we needed to go.
Silly me.
The printouts proved about as accessible, and as helpful, as the Dead Sea Scrolls. There we were in the dark, in the rain parked on a street in a possibly-bad neighborhood in an unfamiliar city while the Prince stood with the hatchback open, rooting around in five-months-worth of luggage in search of his Prince Rupert printouts.
After 14 years, I have grown to expect these sorts of glitches, which doesn't mean I enjoy them.
While I tried to refrain from saying what I really thought, we wandered around town for a while, hoping the Prince would spot something familiar.
Finally I discovered a tourist booklet on Prince Rupert in with some other maps in the passenger side door.
I looked up the lodgings section and began reading off names. Finally one rang a bell: The Black Rooster Roadhouse. It was on 6th Street and we happened to be on 5th. The Prince, knowing he was in big trouble, followed orders exactly as I navigated us just a few blocks to the door of a boxy and colorful building.
It was a clean and comfortable and reasonably priced. Our room had free wi-fi and this big black box with a picture on the front. A television! We hadn't watched TV in five months!
We were alarmed to see a weather report predicting a serious cold snap. Then we noticed the map of Michigan and Ohio behind the weathercaster. Channel 7 out of Detroit, for some reason, is very popular with Canadian cable systems.
Several of our favorite shows were on, and we didn't seem to have missed much since our last television experience in April.
Monday morning, our readjustment to the real world continued. We found a Safeway supermarket and marveled at the good quality and low prices of the produce.
I'd been rationing my last tube of toothpaste in our final weeks in Alaska. In Prince Rupert's Safeway, I was able to buy a new tube for less that half of what cost in Skagway.
Gasoline is 20 cents per liter less here than it is in the Yukon Territory locations where we bought a lot of gas this summer.
We might be able to afford to get home after all.
I just have to remember not to depend on the Prince to find our house.
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