Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

41ford1, Lovin' you're Courier !

Sal

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Holy cow, those pictures are post card worthy! Really Cool, thanks for posting!

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Thanks for sharing, awesome pictures!

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

That's a very gracious thing to say. Thanks for that Craig!

It put a big smile on my face and inspired me.

Lonnie

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

I really enjoy riding with you. I like the conversations you have with your dog. I told mine everything, sure miss him. Drive careful, I'm still sitting back here.
Ol Ron

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Great photos as long as your trip last it will the 1st thread I read
THANKS

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

I started the 39 yesterday and charge the battery so today I am going for a ride down through the hill of W.V. with my dog. Rain or shine we are going. I got up at 430 AM to get ready. My dog don't think much like getting up that early. He tried to bite me. Maybe I will take the wife, she don't bite.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Glad you have a fordor, I just got in and it's crowded back here but I refuse to leave the adventure. Safe travels and thank you for allowing us to join.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Do not let the dog off a leash,, the brakes are the most important part of the car,, Calgary up past the Rockies is great.. Alaska roads are good. Orange cones mean slow down. Animal of all sizes will come out of no where.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Within an hour we crossed the border into Canada and headed north to our Motel in Fort MacLeod.

I take it you had no issues crossing the border with Little Lady? Always enjoy your travel posts and photos. In fact I use the photo you posted of your old house in the snow as the background on my laptop.

Have a safe trip.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

:) Does little Lady have a passport? Hope they let you back into the US.
Thanks for the adventure.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

I you need , you have a friend in Whitehorse.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Henry, I am jealous of you. My wife and I did a cross country trip in 2010 from Long Island NY to Encinetas CA in our '46 wagon, for the Wavecrest "Woodie" show. One thing I picked up in your initial post was something about a headphone amp. Be careful, many areas do not allow headphones, when driving for safety reasons. Keep documenting your trip!!!

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Some of the Montana views of the Rockies to the west off highway 287, especially near the intersection with MT 200, must be almost exactly what Lewis saw on his return trip in July 1806. It's one of the few remaining places on the Lewis and Clark route that hasn't changed from human activity, IMHO.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

A suggestion is to ride the White Pass railway to Skagway. It's an amazing trip! There's probably round-trip opportunities from either Whitehorse or Skagway. There's also some amazing stuff to see at the Whitehorse airport. A DC3 is setup as a large weathervane, and there's also some sort of huge orange Army off-road prototype parked nearby.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Day 3

What a day! Thirteen hours in the saddle wears on a guy. 486 miles driven but only 352 count since I went 67 miles the wrong direction and had to come back that far to get back on the route. Just one of my SHE problems for the day.

Here's how far we've come so far, 1,855 miles.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psg09thyqh.jpg

From Fort MacLeod we headed north to Calgary then west to Banff National Park.

I had developed a little bounce in the back end so stopped to get the back wheels balanced at the only tire store in some little town along the way. They didn't have space inside the garage to help me so did it by the side of the garage.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psiyxszfiy.jpg

I started getting a little tendonitis in my left wrist from the way I drive with it alone. Had to start modifying my approach to steering.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psh6ajivib.jpg

I stopped for gas in Calgary and let the dog out on the leash in the back seat, put her back in, put the leash in the back, and shut the back door, or, so I thought. When we started picking up speed I heard wind noise behind my left ear. I turned and saw the door open a crack, and, the instant I saw it the door flew open and whacked against the side of the car and fender denting the fender and the belt trim in and pulling the sheet metal out where the hinge hit it. :( My first SHE problem for the day.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psgerbhalh.jpg

I just wish it had been the first time but it was not. All the time I was growing up with this car there was always a dent in the fender and trim from multiple hits. Just a few months ago my granddaughter didn't shut the door tight and it caught the wind and slammed against the car, not quite as bad, it only dented the fender, not the trim nor pull the sheet metal out. I got my sledge hammer and pounded the dent back out from underneath and, in fact, the morning I left for this trip I dobbed some touch up paint there where some was off.

I had to do a little body work prying with a big screw driver and pounding with the hammer to get the metal back in place enough for the door to open and close. Then, a touch of duct tape over the exposed Bondo and I was "on the road again." I wish that had been my last SHE problem for the day.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psg228z35j.jpg

From there we headed for Banff National Park and the famous Lake Louise. I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed and frustrated with that experience.

