Sunday, July 1, 2018

31 - Fairbanks, AK

I finally sat down and figured out how many trips to or from Alaska. These are one way trips since several were only one way. This was trip number 30 with the first trip in 1976. I was originally guessing around 24 but I guessed low. Vehicles used: FJ40 Landcruiser, Honda Accord, Toyota pickup, Chinook class C motor home on Toyota chassis, Ford F350 crew cab, F350 w/13’ travel trailer, F350 w/11’ cabover camper, Suburban w/18’ travel trailer, Dodge 3500, Toyota Sienna, BMW RT, Ural Patrol, Dodge 3500 w/5th wheel trailer.

We arrived back home around 5. After unpacking some stuff, I checked to make sure the Ural and Prius started. The Prius needs a trickle charger on the 12V battery as the computers are a constant drain. I simply plugged the car in an into a timer set to 3 hours per day. Just a guess. 

I was back in time for the monthly Airhead get together at the Howling Dog. Lee had his freshly painted /2 there though he said it still needed some mechanical attention. The first picture is a cool cargo trailer towed by a trike. This was at Fast Eddy’s in Tok. Fantastic salad bar!

The last picture is a screen capture of the Spotwalla map. I’d call the SWconnect tracking a success. It doesn’t have the “work anywhere” feature of a Spot or DeLorme satellite tracker but for saving tracks on a map, it seems to work fine. 









Posted by at
Labels:

10 comments:

  1. david RJuly 3, 2018 at 9:24 AM

    That is a lot of time on the AlCan, 45,000 miles just on it. More than I've done, though if I count trips with my parents in the 50's and 60's about the same. Glad you're back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RichardMJuly 3, 2018 at 3:45 PM

      I’ve never really sat down and counted until a few days ago. Each trip doesn’t seem that far on its own. I still enjoy the road trips more than flying.

      Delete
  2. redlegsridesJuly 3, 2018 at 1:36 PM

    swconnect works eh? Might have to look into that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RichardMJuly 3, 2018 at 3:48 PM

      SWconnect does work and it’ll buffer until it has Internet. So not useful if you are looking for an emergency setup but for tracking it produces a better track than Spot. Spot needs to communicate with a satellite and if terrain is in the way, points are dropped.

      Delete
  3. VStar LadyJuly 3, 2018 at 5:46 PM

    Richard, I blink and another year has passed ... and you’ve been on another epic much catching up to do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RichardMJuly 3, 2018 at 5:55 PM

      Don’t blink too fast…

      Looking forward to your summer adventures!

      Delete
  4. SonjaMJuly 4, 2018 at 8:06 AM

    Quite some distance travelled, Richard. And there will be much more to come...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RichardMJuly 4, 2018 at 2:01 PM

      Part of living in Alaska. Just about everywhere involves a long raid trip.

      Delete
  5. ToadMamaJuly 4, 2018 at 3:23 PM

    Glad to see you're back in AK again. That's a lot of trips. I'm also glad to see you have the SWConnect/Spotwalla thing working. It really is good for tracking, assuming you have sufficient memory available on your phone. LOL. I do now, of course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RichardMJuly 4, 2018 at 4:05 PM

      Sometimes I think I’d rather be on the road again...

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)