Day 341: The Tire Toss

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Ben

This morning we left Anchorage and drove along the Turnagain Arm. The views were stunning:

We arrived at Portage Lake and took in the view from the parking lot of the visitor center:

The kids got to work on their Junior Ranger workbooks:

The visitor center had a solarium from which the lake could be viewed:

Having completed their workbooks, we stepped outside to view icebergs that had calved off of Portage Glacier on the far side of the the lake and floated down to this end:

This area has several hanging glaciers:

A tourist ferry (lower left) is dwarfed by the massive glacier in the background:

Another hanging glacier:

We stopped at a viewing area for salmon swimming upstream to spawn, but we’re a few weeks early, so there was nothing to see:

Continuing South around the South side of Turnagain Arm, we passed a dead forest of trees whose roots were drowned by salt water when this area dropped 10 feet during the great Alaska earthquake:

Amazing roadside views:

After exiting the Seward Highway and getting onto the Sterling Highway, we drove for a few miles below I heard a small explosion sound. Pulling over, we discovered that our wheel had sheared off the lug nuts and rolled away:

A wheel can’t be lost at 55MPH without doing some body damage on its way out:

While I called around to find a replacement hub, Trish went back up the road a ways and eventually found our lost wheel:

The tire had been cut by the frame of the RV when it departed, and the lug holes were no longer round, so I drove the truck the hour or so to Soldotna to buy a new hub and wheel and tire:

Returning to the RV a few hours later, I mounted the new hub on the axle spindle, and mounted the new wheel to the hub:

The wheel wasn’t spinning very well, but at least we were rolling! We drove up the road a couple miles to the first turnout we found to overnight there. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 340: Stymied by a Moose

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Ben

This morning, we left Wasilla and headed South into Anchorage where we quite accidentally stumbled onto the Alaska Jewish Museum. The museum is currently running an exhibit about Operation Magic Carpet. Turns out the airline that facilitated the evacuation was Alaska Airlines:

After lunch, we headed to the Anchorage Public Lands Information Center. The kids completed the Junior Ranger program there, and we watched a fascinating video program about the Great Alaska Earthquake:

We also wandered into a weekly arts and crafts bazaar:

Before dinner, we took the kids to a paved bike and hike path in Anchorage. All was going well until we ran into a moose in the middle of the trail:

After waiting 10 minutes or so for it to leave, it just stood and stared at us. When a seven foot tall moose refuses to move, it’s time to go the other way, so we went back to the car. Only in Alaska!

Tonight we’re overnighting at the Chabad of Anchorage. See the trip map for driving details and our current location.

Day 339: The Elusive Mount McKinley

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Ben

True to its reputation, Mt. McKinley was not easy to spot. It’s hiding somewhere in the clouds:

We saw it clearly while driving down the highway, but by the time we pulled over it was concealed again. This the best I could do, it’s the large white mass in the center of the photograph:

Continuing South, we arrived in Wasilla and visited the Iditarod headquarters. Sled dogs pull tourists on a wheeled cart around a short track in the summer:

Tonight we’re overnighting at the Walmart of Wasilla. I found some time to diagnose and fix our rear stabilizers, which refuse to come down with either the motor drive or the manual override. I suspected the motor was seized, and indeed that was the case. The solution was to remove the motor entirely, which at least allows the screw drive to spin freely so the stabilizers can be raised and lowered manually:

Yup, she’s done:

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 337: Denali National Park

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Ben

This morning, Trish laid out M’s Junior Ranger badges and patches on the fabric that she is going to use to display them. We’ve been to quite a few National Parks and Monuments:

We drove South to Denali National Park, where the kids got to work on their Junior Ranger books:

Another badge for the collection:

We stopped by the kennels. The Park Service mushes sleds in the winter through the park for perimeter patrol, search and rescue, scientific research, and trail and facility maintenance:

The sled shed had some displays:

There are about 40 dogs here at the kennels:

A boy and his dog:

The dogs are quite regal:

Stop staring at me!

The tack room, which features the nameplates of dogs no longer at the kennel:

The main attraction of Denali National Park is Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. From base to summit, McKinley is taller than Everest, and it is the largest mountain by volume of any mountain situated entirely above sea level. Sightings of the mountain are infamously elusive, as McKinley is so tall it generates its own clouds. There’s only a 30% chance of sighting McKinley on any given day. Today was very cloudy, so we drove South to overnight at a roadside free campground just North of where the best roadside views of the mountain can be had. Hopefully the weather will be good after Shabbos and we can see the mountain as we continue South.

This afternoon I replaced a couple of the cell antenna members that had been broken off by low hanging branches. This is the smallest diameter aluminum pipe Lowe’s had, hopefully it doesn’t affect the antenna’s tuning too much:

Good Shabbos from near Denali National Park! See the trip map for driving details and our current location.

Day 336: Tour de Fairbanks

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Ben

The mosquitoes continue their onslaught against us. M’s eyelid was stung overnight and is swelling nicely:

We stopped at TDS to replace the tire that was chewed up in the axle incident near Chicken and the tire that flatted on the Dalton Highway on the way back from Prudhoe Bay. Both tires had little tread left, so it was time for them to go anyway:

On our way out of town, we stopped at Pioneer Park, where a classic car show happened to be underway in the parking lot:

Our first stop was the aviation museum. The museum was mostly wreckage of planes that had crashed in Alaska, but some whole planes were there, like this beauty that happens to be the same type of plane that Glenn Miller was in when he was lost over the English Channel:

This is a Rutan kit plane. I suspected and confirmed that this plane is very similar to the one in which John Denver was killed:

They had a Huey on display that we were able to go into and sit down:

Next we went to the railroad depot where Engine No. 1 was on display:

The Pioneer Museum had a variety of interesting displays:

I especially enjoyed the dioramas, like this cutaway view of a gold dredge in operation:

One of the first electric cars:

Next we visited the SS Nenana, a Klondike gold rush-era sternwheeler like the SS Klondike we visited in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The Nenana had in it’s hold a variety of dioramas depicting the settlements it served back in the day:

Gotta love steam propulsion:

Our last stop in the park was the train car president Harding used to tour Alaska. I’m seriously considering redoing the RV’s interior in this style:

The park closed at 8pm, so we drove South to overnight at a pullout just a few miles North of tomorrow’s destination, Denali National Park. The sun is about to go down just a bit before midnight: