Event Coverage North to alaska living the dream

Levi:

Your attachments didn't work. Here is what was on my camera..
From left to right.
Nexxussian (Eric), I ain't never met a person from the planet nexxus before.

Sid, (Eric's Dad)

Jamie, baby Liam, Kona Cruisers (Levi)

K. B. HARD CORE INLINER DUDE



jr9162 (John)

Maggy K (Maggie)

Bob K (old what's his name)





Nexxussian holding his pet coffee urn. It's name is Blotto, that is nexxussian for coffee.




I've got a bunch of cool photos from today but they will be posted later in the order of the day they were taken.


We think that this was the first ever Alaska Meet & Greet and hope that they continue the tradition.

BB

 

So, in the last episode we were watching a moose drain off his head. What the hell could possibly top that? Lets see what the next few miles have to offer.

How could you not stop at a place called Buckshot Betty's, a cool place but the only thing we bought was Maggie bought a T-Shirt for her best buddy, my other wife Betty Behm.





Another milestone about to be recorded.




TA DAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!

We are shooting for 200,000 by the end of next year.





The Westmark Inn in Tok Alaska has excellent Salmon.



I shoulda ordered what Maggie ordered I was allowed to have a taste of it. She had the Reindeer fillet wrapped in bacon, it was delicious.





There was a whole bunch of the crazy folks passing us going from Valdez to Tok, in the rain,uphill all the way and over 150 miles. It was bad enough going down hill with all of the rain.





More decorations only this one was on the porch instead of at the end of the driveway. I'll bet he takes it in at night also as it looks very well kept.








There are a bunch of places like this all along the roads up here. Looks like they are just abandoned. I'll bet we have seen 50 of them so far. Some of them are recent as the Milepost book still lists them.







We see a lot of these birds, they look like the magpies out west but they don't have the same long tail or same white patches. I doni't know what they are but I'm sure somebody on here will enlighten me.





The Alaska pipeline





The Worthington Glacier in Thompson pass on the way into Valdez.








More road work, we are getting tired of Pilot cars and trucks but they are pretty good about keeping the waiting to about 20 minutes.








Rain Rain go away come back some other day.

 

Bob, Sid is Eric' father. Not KB. The bird you wondered about is indeed a magpie. They are very raucous, and hassle the ravens - who on their own merit are known to hassle the bald eagles up here. Enjoyed meeting you and Maggie. Have a safe trip and I'll see you in Bonneville. John

 

Bob good to see you and meet your lovely "traveling companion".

Yep, Sid is my pops.

Glad you liked our project, well except for the sound, that's a work in progress as well.

 

What a wonderful trip...really great photos too! Looks like you managed to find enough to eat as well....Thanks for sharing, Topless in New Mexico.

 

Every afternoon at about 2 or 3 O'clock no matter where we are it becomes ICE CREAM O'CLOCK. This day in Valdez Alaska was one of those lucky days.





The next very FOGGY morning we arrived at the ferry terminal for the short ride to Whittier Alaska.







It was thicker than pea soup out there, how did they ever do this without all of the electronics they have now.


You can barley see this Seiner. Ships bells were the answer back then. Why do they still have them now?





Just a little super tanker loading oil on the other side of the harbor.





Once we got out into the Prince William Sound it cleared up a bunch and afforded us this great view of a tender. This guy picks up the fish for the cannery from the little boats and that allows them to keep fishing.





One of the smaller boats with his weighted net abour ready to be winched aboard.





A striped iceberg from the colombia glacier.





A newer catamaran ferry of the Alaska Marine Highway System.





That big building in the background turned out to be our home for the next 2 days. There is no residential housing in Whittier, it was a military installation and the barracks was the only housing and this building was offices, it is now where the workers live and the top 2 floors are hotel suites and condos.




This city was only reached by water or rail through a tunnel in the mountian. Some genius a few years ago said why not pave the floor of the tunnell and then allow cars to pass one way and reverse it every half hour when there is no train traffic. Guess what, now it is the longest tunnell for cars in north america.







This is the old military barracks, abandoned since the war, guess it just would cost too much to demolish it.




Remember my broken strut rod? Well here it is before Doc's Machine here on the the HAMB started to make temporary repairs.




Doc grinding the ends to make a butt weld.





