Back in the USA

The ride today was uneventful as far as car issues go.  We awoke to windy but sunny conditions. We drove down Canada Highway 1 South. You know it is windy when you are going down a 6% slope and you are having to accelerate!  We stopped at a particularly scenic rest area and a man said something to Ray & I about Peachtree City. We of course talked to him and his wife. It turns out that it was Bill & Lynne Jacobs. Lynn is the sister of Bob Smith from the Peachtree City Running Club that Ray & I are members of. They were looking for us because Bob had told them about our trip.  In fact, they saw us go by several days ago when we were in Whittier AK. Bill had passed us several miles earlier. They were ready with a tripod & camera to take our picture as we went by. It was a bonus when we unexpectedly stopped.              

We followed the Thompson River for a while today. It is very scenic, with white water rushing along and train tracks on both sides. We also crossed over Jackass mountain today. It was extremely windy and included 7 tunnels. I thought the name was interesting.  We ate lunch in Hope, BC. They had a lot of chainsaw carvings in this little town. Crossing the border was easy. It just took a few minutes mainly because there was a line.  Tonight we are in Everett, Washington, about 20 miles north of Seattle.

Today when we checked into the Hotel we noticed a gentleman behind us waiting.  When Ray walked out the man followed him. He was another car guy.  His name is Jim Hendry  and was driving a Model A Phaeton Replicar.  It is his daily driver rain or shine and has had it for quite a few years.  He is a local attorney, he reminded Ray of our own local banker/lawyer. 

Tomorrow we plan to do some site seeing. I think our total mileage is a little under 8,500 miles.                                                                                        

A Rainy Windy Driving Day

The guys did some maintenance this morning before the rain started. Ray noticed grease dripping from the hub cap. He checked out the bearings and decided to put a new outer bearing on.He repacked everything. Teri assisted. Jim retorqued the cylinder head on his car. Rose supervised. After a late breakfast, we were ready to go. It was sunny when we left but that changed quickly. Ray pulled into a rest area to find a rattle in our car. It was the tailpipe but he couldn't tighten it then. That had to wait until we stopped for the day.  It rained on and off for most of the day. Then the winds came. There were 40 mph cross winds. We were glad that we were only going 270 miles today. We are spending the night in Cache Creek. If things go as planned, we will be in Bellingham, Washington tomorrow. We have gone over 8,000 miles now.

Finally back on track

We left around 8:30AM and went through customs again. No problem. We went on our way towards Prince George. It is a long ride between fuel stops. We filled up before we left town. Three hours later we stopped at a rest area. A young woman there begged us for some gas. Jim gave her the two gallons he was carrying and he wouldn't take any money for it. We continued on to the next town, which was an Indian Village, Kitwancool. It had a lot of totem poles and was known to its collection. There were two gas pumps: status and non status. The Indians had a status card and got a better rate. We knew that the restaurants were rare on our routes so we bought some snacks for lunch. Lunch was chips with candy bars for dessert.

The countryside continues to be beautiful but it is overcast today and occasionally there are sprinkles of rain. East of East Hazleton, the landscape started to change. It was farmland and the only animals that we saw were horses and cows. Mountains were still a nice back drop. We have started driving through some small towns. It is as if we are back into modern civilization again.

Sixty miles from Prince George, Jim's car broke down. It was a blown head gasket. It took about an hour to fix it. While they were working on it, three cars stopped. Two of them were people offering to help and they owned Model A's. One of the guys took us to their house. He has three A's, 1928 Special Coupe, 1931pick up, and a 1931 Sport Coupe. They are beautifully restored. The pick up was recently judged and got 960 out of 1,000 possible points. We wanted to stay later but there were not any rooms in their town so we had to go to Prince George.  It started raining and and it was dark. It was very hard to see but we made it to our hotel. To our new "A" friends in British Columbia are: Bud, Lin, Dave & Susan. Thanks for your hospitality!

June 27th . . . We are fine just not in areas where we can blog

Recent Forest Fires

Bear Glacier

Main St. Hyler, AK

The guys finished putting Jim & Rose's A back together this morning. We ate a late breakfast and left for the Cassiar Highway. A short distance into our drive, a brown bear wandered out into the road in front of us. He wandered beside the cars, just looking at us, managed to get in front of Jim & Rose's car and behind ours. Then he slowly walked down to the edge of the road. A little while later, we saw a female moose and two babies cross the road.

140 miles from our destination, we had our first flat tire, on Jim's car. It was a quick fix and we were on the road again in less than 30 minutes. We continued to 37A and saw some amazing glaciers, waterfalls, and fast running water. We planned to spend the night in Stewart, BC but the hotels were full. We crossed the border (3 miles) to Hyler, Alaska. This town was a step back in time. We were able to get a room. It was only $69.00 There was not a phone, radio,  or television in the room. We went to the bar. It was almost 11PM. We got there for last call. Our dinner was 1 glass of wine for the ladies, 1 beer each for the men. Jim had some chips. Great dinner!  Yum! Happy Birthday, Teri! We met an interesting guy at the bar. He was from Romania and lives in Vancouver now.He was touring back roads on his motorcycle. I walked to the post office that morning. All of the streets are dirt in Hyler. When we left, there was a sign that read: "Hyler, the Friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska."

Animals sited today: 3 moose, 6 bear and a rabbit

Miles today: 399  Total miles: 7,286

An extra day in Watson Lake

The front main bearing was bad. After checking it out, Ray & Jim determined that it was necessary to replace the engine in his car. They had hoped to take out some shims but it was too far gone. Believe it or not, he had an engine with him.  There was a delay because they had to wait for someone to bring a lift. They were working hard and would have finished it up but a thunder storm came up and continued on into the night. Since they were working outside in the parking lot with no cover, they had to stop for the night.
Because of our delay, I have been learning about the area. They have a very small hospital here, smaller than the old Fayette Medical Center in Fayetteville.  Their phone book covers from Fort Nelson to White Horse, almost 600 miles and it is 1/2 inch thick. Rose and I went to the Signpost Forest today. Now their is a sign from Peachtree City & Marietta, GA posted there. There are over 70,000 signs now. People were very creative posting their signs. They used cookie sheets, metal, wooden signs, road signs, street signs, & I even saw a flip flop sign.

No mileage updates today but I did notice that our blog site has had 7,756 hits, from 10 countries.

More soon.

We liked the Alaska Highway so much that we did 1/2 of it again...NOT!

We wore shorts today for the first time in about three weeks. The temperature might reach 82 degrees. The Alaska Highway was much better today. We crossed the Nisutlen Bay Bridge. That bridge is metal and very pretty to look at but it has metal grates on the floot of the bridge. It doesn't work well with the skinny "A" tires. You feel the pull as you drive across. I hope that is the last of those kind of bridges.

We have noticed that there are lots of gas stations, restaurants, & hotels closed down along the Alaska highway. It must be hard to make it here in the wilderness. The Mile Post has been my "bible" along the highway. I know where rest areas are, road construction areas, local hotels, and lots of trivia.

We stopped to get some gas and to check something with Jim's car. Ray was busy helping him & forgot our gas can & forgot to close up the trunk.  Five miles down the road an RV passed us, the people in it were pointing to the trunk. Ray pulled over, closed up the trunk, and we turned around to head back to the last stop to get the gas can. A truck flagged us down. They had our gas can! We thanked him and we went on. 
A little farther down the road, we saw a black bear and her two cubs along side the road. I tried to get a picture but it was too late. We are spending the night at Watson Lake, known for the road sign forest. We have a sign that we plan to put up there before we leave.

We will  probably stay here an extra day as there is a problem with Jim & Rose's car that the guys are working on.  We plan to leave the Alaska Highway and take the Stewart Cassiar Highway South,  probably on Monday. 

Mileage for today: 272. Mileage to date: 6,887.

We stayed just inside Canada at Beaver Creek last night.We left around 8:30 this morning.  1 1/2 hours later, we had only gone 40 miles. Needless to say the roads were terrible, dusty, & full of pot holes. After we ate lunch, it got a little better. We arrived in White Horse around 5:30 & found a hotel.  Walked around the area and ended up having dinner back at the hotel.  As you can see from the pictures I posted , even though it was dusty, there was still some pretty scenery.  It was an uneventful day and sometimes that is good!  Tomorrow it is on to Lake Watson & then south from there.

Mileage for today: 280. Total mileage to date: 6,615

Back in Canada

 

We left the hotel this morning around 8:30AM.  Valdez is a beautiful area.  Our route was Alaska Hwy. 4. Just outside of town, we came upon two magnificent waterfalls. It was amazing to see so much force and volume. The first one, Horsetail Falls, had a nice turn off in front of it so we were able to park the cars in front of it and of course, take pictures. The next one was just around the next curve. It was twice as big but not as good for pictures. A few miles farther down the road, we saw a turn off for Worthington Glacier State Park Recreation site  We were able to get a nice close up view of the glacier. There were warnings posted about not walking on it and to watch out for falling ice. It was a great close up view.

Our first gas stop was at Copper Center. People were buying lures and weights because they were fishing for sockeye salmon. The store owner was coaching them to fish at the bottom of the stream because the fish were swimming 1 1/2 inches from the bottom.

We were only about 30 miles from the Canadian border when two Model A's (a coupe & a Tudor) went past us. Of course they stopped and we stopped. The first thing that they said was that they were glad to meet us because they had been hearing stories all across Canada about us. (He said that they were good stories.) These two men are cousins. One is 83 years old & the other is younger but he didn't tell his age.  They are cousins. Jack Savorn is from Maine and his older cousin, George Staples, is from New Hampshire.  They left home June 5th and are camping along the way but they don't know exactly where they are going or how long they will be gone but are definitely enjoying their time out on the road together.

When we crossed the border, for the third time, the agent noticed that Jim, Rose, & Ray had not signed their passports. It was not a big deal, they just had to sign them. (I did notice that it took a woman to notice it.)

This is the first night that we are back in Canada. We will probably be here 6 more nights. If you need to get in touch with us, e-mail or the blog is the best way.  I will load pictures whenever possible. If you have not checked, I loaded some last night.

Miles driven today: 355    Total Miles Driven: 6,335