ALASKA CANADIAN HIGHWAY JUNE/JULY 2001

The ALCAN (Alaskan Canadian Highway) required a vehicle that could hold up to the harsh roads and be able to transport Helen's four pre-teen nephews, my dad, Helen, myself and still have room for Aunt Nancy, Mike Driscoll and all of our gear. The fuel stations were fairly distant and it was common thinking that we would lose a tire or two, and certainly a broken windshield on this 5 week trip.

The original plan was to buy a school bus, paint it up like a Zebra and outfit it like a safari vehicle. The bus was acquired through a bit of online research and was never a disappointment. Little did we know that the school bus would soon be incarnated into the Freedombus in the post 9/11 world.

On our way up, we hit and killed a delinquent dairy cow in St George, BC. This held us up a few days, but we were back on schedule in three days thanks to some locals who were quite handy. Another shocker was after I had pulled intona filling station, placed the green vinyl covered fuel pistol into the bus and started filling. Those tricky Canadians used the green vinyl cover for Premium instead of Diesel fuel. Luckily I caught the error half way full. The Canadian attendant said, "funny, that's the second time that has happened today."

All said, we made it up to Anchorage in time to meet Nancy and Mike. We stopped to see Mt. McKinley on our way through to the Arctic Circle to catch the summer soltice.

Next was the Salmon and Clam hunt down along the Kenai and our favorite Soldotna. Arick Chan's patience paid off with a few nice reds out of the Kenai River. Thank goodness for the ubiquitous Fred Meyer.