Thursday - Friday - We are back at the RV switching things out again. We are headed back to AK tomorrow. We don’t need the dressier clothes and, since I’m driving the Jeep, I’m bringing some non-refrigerated food and minimal cooking stuff. Since the drive up wasn’t planned, my camping gear is still in TX. But the Jeep is minimally loaded so I can probably sleep in the back.
Wednesday - We arrived in Corvallis, OR, yesterday afternoon after a brief stop at the RV. After the drive along the WA coast with its cool temperatures, the triple digit temperatures seems especially hot.
This morning, we worked on Peter’s van a bit. The trailer connector was missing tail lights on both the seven pin and the four pin. It turns out that Ford chose to power the trailer tail lights from the auxiliary battery which is no longer installed. It was removed when the lithium batteries were installed. We simply moved the auxiliary battery cable to the positive of the chassis battery. Easy fix.
Wednesday - We left Sun River this morning and are stopped in Woodland, WA. I had spent a couple of days here as guests of the Arnetts back in 2016 getting our 5th wheel RV ready for traveling. A lot has happened since then.
We stopped at Dave and LJ’s RV RV Furniture again. We had stopped by here last fall looking for a new couch. We found exactly what we were looking for but didn’t pick it up assuming that we would be able to find something similar in Texas. We weren’t able to find anything. We now have one on hold until we get back to the area near the end of the summer and have it installed.
Thursday - Today was a cooking day. We made fish tacos using rockfish along with all the common sides such as Spanish rice, black beans, and Mexican corn.
Wednesday - Up before 7am today. I’m packing the Jeep for the next several weeks which include a wedding, a reunion, and some travel around the Olympic Peninsula. In addition to the normal stuff, the Blackstone, propane cylinders, butane burner and fuel, some cooking utensils, electrical repair tools, hand tools, ?. I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
The key thing for me, is that it nothing to do with the house in Fairbanks. A contractor is working on repairs while we are gone.
We spent yesterday evening at a pot luck barbecue hosted by the bride’s parents. A beautiful home on a lake.
Monday - We took more boxes of photos and albums to storage. The good thing is that it’s still looks there is plenty of room. There is still too much stuff in the garage. I scattered some grass seed on the leach field but it had been raining for most of the morning so no opportunity to even rake the area. It’s supposed to be wet and cool for most of the week so, hopefully, the seeds will be able to germinate and take root.
The original timeline was that we would be all done and leaving town tomorrow. That is not the case and it is very depressing to me. I am so done with this whole thing…
Later - I went to the monthly Airhead get together and I’m feeling a whole lot better. We are getting a ride to the airport tomorrow so we’ll be trying out the battery shutdown setup I installed last week. The 12V battery will run down due to all of the electronic systems the car leaves running. So I installed a relay to cut off all 12V power except to the relay, which draws only 3ma.
Tuesday - Flying south…
Saturday - Sunday - Yesterday, I drove out Chena Hot Springs Road to the local radio club’s ARRL field day at the volunteer fire department. I saw quite a few people who I haven’t seen for several years and also met Delta John, one of the other volunteer examiners. I’ve talked to him on Zoom numerous times over the last 4 years but this is the first time I’ve met him in person.
I didn’t take any pictures but several people had some impressive portable HF setups and there were a few participating in contests. Basically, trying to make as many contacts as possible. I’m not very interested in contests. But it was a fun couple of hours. Some were planning on staying all night until the event ended at 10am this morning. It’s probably easier to do that up here on the summer solstice.
Today, we hauled more stuff to storage in preparation for the contractor starting work in another week. The high temperature hit 80°F.
We went to Hot Licks, a local ice cream stand, but the interesting flavors were sold out so we didn’t wait in the long line. We’ll try again some afternoon.
It’s a smoky day with the fire south of Harding Lake. The McDonald fire is over 50 thousand acres and was started by a lightning strike. Normally, you would be looking at the Alaska Range all the way to Delta.
Monday - After the morning test session, we met with the credit union about a short-term load to get started on the house repairs. So much stuff to get done. We then stopped at Costco and Safeway for groceries. I'm still floored by the cost of groceries here in Alaska.
The days are almost at the maximum with sunset at 12:55am and sunrise before 3am. So it really doesn’t get dark.
This weekend is the Solstice festival where they close down several streets in the downtown area for food booths and entertainment.
Other than that, it was hauling boxes to storage and to the transfer station (trash).
We were scheduled to have the septic system worked on today but the contractor put it off until Monday. I’m not sure if that means actually starting or just showing up with equipment and material.
Friday - Another week down and even more stuff hauled off to the transfer station. The septic work was postponed by the contractor until Monday. He said that he was running behind. We still haven't heard back from the other contractor to work on the interior projects.
And just because it's hard to keep track of our travel, I thought about a summary post.
May 2017 - Drive truck to Washington. Set up the 5th wheel with batteries, solar, transfer switch, RV Lock, LED lights, camera, etc. Northern California, truck repair in Redding, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Moab, Capital Reef, Pikes Peak, Glacier, Helena, Salt Lake City, and Sun River. Drive back to Fairbanks w/RV in July. This was our “practice retirement” trip to see if we like traveling in an RV. About 2.5 months.
June 2018 - Drive RV to PNW with Talon. Store RV at TT Sun River. Drive back to Fairbanks through Vancouver, BC, where we attended a family reunion. About 1.5 months.
September 2018 - Drive truck from Fairbanks to Sun River to pick up the RV. Head to the Oregon coast, Northern California, Yosemite, Needles, and Benson. Store RV in Benson, truck in Tucson. Fly to Fairbanks in November. About 3 months.
January 2019 - Fly back and pick up the truck and RV. Head west to Quartzsite and Quartzfest, Needles Marina (short stay), Joshua Tree, Disneyland, Menifee, Oregon coast, family reunion, Helena, and tow RV to Fairbanks in May. About 5 months.
August 2019 - Drive Prius to Oregon, fly to GA to pick up the motorhome and drive it back to Oregon. Head east through Utah to Zion, Las Vegas, Page, Grand Canyon, Benson, Tucson, Quartzsite, Needles (month stay), now 2020, El Paso, Big Bend, southern TX, northern TX, (Covid), Casa Grande, Pendleton, Oregon coast, southern WA, eastern Oregon, Pahrump, northern Texas, Houston, Harlingen, Carlsbad, Benson, Acton (CA), Centralia. Store RV. Prius to AK on the ferry in May, 2021. About 21 months.
September 2021 - Fly to Washington to pick up the RV. Head east and south to Albuquerque for the balloon festival. Then east through Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, to Florida. Pick up the Jeeps in December. Five months in Florida. Left FL in June 2022. North to GA, SC, NC, Tennessee, towards San Antonio. RV was in the shop for a month with a major oil leak. Head for Tucson in August, 2022. Stay in Tucson for four months. In January 2023, head for Yuma and Quartzsite. We went back to Tucson for two months. Then north through Nevada to Centralia. Drive Jeep to Fairbanks. About 20 months.
July 2023 - Head south with the Ural on a trailer. Stop in Helena to store the Ural for a couple of months. Then on to Centralia to pick up the RV. Seaside, Corvallis, Leavenworth, Aspen Crossing, Yellowstone, Helena, Nebraska. The motorhome was towed to Cheyenne for engine replacement. In November, 2023, I picked up the motorhome and drove it to Hondo, TX.
December 2023 - Jeep road trip to Minnesota.
January 2024 - Jeep road trip to Oklahoma
February 2024 - Jeep road trip to Florida
May 2024 - Fly to Outer Banks. Then drive to Centralia, WA. Fly to Fairbanks. About 10 months.
We lived and traveled ~62 months in an RV over the past 7 years. Thats ~72% of the time. If you don’t count the first “practice retirement” trip in 2017, then it’s around 82%.
Tuesday - I rode the bike to morning coffee at ACRC and it was a lot more tiring than yesterday. Sore arms and shoulders more than anything else. After coffee, DaveR gave me a ride back home. Especially nice since it had started to rain, which wasn't in the forecast.
I sorted through more of my junk and hauled my bins of "must keep" to the garage. I'll go through all the junk at least one more time before committing it all to storage. I did find some things that I thought were lost such as the special USB cable to program the PDM60 (power distribution module) on the Ural. It's been missing for years.
Friday - Participated in the morning and afternoon test sessions. The sessions give me a break from moving things around. Hauling stuff around the house is a real pain (literally) especially if books are involved. There must be at least eight feet of cookbooks. I remember picking up most of them as they looked really interesting at the time. These days, most recipes are found using Google searches and most of these books haven't been touched in at least a decade.
More things are leaving, one way or the other, than are being put into storage. That's a good thing.
Saturday - Got some of my bigger items sold before the garage sale. The air compressor and air tools, a working 2,000-watt generator (plus one that I couldn't start)), a folding aluminum ladder, a glider rocker, a bunch of random tools, and auto servicing stuff. We also hauled some more stuff to storage.
Sunday - Today, I moved most of the furniture out of our bedroom to either the upstairs bedroom or the garage. The oak desk and large dresser went out through the sliding glass door and the backyard. There was no way I was going to get up the stairs. Both the desk and dresser I’ve had since before moving to Alaska and I must have hauled them up at some point. I really don’t remember when.
My Apple Watch says my heart rate peaked at 180 while moving the dresser up the hill. But recovery time was only a couple of minutes. Not too bad. But I’m pretty exhausted now. Too bad we only have one car, which is in Anchorage today. Hot Licks sounds pretty good around now…
I did get in over 10K steps and climb 41 flights of stairs (according to Apple).
Sunday - Not a whole lot was done today. I installed a 4-pin trailer light connector on the Prius in case I want to rent a trailer to move some larger items. Then cleaned up some of the junk in the garage. There is still a lot of junk.
The couple that stayed at our house over the winter began moving their stuff out today.
Tuesday - I began the day meeting a couple of friends for coffee at ACRC. This is the same group that used to meet at College Coffeehouse and Sunshine. Both of those places have since closed. After we dropped off a lot of clothes at the Rescue Mission and Value Village, I filled up the Prius with “hazardous trash” such as paint, solvents, and spray cans. The transfer site has a place to drop these items off. I then dropped off a load of leftover metal, wood, pipes, and other construction material.
Thursday - Yesterday was a blur as I arrived back home around 3am after 8 hours in the Seattle airport. This morning, we rented a storage unit and now I need to locate a couple of pallets to put some furniture on so the furniture is not in direct contact with the concrete floor. I also participated in several test sessions yesterday and today. The times for the tests seem more reasonable for me now that I'm actually in the Alaska time zone. And took care of a couple of really minor things around the house. Now the serious work begins.
To the right, I put a couple of old shipping pallets on the floor to keep some wood furniture from touching the concrete floor.
Saturday - More sorting through all of the junk that I've accumulated over the years. There was so much junk that was acquired at various conferences.
