Winter Weather Advisory!! May 18th, 2013 - Shit!

So, I spend the winter in Arizona and they experience the coldest winter in 60 years and then I head to Alaska and we are experiencing the coldest and snowiest Spring in over 60 years. What have I done wrong.

Today is is blowing about 30 knots and snowing and the temperature is about 22 degrees, with a wind chill of near zero! We had 4 tours booked for today, but we canceled due to the road conditions and projected comfort level in the River Lodge and at the Dog Sled Camp, hard to get a stove hot enough to heat either one, with the tent of course being nearly impossible to heat in this wind.

So I am sitting in the trailer with my heat on high and listening to the wind rattle the windows and move the blinds when it blows real hard. Not a pretty picture. The trailer is warm but the wind whistling through the windows makes me plan to have thermopane windows on the next RV and has me thinking about a nice casserole to fix for dinner, the oven will help keep the trailer toasty

Since we can't put the boats on the river due to ice we have been doing a split presentation, the guests stop at the River Lodge for the Fur and Trapping presentation and some hot cocoa and fry bread, then they get back on the bus and head down to the Dog Camp for a quick ride with the dog team then a presentation down there. It has been working great until this winter storm decided to pass through. Weather reports say much warmer next week, so we are hopeful this is the last Arctic Blast until September!

Some Pics...

Scott one of the other Captains doing the Fur and Trapping presentation!



Leaving yesterday afternoon and me with only my small camera we saw a nice herd of Caribou across the river from the camp. Not the best pic with that little camera, I am NOT leaving my big camera at camp anymore!

Caribou!



The pussy willow tree outside my Camper!



More of some of the view around here!



Yesterday with the snowy and cold weather I decided to get out for a short drive and took my camera. Found some caribou along side the road and shot a couple pictures....it was more to "get out of the house" than a photo safari!

But here they are!







Stay Tuned more as the season progresses!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

May 13, 2013 - Going to the dogs!

The spring is coming late this year to Cantwell, we still have 4 feet of snow everywhere the plows haven't been and the river is starting to open a little but we are probably 10 days away from open water to begin the boat tours.

The tour companies have people who will begin to arrive on the 15th, so we need to get something going and the quickest and easiest was to get the dog camp built and ready for guests, so today we took a day off from working on the boats and headed over to the dog camp area and proceeded to set up camp.

The big project for the day was to set up a huge tent for the presentation area and a place where the guests can get in out of the weather and look at some dog mushing paraphernalia! Then watch the dogs get hooked up and go for a little 1 mile ride on the dog cart! It would be a cold and windy day to wrestle the tent up!

The tent is brand new which is nice, however it was measured and purchased to fit the old frame of TWO tents. So the first project was to break out the poles and try and make sense of the pile of poles. Once we got that sorted out it was put together a huge tinker-toy frame, then man-handle the new tent over the frame and hoist it up. It actually went much smoother than any of us thought it would and in no time we had the tent up.

The Frame!



The tent!



A Better Picture of my boat!



Some pics of the Neighborhood!







Things are going well, if only the weather would cooperate a little and we had open water on the river we could start running tourists who are already booked on the 15th!

Hope for Sun! Stay Tuned for more updates!!!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

The end of my trip could not have ended any better! A four thousand plus miles journey with nearly a month of traveling and the last 150 miles are some of the most scenic I have ever seen...and good dry roads and clear sunny weather!

Before leaving Fairbanks for the last leg to Cantwell, I stocked up on supplies, pressure washed the truck and trailer, filled with fuel and ran a couple important last minute errands! Then I headed down the road towards my new summer home!

Just a little of the scenery!





Until I finally pulled into the Denali Wilderness Safari Camp and got the RV Settled in to a temporary site!



Camp Main Street!



My Boat!!





Yesterday my first day was a busy day....had to drive north about 50 miles to take the drug test, then we did a nice presentation for the folks at Princess Lodge to the drivers, tour guides and tour desk people. Then back to pull the deck up on the big boat for a USCG 5 Year hull inspection. Lot's of work, now to clean it out and hopefully we got the ice melted in the bilge overnight!

Should be a fun summer, I am anxious to get on the river as soon as the ice clears. Late spring this year!!

Stay Tuned!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

May 7th Alaska Travel Update - Fairbanks!

After sitting for 3 nights in Tok, Alaska I left yesterday for the North Pole and Fairbanks. Weather was clear and sunny and unlike the previous three days the roads were clear and dry. Made the 200 miles or so in good time and got great gas mileage over 12 MPG!!

Stopped at the North Pole Christmas House and made some gift purchases for my Grand Nieces and Nephew...they will be getting a nice letter from Santa and I put a good word in for them!

Drove on to Fairbanks and arrived in time to fill up the gas tank, empty the waste tanks and fill up the water tank thanks to Sourdough Fuel stop, the only place in town with an open dump station and water fill! So I bought my gas there and there was no charge to fill the water or empty the waste!

No campgrounds open one I visited had a front end loader clearing out sites they said they would open around the 24th of May! So like a few others, I retreated to the Wal-Mart parking lot and bunked down for the night. Today was shopping day to refill the freezer and cupboards after the long trip. Phoned my job in Cantwell and he suggested to spend another night as the roads were sloppy they got about 8 inches of snow. So I am hanging out in Fairbanks. Two projects tomorrow, find a car wash to spray down the truck and RV and get my propane topped off, then head down to Cantwell and arrive in the afternoon to get set up for the summer!

I snapped a few shots along the way yesterday! So on with the pictures!

This is the campground in Tok, Alaska!







On the road between Tok and Delta Junction!





Santa's Reindeer at North Pole, Alaska!





The long journey is only about 3 or 4 hours of driving time from being finished, 150 miles to go! It has been quite the experience and I am anxious for the summer season to start and experience my new job and location!

Thanks to all who have followed my journey!

Stay tuned for an update of my arrival and throughout the summers adventures!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

May 4th 2013 - Trip Recap and some picture Art

Today was a day for cleaning and resting and checking the springs out on the trailer, as I was getting a weird squeaking noise, which went away as I pulled in here at the Tok RV Village. The place is barely open, they have about 8 sites plowed and access to the electric and cable TV. the office has yet to be open, they have envelopes for paying. The showers are open with nice hot water, so a good warm shower was the order of the day.

I spent the better part of this morning cleaning up a mess from yesterday. It seems I forgot to latch the fridge or the rough road from yesterday jarred the lock open and a ketchup bottle launched itself out and the friggin lid broke and sprayed ketchup all over, looked like a murder scene! So everything all scrubbed clean, including the floor and I am out of paper towels!!

Checked the springs on the trailer and both springs and shackles look fine. So will see if the squeak returns when I leave and if so, pull a wheel and check the bearings and grease them.

One class C RV left early this morning and then returned as I was checking the springs, they said visibility was bad and the roads were getting pretty slick with the light fine snow that has been falling all day and the wind is blowing pretty hard.

After the cleanup and a warm shower, I messed with a couple of yesterdays photos and did a conversion in Photoshop to resemble an oil painting, I thought they lent themselves well to the technique.

Here they are!







Not sure how far I will get tomorrow, may stop around Fairbanks and hit a store for some supplies, but HAVE to stop at the North Pole and arrange for letters from Santa for my grand nieces and nephew! The trailer is warm and toasty and with cable TV, just watched the Rangers Hockey game and now the Kentucky Derby, I have a nice rib-eye steak out thawing and will have some potatoes and a veggie! All is well....

Almost forgot the Trip Recap!

Since leaving Kingman Arizona on April 9th I have traveled approx 4620.4 miles (which includes some running around) and used 349.72 gallons of fuel, costing $1,574.90 lowest gas price was $3.329 and the highest was in Canada and without currency conversion was $6.107 for an average of $4.46 per gallon for the trip. I averaged 9.96 MPG with my best leg at 12.99 MPG. I have for the most part tried to limit my travel to about 300-350 miles per day. My longest day was 732 miles on day 1. Several days near 400 miles.


Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

May 3rd - Alaska Arrival

Today's plan was pretty simple...get to Alaska! I was warned that fuel may be an issue, but in reality there were plenty of places open and I arrived in Tok with plenty to spare and didn't have to use my spare tanks.

Today was by far the most spectacular scenery on this trip so far. The snow peaked mountains were astounding! From a driving standpoint as advertised, this was the roughest section of the highway with warning cones for frost heaves and rough sections all the way from Watson Lake to the border. Once you get to the border the road smooths right out, so either the Canadians need to stop hiring road crews trained in Ohio or take some lessons from the Alaskan's!

All in all a very enjoyable drive with no real issues, have a weird squeak in the trailer suspension to check out in the morning, but nothing serious I am sure. I am VERY happy that I rebuilt the front suspension on the truck before this trip. It would NOT have survived....Thank You Jim Flinchbaugh!!

Now some pictures....

First - here are the frost heave waring cones and flags!



Now some scenery!









Tomorrow is a re-group day - check the trailer suspension and maybe make a short trip to Delta Junction for some sightseeing and then on towards Fairbanks planning another stop to get things cleaned up the truck and trailer are both filthy. Then on Sunday make the drive to my summer home in Cantwell.



Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Alaska Bound - May 2nd, 2013 - Fun Day of Driving!

Early departure this morning with a plan to make it to Whitehorse. Fueled up first thing, had a confirmed gas stop in Teslin, just about half way.

