July 24th: We were hoping that the shop had found our radiator and were having it shipped, but we soon found out this was not the case. So, Sean jumped in with both feet to find our radiator and call the place to figure out if they could ship it as quickly as possible.
Well, by Friday, July 26th, we still had not gotten the shipping figured out because there was no cheap way to ship the 150 lbs. radiator to Whitehorse. We found a solution Monday, July 29th. The parts place were overnight shipping the radiator to Anchorage, AK where we would be driving ~700 miles one-way to pick it up with the Jeep and head back Tuesday, July 30th. Talk about a marathon drive, 1400 miles round trip! It was this plan, or sit around in Whitehorse for another 2 weeks waiting for the radiator.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Skagway
July 23rd: Since we were stuck for a while, we figured we would make the best of it and explore the area. We had planned on going to Skagway toward the end of our trip through Alaska, so we switched plans around since we were already nearby.
Sean had been excited to see the Carcross Desert, which is considered the "smallest desert in the world," but it is actually a humid area with large sand dunes...dunes that you can drive on. You can imagine Sean was excited about that fact!
There are many beautiful sites on the drive there, with lots of mountains, glaciers/ice fields, lakes, waterfalls, and trees.
We finely made it to Alaska!!! (Although it was in the Jeep)
By the way, when you come up to the US Border, be sure to STOP AT THE STOP SIGN until the agent signals you to come forward, or you will get a stern talking to from the border crossing agent...oops!
Skagway is a quaint little town with an extremely large port for cruise ships and ferries. Since the town thrives on tourism, when the cruise ships are gone basically the whole town shuts down. With us not being interested in tourist shopping, we were most excited to see the cruise ships and Dyea Road.
There were 5-6 cruise ships docked during our visit.
Dyea Road is a dirt road that takes you to a campground and recreational area.
They have companies that offer rafting tours and have kayaks you can rent to explore the Lynn Canal area next to Dyea. Well, we also found a 4x4 trail through the mud flats and found a view that not many people have seen, hehe!
The real treat came just as we were about to leave Skagway. On our way out from Dyea Road there is a lookout point of the Lynn Canal. I wanted to get a picture of the scenery from that spot on the way up the road, but it had a few people occupying the pull-off, so we decided to stop on the way out. Little did we know this is where we would see our first whales of the trip. Just as we were about to leave, we heard a blowing sound and saw a puff of water...
Sean had been excited to see the Carcross Desert, which is considered the "smallest desert in the world," but it is actually a humid area with large sand dunes...dunes that you can drive on. You can imagine Sean was excited about that fact!
There are many beautiful sites on the drive there, with lots of mountains, glaciers/ice fields, lakes, waterfalls, and trees.
We finely made it to Alaska!!! (Although it was in the Jeep)
By the way, when you come up to the US Border, be sure to STOP AT THE STOP SIGN until the agent signals you to come forward, or you will get a stern talking to from the border crossing agent...oops!
Skagway is a quaint little town with an extremely large port for cruise ships and ferries. Since the town thrives on tourism, when the cruise ships are gone basically the whole town shuts down. With us not being interested in tourist shopping, we were most excited to see the cruise ships and Dyea Road.
There were 5-6 cruise ships docked during our visit.
Dyea Road is a dirt road that takes you to a campground and recreational area.
They have companies that offer rafting tours and have kayaks you can rent to explore the Lynn Canal area next to Dyea. Well, we also found a 4x4 trail through the mud flats and found a view that not many people have seen, hehe!
The real treat came just as we were about to leave Skagway. On our way out from Dyea Road there is a lookout point of the Lynn Canal. I wanted to get a picture of the scenery from that spot on the way up the road, but it had a few people occupying the pull-off, so we decided to stop on the way out. Little did we know this is where we would see our first whales of the trip. Just as we were about to leave, we heard a blowing sound and saw a puff of water...
Our New Hopefully Not Permanent Home
July 21st: Getting the motorhome on the trailer was fairly easy. However, getting it off the trailer...not so easy. The big rig tow truck operator had to call his boss out to see if he could pull the motorhome off the trailer because the frame was actually dragging on the trailer and would stop the momentum of the motorhome (it didn't help that the drive wheels on the motorhome were not touching anything, so we were stuck, stuck). We tried winching the motorhome back and forth, stacking blocks and wood pieces, but nothing seemed to work. So, Mr. Boss Man pulls up and hooks to the front of the motorhome and yanks us right off. Phew!!! Once unloaded from the LoBoy trailer (which took 3 hours, btw), we got settled at Inland Kenworth up near the Alaska Highway, and we were welcoming sleep by this time because it was 1am. We weren't the only motorhome at the shop. There were 2 other motorhomes: one with the engine completely out of the back of it (they had been there 4 weeks, and counting), and a smaller motorhome we were parked next to that was an RV rallyer.
July 22nd: The morning brought another motorhome with a broken alternator, though he was able to drive his motorhome into the shop yard. Everyone was up bright and early to talk with the service dept., it was kind of funny we had to form a line to talk with the manager about getting fixed up.
We were told that we could try radiator "stop leak" fluid to see if that might work, but there is no guarantee that it would fix the problem permanently. So, it could last until we got back to Texas, or it could break down 5 hours later and we would be in the same boat with another $5000 tow bill. We definitely opted for the radiator to be replaced. They mentioned that finding a new radiator would take some time and could probably get it done in 2 weeks. This did not sit well with Sean, so we went driving around to other shops to see if we could find an alternative.
He ended up finding a shop with some other motorhomes squeezed in a side yard, so he decided to talk with the owner of the shop to see what was going on and ask for suggestions. The owner told him the other motorhomes in the shop yard were here because of the same problem, and it would probably cost ~$7000+ to replace the radiator!!! You mean to say this is a common occurrence, AND we have to spend at least $7000? In total we have found about 5 motorhomes in this city alone with the same problem...rock to the radiator. We decided then that we would come down to this shop (Certified Auto) because we really liked the staff and owner and they were willing to work with our insurance company to file the claim for the "road hazard" rock hit. Now, that's more like it.
They made a spot for us next to one of the other motorhomes, which wasn't too easy for them to do because they have quite a few vehicles stacked up and some repo. vehicles and tow trucks they had to squeeze together in another area. That is what we would call home for about a week and a half.
July 22nd: The morning brought another motorhome with a broken alternator, though he was able to drive his motorhome into the shop yard. Everyone was up bright and early to talk with the service dept., it was kind of funny we had to form a line to talk with the manager about getting fixed up.
We were told that we could try radiator "stop leak" fluid to see if that might work, but there is no guarantee that it would fix the problem permanently. So, it could last until we got back to Texas, or it could break down 5 hours later and we would be in the same boat with another $5000 tow bill. We definitely opted for the radiator to be replaced. They mentioned that finding a new radiator would take some time and could probably get it done in 2 weeks. This did not sit well with Sean, so we went driving around to other shops to see if we could find an alternative.
He ended up finding a shop with some other motorhomes squeezed in a side yard, so he decided to talk with the owner of the shop to see what was going on and ask for suggestions. The owner told him the other motorhomes in the shop yard were here because of the same problem, and it would probably cost ~$7000+ to replace the radiator!!! You mean to say this is a common occurrence, AND we have to spend at least $7000? In total we have found about 5 motorhomes in this city alone with the same problem...rock to the radiator. We decided then that we would come down to this shop (Certified Auto) because we really liked the staff and owner and they were willing to work with our insurance company to file the claim for the "road hazard" rock hit. Now, that's more like it.
They made a spot for us next to one of the other motorhomes, which wasn't too easy for them to do because they have quite a few vehicles stacked up and some repo. vehicles and tow trucks they had to squeeze together in another area. That is what we would call home for about a week and a half.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
UH OH!!!
Whitehorse (Destined to be our Home...)
On July 18th, we hit the road with our destination to be Whitehorse, YT. We had read about a place located off of the Alaska Highway in Watson Lake, YT, called Sign Post Forest. Apparently, homesick soldiers would post signs of where they were from to remind them of home, and the tradition carries on as people who come through the town to visit are encouraged to leave a sign as well.
We found some places in Texas, including Victoria, Lubbock, Ingram, but we never did find Midland/Odessa in the jumble. We didn't know that you could still add to the forest, so we didn't make a sign ourselves, but we will remember next time.
When you exit the town on the Alaska Highway, you must cross over the Liard River via a bridge...a bridge under construction...down to one lane to cross...they only allow 1 commercial vehicle on the bridge at any one time...and it was very narrow.
We made reservations at Caribou RV Park outside of Whitehorse just in case the RV rally people decided to set up camp in the city. Whitehorse is the Yukon Territories' Capital City with about 27,000 people.