As we drove into the park, there was a lot of particulate in the air (haze) and the majestic mountain peaks were far from the road, unlike Glacier National Park which is much more "intimate" for the driver. Then there was the highway through the park. It was the Trans-Canadian Highway - a freeway all the way. No quick stops for a picture. So, most of the views are by video that I'll produce and share when I get home.

Then, at the famous Lake Louise, I couldn't get Old Henry close enough to the lake to get his picture so had to make my first attempt at a "selfie". How did I do? No, my face is not photogenic enough so this is the best you get.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psmpihh8jk.jpg

Next came my next SHE problem.

At Lake Louise, we were supposed to leave the freeway to head north to Jasper National Park. Well, somehow I missed that and didn't realize it for 67 miles until I saw a sign saying 10 km to Golden. I knew Golden was not where we were supposed to be headed so stopped and checked the map realized the freeway exit I missed.

It wasn't a total waste since I did find one place to pull off the freeway and actually get the car near the river for a shot of it with a lofty mountain peak above it.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psqf5bga32.jpg

What I found out when I finally got back and took the exit I missed was that the Provicial Highway through Jasper National Park was a two lane that I could stop and take some pictures. And, the scenery was much more impressive. By then it was getting late in the day and I was mad at myself for having missed this great route during the sunny part of the day. However, the low light created some very dramatic scenes.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...pscmllzxso.jpg

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...pscykf0bqf.jpg

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psizxs7wa3.jpg

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...pslkqhgmdj.jpg

I was now two hours behind schedule so I was hurrying to get to somewhere to stay for the night. In my hurry, I neglected to stop for gas at 1/2 tank that I'd been trying to do and it looked like I was going to run out before I got to the next gas station and I'd have to put gas in from the can in the trunk. I hate that. Fortunately, I made it to an out-of-the-way place and pain $1.34 per liter of gas. It was starting to get dark and it was still an hour and a half to Jasper so I checked on the rooms they had there. They wanted $100.00 for my and $40.00 for little Lady. I couldn't stomach that so headed on to Jasper.

Most of the way I had no cell phone service so had no way of knowing what accommodations might be in Jasper. When I finally got service, I checked for pet friendly motels and they were all over $100. So, I googled camping and, low and behold, there was a camp ground just ahead within a kilometer. It was, in fact, a national park campground where I got a nice tent sight for $20.

It was midnight by the time I climbed into the sleeping bag with little lady. The car battery with the extra 6 volt battery connected in parallel during the day to charge ran the 400 watt inverter just fine over night when reconnected in series with it.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psumyblzrr.jpg

S.H.E. = Stupid Human Error

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Henry, 725 miles in 13 hours, man you are giving that little flathead a workout. Slow down and take it all in! Sorry to see your mishap but these are the things one encounters on road trips. Did you know that Ford offered "Automatic Rear Door Safety Locks" in '46 for exactly this problem. Glad to see that it didn't stop your trip. We had planned on doing some camping on our cross-country trip until a Tarantula as big as my hand crawled out from under our car. One of the other guests saw it and said "it's the snakes and scorpions you need to worry about". Well that ended any camping thoughts we had.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Received a PM with this question:

"I see in your picture of your front seat on your Alaska trip you have a lap top, are you able to charge it with your 6volt positive ground?"

I do still have original 6 volt positive ground. I needed more amps to charge my laptop computer than the usual 6-12 volt inverter provides that converts the positive ground to negative ground. So, instead, I used a 6-12 volt booster.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...mL._SX425_.jpg

Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Voltage-Booste.../dp/B004P9IS3I

But, with that booster that's made to boost 6 volt negative ground to 12 volt negative ground I couldn't use the car body for ground nor mount the booster to come in contact with any metal of the car. So, I ran the ground wire for the booster and power socket directly from the negative post on the battery and the positive wire directly from the positive post. And, I mounted the booster on an angle iron attached to the side of the glove box but away from the box as the booster gets real hot and I didn't want to catch the box on fire. Works great.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

They didn't ask anything about the dog, just whether I had anything that could hurt anyone.

I have every paper I've ever had on the dog in case they want to see it coming back.

Re: Alaska attempt daily report
 

Don't make me stop this car and come back there!:mad: