We achieved our goal, the Arctic Circle!

We left about 8AM and drove to the Arctic Circle today. We had planned to leave earlier but Ray went out to do a little maintenance, including adjusting the points. The car wouldn't start. I guess he fixed it until it broke. It turned out that the points housing was shorting out against the distributor case. A little filing & we were on the road.

Mileage at the Actic Circle

It had rained here for a couple of days but cleared up yesterday. The weather was perfect and the mud was gone. We took the Elliot Highway out of Fairbanks & stopped at the Hilltop Gas Station. A trucker approached us and asked if we were taking the cars to the Arctic Circle. He said that the cars would get beat up but he would warn the truckers that we were coming.  We stopped at a gift store along the way & bought Arctic Circle souvenirs. It was owned by a couple with 23 children, 18 were adopted. We ate some muffins at went on. At the Dalten Highway, the road turned to dirt. This was the bumpiest part of the trip. We ate lunch at the Yukon River Camp, got gas & headed to the Arctic Circle. The Yukon River Camp sold Arctic Circle bumper stickers. Of course we bought one. We went over many steep hills including Beaver Slide, a place mentioned in the Ice Road Truckers Television Program. When we were at the Arctic Circle, a man asked Ray some questions about the engine. Ray raised the hood & noticed that he needed to replace the fan belt. No problem, it was a quick fix. We were almost back to Fairbanks when we heard a lot of clanging noise. We pulled over & picked up the muffler shield from our car. It is now trash but we didn't have to repair anything. I guess all of the bumpy roads made the welds break. The total time was a little over 13 hours. Believe it or not this was a good time. This included  a lunch stop, 2 gas stops & a souvenir stop. 

Total miles to date are: 5,241. Our route was 390 miles to the Arctic Circle. The elevation at the Arctic Circle was 11,161 feet. Originally we were going to head out to Denali Saturday but I think we will take a day of rest and maybe clean up the "A's". There is supposed to be a car show in the area. Something tells me that we may end up there too!