We thought it best to go see a few of the city's attractions that night after we got settled in our campsite, and picked to see Miles Canyon and the Fish Ladder. Miles Canyon was a great hiking area next to the river and Schwatka Lake that feeds the dam that powers the city, hence the need for the fish ladder especially during salmon season. While we were at Miles Canyon, we kept seeing planes fly overhead and so we made a mental note to find out where they were coming from.
We found the planes on Miles Canyon road. I think they tour the city, canyon areas, and local lakes.
The Fish Ladder was closed for the day to tourists. I looked at my phone and realized it was 10pm, which did not match the daylight left in the sky. We made a quick drive through the city and noticed that everything (even WalMart, which was taken full advantage of by dozens of RVers) closes at 10pm, so we headed home.
The next day, we went to tour the Fish Ladder and Whitehorse Dam. The dam provides the city's power and you can definitely see nature's force when you are standing out on the observation area, you get quite wet from the spray of the water that is let out from the lake. The Fish Ladder is the longest wooden fish ladder and they have holes cut out of the ladder sections for the fish to swim through so they don't get too tired jumping over "ladder slats." They provide a live camera feed during salmon season, which the site link is in a picture below.
Next on the agenda was to figure out why there was a large steam powered paddle boat near the river on the way into downtown. This boat is the SS Klondike #2 (because #1 sank). It was used to boat people/supplies/etc. up the river to Dawson City, YT once the ice mostly melted from the river. It took about 1 day to get to Dawson City (downstream) and 4-5 days to get back to Whitehorse (upstream).
We had seen many advertisements around the city for the Yukon Transportation Museum, so we tracked it down and much to our surprise, it was worth the $10/person admission. They have the one of the world's largest weather vane, being a DC-3 airplane, and it does actually work.
After the day's adventures, we headed back home for dinner and sleep. We were eager for the next day because we would FINALLY make it into Alaska.
We found some places in Texas, including Victoria, Lubbock, Ingram, but we never did find Midland/Odessa in the jumble. We didn't know that you could still add to the forest, so we didn't make a sign ourselves, but we will remember next time.
When you exit the town on the Alaska Highway, you must cross over the Liard River via a bridge...a bridge under construction...down to one lane to cross...they only allow 1 commercial vehicle on the bridge at any one time...and it was very narrow.
We made reservations at Caribou RV Park outside of Whitehorse just in case the RV rally people decided to set up camp in the city. Whitehorse is the Yukon Territories' Capital City with about 27,000 people.
We thought it best to go see a few of the city's attractions that night after we got settled in our campsite, and picked to see Miles Canyon and the Fish Ladder. Miles Canyon was a great hiking area next to the river and Schwatka Lake that feeds the dam that powers the city, hence the need for the fish ladder especially during salmon season. While we were at Miles Canyon, we kept seeing planes fly overhead and so we made a mental note to find out where they were coming from.
We found the planes on Miles Canyon road. I think they tour the city, canyon areas, and local lakes.
The Fish Ladder was closed for the day to tourists. I looked at my phone and realized it was 10pm, which did not match the daylight left in the sky. We made a quick drive through the city and noticed that everything (even WalMart, which was taken full advantage of by dozens of RVers) closes at 10pm, so we headed home.
The next day, we went to tour the Fish Ladder and Whitehorse Dam. The dam provides the city's power and you can definitely see nature's force when you are standing out on the observation area, you get quite wet from the spray of the water that is let out from the lake. The Fish Ladder is the longest wooden fish ladder and they have holes cut out of the ladder sections for the fish to swim through so they don't get too tired jumping over "ladder slats." They provide a live camera feed during salmon season, which the site link is in a picture below.
Next on the agenda was to figure out why there was a large steam powered paddle boat near the river on the way into downtown. This boat is the SS Klondike #2 (because #1 sank). It was used to boat people/supplies/etc. up the river to Dawson City, YT once the ice mostly melted from the river. It took about 1 day to get to Dawson City (downstream) and 4-5 days to get back to Whitehorse (upstream).
We had seen many advertisements around the city for the Yukon Transportation Museum, so we tracked it down and much to our surprise, it was worth the $10/person admission. They have the one of the world's largest weather vane, being a DC-3 airplane, and it does actually work.
After the day's adventures, we headed back home for dinner and sleep. We were eager for the next day because we would FINALLY make it into Alaska.
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