Chapter 7: Breakdown Lane - "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride"

If you are still reading these, we will assume that you are either not currently employed, or truly have enjoyed following our adventures. We hope it is the latter, or is by your choice. If you have enjoyed reading these pages of traveling tidbits, we hope you will consider returning the source of entertainment by taking your own trip and sending us the notes from it. Although we plan to keep the computer, we will make you a good deal on a 21' travel trailer.

Sunday, September 07, 1997, Cloudy and Raining, Mid 60's (we can deal with a little rain)

After eight days of driving a better portion of every day (the largest portion of our waking hours being spent in the truck) we finally took a layover day, after spending some number of days heading south from Alaska. What a relief! We don't seam to remember so much driving up, because we stopped more often.

Peter was able to put the air conditioner back together with no problems so we could get the parts off the kitchen table in time for breakfast. Since purchasing the trailer, Peter has had the chance to use his; Mechanical, Plumbing, Electrical, and Carpentry skills. Carpet cleaning will wait for our return.

The towns of Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK are sort of twin cities, (twin blinks may be more appropriate), the strange part is that they are separated by an international border of sorts. There is no customs station going from Stewart, BC to Hyder, AK, but there is a customs station going from Hyder to Stewart, go figure. As Hyder, which is in AK does not have a bank; many transactions in town are in Canadian funds. Except for the post office. Ellie enjoyed keeping track of how many times she could cross the border during our 36 hours in the area.

We found the bear viewing platform that Linc had told us about. On our second trip out there, we saw what we came for which was a bear catching, preparing and enjoying, a fresh salmon dinner. OK, the bear does very little preparation. She made it look like easy fishing. The Rangers who spend their days at the area (attempting to keep bears and humans separate) have nicknamed her Priscilla.

On one of our many crossings back into Canada, the Customs officer asked us not only where we live, but also asked where would we like to live. Kind of a tough question for us at this point in time.

While Ellie was preparing dinner, Peter went over to the campground office to do the Email thing. The unexpected treat was that the owner had just come back from a days fishing for crabs. It had been a good day for him, and as the modem was connecting, he took three crabs out of the pot and placed them in a bag for Peter to bring back for Ellie for dinner. Another case of easy fishing! Ellie has already decided that she will miss the fresh fish when we get back to the land locked world. The crab was amazing.

Monday, September 8, 1997 - Rain and fog in Stewart, Clearing and warming as we drove south.

The negative side of camping in a wooded area is that you hear the raindrops falling from the trees onto the trailer for many hours after the rain stops. For this reason, neither of slept real well. We were on the road by 10:00, however, and covered 100 miles by noon. When we swapped drivers at noon, we noticed that it was not only clearing, but also warming up into the 70's. As we move south, temperatures are returning to more of what we are used to for this time of the year. By the time we get to SLC, we may even get to use the A/C in the trailer.

We had several letters to go out today so we crossed the boarder to mail them on the US side (32 cents rather than 56 cents, and much faster by report). Mail arrives and goes out on Monday and Thursday in Hyder. We asked if our letters would go out with the days mail, and we were told "if the plane can land." Apparently the old line about rain, snow, and sleet not delaying the mail does not count in Alaska. We were told the mail would go out sometime in the next 1-4 days.

As we drove out past Bear glacier, we met up with the folks from Louisiana who had been in the campsite next to us for the previous two nights. They had been on the road since April 1, and where heading south. When Peter asked them where they were planning to spend the night, he got a classic response "don't know, we're not there yet" We can't wait until we can do this again and give an answer like that.

We started to see little stands along the side of the road, then trailers in the middle of nowhere, then signs saying "mushroom buyer," apparently it is mushroom season. We did not know that there was a mushroom season. The other group we started to see logging camps. These ranged from decent places with buildings, trailers, and stores to rag tag operations with a few flimsy tents and some very old trailers. These areas, and some of the bigger mushroom picking areas, appeared to be filled with migrant workers. Some folks, who work very hard, are paid very poorly, and as Ellie noted have some of the worst access to health care in the developed world.

As we turned back onto rt. 16, which is the Trans Canada highway, we started to feel as if we are near civilization again, even if we do still have five days of driving to do between here and Denver.

As several people have recommended we stopped at Moricetown falls. This is a native salmon fishing area. The locals use spears or nets to catch the salmon as the fish try to jump up stream while making their way to the spawning areas. There was one person fishing when we arrived, but he gave up so we watched the fish throwing themselves out of the water (often into the rocks) in their attempts to get up stream. After watching this we began to wonder how any salmon make it to the spawning areas.

At the end of the day we took the map which we had been using for the last five weeks and placed it back in the file box. We took out a map of BC for the next section of the trip. We are feeling that the adventure is winding down. As the campground that our book said should be there, no longer was, we found the next one along the side of the road. They had hookups, a phone, and laundry facilities. That's where we stayed. What was really strange was that we both need flashlights at 9:00 PM to find our way around.

