I'm reading an excellent book by a lady from Haines right now. "If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name" by Heather Linde. They own the hardware store there and she works for the newspaper. A fine, fine read!!
got it. we are having breakfast in Tok, Alaska.
tough jumpy roads in yukon,though. you cannot get lost. main road and thats it.
Thomas and Sven
The adventure of a lifetime!!
today in the morning after filling up gas we left tok like in a mechanical reaction afte 22km straight( absolutly straight) whe we started up hill Thomas shouted stop we are wrong
in deed we headed west in stead of south
all back and again 22km straight before the first bend came.
all day long until Palmer we discovered one landscape more impresive then the other.
to me most admirable was the former river crossing east of gakona. to make that with a waggon pulled by horses through this wild river is hair rising. one thing is to have seen the films and read the books of Jack London. a totaly other story is to travel through these vast landscapes without people. Thomas just jokes. there seem to be more tourists then habitants. roads are "crowded" with campers and motorcyclists.
palmer alaska a new day with a bunch of tasks to fullfil, here we go.
i am intereested in the mechanics diagnosis at the ural agency.
Hi Sven and Thomas,
Glad you are having such an amazing time. Pictures are great. Take care and be safe.
Keith
kenai halfisle for today after taking out and back the diferential half a dozend times. Mickey the anchorage distributor is a great person and there should be many more arround like him. i am very greatful for his fast and generous help.
the oportunity to camp at H-D is a very nice sign and permits to meet excellent people.
here we go again
thomas and sven
visit fairbanks for a banana split at "hot licks"
great excuse !!!!
in honour of Don Mickey we should baptize to rig "Miss Sophie Travelair"
chears Miss Sophie
sven
we baptized Sofy Travelair on the actic circle with a bottle of champain.
and have to hurry now down to salem in 11 days.
yesterday night we spent shoveling sand to stop an asphalt spill on the dalton highway caused by a truck that brooke into 2 parts. thanks God the driver survived with only a few bruises. but strange behaviour. his collegues left him allone. as the accident was severe and he still could get a shock we staid with him until another driver change with us hours later. the rescue team never appeared on the whole trip through the night and permafrost areas til fairbanks
what we met was a real oversize transport. some industrial equipment 12m wide and 5m or more tall.
we baptized Sofy Travelair on the actic circle with a bottle of champain.
and have to hurry now down to salem in 11 days.
yesterday night we spent shoveling sand to stop an asphalt spill on the dalton highay caused by a truck that broke into 2 parts. thanks God the driver survived with only a few bruises. but strange behaviour. his collegues left him allone and the rescue team didn't show up in hours. so we staid until another driver stoped at something like 01;15
night driving in permafrost area is fascinating temperature jumps from 1 to 23 deg celsius and the sun is just below the horizont.
a 12 m wide oversize transport didnt get us to sleep until 4am.
today we pass the night together with the globe busters in the the same motel.
small world. www.globebusters.com
one of their mechanics once insisted on that he became sick because of the water of a green coconut, rubbish to put nonsens like that in discovery channel
ps : accourding to me the rigs name should have been written as Sophie, but on the baptize certificate it tells Sofy
1983 i had been the first time nearly as close to the north pole, if i remember right only 30km less. i will have to confirm with a map
writing posts on an ipod is just nasty, i mix up everything when there is a interruption or the batery goes flat
many things happened meanwhile:
today our oregon trip permit finishes at midnight, but in hazelton british columbia we got an extention.
our tripwent over chicken to the canadian border where we arrived three minutes before gate closing
a few minutes later we met our lucky angels David and Felixa from vancouver, who became our protectors for the next week and we met minimum a dozen times and each time they gave us great tips or had a cup of tee ready.
they presented us on the camping place to Garry a firefighter from ontario who just had a lot of technical troubles with his ural patrol, he had been stuck in dawson city for nearly a week.
on our way to whitehorse we found a badly hurt black bear cub who should have been sacrified inmediately. but what to do? without weapon, mother bear probably behind the bushes and you youself with you own cub. an indian lady later called the police when she got telephone signal again.
whitehorse: we met again the english globetrotters
made inspection at the motorcycle center and could not leave the town for two days
each time we intented to leave the engine starved.
we got transparent snow mobile gasoline hoses and clamps. still didn't work out / had to drain the tank for to open the gasoline valve. and now i finaly found the reason why the left cylinder always is hotter then the right one.
the gasoline valve's diaphragma is working like a minicarburator and so providing a continuous false air inlet that is not enough compensed by the gasoline jet.
as i pulled out the gasstation to try the repairs result Garry passed by whom we had left behind in dawsoncity two days before.
later our dear angels picked us up at a sole gas station
next day we met garry close to the continental division where he changed tires again. and again we left him allone. at the junction to the cassier highway he passed his bad luck over to us. as we passes us while we headed backward for the restaurant hundred m later the sidecar tire ran flat!!!!!
few minutes later our angels passed by for to say good by the last time
when we headed south on the cassier highway garry overtook us. the next two days we kept together untill vonderhoof and bad luck was gone.
since the our stops were lac le hache and merritt
n
ever seen a cat with different eyes? this friend says he is the motels owner and guest only task is to pet him
Sven
Are you in Salem yet?
just arrived sunday 18th 23:00.
thomas comment: oh what boring toget home.
11450km later. i'm interested what Jim will tell us tomorrow.
funny coincidence exactly on the parking lot at craters lake's restaurant the odometer showed 11.111km
have a pint on it
sven
work day at Racewayservices, Salem Oregon and lot of telling how the trip was.
we made a long list of things to recheck, fix and change.
the new designed swing seat is a simple screw on part, just one more hole.
so far it seems to make quite a difference on rough road.
the rear bumper and first aid box screw on without any tweeking needed.
the new headlight will have to show in the night if if is better in deed.
but after yesterdays long night ride after the ride arround crater lake we went from Roseburg to Salem on the I5 full throttle so i need some sleep
try and error = one of the best ways to get to decent results.
i just come back from a round arround Salem airport.
the new fancy looking headlight is a bad design ( dark and short low beam only a single spot on the high beam / due to its clear lens and parrabolic mirror it might be appropiate for fog, but to drive with a short dark low beam in rain? - for an aditional light on the sidecar it would be a good option) the original works way better as i prooved these weeks, so the fancy one will go back.
but as it draws more current and was getting darker at idle revs, it showed me that generation needs to be looked at.
todays BIG improovement is the new spring saddle ( i guess its called C7 # 11547/ i'll update later)
on a rough stone patio i could go right over the holes and piles and didn't recieve any hit into the spline. all it did, was shooting me up like on a trampoline and land further back on the saddle.
that will make up even for costarricans rough back roads and the bad regular roads when some goverment will betray its own people again.
this seat is not very big nor thought for a heavy or tall person but should work for me and others with weight from 75 to max 95 kg / 165 to 209 pound, way better then the original tractor seat with its rubber block and the torture frame hidden by thin rubber. pictures will follow. for the back seat we will have to fiddle a bit more though.
the rear bumper will help to have a grip in mud games wher to get a hold to or tie a rope to.
the polished finish of the first aid box should remind car drivers to swith down their surplus lights or high beam. that is the hope, only time will tell.
