Al Does Alaska - PART DEUX ZEN AND THE ART OF WESTFALIA MAINTENANCE << ..... >> Well, here's the next installment of my trip. I don't like making these web pages as much as you don't like looking at them, so let's just get through this. Where do we start? How about with the BORING stuff, the FAILURE. Well, my intention was to head north to the Arctic Ocean, along several hundred miles of rough road. Perhaps someday i'll put a map in here. Doesn't matter because i never made it. MY BELOVED VAN BROKE DOWN! Well, ALMOST. The engine began cutting out when i was a hundred miles up the road and i barely managed to hop it back down to fairbanks a few miles at a time. Here's me on the alaska pipeline on the way back. Note my dirty pants. Here's WHY my pants are dirty. My injured van on the way back to fairbanks. I managed to get the problem fixed (it was my flim-flam), but i ended up having to kill a week and a half to get it sorted out. A "What is it?" shot of a sunset, seen through mud splashes on my side window. A dragonfly on the canvas of my poptop. Here's me getting into the whole naked hiking thing. I know - too much information. I just thought it was a pretty funny picture, and this page needed some point of interest since this was not an exciting point in the trip. Back in fairbanks, working on improvements to the van is pretty much the only thing to do. Note my control panel between the front seats. It was here that i reached a new low point in my life - POWER SCAVENGING. Since my van wasn't running well enough to recharge my batteries, i would find outdoor outlets around town to recharge my laptop in the dead of night. Sad Indeed. The landscape is dull, but the sunsets are often spectacular. Back to the index ..... Pray tell what happens next...