July 22, 2010 ~ Thursday
7:03pm ~ 71 degrees
Mile Post 88 ~ Parks Hwy
Aaaahhhh, a wonderful mix of sun, clouds & warmth. Nice change of pace from the beautiful (but cool & damp) coastal town of Seward. Yep, if you’re gonna’ be broke down, this is the type of weather & the place to do it in!! We were only about 20 miles from Talkeetna; our next destination for fishing & fun. Seems a power line had fallen across the highway about a mile ahead of us and traffic was stalled in both directions so we, like many others, were forced to make the best of the situation until the utility workers arrived. You see, this is the only road for most of us travelers to get us to our next stop; no side roads, no short cuts. One lady walking by said “it’ll be at least 3 hours till they fix thelines”. So, Chase & Dave took off up the road to see what going on. Chip, Nick & myself just hung out in the bus. Others were out & about as well. It really had become quite the social event & all kinds of speculation was going on as to when, where, how & why.
The boys came back a little later with their report; seems there is a really cool lodge close by that a lot of folks are heading to until things clear up. After about 1.5 hours of waiting for things to clear up, we decided to head there as well. So………Chip puts the bus in drive and…………..NOTHING!! We were dead in our tracks so to speak. Chip tried this & that, that & this but……..nothing, nadah, zippo. By this time, during the trial & error phase, utility trucks had gone by indicating some kind of potential progress. Shortly afterwards, the traffic started to move but………… we weren’t (talk about embarrassing). And talk about chaos; now WE were the hold up. And talk about nasty looks & comments; now we were the recipients. At one time I was on the phone with AAA, standing beside the Jeep in tow & not paying attention to the traffic behind me, when all of a sudden cars started going around us on the steep shoulder of the road - scared the crap out of me!!
Thankfully, by now, the State Troopers had diverted their attention from “the fallen power lines” to “the stalled RV blocking all traffic northbound”; we all soon became best friends. Chip & Chase were still mulling over owner’s manuals & trying every trouble-shooting effort there was, I was still on the cell with AAA (horrible reception, calls kept getting dropped, kept getting transferred to “someone” that works with Alaskan incidents), Nick was hiding behind the sofa and Dave was the ever patient liaison. By then, I decided to take matters into my own hands by finding a local repairman/tow (the AAA thing was frustrating). Then, in hero-like fashion, one of the State Troopers announces “I just called Jim at Milepost 91.5 to give you a tow. He’ll be here in about 10 minutes”. Victory, yippee, happy day!! Then, AAA calls me saying that “Jim is on the way”……..geeee’s. You know, we have had some very frustrating times with them in the past but, this time they came through (& in Alaska on top of that). Fortunately for us, we added on RV coverage right before the trip.
And as promised, Jim comes to the rescue in his big tow truck (it’s a little fancier than Bill’s at Dease Lake, BC I have to say). We were all so excited (at least I was). Jim quickly jumps into action, chats with Chip, then the battery box is pulled out…………again. Not to be critical but there is at least a foot of Yukon & Top of the World highway dirt & dust that is completely smothering the batteries. As you will recall, I did not particularly like the road conditions in that beautiful part of the world. Now, in my summation, all that horrid dust has come back to haunt us. Then Jim & Chip hook the jumper cables to the bus & voila – a positive connection!! We all jump for joy (at least I did). Chip paid up, I was getting ready to climb on board when Chip shouts “wait, tell him not to leave yet”…………the bus would still not go into gear. I caught Jim & the troopers before they pulled off into the sunset and they all quickly went into “Plan B”. They try the jumper cables again, the bus cranks, looks successful but.............. I announce “I will not get on the bus until it goes into gear & we are rolling”. Thankfully, my insistence pays off because it still would not go into gear SO the guys quickly jump into “Plan C”. By this time they had determined it was probably the alternator SO in order to get us “off the road & into safety” Jim kept the cables connected to the bus (like an umbilical cord) & we inched forward ½ mile down the road to the gorgeous Sheep Creek Lodge where we spent the night in one of the prettiest graveled parking lots I have ever seen. By now, it was around 10:30pm & the sun was setting. We all chuckled about everything, said our thank you’s & then parted ways. Kudo's to the Alaskan State Troopers & the fireman from Willow FD - they are total professionals with a wonderful sense of humor.
We have a generator on the RV so our home was still very much livable. We all had a good, strong cocktail (or 2) as I quickly whipped up a gourmet meal of Alaskan-size hot dogs. We joked about how the boys spent their summer vacation that day & that we were probably on the news that night in Anchorage & didn’t even know it. Everyone was in great spirits; just a little drained. At least, it was good weather & not raining, we were close to where we wanted to be & could carry on with our trip as planned, we were close to help when we needed it, God provided us with a gas stove & a simple meal, a generator, water, & a safe place to sleep. We laughed about the situation yet were grateful as well (I was especially grateful because I got to shampoo my hair & take a shower that morning). Yes, God is good & we are humbled; never take anything for granted. Around 12:15am, we finally crawled into bed. Jim was sending his friend Joe to work on the alternator at 8:00 Friday morning.
Aaaahhhh, a wonderful mix of sun, clouds & warmth. Nice change of pace from the beautiful (but cool & damp) coastal town of Seward. Yep, if you’re gonna’ be broke down, this is the type of weather & the place to do it in!! We were only about 20 miles from Talkeetna; our next destination for fishing & fun. Seems a power line had fallen across the highway about a mile ahead of us and traffic was stalled in both directions so we, like many others, were forced to make the best of the situation until the utility workers arrived. You see, this is the only road for most of us travelers to get us to our next stop; no side roads, no short cuts. One lady walking by said “it’ll be at least 3 hours till they fix thelines”. So, Chase & Dave took off up the road to see what going on. Chip, Nick & myself just hung out in the bus. Others were out & about as well. It really had become quite the social event & all kinds of speculation was going on as to when, where, how & why.
