976 July 5, 2023 Lemonade

We were up before our 6am alarm getting ready for our trip up the Dalton Highway. I did get a nice walk in down to the Chena River.

We were packed the Jeep and we were on the road at little after 7am. We traveled a short distance on the Elliott Highway. We heard a ding and looked at the dash. We saw bright red warning lights indicating the engine was overheating. Steam emerged from under the hood. We pulled off the road as far as we could and we saw fluid running. We tried to add water but it ran right through. We tried moving but the light immediately came on again.

When we first checked, neither of us had phone service. We needed a tow truck. Tim suddenly had a few bars and we were able to get Ron’s Tow Service. Nick arrived to rescue us within the hour. He towed us to the Fairbanks Jeep Dealer.

The service department is fully booked but once they heard our story, they promised to at least diagnose the problem this afternoon or tomorrow morning. They had a shuttle that took us back to the RV park…but first, we had to unload all the food and coolers and clothes and pillows that we had packed for our adventure. The guy was kind enough to help us load it and then unload it.

We were lucky! The trip up the Dalton is 499 miles. Fortunately, we were only 20 miles from Fairbanks when we broke down. We also had cell service to make a call for help and there is a Jeep dealer here that can take care of us. It could have been way worse!!!

We unpacked the cold things and left everything else kind of packed. We are still hopeful that we can make this trip. The company we booked through has put a hold on everything and will work with us. The campground put a hold on our site for the next two weeks so that we have a place to stay. We are certainly hoping it won’t take that long but it may be hard to get parts. We shall see.

Until then, we decided to make the best of it. Today was a gorgeous day for a bike ride. There was a farmers market a little more than three miles away. There was a nice sidewalk to ride on and Fairbanks is surprisingly flat. The market was very nice but there was nothing we really needed. The price of produce here is crazy! $20.00 for a pound of blueberries, $10.00 per pound of heirloom tomatoes; it is very hard to grow things here.

We talked to David and the boys tonight. Austin was telling us that they watched fireworks twice this weekend. I told him that it never gets dark here and that we couldn’t watch fireworks or see the moon or stars. He said “That’s impossible! It must be very hard to sleep when it is freezing and light outside!” It is fun to tell them about the places we go. Oliver wanted to know if we had seen grizzlies and sockeye salmon. They bring us such joy!

There was a nice restaurant within walking distance of the campground. We had good food and enjoyed sitting outside.

On the porch posting the blog.

Marcia, thanks for today’s quote!