Friday, November 30, 2012

more miles

We had some things we wanted to get done before mexico so we put the hammer down and got to our timeshare in San Diego. Eddies Rover was dropped off at National Spring to have the springs beefed up. We bought some bits to get CB's running in both our rigs and some other odds and ends. I'm getting some Mud Terrain tires put on today, should give the Donkey a little attitude!

I'm having some trouble activating my Telcel sim card, hopefully I can sort that out before crossing into Mexico, otherwise I'll be stuck with just wifi hotspots for comunication.

The wheels on the van go round and round...

I might have underestimated the amount of driving involved on this adventure. We haven't been acomplishing huge mileage numbers, but we've been spending quite a bit of time every day on the road. Despite living in Hawaii for the past year, I am still not accustomed to how quickly it gets dark. I need to attach some more lighting around the Donkey to help with all that. I have some really cool LED's that should do the trick whenever I get around to it.









Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, I can now cross that off my bucket list....















Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Bigfoot and the Giants





We couldn't find Bigfoot, but we saw some really big trees!














We camped one night on the 'Avenue of Giants' in the California Redwoods, that was pretty cool.









Friday, November 23, 2012

Blast off!

We finally got outta Seattle Tuesday the 19th about 3pm. Only a little behind schedule, but ahead of the 5 days I originally planned on being in Seattle. Unfortunately, that meant we had to cut a few corners and delay a few projects I wanted to complete on the Donkey until later, I hope I'll have time to get to them soon. It's friday and I haven't done much other than drive so far.


The weather has been chilly and wet, yesterday was the first day it didn't rain most of the day. We're glad both vehicles have awnings, they have came in very handy camping. Right now, camped in Brookings Oregon, I see clear blue skies, it should be a good day. We're cruising through the redwoods today.



One of the projects that was left unfinished was plumbing the heater. It's japanese, so the fuel fitting is metrtic and all we could find in Seattle at the 2 places we checked was standard. I was stressing a bit because it was already after our planned departuyre time and I still had alot to do. Rather than go on a wild goose chase and waste half the afternoon I decided to bag the heater and rough it. It's been in the forties at night, not bad unless you consider I came direct from Hawaii,

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Eagle Has Landed!

Well, Eagles, Cara counts too. But we're not really eagles, or even birds. It was kinda an euphemism...   no wait, Google says thats wrong. I had to look it up because I can't think of the right word. Nevermind.

The point is, Cara and I are in Seattle! We caught the redeye out of Hawaii friday night, enjoyed an overnight rest in some undersized airline seats while being serenaded by a 2 year old in the next seat crying almost the entire flight. Caught the Light Line train the next morning to my Gary's house and eventually picked up the Blue Donkey.

While we were at North Westy (the shop that fixed up Donkey for our trip) Eddie and Kathryn showed up. I stole some pics from Eddies Facebook because he wouldn't give them to me....


After an exhilarating test drive with Kirk, the head honcho at North Westy, we all caravaned back to Gary's for some Drinking. Um, I mean planning and refitting of the Donkey. While we (Eddie and myself) watched, Gary began building furniture by flashlight until it was too late to continue annoying the neighbors.

We had some delicious dinner the girls prepared and experimented with my portable icemaker. Thats my kind of living! Eventually we called it a night and crashed. Tommorow should be a productive day.

 
First night camping....   OK, Gary let Cara and myself stay inside. Hopefully we'll get the heater installed today. Donkey will be ready soon!
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Day two in Seattle.

Rain.

All day.

Rear hatch makes a decent roof, but it drips into the cargo area. With Gary and Eddies help we made great progress, but underestimated the job ahead of us.




Beginning stages of a rear cabinet....



Gary and Eddies work in the main cabin, Gary has some great carpentry skills.

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Day three in Seattle.

More Rain. Alot. Floods in full effect in Washington. Do you know where your Ark is? We're still working on cabinets, Eddie completed his Clutch master cyl instal, helped Gary install a new Master Cylinder on his truck. Mostly finished and painted cabinets. I screwed up my project several times, Gave up and went to  North Westy for some time on the lift to replace some front end stuff. Kirk is the man for letting us use his facilities and tools to finish prep Donkey prior to our trip. We replaced the front CV's and tierods, a couple other small items and a good pre-trip shakedown. Kudos to Kirk for helping us out, Thanks!!

Donkey continues to run great, having a proper boxer is enjoyable. Cruising at 65 is cake.
My heater is installed, but I still need to run the fuel lines.

We'll see what tomorrow brings, hopefully theres less rain. We haven't even thought about packing yet.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

If you ain't first your Last!!

Eddie and Kathryn departed Anchorage this morning.


A short 700 mile drive to catch the Alaska Marine Highway ferry in Haines, Alaska then a week trip ultimately landing them in Bellingham, Washington on the 16th. This is the most current pic I have of their vehicle (1967 Rover 109 Diesel), maybe they'll send me some fitted with roof rack etc when they get a chance.




Saturday, November 3, 2012

the cars behind the man....

 Another post I'm migrating over from myspace.


OK, another eventless day in Delta Junction. I've often wondered how many cars I've owned. If anyone asks I usually guess around 50, but I'm afraid that may be a bit exagerated. Since I've got a family my car hobby has taken a serious degradation in priority. SO, since I have nothing better to do I'm gonna try to list my vehicles, starting at the begining.

1. '84 chevy citation, kinda a loaner from dad
2. '78 Oldsmobile Tornado, another loaner
3. '80 mercury Capri (just like a mustang) First car I actually bought, I was 16. it was a 4cyl car but it was red and looked cool.
4. '79 El Camino.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Ken's jobs

Or how I managed to not be a bum yet....

I originally wrote this the summer of 2007 on a 'myspace' page. Rather than retell the story, I'm just copying it and will add onto the end with the rest of the story.




my jobs

pretty bored right now, at work, so I thought I'd type about myself.

First job was working for my dad. He had an air taxi in Cooper Landing Alaska on the Kenai river. We'd fly people out to lakes and rivers to go hunting, fishing and camping. I guess I started when I was about 12-14 or so. I was a dockhand, cleaned and fueled the plane, pumped the floats (a never ending task on a float plane) and carried peoples gear around. At about 16yo dad expanded the buisness into a fishing lodge as well as an air taxi.