Tuesday, September 9, 1997 - Clear, mid 70's - Return to Summer Weather

We got up at 6:30 hoping for an early start. We started rolling at 8:23. We got as far as the driveway when we stopped to change another flat on the trailer. It seems that another wire nail had worked it's way from the trailer body into one of our tires. The stop in Prince George (pop 75,000 - one of the largest communities we have seen in weeks) reminded us of Whitehorse as it took nearly an hour and a half to get the tire fixed on the trailer, and rotate the tires on the truck. The rears are wearing faster under the load of the trailer, and we are hoping to wait to buy a new set of tires until we return to Denver.

While last night still had the feeling of being in the woods, today we are in a different town every 10 miles. As the Canadian highway system does not believe in bypasses, we slow to 35 mph every time we approach another town. The wildlife has gone from brown Bears to brown cows.

Just when it looked like the adventure part was over we stopped at the Sexton River Salmon spawning channels to take a look, just dry channels, no water or fish, so we got back in the car and heard a squeal from the wheels. A bad sound. One of the wheels on the trailer was too hot to touch, "toast" as Peter put it. We could have fried an egg on the brake drum if we had any left. Peter began to disassemble the trailer on the side of the road, and then realized we had a bigger problem than we first thought. We then decided we were 2 miles from Lilloet (4 hours north of Vancouver) so the best thing was to limp back into town. There was a tow truck at the Shantyman Restaurant on the edge of town, there we met Pat, the driver, having a cup of coffee. He recommended a mechanic, then gave the guy a call to see if he would come down to the restaurant. The mechanic suggested we take off the offending wheel (the trailer has a tandem axle) and drive up to his shop at 8:30 in the morning, thus we developed an unexpected layover. Since we were not very mobile Pat asked the restaurant owners if we could stay, so we camped in the Shantyman Campground. In exchange we ate in the restaurant, not bad, and everybody else in the place lived in town.

To add insult to injury the Frisbee plates struck again today, and we broke a correll plate. These things may be hard to break, but they make a mess if they do. The plate shattered leaving splinters all over the trailer.

Wednesday, September 10, 1997 - clear and sunny 70's

We got up early to take the wheel off the trailer and to meet Jeff, the mechanic, at his shop. The place is behind another building with several cars and race cars hanging about. The door is wood with no sign. The place reminded Ellie of her brother's shop in LA ( in fact she half expected the guy to look like Scott). Jeff pulled up at exactly 8:30am (the similarities to Scott's shop ended there) and got to work. After pulling the wheel off, the wheel bearing was gone, most of the breaks were melted, and the axle was bad. All of this not good. We would need parts, the most likely source was Kamloops 200 kilometers away. Given the option of a 4-hour car ride or a layover for delivery we planned a side trip to Kamloops. As Geoff and Peter waited for a call from the shop in Kamloops Ellie went off to inform the folks we were supposed to see that night that we would be late for dinner (probably 24 hours late).

Upon returning to the shop Ellie found Peter in coveralls working on the trailer, she wondered how many customers help with the repair work? Peter was happy being able to do something about the problem.

It was 11am when we left for Drago's Trailer Repair and Welding in Kamloops in Geoff's truck which he lent us for the run. Drago's didn't have precisely the right parts (the axle we needed is not made in Canada), so after much discussion we thought we had a similar axle that would work. We headed off to lunch at 3pm and Drago started cutting and welding the new axle. Peter was unhappy about the breakdown, the modified parts, and not being able to fix the problem. Ellie realized that he was much happier working on the truck in the dirt than sitting around at lunch, so back to Dragos, then back to Lilloet with the new axle at 4:30pm. This day was getting longer and longer. We got back to Geoff at 6:30, thankful that he was still working. He and Peter than got to work putting axles back in place.

At 8:30pm we pulled the trailer off the blocks to discover the modified axle did not work with the original one. Basically, all the weight of the trailer was sitting on the new axle, remember this is (or was) a tandem axle trailer. This was too much weight for the tires. In addition, the new axle did not have breaks, so this arrangement gave us essentially no trailer breaks. Peter, Geoff, Ellie, and two of Geoff's friends tossed around ideas, none of them workable at night. (It was rather amusing that at about 7:30 Geoff's friends started showing up at his shop since he was not home for the evening yet, so they figured he was still working, and they all had experience and ideas about cars and mechanics. They were also willing to call their friends to help us, nice folks.) After multiple ideas, and no good solution, we broke up the party at 9:30pm to continue it in the morning. We, therefore, created the Riverside Performance Campground.

In the trailer we drew many pictures and decided that if we took off the old axle, turned it over, and reattached the springs to the trailer we could make the current parts work (sounds simple right). So we turned in for the night, our second unplanned stop.

