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Paxson, Alaska to Tok, Alaska

Stopped for the Day:

Temperature: 41°

Precipitation: Moderate to Heavy

Speed: 35 mph

Wind Chill: Definitely!

Brrrrrrrrrr!

The car ran well today. We chilled out! But we are having fun and are now in Tok, AK. Actually, we met a young couple from Germany who were on an adventure more extensive than ours. Their name is Alpayson and they are bicycling from Anchorage to South America along the west coast. Today they were waiting out the rain at The Gakona Lodge on the Tok Highway.

About 100 miles out of Tok, we stopped for gasoline and to warm up and met Dick and

Joyce Sowers of Becker, MN. We discussed the Model T and our mutual vacations and then headed on down the road. About 50 miles further toward Tok, we stopped again to have lunch. The Sowers saw our car and pulled in also to ask if Nancy would like to ride with them on into to Tok since it was so cold and wet. Guess what? I drove the rest of the way into Tok by myself. She felt guilty for as long as it took them to turn on the heater. Thanks again to them for the ride.

We were scheduled to stay here only tonight but, after the blowout I had in Denali, I called the office and had Linda send out a full set of “tire flaps” to put into all of the tires on the touring car. Tok is our last stop in Alaska before we enter into Canada where the logistics of receiving parts would be more difficult. So we will spend another day here, doing laundry, waiting on the package, and hoping for better weather.

On the first trip to Alaska in 1987, we had several cars that were having habitual tire problems with flats. I don’t remember who it was that had experience with flaps but he talked those who were having flat trouble to order flaps to be shipped to one of our route layover stops and, after they were installed, the problem went away totally. I have used them ever since even on wire spoked wheels but I think they are even more important to use on 30x3-1/2” tires where the demountable rims “hook” into the sides of the tires. The tire flap totally

Montana Majestic Mountain T Tour

On The Road Again

Yellowstone then Home

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Runs great...

....Drive it home.

Runs great...

....Drive it home.

Day 18 - Sunday, July 11, 2010

Getting to Anchorage

isolates the tube from not only the potential roughness of the rim but more importantly from the pinch point between the tire and the rim that can sometimes damage the tube. On a trip like this, we need all of the rabbit’s feet we can scrape together to feel confident in our car.

You may have noticed the triangular “Gypsy Curtains” attached to the windshield posts and front doors of the touring car. These are a new product that we have jointly worked on with the Cartouche Upholstery people. They provide the fabrication of the curtains and Ben has developed the fastening mechanism for the doors. It is a spring loaded assembly that extends as the door is opened because the attachment point on the door (the side curtain rod hole) is further from the windshield post when the door is opened than it is when the door is closed.

Anyway, the Gypsy Curtains work very well at keeping the typical wind that blows around the end of the windshield from coming in behind the windshield on your knee and arm. They are certainly not like side curtains that keep everything out. Neither are they as troublesome as side curtains as far as being able to get in and out of the car nor do they prevent you from making hand turn signals or carrying on a conversation with a bystander. I like them a lot so far.

P.S. from Nancy. You’ll notice that there aren’t many pictures today. Ben was focused on the driving in the wet conditions and I would have had to pull my hands out from under the blanket I had wrapped round me, taken off my gloves, and undid the scarf I had wrapped around my face enough that I could see through the camera lens. Didn’t do it. Did we mention it was cold?

We stopped briefly at the Gakona Lodge to warm up and found this guy. With my red hood and the fact that no one was there, it seemed like a “red riding hood” moment.