[back to part I]

We rented a room for me while my husband hitched a ride to Ft. Nelson–some 150 miles distant–to procure an oil pan. The rooms for rent were small. Very small. Just enough space for a double bed and a walkway on either side. Luggage had to be strategically placed so one would not trip over it while getting in or out the door. All rooms opened into a narrow hallway which led to the café. Doors had 5 inch gaps at the top and bottom along with a hook and eye lock mechanism. Sleeping with all my clothes on that first night, one might think I did not feel very secure. I didn’t. Particularly when I discovered the gentleman across the hall was the only other patron in that section and he looked pretty scruffy! I learned later that he was a geologist who had just returned after a three day mountainous hike.

Meanwhile my husband was quite busy once he arrived in Ft. Nelson. Scoping out the junk yards, he was able to find an oil pan that could replace the damaged one and did not cost much (we were definitely on a budget now). Carrying this dirty bulky part, he decided he would try to get back to The Village in time to catch a few Z’s. Luckily he found a trucker willing to transport him. Unfortunately, about eight miles out of town, the truck’s engine crashed. The two of them along with the oil pan caught a ride back into Ft. Nelson. Finding a ride north wasn’t quite so easy the second time around. Daylight was on the horizon when he decided to walk back to the truck and try hitchhiking from there. Within a few minutes of arriving at the crippled truck, a small vehicle stopped. The young couple inside offered him a ride in the overflowing car. After shuffling items around in the backseat, they managed to get enough space for sitting. My husband removed his coat, wrapped up the oil pan, and off they went.

Four hours later, (remember this is a gravel road) they pulled into The Village. My husband immediately set to work replacing the oil pan only to discover that the starter ring gear (necessary for a vehicle to start) was bent. In order to remove this segment, the engine needed to slide forward. Putting that ingenuity to work, he found some trees that had been severed, which would work well in building a tripod. Fortunately the owner of The Village had a hoist which he lent for the cause. After intensive labor (on his part) and cheerleading (on my part), he was successful in his endeavor to remove the ring gear. He then had to hitchhike to Toad River, the next camp down the road, where he was told he could find the necessary equipment to straighten and re-weld the ring gear. Arriving back at The Village after yet another successful hitchhike, he was able to get the parts in the car and, ‘viola’, it started. That was a wonderful sound!

Early in the morning, beginning what would have been our fifth day as guests of The Village, we packed up and headed down the road once more. The little Corvette was running smoothly as we were approaching Ft. Nelson. Suddenly we began to hear a rubbing sound that was abnormal. Being paranoid at this point in our trip, we were not leaving town before getting it checked out. Of course it was not anything simple. The alignment strut mount was broken which was causing the right rear wheel to retract into the fender well, thus rubbing the inside of the fender. It needed to be re-welded and was only 2 inches from the fuel tank. We located a mechanic who was able to position an asbestos blanket over the fuel tank in order to get the job accomplished. Eyeballing the alignment, we were out of town by noon.

Ten days on the road and we were still on the Alaska Highway - 2,400 miles from our destination with Easter a mere 2 ½ days off. The only way we could get to Missouri in our allotted time was to stop only for food, gas, and naps (in the car).

Approximately 90 miles outside of Dawson Creek the road was paved. One could feel the sigh of relief not only from we human occupants, but the car too. It purred along like a kitten, never shutting down except for food and gas.

Midnight was upon us as we approached Jamestown, North Dakota. We were traversing hills in rain and dense fog when we unexpectedly found ourselves hydroplaning. Fortunately there wasn’t any traffic and we had two lanes in which to get the car under control. The adrenaline was sure flowing at that point though! A few more miles down the road the fog was so dense it reminded us of ice fog in Fairbanks, Alaska at 50 below zero. Slowing our speed, we felt like there was a vehicle ahead of us but there were no visible taillights. All of a sudden a semi-truck was in our windshield with no trailer lights. There was one reflector which allowed us to comprehend how close we were and to get around the big rig safely. With those two encounters behind us, it was time to shut down for a nap.

