Alaska!
Prepare for a longish post…this being the result of several days’ travel …
14-Jun-10, Monday
The wind tries to rip us off the bluff as I now write, waiting for my supper, which is coming forthwith. Beyond the edge there lies but rocks and cliff, with frigid, choppy water below. We’re at Kluane Lake, easily one of my favorite locations along this route, and it is in fine form, with evening sunlight slanting through the dust kicked up by the wind, traveling over the water in a spectral fog, Penelope buffeted by the crooning gusts.
It never fails. Buy one can of clam chowder of an unknown brand and quality, and it will turn out to be some of the best (canned) you’ve ever tasted. Buy two or more, however, and it’s almost guaranteed to be the worst, or at least so insipid as to be not worth existing.
This stuff doesn’t hold a candle to Michele’s homemade clam chowder, but it will do, especially with a nice salad, toasted bread, and the last of the best cheap wine Canadian stores have to offer, ironically from California.
Sad, but true. The state of affairs concerning alcoholic beverages in Canada is another topic, complete within itself, that I care not to get into too much here, but besides the goofy laws and exaggerated taxation, this particular issue is the final factor in deciding NOT to move here! Of course we have our own problems here in the States, and even the most financially-challenged Canadians I’ve met seem to be generally happy, so maybe it’s not such an issue.
It is now eighteen minutes after ten o’clock, and the light persists. It is doubly strange in effect, as we are not only traveling to northern latitudes, where the summer sun lingers long, 
but we are approaching the summer solstice - the longest day of the year. Together, these contribute to very lengthy days, and it’s a little difficult to get used to, especially for those who live not by the clock, but by the sun.
Driving through the Yukon Territory is a wonderful thing to do, especially when one has the excuse of having a 63-year-old vehicle with which to plague those who have busier and better things to do than watch our rounded behind as we creep up the long hills in 2nd gear. Things DO look better at 42 mph, though. I recommend it.
Back in Kitwanga, at the free camping at Centennial Park, just across from the garage “Dollops” where we performed the last radiator flush, Michele talked at length to the editors of The Milepost, the annual publication that is recommended for travelers through Canada and Alaska. This large periodical contains many many advertisements for lodges, restaurants, garages, tour services, etc., but amidst all that is a mile-by-mile accounting of points of interest, historical data, turnouts and rest stops, grades both up and down, and other valuable information for the traveling motorist. These nice folk happen to live in Homer, and were very generous and kind. They were on their recon mission for the next issue. What a job! As a parting gift, they presented Michele with a copy of the previous issue, and this helped us enormously.
We met some folks in the throes of traveling from Florida to Alaska. By pickup. Some of their observations were interesting, especially regarding the state of the Canadian motor lodges. And the Yukon rest stop facilities, in which “updraft” is an issue. I’ll not go into details, but you can imagine some of the sights and scents we endured. The man from Florida had an issue with the tissue….wafting back up, uninvited and unwelcome. Lovely, eh?
Today’s driving was largely good, with awesome scenery to keep us occupied between moments of overheating. In general, things went well, and we had no real problem cruising along at low speeds, as it allowed most of the bugs time to veer away from the windshields, and us time to frame better photos. Our arrival at Kluane Lake came none-too-soon, as Penelope’s beleaguered engine decided to go into one of those sullen “I don’t want to go any more, can we stop now?” phases. I figured it was a suddenly-clogged filter, and we putt-putted around the west end of the lake to where we now sit. I’ll fix it tomorrow. I was just glad that it hadn’t totally melted while crawling up that grade out of Haines Junction. Talk about punishing!
We hiked a bit up the trail overlooking the pullout where we camped, finding that the walk was refreshing, and that the trail we were walking was part of the old Alcan Highway. I’m not sure of the exact details, but we did get to hear a recording of the commencement ceremony from 1942, at this spot, where they officially announced the opening of the famed military supply route known as the Alcan. I could have recorded it and posted it here, but figured that if you really want to hear it, come on up!
No bears leapt out of hiding to eat us.
I can’t wait to see the video shot Michele hiked for. Back some ways before Haines Junction, I stopped, and had Michele head out on foot. When I saw her disappear over the horizon, I waited a few more minutes, and then, signaling her with the airhorn, I got Penelope up to speed, and zoomed past Michele. I stopped as soon as I could. It still took Michele several minutes just to get back to the bus!
After dinner was over, and this writing done, it was 12:15….yes, fifteen minutes past midnight when I last looked at my timepiece, and I was just settling down into sleep. But it was still light outside….
It’s also hard to sleep when there are warmth-seeking cats all over you.
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15-Jun-10, Tuesday
Slept late on purpose … and why not? Things were going well, and the border was just around the corner, relatively speaking. I checked and topped up the oil, water, and transmission fluid, swapped out a fuel filter that didn’t look too bad, and then went for a walk with Michele. We headed up the old trail again, this time in the other direction, specifically to get a video shot of the bus down below (with all the other RV’s gone). Naturally, as we got to the good vantage, a carload of boisterous leaping male humans showed up and spent the next ten minutes exhibiting the standard “Hey look, it’s a weird old bus” behavior, and hopping about in astonishingly ape-like manner for the lens wielded by their buddies. As they did this, numerous other vehicles came and went, but eventually I got the shot. We’ll see how it looks later, as we will see how the flower shots, and the numerous other road shots from today came out.
And so it was, at about 10:00, we settled into our driving positions for another day on the road. The engine took some trying to get started, as it was cold, the choke was disabled, and, well, it was not fixed. Something was still broken from the night before, and the fuel filter wasn’t it.
Dangit.
So I tried the easy stuff first: Changing out the fuel pump. It HAD to be a fuel delivery problem, right? Not so easy to diagnose. Then came the removal and disassembly of the distributor, which then turned into a series of frustrations as I tried to identify the correct position in which it was supposed to be, as something changed …. Some of you may know all too well what I was up against. But I figured it out, and moved on to the next item: The carburetor. I took it all apart, and cleaned what I could as best I could. I really was hoping to find a problem to fix, as that would indicate to me that SOMETHING was getting done! I found nothing, until I went to re-install the carb. The butterfly plates for the governor were almost totally closed! Somehow or another, the linkage got jammed up beyond its normal range of motion, and stuck there, 
kind of like that bad face you make that your mother warns you will stick there forever. I’m not sure how this situation came to pass, but there it was….easily fixed, too.
Of course by now the timing was all screwed up, and I was faced once again with the challenge of finding the sweet spot, but that was OK – at least we were on the road again, albeit 4 hours later than the day’s first attempt. The running was good…a little too good, and I started to suspect timing too far advanced. The temp gauge confirmed this, but in the meantime, it was great fun driving for once.
Kluane Lake had stilled somewhat during the hiatus, and the astonishing blue had come forth. The surroundings otherworldly and stark, it was strange in that it was the middle of the day, yet dreamlike in quality.
“The Sun was shining on the Sea
He shone with all his might,
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright.
And this was odd, because you see,
It was the middle of the night”
Excerpt from “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, Lewis Carroll: “Through the Looking Glass”
We were finally starting to experience the infamous “frost heaves.” These chaotic undulations in the road’s surface are caused by freezing, swelling, subsidence, and poor highway design and maintenance. They are great fun. What an awesome way to limber up one’s suspension, and to maintain interest in an otherwise drab section of highway! Penelope’s aged spring suspension handled the cracks, 
bumps, ridges, creases, and ruts fairly well….especially since we were going slowly anyway. The old bias-ply tires gave excellent tactile feedback, punctuated by the knocking and rumbling of loose kingpins. Fun stuff! It was amusing to watch the folks who could go faster hit those rough sections of road. The behemoth RV’s tipped, bounced, and bobbled – two going through at the same time would create a sort of manic dance. The northbound people seemed to do worse, as they had not quite “gotten it” and kept smashing into the road rapids way too fast; in general, the southbound folk had had enough, and reduced their velocity accordingly upon approaching the little orange flags lovingly planted at each section, with more flags on the side where the bumps were worse. Sometimes those flags meant little, but others meant the difference between maintaining un-spilled coffee and becoming briefly airborne.
I had retarded the timing twice during this run, and whether it was due to these changes, or the fact that the air was becoming decidedly more cool, she was doing well. It didn’t feel as nice as when I had the timing advanced too much, but I did not want to risk melting a piston!
We had several swan sightings. They are apparently nesting now, and look like marshmallows with necks. There was also a nice moose sighting, (Nice moose!) I’m surely forgetting something that flew, crawled, or walked, but I’ll fill you in if it seems interesting.
At a pullout, Michele got to swim the ducks in a small pond. They were happy about this. Ducks need water to keep clean, and ideas for an in-bus pond remained only ideas, so it is hard on the poor fowl.
The border crossing was largely uneventful, largely because there was no reason for events to occur, and also because we had our ducks in a row. The paperwork, that is. The officials there were really nice, and asked the standard questions, then had us go into the office to fill out some forms and present our permits and such. One guy had a story about a duck that cohabitated so well with their dog it must have thought it was a dog, snuggled up with it when sleeping, eating the same food, and both of them running up to greet them when they returned home in their truck. The nice woman who was working with us on the paperwork had a story of a truckload of mallards being imported for use as bird-dog training accessories. She felt bad about it and was tempted to confiscate them to set them free. Poor birds!
After about another 40 miles of driving, during which Penelope ran strong and cool, we camped at another pullout, this time just off the side of the road, but with a nice view of the Wrangell Range off to the west beyond miles and miles and miles of spruce-infested lake land. No wild mushrooms were to be found, however.
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16-Jun-10
Now we are in Tok, Alaska, where we fueled up, and are now parked in a large lot by the visitor’s center. Many characters have stopped by, and it will be long before we leave this town. One of the visitors has another ’47 Flxible Clipper here, and we will likely stop by to see it. Everyone seems really cool, and interesting. Our leaving time will likely be delayed by a visit with a classic car enthusiast named Duke, who we learned of back in Kitwanga – a friend of his stopped by to talk of our bus, and insisted that we contact him on our way through.
Tonight, we plan to be in the mountains, and we may or may not have reception for our modem. When we stop, I’ll check out the epoxy putty “fix” on the exhaust gasket leaks, and maybe add some JB Weld to the bodge. Whatever works at this time….
Michele is about to walk the ducks in the grass, and she just got back from photographing a van festooned with plastic eagles and other bits of wackiness. “The Eagle Has Landed”
I should stop writing, and start inserting some of the billions of photos into this post. (Update: It is a really slow connection, so not as many pics here as I’d like. We’ll be posting galleries fairly soon though, so sit tight!)
Until we connect again, be well!
Gene
