Left this morning to go to Fort Nielsen.- heading out about 6:00 a.m. Last time through, we stopped at Lairds Hot springs, but this time, we only stopped there long enough to get ice, have a snack - and headed on. We would really like to get the big mountain ( Stone Mountain) the one where the sheep are, and where the truck nearly plowed me down... ) over with since Bessie is struggling up some of these climbs. I continued to drive separately - and listen to cassettes - haven't played those for awhile - but had good music going the whole time. : )
Stone Mountain was fine, saw no sheep, but two huge caribou had been hit by a vehicle and were on the side of the road, looked like they had just recently been hit - may have been one of the big trucks, they have "crasher bars" for lack of a better description, on the front of them, I am sure because of all the wildlife around here.
I was also running very low on gas - several of the places we stopped at were not open now that the season was closing, so we were coming up on a roadhouse and I told Charlie we were stopping for gas if they had it and if not, we would need to load up Didi to ensure I did not run out of gas. I wouldn't have been that worried about it in general, but did not want to loose my power steering on the hills and curves if the car died....
So we pulled in and got gas, when I was paying the dude there asked where we were headed, and I said Fort Nielsen. He asked if we had room for some hitchhikers, and I sorta automatically said "no" - but then he said, "well these guys are broken down and need a lift to Fort Nielsen". I looked and it was two kids - well young people : ) about Caroline and Dan's ages I thought, and I decided to ask Charlie if we could help them out. Charlie went in to meet them, and he agreed with me that we should help them out - so we loaded them into Didi, drove to their car, about 6 miles down the road and tried to get it started. It appeared to be the alternator, so we loaded their car on the tow dolly, and headed to Fort Nielsen, with Kelly riding with me, and George riding with Charlie.
Kelly was moving to Fairbanks -and George was from Fairbanks - so her car was loaded down - sorta like the trunk of Didi had been when we were on Kodiak Island.... -Kelly was delightful - she and George had met at Boyscout camp in Fairbanks ( George is an eagle scout) and she had done a bit of traveling, so we had a lot to talk about.
We got to Fort Nelson, Bessie did an amazing job pulling their car up some pretty big mountains - coughing as she did it - but she still did it - and by then it was late - nothing was open. So we parked, I made some sandwiches and we had a hodgepodge meal. We then decided to pull into an RV park across the street - Kelly and George had been tenting, so they slept in a tent and we stayed in Bessie.
August 16, 2012
This morning we all had coffee and the last of the cinnamon buns from Buckshot Betty's, and took them to get an alternator and find a mechanic. No one had one, so it would have to be ordered - which meant George and Kelly would need to stay another night. They loaded up their frame packs and were heading out when we left them - but said they would email us when they made it to Fairbanks.
We bought an air filter for Bessie - hers was gross - and hope that will help her out some.
It was a delightful encounter, I am glad we helped them and that we got to meet them. I feel we have two new friends in Alaska now. : )
Drove back through Watson lake, and Bessie was still acting up, so we stopped at the signpost forest and I updated our pan,
and Charlie put a fuel filter on Bessie to see if that would help. We had chatted with our resident mechanical genius , the legendary Curtis Sowers- and that was his suggestion. We had thought it might be the catalytic converter - but he said - nope, he doubted it.
We continued on to Dawson Creek - and stopped along the way to do a bit of gold panning. I had read this stream was down from a few gold and silver mines, so we thought it might be a good place to try. It was fun, there did appear to be some silver flecks in the sand and rocks, but they were very small and hard to get off your fingers when they were wet from the water - next time I will bring tweezers with me.... but we did find some tiny grains that we are choosing to call gold - but probably aren't.
Bessie still coughing on long pulls - but made it to the Wally World at Dawson Creek. Charlie and I found a NAPA store, bought a distributor, spark plugs and spark plug wires - and went back and Charlie worked on Bessie some more - and I handed him tools when I he needed them.
He did an amazing job - and we are both hopeful that it will help.
I made jelly with the berries I had bought in Whitehorse, and ended up with 8 more half pints! Kelly had given us some wonderful nectarines, and I added a few of those to some of the jelly too - think it will be good.
August 17, 2012
Out and headed toward the border. Bessie is doing soooo much better! Charlie is so very good at fixing things, and he seems to have fixed her. She is not coughing, not groaning and has much more power. Drove past the world's biggest gold pan - and of course I got out and took a picture.....
Stopped at a casino and played bingo - they have electronic bingo, which lets you know if you have a number called, and even if you have a bingo - Charlie played electronically - and I played on paper - I only had 9 cards, but they moved so fast, I had to pay close attention - and I won 6 bucks! The game had cost me 5 - so technically I won a dollar. : )
Left there and continued down the road - we drove too long though and it was dark by the time we stopped - probably for only an hour, but it was around 11:00 when we pulled into a visitor center and stayed for the night. The road was pretty curvy and there is always the risk of animals crossing that time of night, so the last hour was pretty tense, but Bessie and Charlie both did fine, but we decided to never drive that late again.
Supper was a sandwich before falling asleep.
August 18th, 2012
Made it to the border! Not without a few mishaps, but to the border none the less.
Stopped in a small town on the way that is known for two things - hottest place in British Columbia, and successful gold panning on their sandbars. Well, I can attest to it being hot, it was HOT! Certainly not what we are used to at this point - and when we went to get the car off the tow dolly, she snagged on one of the thingamajigs and the front section came halfway off. Standing under boiling heat, looking at a car without most of it's front is not fun, so do not try it. But we managed to use zip ties to reattach it - ( again Charlie being smart) and went to look for the sandbar.
Found how to get to it, but it was not going to be easy - some of the areas were blocked off due to King Salmon fishing in that river right now ( no idea salmon ran there....) and we decided to just chuck the gold panning idea and move on. Bessie was struggling in the heat again, so I drove Didi and we headed on toward the border.
There are sooooo many blueberry and raspberry crops in the border area - I didn't stop to buy any, thinking we would have trouble crossing the border with them, but did get to see some machines harvesting them. When we stopped to put Didi back on to cross the border - noticed that there were huge blackberry bushes everywhere - and I mean everywhere! Most were not ripe, but it was cool to see them.
They let us across the border with no problem, and it was nice to be back in the states. We drove to Bellingham and found a Walmart and settled in for the night. Charlie put some transmission fluid in Bessie and changed her oil - again hoping the transmission fluid helps her with the hills.
Thawed some of Charlie's home made soup for supper and made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it. We are both hot and tired, and glad the day is done and we are successfully back in the lower 48.
Our phones are working again, so we were able to let friends and family know we were safe and sound back in the USA.
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