The remainder of the trip was relatively uneventful as we rolled into Kansas City, Missouri, very early Easter morning. Being quite tired we found ourselves going the wrong way on a one-way bridge. Realizing this only when several oncoming headlights were heading toward us, a u-turn was immediately completed. Afterward we were wide awake. It then took some detective work with our map to find the course onto the correct bridge.

One hour before Easter Services began, we drove into my parents driveway. Both of us were very happy to be at our final destination. After a quick shower and change of clothes, we felt like new people heading off to Church. My husband had pulled it off–I was home for Easter!

Stay tuned for part III

I hope this message finds everyone in good spirits and enjoying the holidays in whatever shape or form it finds you in.

Well it’s been awhile since I’ve posted any news, so again, sorry about that, but it’s been a rough month in the ‘real world’ and the time and energy needed for me to adequately maintain this site is running at a premium right now. Things should turn around sometime this upcoming January; at least I hope so because there’s a number of blogs I’m itching to write and I’m on the homestretch for part 1 of 12 of my WoW project. Yeah, it’s going to be huge if I can ever get the sucker finished.

As usual, it all comes down to time and trying to find enough of it to get everything done. Hmmm, do I smell a New Year’s resolution? …No, I think that’s the aroma of breakfast, which is the one obstacle before the grand opening of all things related to presents. Gotta go, Merry Christmas everyone!

My husband and I had been married for a year, living in North Pole, Alaska, circa 1969. My family lived in Missouri and I was rather homesick to see them again. We decided to drive the distance as it was considerably cheaper at that time, plus my husband loved to drive our vehicle which was a 1965 yellow Corvette. Our trip would take us down the Alaska Highway which was just one big gravel road except for the bridges, which were wooden planks or concrete. We began our quest in early April as we wanted to be in Missouri for Easter, which was 2 weeks hence. Also we were hoping the road wouldn’t be quite as dusty as it was on our honeymoon trip. Completing the journey in 7 days was the goal, 3 ½ on the Alaska Highway, and 3 ½ from the Canadian border to Missouri.

Early in the morning of our third day of travel, we heard a squealing noise which seemed to be coming from the back portion of the vehicle. Getting out of the car, it was obvious something was wrong. The rear of the Corvette was sitting on its haunches and the left rear wheel was in an abnormal position. As we were standing beside the car pondering our plight, the sound of an approaching vehicle caught our attention. It was a truck, and both of us began waving frantically, hoping to flag him down. The driver could see that we were having trouble and offered to help us get the car to the next village. Fortunately his truck was equipped with a winch, which got the rear wheels off the ground for towing.

The village of Fireside was our destination, where it was assessed that a bearing had failed on the left rear wheel, causing the axel shaft to break–a major problem. There were no parts in Fireside to fix a Corvette, but they could be ordered from Edmonton and would only take two days to arrive by truck. However, the parts and shipping were going to cost $300.00 (In 2008 dollars, that would be approximately $2900.00). We had $400.00 for the entire trip. But, alas, my most recent paycheck which had not been cashed was in my purse. Would the owner of the Inn be willing to cash that? Thankfully, yes, as he had no problem cashing a State of Alaska paycheck which was for $500.00–a month’s work.

My husband, who was a vehicle mechanic, prepped the car so it would be ready for the new parts upon their arrival. We then had time on our hands. With the owner’s permission, we walked along the Liard River, which was just behind the business, and enjoyed the peaceful scenery and serenity of the area. I also learned to play pool at the Fireside community center. My playing ability was less than average, but I did sink the ’8’ ball a few times– although not necessarily at the right time! Reading was also a good pastime. We discovered that the sun would shine in our room each morning when we opened the drapes, thus giving us warmth while we read. Had we not had a different itinerary, Fireside would have been a nice day outing.

Around 10am on day three of being idle at Fireside, the truck arrived carrying our parts. My husband began putting the car back together while I packed up our belongings and checked out of the room. By noon he had the last bolt tightened and we were back on the highway.

