Sunday, August 2, 2009

08/02/09 Fairbanks to Haines Junction, Yukon (short by ~10mi)

Dawdled around in RV Park in Fairbanks and got a late start. Then we spent some time in North Pole, AK. A few miles south of North Pole we began seeing the frost heaves in the roads. We are well into Canada and still the roads are horrible. I've bottomed out the shocks many times. Some of the heaves are marked with red flags but most just sneak up you. We can only go about 45mph. We made it past my target destination (Destruction Bay, Yukon – hey, I liked the name) today but drove until 11:00pm. And yes, it was still light outside so it is very easy to just keep driving. We saw a number of moose right up close to the road, I even got a few pictures of one.

Alex slept almost all morning – some navigator, eh? He slept through my stop at Delta Junction, AK. It is the end of the Alaskan Highway from Dawson Creek, BC (1,450mi). Lots of machinery still around.

At the Canadian border they just asked if I owned the vehicle (no proof required). Wanted to know if I had permission to bring son Alex (showed notarized paper). They also wanted to know if I had a firearm - well, of course, I do. I had to show them the papers I had on that also (upon arriving in Canada I had to pay $25 for some kind of 60 day firearm registration paper). They also wanted to know why I had it with me (for wildlife protection) and how much ammo I had for the shotgun. I told them I had about 12 rounds, which is true (they did not ask if I had any ammo for any other guns - I've probably got 300rnds for all the other firearms). I sent them via UPS back home because these hillbillies don't get guns!

I think Alex likes Canada because he can convert Km to Miles (.60) and liters to miles (.26). He does all the math for me when we stop for gas. There is no trip meter so I have him calculate the miles driven and then our miles per gallon. The road conditions and going up and down mountain roads is really messing with our mpg. We've been getting about 10mpg.

2 comments:

  1. So, let me get this straight... you multiply liters by .26 to get the miles? Or is it miles by .26 to get liters? I'm confused...

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  2. I'm glad Alex had that straight. He was really good about doing the convertions so I could keep accurate records on the RV. He really likes being in the ol' USA now though - no convertions. I like being here too but for other reasons.

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