The Arrival

The Arrival

The flight to Alaska via Seattle was fairly uneventful. There was a lot of low cloud over Alaska on the way in, so I didn’t really get to see much out of the window until we had almost landed.

Scott flew in from Denver and landed at almost the exact same time as I did, and we met up at baggage claim, where my checked bag full of adventure supplies showed up five minutes later. So far, so good.

We found the car in the parking garage, then drove around it a few times trying to find our way out.

Our first stop in Anchorage was at a vegan restaurant called Preference, where we had some fantastic jalapeno burgers and animal fries. Excellent food and the owner was super cool and very friendly too.

Our next stop was at Bass Pro Shops for some freeze-dried meals, but their selection was very poor, so we left and went to REI instead, where we found a veritable cornucopia of freeze-dried vegan meals, all on sale for 10% off. $158 later and we have enough Kathmandu Curry and Cuban Beans and Rice to feed a small army. Next stop, Fred Meyer for more basic road snacks, water, Pop Tarts, chips and a six-pack of beer because you can’t work on a car without a cold one.

Back at the house, and the dogs seem very pleased to see us, so we let them out to go to the bathroom, but only one of them wanted to go. Whatever…

Then we set about prepping the car and loading it up with all the gear, and still trying to leave room for the dogs. We just about managed to fit everything in and then we realized that we’d forgotten to pack the guitar and amplifier. And with those last two items in the trunk, we were done. We had all the important stuff.

We also installed a dashcam into the car, and wired up the CB radio. And that’s when we discovered that there isn’t a single piece of the new Ford Bronco that is magnetic, so we had nowhere to put the antenna. After some careful thought, we realized we could probably bungee it to the wing mirror, so we headed off to Walmart for some supplies.

Twenty minutes later and we return to find that both dogs had shit on the living room floor. Fantastic. Luckily we found some cleaning supplies and took care of it, but lesson learned – don’t let the dogs pretend they don’t need the bathroom when they probably do.

Once we’d got that cleaned up, we threw a couple of pizzas in the oven, and finished mounting the CB antenna. At this point, it feels like we’re modding the car into something from Mad Max. We just need some kind of auto-turret on the roof.

The CB is wired directly to the battery, but since we don’t want to mess around threading wires through to the passenger compartment from the engine, the power cables are hanging out the left side of the hood and going back in through the drivers door. The antenna is bungee’d to the passenger side wing mirror and the cable is going through the passenger door. The cabling inside the car is a horror show, but it’s secured enough that it won’t interfere with the driver.

We finally got done with it around 11:30pm, then just crashed out for the night. Big day tomorrow, with 11 hours of driving…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *