HRSaR

[piratexpress1369a]

now that was a cool idea for the speakers ...so how does it sound with them down there

[Ta2Don]

Dig the Easy Speaker Mod...

It's been 7,009 and a Wake Up since I got my First Name back...

Daaang!!! Now I feel old...

[Captainfab]

I haven't checked in here in a little while. Looks like you're about ready for the trip south. I'm liking the bumper much better as well.

[markeb01]

Man I love the front bumper improvements! You've certainly been busy. Good luck on the trip.

[McMurphy]

Been pretty busy getting ready for the move, only major thing I have done to the tow truck since the front bumper was refresh all my engineering guages and add mud flaps.
Flaps got done today.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Been pretty busy getting ready for the move, only major thing I have done to the tow truck since the front bumper was refresh all my engineering guages and add mud flaps.
Flaps got done today.

Attachment 1283175

Love the flaps.

Growing up, my dad had a roll of used conveyor belt that we all got mudflaps cut from over the years for our cars.

Times have changed but the memories are always good.

[61K10]

McM--you must have a ton of $$$ in tires lol! nice job on the mud flaps also.

[Bomp]

You look ready as can be all loaded up.

Have to text me your statues while on the drive down here.

[Low Elco]

Yes, a tour documentary please! 'Twould be a great story!

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Yes, a tour documentary please! 'Twould be a great story!

Buddy let me tell you, that trip was AWESOME !! It was truely Homeric in its scope, the people we met and the danger, and the drama, and and and ......

Let me put something together (we are currently digging in at home right now) but soon...... and it will be a page turner of a story !!!

[pdxhall]

I'm' happy to hear you're home. I hope the last leg of the trip went okay and I'm looking forward to hearing the story when you get a chance to tell it.

[Bomp]

Will names be changed to protect the innocent? lol

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Buddy let me tell you, that trip was AWESOME !! It was truely Homeric in its scope, the people we met and the danger, and the drama, and and and ......

Let me put something together (we are currently digging in at home right now) but soon...... and it will be a page turner of a story !!!

[Xeen]

Originally Posted by Bomp

Will names be changed to protect the innocent? lol

[piratexpress1369a]

glad you made it to the southern homestead

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by pdxhall

I'm' happy to hear you're home. I hope the last leg of the trip went okay and I'm looking forward to hearing the story when you get a chance to tell it.

Thanks, it was fun meeting you and the story is still forthcoming, I promise.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Will names be changed to protect the innocent? lol

Only yours....

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

glad you made it to the southern homestead

Thank you, it has been a roughshod pace since we left Bomp's house....

[Ta2Don]

McMurphy surfaces...

[Modges'66]

Bring on the tall-tales Murph!!!

[Low Elco]

He's ALIVE!

[McMurphy]

Hello all...

At long last I am finally settled enough to get this epic tale of insanity, mystery, danger, and travel that all entwined to create one of the most incredible journeys of our (Trish and I) lives.

I hope you enjoy this, I only apologise for the sad lack of photos we took on this trip, but I will do the best I can.

This photo was taken in our driveway in North Pole just before we hit the road. For those of you with a sentimental vein, or have children that left home but took their favorite toy with them, then you will understand this photo.
In 1983 when I left home for good, off into the Army, my girlfriend at the time gave me a small childs toy teddy bear, "so I would never be alone."
Since that day to this, I have taken this bear with me every where, and I have a mass of photos from the pagodas of Seoul, Oktoberfest in Munich, Baghdad, to many many locations in the US.

So, since Pookie was with me when it all started, here he is as we finished my a 23 year Military Career (that took me 30 years to do... LoL)
It was raining when we left, and chilly enough.


We left out of North Pole at 4:30pm and stopped briefly in Delta Junction because I had popped a fuse for the brake lights ~clue #1~.

I never realized just how loaded we were until long after the trip I was looking at that photo, and saw just how level the stepside and trailer were, and how lifted in the nose the Tow Truck was.
Tow Truck and trailer empty on the scales was 9,100 lbs.



One of the mods, though not strictly period correct was the fish eye mirrors...In my mind a must have, and they always make cool photos...


A very beautiful shot taken by the wife at 60mph, the greens in this are amazing, I only wish the foreground trees were not blurred.

This was still our first day of travel...other than stalling the rig on a steep hill I was not ready for, and the blown fuse we had no issues up to this point.