Butt welded together but he decieded that it needed a little reinforcement so he prepared it before adding a small gusset for good measure.





Gusset added should hold until we get to Anchorage and get it replaced with the new ones that are waiting there for me. Thanks again Doc, it was sure nice of you to take pity on this old traveller. Great meeting you and your dad.





Alaskan Amber, Clam Chowder and Crab Cakes at a harbor side restaurant, how much better could it possibly get? It don't get no better than this.








Tried to post these last night but they didn't go for some unknown reason.

BB

 

In calm water ,those ferrys are smooth and quiet!

 

This cruise ship pulled in about 2am, in the morning the tourists board the train and then busses on the other side of the mountian and are haulled off to their destinations. They are returned a day later and are off again on the high seas.





Where there is life there is



This is a neat little fishing village and tourist trap on cook inlet. The Salmon still are not running upstream, we are a little too early.


What a hodgepodge this is.





A mile long airstrip carved out of the aspen forest near hope. Kinda cool.





Mudflats visible at low tide on the cook inlet below Anchorage.




Seward Alaska, named after the guy who negotiated the deal with Russia.






Didn't see any Orca Betty's here though, kinda dissapointing.





More driveway decorations.





Stopped to get my knife sharpened on the way back to Whittier. Also washed the car while in Seward.






Guy at the knife shop has a sense of humor.




Sign at the end of the Turnagain Arm near Whittier. There is evidence of that quake all over this area.





These critters were damn near extinct. Someone started a save the Musk Ox foundation and now they are coming back a little.





Lets end this part with that ugly creature. Gotta go and get the strut rod replaced at the chevy dealership where Kona Cruisers, works.


BB

 

Awesome road trip and pics. Keep em coming!!

 

Proof Kilroy and his sidekick made it to Anchorage... Bob and Maggie's fiddy-too at Sid and Erik's place.

 

Fixed it for ya...

Let me know if ya need better directions.

Levi.

 

I hope the strut rod / alignment works out quickly for you, what else do you intend to scope out before heading to points further North?

There is a transportation museum North of Wasilla, if you are interested.

 

I would love to see a map of the path you have taken and where you are going next. This is a great slide show of Alaska

 

Thanks to Kona Crusiers we are now good to go. Turns out though that I don't have strut rods. The kit I bought and installedd in 1997 was from Michael Thomas who is no longer in business. He made a ersatz set up that used a short rod to mimic a tublar A arm, that's what broke. Our only option at this point was to remove it and weld it up with some more gussets for support. That is what was done. I'll prolly put new lower A arms on it this winter.

THANKS LEVI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


BB

 

( I was typing as Bob was... )


We got the Strut rod out.. and fixed. The new ones had a threaded end where the ones we were replaceing had a Tubular style bushing mount, so it wasnt going to work...


I had one of my techs pull the strut rod out and I welded Two more supports one on the inside and one on the top. The top piece I added I hit some of the Stick rod flux and had a boogery section (I wire wheeled the shit out of that piece before welding too???) But while it isnt pretty, it isnt breaking.

Got the tires ballance out and tightend up the wheel bearings a bit as they had some play. Threw it on the Alignment Audit machine and it was right where it was supposed to be.

Bob got outta here at about 1...

 

We are now in Anchorage.

Last night we went downtown to dinner and had a nice meal at a fun place called "The F Street Station", I had left my cell phone in the car and didn't check it until we got to our room out by the airport.

There was a voice mail from a couple of our friends from Waukesha Wisconsin it said.

"Bob & Maggie this is Wes & Judy. Are you in Anchorage Alaska? We swear that while we were eating dinner in a little pub downtown we saw you and Maggie drive by in your green convertible."

Small world eh!!!! We are meeting them for dinner tonight.

BB

 

I want to be Bob K when i grow up......

 

Just goes to show that no matter where you are someone is watching you.



I want to be Bob K when i grow up......

Why grow up? Just grow a beard, dye it white, drive all over and you can be just like Bob

 

Bob in case you'e not aware.... there has been a Bear Advisory for that area...

The Forest Service has issued a BEAR WARNING in the national forests for this summer. They're urging everyone to protect themselves by wearing bells and carrying pepper spray.

Campers should be alert for signs of fresh bear activity, and they should be able to tell the difference between Black Bear dung and Grizzly Bear dung.
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Black Bear dung is rather small and round. Sometimes you can see fruit seeds and/or squirrel fur in it.

