Well, I made it to Maine finally. After several weeks of selling, selling, selling, I’ve reduced my wordly possessions by a very small amount. It’s hard to get rid of (let go of) all the crap that I’ve been accumulating all my life. Here’s a picture of my yard sale, which everyone was calling my refuge camp:

The trip up in the BlueBird of Happiness went really well. I left Florida at 9am on Monday, and arrived in Fayette at 9am on Wednesday. I burned a combination of used peanut oil and diesel along the way, and got an average 9mpg. Not bad for driving your entire house and towing a truck. I’ll be spending some time at my cabin in Fayette, while looking for work.

I finally put together the pictures from my trip to the Philippines in June. I’ll probably get around to doing this with my Alaska photos soon as well. Find the new slideshow here

I spent this afternoon at Rum Island Springs with Raphael, Stephanie, Noah, and some friends of theirs.
It was really hot and sunny, and the cold springs felt really nice. We grilled chicken, drank some beer, and lounged around.
Noah really enjoyed the watermelon!

This is a motel I stayed at in Montana, just south of the Canadian border. I wonder if some farmer’s wife kicked him out after cheating on her, and kept all the car keys? Well dear, you forgot about my old John Deere!

Tomorrow morning (Sunday) I leave Cordova en route to Gainesville. I’m loading my new truck on the ferry at 8am and heading across to Valdez. From there, I’ll drive mostly through Canada until I get to Winnipeg, then down through North Dakota. I’m looking foward to the drive, and I think the pups are too. Here’s a picture of the 95 Chevy I bought up in Fairbanks:

I’ve been collecting interesting school bus pictures ever since I decided to live in one. It just so happens that my favorite place to eat in Cordova is at Baja Tacos. I think it’s equal parts ambiance and great food that draw me there. If you’re ever in Cordova, you should stop by.

My plans aren’t anywhere near finalized, so I’ll wait to let people know what I’m up to once I’m actually up to it!

Last night I camped at the Sourdough State Park near Gakona. This morning, after spending some time looking at a really cool 1978 VW camper for sale, I drove up to Fairbanks along the Richardson Highway (AK 4 & 2).

Fairbanks is not much to look at. I’m not really sure what would draw people here. It is a sprawled out city without much to offer. Plus, during the winter, it gets down to -60 degF! People have heaters on their engine blocks, oil pans, and trannys just to start up in the winter. Everyone’s grill, from fancy new mercedes to old clunkers, have an array of cords hanging out, usually stuck into a bunch of splitters. It resembles Clark Griswalds Nat’l Lampoon Christmas tree.
Tomorrow I’ll leave here and head for Anchorage. Expect more pictures soon.

I’ve got a few days off from work, so I’m roaming around Alaska (finally!). Tuesday and Wednesday I ran our SeaArk up river from the Million Dollar Bridge to Chitina, stopping at Baird Camp and Canyon Creek camp along the way.


McCarthy is about 65 miles up a dead-end road.

The only public access to the town is over a foot bridge, and either a mile walk or a paid shuttle bus from there. Friday night I walked into town and had a few beers at the local bar. I camped along the river near the footbridge. Saturday morning after a simple breakfast, the pups and I made the 4.5 mile walk up to the abondoned town of Kennicott. This area was purchased by the National Park Service in the mid 90s, and so far they have done very little with it except for closing up the buildings.

It was a nice walk though. The day was perfectly sunny and warm.

Well, we have a lot of time on our hands out here in wild Alaska. What to do with it all? Build bombs of course! Tonight I’ve been experimenting with several designs. The first design is a PVC pipe, sealed on both ends with epoxy, and filled with shotgun powder and ignited with cannon fuse. The glue is still drying on that. Since I couldn’t wait, I decided on another design that doesn’t require glue. You use aluminum tubing, and crimp the ends tight after filling with powder. It proved very effective. The shrapnel was found ~ 20′ from the crater. You can download a movie of the exlosion here. The file is ~ 7mb, and you will need quicktime viewer. Enjoy.