The boys came back a little later with their report; seems there is a really cool lodge close by that a lot of folks are heading to until things clear up. After about 1.5 hours of waiting for things to clear up, we decided to head there as well. So………Chip puts the bus in drive and…………..NOTHING!! We were dead in our tracks so to speak. Chip tried this & that, that & this but……..nothing, nadah, zippo. By this time, during the trial & error phase, utility trucks had gone by indicating some kind of potential progress. Shortly afterwards, the traffic started to move but………… we weren’t (talk about embarrassing). And talk about chaos; now WE were the hold up. And talk about nasty looks & comments; now we were the recipients. At one time I was on the phone with AAA, standing beside the Jeep in tow & not paying attention to the traffic behind me, when all of a sudden cars started going around us on the steep shoulder of the road - scared the crap out of me!!
Thankfully, by now, the State Troopers had diverted their attention from “the fallen power lines” to “the stalled RV blocking all traffic northbound”; we all soon became best friends. Chip & Chase were still mulling over owner’s manuals & trying every trouble-shooting effort there was, I was still on the cell with AAA (horrible reception, calls kept getting dropped, kept getting transferred to “someone” that works with Alaskan incidents), Nick was hiding behind the sofa and Dave was the ever patient liaison. By then, I decided to take matters into my own hands by finding a local repairman/tow (the AAA thing was frustrating). Then, in hero-like fashion, one of the State Troopers announces “I just called Jim at Milepost 91.5 to give you a tow. He’ll be here in about 10 minutes”. Victory, yippee, happy day!! Then, AAA calls me saying that “Jim is on the way”……..geeee’s. You know, we have had some very frustrating times with them in the past but, this time they came through (& in Alaska on top of that). Fortunately for us, we added on RV coverage right before the trip.
And as promised, Jim comes to the rescue in his big tow truck (it’s a little fancier than Bill’s at Dease Lake, BC I have to say). We were all so excited (at least I was). Jim quickly jumps into action, chats with Chip, then the battery box is pulled out…………again. Not to be critical but there is at least a foot of Yukon & Top of the World highway dirt & dust that is completely smothering the batteries. As you will recall, I did not particularly like the road conditions in that beautiful part of the world. Now, in my summation, all that horrid dust has come back to haunt us. Then Jim & Chip hook the jumper cables to the bus & voila – a positive connection!! We all jump for joy (at least I did). Chip paid up, I was getting ready to climb on board when Chip shouts “wait, tell him not to leave yet”…………the bus would still not go into gear. I caught Jim & the troopers before they pulled off into the sunset and they all quickly went into “Plan B”. They try the jumper cables again, the bus cranks, looks successful but.............. I announce “I will not get on the bus until it goes into gear & we are rolling”. Thankfully, my insistence pays off because it still would not go into gear SO the guys quickly jump into “Plan C”. By this time they had determined it was probably the alternator SO in order to get us “off the road & into safety” Jim kept the cables connected to the bus (like an umbilical cord) & we inched forward ½ mile down the road to the gorgeous Sheep Creek Lodge where we spent the night in one of the prettiest graveled parking lots I have ever seen. By now, it was around 10:30pm & the sun was setting. We all chuckled about everything, said our thank you’s & then parted ways. Kudo's to the Alaskan State Troopers & the fireman from Willow FD - they are total professionals with a wonderful sense of humor.
We have a generator on the RV so our home was still very much livable. We all had a good, strong cocktail (or 2) as I quickly whipped up a gourmet meal of Alaskan-size hot dogs. We joked about how the boys spent their summer vacation that day & that we were probably on the news that night in Anchorage & didn’t even know it. Everyone was in great spirits; just a little drained. At least, it was good weather & not raining, we were close to where we wanted to be & could carry on with our trip as planned, we were close to help when we needed it, God provided us with a gas stove & a simple meal, a generator, water, & a safe place to sleep. We laughed about the situation yet were grateful as well (I was especially grateful because I got to shampoo my hair & take a shower that morning). Yes, God is good & we are humbled; never take anything for granted. Around 12:15am, we finally crawled into bed. Jim was sending his friend Joe to work on the alternator at 8:00 Friday morning.
As promised, Joe arrived the next morning at 8:00. His summation was “it’s the alternator”. So, between Joe & Jim, they got us fixed up by around 3:00 that Friday. And what a gorgeous day to be broken down; we didn’t mind at all!! We all found things to fill our time while waiting on the new part; Chip cleaned the batteries & did other guy stuff, I took a long walk & made a flower arrangement from local wildflowers, Nicky basked in the sun because dogs didn’t belong inside on a day like that, the boys did typical 21 year old boy things – walk the river, walk the railroad track, collect some cool souvenir rocks, helped Chip out a little, then contributed to the local economy by supporting the pub at the Sheep Creek Lodge. Kudo's to Jim & Joe. They take their work seriously & were a joy to work with. Most others would say I'm not going to mess with an RV but these guys rock & they charged us very fairly!!
Around 3:30 Friday afternoon, we headed off to Talkeetna where we currently call Talkeetna Camper Park home. The guys have been stream fishing the past 2 days (in the rain for the most part). I stay “home” & do typical “the only girl on the trip” things. Life is good, God is great. We head back to Anchorage on Monday or Tuesday where the guys will enjoy the big city life before they leave. Nicky will sure miss them; they have been good medicine for him by listening to all his "girlfriend" issues.
July has been an awesome month with all the kids here……………….and, of course, I got pix of everything.
Thinking of you all,
Cathy & the Gang