Grizzly Bear dung has bells in it, and smells like pepper spray!

Cheers ya'll

 

Are you ready for Fairbanks Bob?

 

Bob, you are giving us all a great tour, thanks again for bringing us along!

By the way, I wonder how often they get someone either running out of gas or breaking down in that railroad converted to automobile tunnel?

 

Good question Jim.The posted speed is rather slow.There are also cameras in the tunnel.The traffic from the oncoming direction is not allowed though until the passage is clear.I didn't notice any recovery vehicles on either side when I was there.

BanjeauX Bob

 

The trick is to NOT GROW UP.

BB

 

-Again, glad I could be of help, and it was great meeting you too. Wish you could have stayed to chat a while longer, but then again, it'd probably take years before we ran out of lies and war stores to tell each other.

-Did you see that nearly-collapsed roadhouse across from the turnoff to Portage? I shot some pics back when it wasn't quite so collapsed.

Inside, laying in the mud, where it'd been since the place was roadside mechanic shop prior to the '64 Quake, was this '59 (?) Corvair flat six:

-Virgil Campbell's IRBI Knives- I'd Rather Be Independent. Virgil's a fun guy, another one of those sorts you could talk to for hours... Last time I was in there, he showed me some billets he'd made from ball-bearing steel and old chainsaw chains. Did he take you in back?

-I used a MIG. I wonder if it wasn't a pocket of the undercoating? I wasn't able to weld the length of the underside of the added piece very well, and while I tried to clean off the paint and undercoating, there could easily have been a few globs left.

Either way, doesn't matter as long as the welds hold and it sounds like she's got plenty of meat on 'er now.

Doc.

 

Hey Bob,
Looks like you made it ! haven't had much time on here(just got married).
Wish I would have made it out for the meet and greet, I know K B but haven't met anyone else around here, than again I never leave my garage...

 

Sorry to hijack your thread Mr.K and go a bit further OT but...

Bringing back some memories for me there. You were pretty close to my brother when you and Maggie were on the ferry in PWS. He's set netting for sockeye right now in Eshamy Bay area. We had some of those same decorations in the front of our cabin.


Here's some more evidence of how much the earth shook back in '64. This cabin heaved at least five feet. We figured they used to be able to moor the boots right at the back door. Spent at lot of time in this one too in Main Bay.


Screw Michael J. Fox, that train ride every summer from Portage to Whittier was like going back in time for me.

WOW man!!! Thanks for this great thread.

 

Lets get some more pictures posted, eh.


These are some of the coolest colors I've ever seen on locomotives.





Being swallowed up by the tunnell never to be seen again.




Nice welcome sign.





How the hell does a hummingbird find a feeder on the 14th floor????




The view of the Inn at Whittier from our suite window on the 14th floor.





The Coral Princess leaving port. The sumbitch is huge.





The inn had a really neat interior also and a dining room on the 2nd floor.





What the hell can be top secret on a damn ferry boat??





More of those damn big birds again, they are as thick as robins back home.





These guys were catching herring to use as salmon bait. Cheaper than buying it I suppose.





Glacier just surrounds this rock face, kind of a neat picture.





Couldn't pass this shot up, snow covered mountians, clear blue water. Heavan on earth.







The elevator on the Kennicot is able to handle some very heavy loads, including the Chevy.





We stopped in Kodiak for about 6 hours and we were able to talk the Bosun into letting us take the car ashore. So we got to cruise around Kodiak island in a 52 Chevy Convertible, how cool is that?





The have decorations on the island also.

 

A dead salmon, they die after spawning, I'm glad I'm not a salmon.





We went all around Womens Bay but didn't see any women. They have misnamed the bay for sure, nothing but dead salmon.




This guy was screaming his little heart out, couldn't figure out what he was trying to say.




Welcome to Kodiak, the have a Mickey D's and even a Wally World, the commercial world has invaded the wilderness, I think it sucks.




This thing looks like it might be yard art. Don't seem to have been run for a while.





On that sad note we leave you for tonite, tomorrow bright and early we head for Denali National Park for 2 days.

BB

 

The top secret is likely ore samples assuming that Kennicott labs. Never seen assays lablelled top secret

 

Great trip. Thanks for posting