It was wonderful to be moving again. We ate lunch while driving down the road–a peanut butter sandwich from the grocery stash we had in the car. There were two lost days to make up for and we were anxious to get some miles behind us.

Approximately 90 miles after leaving Fireside, the unanticipated happened. While traversing a mountainous winding road, we rounded a curve in time to straddle a rock that was higher than the 3 inches of ground clearance that the Corvette provided. As the rock slipped underneath the car, a loud thud followed by a horrible scraping filled the interior of the vehicle. My husband immediately turned the engine off. We proceeded to coast for awhile; finally coming to a stop after crossing over a bridge. Getting out of the car, we discovered a river of oil behind us. The rock had smashed into the oil pan causing irreparable damage. Once again we were not going anywhere. Fortunately for us, someone else was traveling the road that day and stopped to see if we needed help. Their car pulled us 10 miles back the way we had come to a place called The Village. This older establishment consisted of gas pumps, a café, and a few rooms. The young couple managing the business was helpful, giving us the use of an old, empty equipment shelter which became the temporary home for our poor old Corvette.

Watch this blog site for part II

I’m back after another four days and this time with nothing but good news. Firstly, bluehost has gotten their act partially together and reduced the hard drive load to the low 90% range. So I can finally upload stuff again, hooray!

Secondly, yesterday I finished my Javascript rewrite for my WoW project (I turned my computer into a test server using a program called XAMPP Lite so I could work on it) so the only thing left to do is data entry. It’ll still take a few more days, but the wait is almost over! I’m still not convinced it was the best move to dump all the data into Javascript, though; I think a MySQL or similar database would have been better, but since my knowledge on databases is limited, it was the best I could come up with on short notice. Perhaps I’ll attempt converting it at a later date since I’d really like to learn MySQL.

Also version 2.7 of Wordpress came out a couple of days ago, and I just got it installed without a hitch. Unfortunately, it’s all back-end stuff so you won’t notice any site changes; however, the new dashboard is great and will make creating/organizing posts a lot easier for me.

I even have a completely unrelated video for your viewing pleasure. Since it’s become somewhat of a tradition for me to post a video for site news, I found one that I thought was interesting.

100 Super Nintendo games in 10 minutes!

And in case you wondering, yes, I recognized all of the games shown Did you?

It was moving day for our oldest son and his wife and daughter. They were leaving the warm climate of San Diego, California for a cooler one in Salt Lake City, Utah. Everything was ready for the big event. Boxes had been filled, a U-Haul truck had been procured and was on the premises, friends and family were available to carry items and load the truck, and to top things off, it was a perfect sunny day.

The moving of items from the apartment to the truck was labor intensive, yet the task was swiftly accomplished. Early in the afternoon everything was finalized and we said goody-bye to San Diego. The drive to Utah seemed long and everyone was tired from the physical work that had just taken place. There was no way we would reach our final destination that day. Spending the night midway into our trip seemed like the logical choice.

After obtaining a room for the night, our son suggested the name of a restaurant and persuaded us by saying, “They have good pies”. Having traveled this route on several occasions, we assumed that he had first-hand knowledge in regard to the pies they served.

Salads, meatloaf, and spaghetti were the entrées we chose along with their accompanying sides and condiments. Each of us strove not to overeat in order to have a piece of pie. After all, that was the enticement which had brought us to this particular restaurant.

“Apple or Cherry,” the waitress said, in answer to our inquiry of pie choices. “We’ll take both,” was our reply. Upon their arrival, we discovered that while they were home baked, neither had been made from scratch. The visual presentation should have been our first clue that these pies were not what we had expected. The filling, both apple and cherry, had definitely come from a can and the crust did not taste like any homemade crust I had ever eaten. We were hoping for a slice of pie like our Aunt Ellen used to make, but instead received a bland imitation that tasted like a frozen pie from the grocery store.

We quizzed our son on the quality of the pies only to hear him say that he had never eaten at this restaurant before. So why did he want to eat at this establishment so badly? He had noticed a billboard advertising ‘good pies’ and the picture of the cherry pie looked delicious!!