Alaska P 9

I awakened early, about 5:00 AM and showered and began my recording of this tour in the Journal. I had been told by the receptionist that the hotel had WiFi and I wanted to upload all the Journal pages composed on the boat. I fired up the computer and plugged in my newly purchased WiFi card with great anticipation. The first thing that popped up on the screen was a message that the computer had found new hardware and to insert the CD in the drive! Not what I wanted to see at all! Some how this freaking computer had lost the driver that I had paid the computer shop to install before we left! I had not thought to bring the CD with me, so now I was stuck with wired connections — if I could find them. (Maybe I could find a shop and get another driver installed?)

With great disappointment, I set to recounting the adventures of yesterday and put off black thoughts about this computer and most others that I have known. I can, at least, use the time to get the journal entries of the last several days organized. I have as yet to get the pictures composed.

The plan today is to look around Whitehorse and depart about noon for Haines Junction about 100 miles away. In accordance with my stated policy, I will be the last to leave, so that if anyone breaks down, I can be there to give them a tow, if need be. The Model T’s will drive to Whitehorse today after a day of sightseeing in Skagway. I hope the clouds have lifted for them.

The rear tires of the Victoria seemed low this morning, so I checked them and found that they needed some air. I carry a small 12-volt pump and in due time had the tires inflated properly. When it came time to leave, the GPS wouldn’t operate. This seemed strange as it was functioning OK when I shut it down the previous day. But I tried it in all three of the plugs I had installed in the car and none seemed to work. This sounded ominous — like the unit was on the fritz. As a result, we had no GPS. Dennis was in the lead this morning and after we gassed up, he started out. I thought that he was taking an incorrect route and we discussed it and he acceded to my idea of how we should depart. Turns out that I was confused and we started out in the wrong direction, which became apparent when we ended up in a residential neighborhood instead of the Alaska Highway! We rethought the whole thing and we ended going the way Dennis had started out.

The drive was very pleasant today, just 100 miles over mostly good roads and the weather was warm — no jackets. We didn’t see any wildlife and stopped once about midway at a rest stop where we met a couple from Pennsylvania. When we arrived at Haines Junction, most of our companions were already there. A few straggled in later, having made a side trip to the village of Champaign where they saw a totem pole made of hub caps! The Frazers saw a brown bear and as proof, Nancy took three very good pictures of it.

Those of us with car problems now had time to make minor repairs. I replace a burned out halogen bulb in one of my driving lights and attacked my GPS problem. I got out my voltmeter and determined that I had voltage at all places. It looked like I had a defective GPS unit. Jim Baker suggested that I plug it into his car’s cigarette lighter. I did and it worked! Now I redoubled my efforts and found that the normal socket that I used had a very poor ground. With that fixed, all was well. Apparently the vibration caused by some of the bad roads had shaken a connection loose.

We had dinner at one of the few restaurants in this cross road village and then had a group meeting a little after 8 o’clock in our “suite.” And a suite it is — living room, two bed rooms, bath and a large entry hall. It is just newly constructed and they saved it for the Smiths when they learned that we were the leaders of the group. We were able to get everyone in because being friendly we can bunch up!

Our drive tomorrow is about 200 miles — the longest yet and the roads are predicted to be bad! All are prepared to leave early and drive slowly. There is also at least one construction zone that may cause up to a 30-minute delay.