Just before going to bed Ellie heard the train whistle, and remembered that the train tracks are next door. Oh well, back to camping with the trains again. She hoped that knowing the trains were there would keep her from jumping too high if they came by at night. No such luck. As a bit of background, since residency, and being on call, Ellie has a tendency to jump when bells ring at night. We mean jumping like hitting the ceiling (and everything in between). Peter has gotten hit if he is to close, this time was no exception. At 3am the train came through, at 4am the train came and stayed forever (at least 30 minutes), Peter thought the train was derailing it was so loud. It turns out we were next to the switching yard, not just the track, therefore, the train went back and forth during the night. Not the best sleep.

Thursday, September 11, 1997 - cloudy, intermittent rain 60's

At 8:30 we started to work. Geoff had customers that day so he could not spend the day on the trailer, so we got to work. Yes, Ellie and Peter. Peter gave directions and Ellie helped. By 9:30 we had the axle off. We had it to and from the machine shop by 10:30 with new brackets to mount it to the trailer. The trailer was ready for the axle by 11:30 (after we moved the trailer suspension system to compensate for the modified replacement axle), and back on by 12:30. By this time Ellie could take the thing off by herself, and had decided that the air impact wrench was fun to use, auto mechanics "learn by doing course." Our first hitch came in testing the trailer brakes, one wheel OK, the other, no-go. After an hour of fiddling we got nowhere, except we thought the magnet was bad and the nearest one would be in Vancouver, or maybe Kamloops. This left us with breaks on one of four wheels, not ideal. Patience was thin, and time nonexistent so we decided to drive cautiously onward and try to pick up the break magnet on the way. Finally we were getting back on the road.

As Peter, with Ellie's assistance, had done most of the work, the bill for the labor was quite reasonable. At 3:00 PM we were off and running like a herd of speeding turtles - only 42 hours behind schedule. Duffy Lake road heads out of Lilloet through Cayoosh Canyon on the way to Whistler BC. Geoff and friends recommended not doing this trip at night, it was only after driving this segment that we understood why. This was 50 miles of the narrowest, most winding paved road we had driven, with the steepest grades of the trip. After driving up the canyon we had to come back down (without trailer brakes). The downhill grades ranged from 9-15%, lots of fun. Ironically we were listening to 30,000 lbs. of bananas by Harry Chapin as we head down our first grade. Needless to say we drive slowly, and in low gear. We were not the fastest thing on the road but we made it without overheating the brakes. The canyon was gorgeous and rugged.

That afternoon we stopped at Whistler. Peter had been there 10 years ago and was amazed with how much development had gone on since. He is toying with the idea of an NJS trip to the area. This area looks basically like Vail, big and expensive.

At the end of the day we approach Vancouver, our first large city in 6 weeks under ideal conditions; Dark, raining, no trailer brakes, downtown streets, not sure where we are going. All the perfect elements for a relaxing evening drive. With good directions we arrived at the Shaw's in Vancouver only about 30 hours late, and a lot tired. Peter saw AJ, now 8 years old, who he had gone backpacking with when AJ was six months old and living in CT. Ellie enjoyed playing with Courtney, now 6. After catching up with Heather, mom and the main reason we stopped by (since John her other half is in Indonesia working), we retired to bed in the trailer.

Rather amusing was that now that it was getting dark at night, and where did Peter park, but with the streetlight directly over the ceiling trailer vent, so much for darkness. After moving the trailer forward 10 feet we went to sleep.

Friday, September 12, 1997 cloudy 60's

Slept well last night, as a bunch of the stress was gone now that the trailer was mobile, besides we lost the train tracks. After seeing the kids off to school and a nice breakfast with Heather we hoped in her van to pick up a Fed Ex package. Due to a communication problem on their part we had to chase the package around town since Fed Ex had sent it out to deliver late in the afternoon. After successfully tracking down our mail we went in search of yarn so Ellie could finish two knitting projects she started on the trip, but stopped because she had run out of yarn. We had minimal success at this task.

Most of our time with Heather Shaw was spent in the car, but that was OK, as we were not interrupted by anything else and all had a great time talking. We left Vancouver by 2:00 PM and headed to the border where we waited on line for at least 30 minutes to be asked our few silly questions. The original one at this stop was whether or not we trusted the bear spray. We told him we didn't know and hoped to never find out. After all of the horror stories we had been told about US-Canada crossings ours were not bad. Several people are amazed that in all of our crossings we never had the car searched, and we even found a few customs folks with a sense of humor.

On our way to Seattle we tried to find some trailer brake magnets with no success. We then made the decision that we would drive carefully and deal with permanent repairs in Salt Lake City. We figured if we had made it over Duffy Lake Road with 15% downhill grades, the US interstates should be easy.

