Finished the Railing

Monday - The maximum opening allowed on a railing is 4”. There is 59.5” between the posts on the front of the porch. If I assume the balusters are 1.5”, then each gap+baluster is 5.5”. Ten balusters would leave a 4.5” gap at the end. Foiled by ½”! I guess I’ll need 22 balusters for the front railing with 3.58” openings. 

The short end is 63.5” between the posts. Eleven balusters would have 3.91” openings. So I need to find 33 balusters. 

Tuesday - After morning coffee, we picked up the power miter saw from storage and balusters from Home Depot. I was planning to use pressure treated 2x2 but they didn’t have any available. Their app claims that they have 302 in stock. So I ended up using 2x2 cedar for 30% more. But at least this task is done. I need to paint the lower part of the porch as the paint is peeling as well as the three steps. Maybe I’ll pick up some lattice for that lower part. 

The railing really changes the appearance of the front of the house. 

Getting Things Out of the House

 Friday - After a day to recuperate from the drive, it's back to getting the house ready to sell. I'm to the point of starting to toss things that I would've tried to sell. But we kind of want to be out of here in a month or so. The upstairs is pretty empty but there is still junk in the downstairs bedrooms. I was cleaning out a closet and came across a Lenovo tablet/laptop with Windows 8 on it. I don't remember this laptop at all and don't remember Windows 8 at all. The battery doesn't hold a charge but I think it may be a useful machine as it's pretty will made.

I just finished a test session. As you can see, there isn't much in our living room anymore. The couch was dropped off a few days ago and I think the piano has a new home (hopefully). The floor was just installed while we were gone and it is looking pretty nice. The room really echos.

Saturday - Quite the temperature change especially compared to where I was last week! It has been raining off/on since last night. The fair opened up yesterday afternoon so the rain is right on schedule as it almost always rains during the fair.

I led a test session this morning for the first time is almost a month. I was sure that I was forgetting something but we got through it. The candidate passed easily. I started hauling things from the garage sale “pile” to the transfer station. Things that probably would not sell such a metal filing cabinet. No one is saving paper anymore. It took me quite a while to empty and shred paper from that cabinet. As well as a bunch of paper from my office that were in boxes. 

Sunday - The project of the day was railing for the front porch. One edge is more than 30” above the ground so a railing is required. I picked up some pressure treated posts and several 12’ long 2x4s. They sort of fit in the Prius by going out the front passenger window. Fortunately, it wasn’t raining and it isn’t that long of a drive. 

It took me most of the afternoon but the structural part of the railing is mostly done. I need one 8’ 2x4 and all of the balusters. Lowe’s was sold out of balusters so once I figure out how many I need, I’ll check Home Depot. 

Back to Fairbanks

Tuesday - I got an early start this morning as it was cold in the Jeep. Around 48°F without a sleeping bag. The “plan” is to stop at Fast Eddy’s in Tok for their salad bar. But I can’t arrive too early. I stopped in Beaver Creek for coffee and a small breakfast. This sidecar rig was sitting outside. I found the riders and talked to them a bit. 

I stopped at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. They had a pretty good movie and I did remember to stamp my National Park passport book. 

Fast Eddy’s in Tok was the the next stop after filling up. The overall average for this trip has been 28.6mpg. More than satisfactory as was the salad bar at Fast Eddy’s!

But it was a long drive. The is the long, straight road west of Tok.

Day 3 - Into the Yukon

Monday - This is the wonderful view from my overnight spot on the side of the road. A lot quieter than yesterday rest stop. There is much less traffic on the Cassiar than Hwy 16. 

Near the northern end of the Cassiar, there was a lot of smoke. I’m not sure where the fire is but it looks like it’s west of the Cassiar and south of the Alaska Hwy.

Today was another 600+ mile day ending at Kluane Lake. I’m stopped at a rest area near Destruction Bay. No view of Kluane Lake but there is an outhouse. Only 433 miles to go! It may be challenging to get to sleep as sunset isn’t until 11:17! 

North through B.C.

Sunday - I got an early start today but an accident in Hixon on a bridge stopped progress for a while. No roads around the bridge for quite a ways, I’m told. 

Due to the morning delay, only about 625 miles today due to the Hixon delay. Overnight was at a turnout around 90 miles south of Dease Lake. I stopped at Bell II for dinner but the kitchen was already closed. I had a sandwich and tomato soup from the Bell II gas station. It was a tasty meal. As usual, the Cassiar is wonderfully empty. The animal count on this trip so far is 2 deer, 1 coyote, 2 moose, and 12 black bear. All of the bear were along the southern end of the Cassiar. The two in the picture were about 4 miles from Bell II. Note all the smashed bugs on the windshield. This is after scrubbing the windshield clean about 100 miles ago…

Centralia, WA - British Columbia

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. 

It’s about 2,300 miles so about 4-5 days. It should be a nice trip. Four 10 hr days or five 8 hr days. I’ll probably do a couple of longer days for the first half of the trip followed by a couple of shorter days. I’ll probably head a bit to the east initially to avoid the possible crowds at the Seattle-Vancouver border crossing.

Saturday - A long-ish drive day. I am ~50 miles past Williams Lake, BC, or about 750 miles today. I crossed into Canada at Osoyoos, BC, as it’s usually a very short wait. It was about ten minutes. While approaching Hwy 97 at Cache Creek, the skies were looking pretty smoky. And the temperature was still in the upper 90s so I kept driving. I finally stopped at a rest area around 10:30 or so. 

Corvallis, OR

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. 

Thursday - Tuesday - Family reunion. Not much time for blogging. In fact, this is the only picture I took of any reunion activities. But it was a wonderful time and we had a great turnout. 

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. 

Port Angeles, WA

Sunday - We caught the ferry to Port Townsend and saved a lot of miles. And, we didn’t have to deal with Seattle traffic. 

It was a quick 35 minute trip. After disembarking, we headed to the Olympic National Park visitors center to get a recommendation on what to see if pressed for time. They gave us several suggestions and some maps. 

This is Port Townsend. The area looks vaguely familiar as I had been here several times but I would have difficulty finding my way around. 

We are now at a motel in Port Angeles recovering from the very hectic past few days. 

Steak and bleu cheese salad. Delicious. Followed up with an ice cream cone for dessert.  (No ice cream photo)

Monday - Today, we headed to the coast towards Rialto Beach. This is just within Olympic National Park. The rocky beach was nice and as long as we were near the water, the temperature was cool. (Mid-60s)

We also visited the largest cedar and the largest Sitka Spruce (pictured). These were a little inland and the temperature jumped into the low 90s. It went up and down all day. 

We ended up in Ocean Shores at a hotel that just changed ownership. The sign did not reflect the new name. But it was a great deal for a really nice room.

Tomorrow, we head to Corvallis. 

4th of July (plus a few more days)

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. 

Friday - Another cooking day. I helped with the rehearsal dinner. Mostly with the pork ribs and chicken. This was the poké appetizer. Delicious!

Saturday - Wedding Day. Today we celebrated with my nephew and his bride. The wedding was in Anacortes, WA, and it was quite the event in a beautiful location.

An Adventure

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 drove north through Seattle to Anacortes. We arrived in town several hours before the check-in time so we had lunch at a bar and grill right next to Anthony’s seafood restaurant. I had the oyster po’ boy. It was delicious. 

While driving through Everett, WA, we spotted some friends from New York that we had met in Tucson. What are the chances of that! This is the photo they took of us while passing in the highway.

We spent yesterday evening at a pot luck barbecue hosted by the bride’s parents. A beautiful home on a lake. 

More Packing

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…