[McMurphy]

Strap in, this part is going to be long...


Louis L'amore wrote "To the Far Blue Mountains" I think this is what he had in mind...


That was almost to the end of our first day just before we got to the Canadian Border. We got into Canada just at dusk, so I really wasnt paying too close attention to the headlights, they were on, and working.
As soon as we crossed into the Yukon, the roads went to unpaved deep gravel. It was like trying to drive the truck through 6" of wet concrete for miles and miles. That section of road was so rough we were constantly hitting the overload springs in the back, and it took a few times to identify the noise we heard each time it happened. For those who have never hit overload springs, it is a pretty jarring noise and feeling and seriously takes some getting used to.
If my Sonoma made those noises it would be because we were crashing...

As the night got darker, and we put more miles between us and civilization, it was getting harder and harder to see because the head lights were so dim. I didnt realize it until we had to pull a grade, and when I down shifted and the RPMs went up, some switch somewhere in the system flipped and the headlights suddenly got bright. ~clue #2~
I had a curious nagging in the back of my brain that I gleefully ignored with the new found illumintaion of the roadway in front of me.

After having spent the first half of the day doing the final loading and packing, and after 9 hours of driving I was exhausted. We pulled into a roadside turn out, tossed out a pop up tent and took a 4 hour nap in the middle of nowhere, Yukon Territory. After what I saw the next day, I cannot imagine how stupid that one little act could have been....

Awake with the lightening sky, we got up and on the road quickly at about 5:30 am, and got to Destruction Bay on the shores of Kluane Lake in time for breakfast. We happened to make the aquaintence of a pair of Vietnam Vets, brothers, who were touring the US on motorcycles, all the way from Texas. We shared stories over a fine breakfast.
They were on the last legs of their trip, they were going to see Fairbanks and Anchorage, then head home finishing a journey that had taken them 2 months.

By now the weather had cleared up and we were treated to a beautiful sunny day that would last us for the remainder of our drive into the ocean side village of Haines, Alaska.

We fueled up there, and were not on the road 20 minutes when just off the p-side of the road was a huge grizzly bear. Trish squealed when she saw it was so close and the size of a sofa.
Then not 10 more minutes down the road and we saw a pair on a tandem bicycle headed back the way we had come.
It was mean, but the jokes about bears ordering delivery and how circus bears get their bikes did ensue.
I am not proud of that but for many miles, it was funny as hell.

About an hour later we spotted another one on the d-side of the road, and suddenly I was thankful we had not been an early morning meal on the side of the road.... hmmmmmmm

Time and miles past and we at last came to Haines Junction where we gassed up for the last time in Canada. As an American I can appreciate the meteric system for tools, but measurments leave me too confused to care about them. All I can tell you is that the gas pump had some pretty big numbers on them by the time I was done; and that always unsettles me a bit.

The auxiliary tank I added worked like a charm and I loved it, but I would get frustrated with gas pumps that had price limits on them. Nothing like putting 2 charges on your card for one simple task.....

The truck has been running like a champ, not burning oil, leaking, blowing coolant, or any of the first 200 mile plagues that seem to happen on old rigs like this. I am far from complacent at this point even though we are 479 miles out. The truck pulls the grades well, even when forced to down shift to 2nd, though those became fewer as we logged more miles together. On the down hills it is sluggish slowing it down, I was ever thankful for the electric brakes on the trailer, even with down shifting.
In retrospect I wish I had gotten with a friend in Fairbanks and had him show me how to double clutch those two transmissions. It would have been handy to know...

All we had to do was one simple thing.
Drive the next 87 miles to the Canadian border, enter back into the US, and drive into the hamlet of Haines for a hot shower, meal, and comfy bed; 148 miles total.
Really....that was all we had to do.

[Grizz1963]

Just up from the garage.

Perfect place to land, your trip report.

Love the pics.

[aggie91]

Just now came over here to get a trip report. Just finished the second installment, but it feels like we have not read about the good stuff yet.

Glad to hear you are back and in you new home and Congrats on the retirement. Thanks again for your service to our country.

[Ta2Don]

Thanx for your Service Brother!!!

Awesome write-up so far… looking forward to more clues...

[piratexpress1369a]

here i sit reading and wanting more ..i look up to the woodstove ,it has just hit 700 F ..have to get that down a bit or lose the house lol ..but i want to read more lol