The roads had been reported to be very bad last night, with one trucker saying that the road was almost impassable in spots. I was hoping that was due to freezing. The first hour or so was fine, then it turned to snow packed in sections, then a little while later it was snow packed on ice with about 2 inches of freezing slush on top, which made you really stay in the grooves, otherwise you were all over the place. Hit a pretty big hill and it got worse, really slick had to slow way down and I jumped into 4 wheel drive. I counted 6 different RV's and cars off the road, some from last night and a couple with people standing around looking like they were screwed! Which they were. Shame some people just have to try and go fast. I had no problems at all only slid a little one time on the steep hill. Actually had to pass an old Dodge Van / Camper looked like his tires were bald and he was going nowhere on that hill.

The most dangerous part was when a big truck passed you oncoming and threw up 200 pounds of slush all over your windshield. At Teslin I fueled up and the road was clear from that point on, so easy driving the rest of the way. The first half I averaged 35 mph according to the GPS and the second half I was averaging about 50 mph.

I got to my stopping point in Whitehorse and did a drive through and much was closed, fueled up and decided to head on another 96 miles to Haines Junction, good road for the most part with a few frost heaves but all were well marked with little pink flags and cones, so easy to slow down for. Pavement was good with some small pot holes, but easy to avoid if you were paying attention. The roughest part all day was the frozen slush on the snow packed part, it was a teeth rattler.

Truck ran like a dream with no problems at all!

Here is what the better part of the snow packed road looked like, couldn't take a picture in the bad part!



As the day progressed the views got better!!









Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey! ALASKA Tomorrow!!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

April 30th - A long Days Travel - fairly uneventful!!

After the fuel episode I was determined to make a better plan and to not count on the Milepost ads that say open all year, but rather to call and confirm ahead of my departure from a safe area.

So my plan for yesterday was to fuel up three times and also to have the extra tanks of fuel on board before leaving Fort Nelson, so after hitching up and filling with water, I headed to an auto parts store and bought two fuel tanks, then to a gas station and filled the tanks and the truck, then went to a bank ATM and got some more Canadian Cash.

The travel plan was to hop scotch the confirmed fuel stops to Llaird River Hot Springs. Spend some time there and depending on weather maybe dry camp and spend the night after a good soaking in the springs and maybe another in the morning.

The drive was fairly uneventful although the roads were a little snow covered in spots and at one point pretty icey, so had to go into 4 wheel drive and slow way down. Stopped for fuel in Toad River, filled up. Then made another stop at Northern Rockies Inn but the gauge was still on full and had plenty to get to the next confirmed fuel spot! So on I went towards the hot springs. Pulled in a heavy snow covered road to the hot springs and parked in the parking lot, anxious to get in and soak. Au Contra're!

As I walked to the back of the trailer towards the hot spring trail, I noticed the propane storage door was open. I tried to close it and it was sprung, so got out some tools and re-aligned the door only to realize the latch was broken. Think for a minute about an easy fix and dig out my drill and hunt for a big sheet metal screw to screw the door shut. It is a fairly quick fix once I dig out the tools and find a screw that would suffice. After fixing, I am putting away the drill bit and drop it under the trailer, as I am retrieving it, I see a long wire dragging under the RV. Trace it back to the drivers side trailer brake, seems it used to run across the trailer to the passenger side brake. Well the wire is shot and all frayed and the other end on the passenger side is dragging as well. Rather than take a chance that it would end up wrapped around a wheel or something, back in for wire cutters and crawl in the dirty parking lot slush and cut off both wires at the wheel connections. So no more trailer brakes. Not really a big deal, just have to allow a little more room to stop. They will get fixed properly this summer, with the wires encased in a piece of PVC Pipe like it should have been, seems the slush and snow and mud etc built up on the wire and the weight made it break. See the front landing gear on the RV to get an idea of the build-up.

On to some pics....Ready to leave Fort Nelson



Extra Fuel Tanks!



Landing Gear



Propane door and fix!





Llaird Hot Springs





Some pics from the road!





Arrival in Watson Lake!







So I got out of my wet jeans from making the repairs and put on my bathing suit and thankfully my sweat pants and walked the 16 miles (300 yards or so) over the snow packed board walk to the Hot Spring. Had towel and was ready to soak. There is a nice changing room and showers to rinse off after soaking. There were about 8 or 9 people there and I spent about an hour or so until it started snowing pretty hard and headed back to the camper. Not knowing how long the snow would last or how bad it may get, I made a good choice to drive on to Watson Lake. Pulled in and stopped at the Sign Post Forest then checked in to the "Downtown Campground".

So of you may already know, as soon as I got in and downloaded the camera and prepared to do this blog entry, all of a sudden I felt terrible...cold sweats and severe stomach cramps - like real friggin pain, so hit the toilet and quickly realized I was sick as a dog. Decided to eat a sandwich and get in bed....which I did. Feel better today, but it is snowing even more and road conditions are reported as hazardous, so it is laundry day and plan for tomorrow to head for Whitehorse. Cable TV with Fox News so I am happy!


Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest