Thursday, May 31, 2007

North to Alaska (Restart)

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men.... Things haven't worked out as planned, but adjustments have been made. The story goes thusly...

As we progressed North from our original starting point of Montrose, Colorado, it got windy, very windy. As a large truck passed us going in the opposite direction we were pummeled by a gust of wind and his draft simultaneously. That was a treat, enough so that one of the roof clamps popped loose allowing a corner of the roof to raise slightly. This was obvious immediately as I could feel the additional drag. We stopped, reseated the roof and refastened the clamp. To insure no further occurrence of this I taped each clamp so they could not open.

We stayed that night about 60 miles South of Pocatello, Idaho. The next morning we hopped up all bright eyed and bushy tailed (well, so to speak), ready to take the next bite out of this adventure. Oooopppps, the camper roof would not properly retract. After an hour of finessing the roof down (eventually finishing with a hammer, two screw drivers, and a big board) we traveled on to Pocatello looking for a dealer who could make the necessary repairs.

Guess what. Of course you are right, no one could fix the problem quickly. Slowly and expensively, yes, but not quickly. So, in order not to delay the grand trip, I kissed the old camper goodbye and bought a new camper on the spot. We are on the road again and are in Coure D'Alene, Idaho. We will cross the border into Canada tomorrow (Friday, June 1) on schedule.

Please disregard the picture of Sharon and I with the old camper in the blog dated May 28. Sharon was kind enough to take this picture so that I could be the big star. So here I am, with the new camper, pointing North toward Alaska.This time I used a compass to make sure I was at least close.

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