Arrived in Seattle at 7pm, still only 30 hours behind schedule. Corey and Joan had taken our comments and concerns about driving, and parking the trailer in Seattle seriously. They had used Corey's car and a traffic cone to save two spots in front of their house. These two spots, and their driveway were enough to park the trailer for the evening. What had been a small rig in Alaska was very quickly becoming big and unwieldy in the cities we were in.

We quickly headed off to see the REI superstore downtown. A fun place. The rain room was hokey but they had a bicycle with 5 seats so you can spend time testing a seat before buying them. They had a very neat area for testing bike lights and reflectors in a dark room. We also discovered they had many posters of places we had recently visited on our trip, which was also fun. We then had a great Tai dinner, and went back to the house and talked long into the night. It was fun to hear about some of Corey's adventures in Alaska 20 years ago and we thought the roads were bad now).

Saturday September 13, 1997 Cloudy 50's

Even with the earliest start to date 7:50 am, we still saw some more traffic in Seattle than we expected. We also saw more people in the rest areas than we have been used to. Our total mileage for the day was nearly 500, which is the largest number of miles in a day for this trip. It's amazing what you can do on US interstates in Washington and Oregon. This means that although we drove for 11 hours today, our last day of trailering will not be as long. After dinner we reset our watches and clocks for the last time on the trip, back to mountain time. The scenery for the day was not as exciting, even though half of our route was labeled as a "scenic highway," we figured this was a relative term.

Toward the end of the day we stopped in La Grande OR, a hopping town of 12,000 desperately seeking pediatricians. They tried to recruit Ellie, she said no go, then had nightmares after watching the video they had sent us on the town. After the stop we were pleased to be moving on, rather than house hunting here.

We camped for the night in Nampa Idaho, another town looking for a pediatrician. This is 30,000 people 30 miles from Boise, ID. This is a much more livable place, but still not our style. Peter had actually stopped here on a trip to Sun Valley earlier in the year, his visit had confirmed that Ellie did not need to interview here for a job. (Amazing how many places you hear about on a job search) Peter commented before going to bed that he had not expected to be back here again.

Sunday September 14, 1997

Slept well knowing that we had covered more than half the miles to Salt Lake on the first day, this information also lead to a 10 am Start from Nampa. Ellie still wanted to find the yarn to finish her knitting projects. No luck in Boise, but we found one kind in Mountain Home, ID. She finished that job by the end of the day

At our lunch stop at a rest area two hours north of SLC, we met a minister with the United Methodist Church in SLC. He came from Denver five years ago. He and his friends shared lots of information about SLC neighborhoods, politics, and life with Mormons. We left with his card looking forward to getting together once we're in SLC.

After fighting a headwind we made it into the city without a hitch. The single RV park in SLC was the most crowded and largest park we had seen to date. The first order of business was washing the first layer of crud off of the trailer.

After our ordeal of having to drive three hours each way to buy the trailer parts while in Canada, we looked in the Salt Lake phone book and found a place to purchase them 2 blocks from where Ellie will be working. We decided to skip the Utah State Fair this year, we arrived for the last night, we figure nest year.

This also rates as the noisiest campground of the trip. It had the requisite trains, as well as major street traffic, and airport noise. At about 3am Ellie decided she would take the switching yard in Lilloet over this place anytime, it was quieter, and the noise went away with the train. This was constant, we planned for earplugs and a new site the next night.

Monday, September 15, 1997 Sunny, windy 80's

We had a debate about where this trip ends. Peter thought it should end here, in our new home. Ellie, however, felt it ended when we returned to the place of origin back in Denver so we're still typing.

We met our realtor at 9am and spent the day looking as houses and trying to get our bearings in a new city. It was a long day.

Tuesday, September 16, 1997 Cloudy 60's

Another long day of house hunting as we try to find the house we want in a "diverse" neighborhood. A few successes, however, we found the new JCC and Ellie found the final yarn to finish her knitting (at least enough to see us back to Denver).

Wednesday, September 17, 1997, Clear 70's

After seeing more houses, we're still looking. The evening was spent dropping the trailer off for the next few weeks, and leaving those things we did not need for our short stay back in Denver (why move them twice?). After a late dinner at our realtor's house (where we left the trailer) we headed off to our second hotel of the trip so we could get an early start in the morning.

Thursday, September 18, 1997

At about 6:30 am, Peter rolled over and asked Ellie if she was still asleep. She said no and Peter said "let's get up and go. We got on the road by 8:15 am and made only a quick stop for food and gas before arriving back in Denver at 4:30pm. After 49 days on the road we were both anxious to get home. It's been a great time. We ran out of words to describe the trip a long time ago. We both plan to go back to Alaska in the future.

If you get this far, we are sure that you enjoyed the reading. We hope that you will consider a trip of this sort yourself at some point in your life, and that you will keep in touch with us in the future. We will leave you with a few of our final statistics