Arctic Circle Expedition : March 9, 2007
Eric & neal update from the road.
Mar 9, 2007- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Upon arrival in my room I ran into a small problem. The clips for my sunglasses fell apart. Fortunately I have my arctic sun glasses. Four hours of sleep, hot shower, catch up on what is going on in the office and we are back on the road.
The next several hours are Eric driving and me navigating. As we drove it was apparent people in this area of the country liked water parks. We must have passed at least 20. Eric's Garmin is still acting up and we are using tom-tom which is installed on my phone. As backup we still have printed directions and internet access on my phone. Eric has renamed me to ''Neal Neal'' I keep up with the questions about our position, next turn, and distance to our next waypoint with a fair amount of precision.
We stop for gas and food at 9:00. As we exit the truck we notice a burning anti freeze smell. Popping the hood we only see a small amount around the cap. We decide to let the truck cool down and eat.
After dinner we inspect the cooling system and discover that at the last stop we added too much. Eric has been checking the system regularly and adding fluid as the system burps. Gas and moose we are on our way. Yes, see attached picture of the moose. I would say he was tame and wanted nothing more than to advertise.
Eric sang as he drove. The Sirius satellite radio was a good companion. That is until it decided to stop working. From that point on we played the name game until we started to lose steam and decide it wastime to stop. I took the wheel for 20 or so miles in search of hotel. We settle on the Holiday inn express.
Once I was settled into the room I went to hook up the cooler. To my dismay I had purchased the incorrect power supply again at the Radio Shack in Charlottesville. My concerns were not that great as the cooler was keeping cold overnight without power. I assured myself that tomorrow I would come up with another solution. After firing off some email and pictures I settled into bed.
Buzz buzz went the alarm clock at 5:15. Fortunately for me the last occupant of the room had set the alarm clock, otherwise I would have never woken up. I took a shower, packed my bags, loaded them into the truck and waited for Eric in the lobby.
At 6:45 Eric and I walked out to the truck. I unlocked the driver door and pulled the handle only to find Brenner Luck had struck. The interior mechanism had broken. Luckily we still could open it from the inside and off we went with me behind the wheel.. We traveled until it was time to switch drivers
Back as the ''Neal Neal'' I worked on our route. We called Dina to confirm our decision - due to the fact expedient with a mobile device does not give you distances. Decisions made we continue and this log will later..