North to Alaska

[eb99603]

The wife and I started a new blog after moving to AK as a means to communicate with all the folks back in the midwest. In the interest of not writing the same post twice and because it's a PITA to upload images here vs there, I'm sending you folks that way for the write up. Disclaimer: I've gone backwards a bit and started from the beginning. Most of you are probably more interested in the behind-the-wheel details. Those are coming.

https://bonesbitsandbuns.com/2016/01/28/alaska-bound-part-1/

[eb99603]

Here's post numero dos: https://bonesbitsandbuns.com/2016/01/30/alaska-bound-part-2/

And a link to all of the posts in the series: https://bonesbitsandbuns.com/tag/alaska-bound/ Posts 3+ will be much more picture heavy, but full disclosure, our second child was born ~24hrs ago so I'm not sure how long it'll take before I get back to writing up more Alaska trip posts.

[gumpy]

Congratulations on the family addition. Hoping all is well with Mom, baby, sibling, and Dad.

[Scott & Heather]

Congrats!!! We have a 4 month old ourselves!!! Will be checking your links!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eb99603]

Thanks for the well wishes, gents. All's well over here with the new one. We're all trying to get into the new rhythm. Thankfully our first isn't too jealous of the new guy taking what used to be her sole access to mom/dad's attention. Sleep's ... a thing of the past. It's not that bad. But if memory serves me, week 3 was the most challenging time with our first child. We shall see what the future has in store.

Finished post 3. https://bonesbitsandbuns.com/2016/02/06/alaska-bound-part-3/

[dtcerrato]

Wow! where have we been since over 19 months ago!...? Yes we made mention of wanting to do the Alaska trip and by golly we did do it. May through September 2016 over 12,000 miles and $30,000 later. It bit us & bit us real good. We purchased a piece of ground in AK on the way out as an insurance policy that we will return... that was about half of the whole trip expense. We experienced a whole lot of mechanical woes but never gave up & continued to push on. During trip - replaced (not all at once) air compressor drive, cylinder head, blower, power steering shaft, cross over tubes, generator quit charging, brake drum, three oil changes (making oil). Since returning home from the trip we did an in-frame engine overhaul, upgraded from original inoperable generator to a 200 amp alternator (driven by the original generator armature shaft), completely rebuilt clutch assembly & attended two rallies, & recently lost a fan but no radiator damage! We're coming out of retirement at the request of a company that worked me for many years to do a project or two so we can recoup some of that trip expenditure because we want to do it again & again... We don't fret about the mechanical woes during the trip because we used this bus full time since 1979 to work construction projects all over the continent & most of all that time never even set the rack on the old girl. We knew she was a tired old bus when we set out for Alaska but knew she had at least one good trip left in her & by golly did it & took us back home. We were doing 63 mph on US freeways with two nearly dead cylinders... These old beasts are built like tanks to last. 26 years of commercial service then 40 more years of conversion status & still going strong (er) than the day we purchased it in April of 79. The engineers wont fade away until the last one goes to he scrapper which wont be in this century. :-)

[dtcerrato]

Forgot to mention a starter failure also. Replaced the starter. US. Coach shipped a rebuilt one to us in an Illinois campground. Alaska or bus(t) maiden trip successfully completed, 2nd trip on the horizon.