Day 62B - Whitehorse, YT August 30, 2011

While we held for J,G,H, in Whitehorse we thought we'd get some "housekeeping" done.  Pam didn't want anyone to recognize her at the laundromat.

Lon got his hairs cut and explored downtown.   They have a lot of murals on their exterior walls here.  This one is on the side of the RCMP building depicting their history.  Does anyone remember Sgt. Preston and Yukon King?

                                We drove around a bit and found the floatplanes on Schwatka Lake.

  

It looked like the weather was starting to move in so we headed back to camp to catch the 6 o'clock news.  Actually, it was only 3 pm here but for some reason on their cable system here they have WDIV, channel 4 from Detroit.  It's nice to catch up on what's going on at home.

The best news of the day came from Gail.  The rig is running and they are on the road headed our way!!!  They are estimating Whitehorse on Thursday.  It's been so long since they were mobile they may find the Canadian scenery has changed a bit.

Day 61B - Haines Junction to Whitehorse, YT August 29, 2011

The Britton's got up and had a relaxing morning with their coffee and computers.  The sun came out and the clouds parted.  Then they noticed....everyone else in the park was GONE !!!   Maybe, because it was 11 am ?  So we decided to pack up and head to Whitehorse to wait for Jerry, Gail and Heidi.

                                                  The road was good and the traffic was light.

                                                 The scenery still intoxicatingly beautiful

                                      We pulled into the Hi-Country RV park and set up camp.

We decided to catch a movie at the local theatre.  Seating capacity 125.  Two choices.  We saw Our Idiot Brother.  It was okay, probably a rental, but hey we've been in the "bush" for 60 days.

Day 61 day 11 at Cummins shop

A beautiful day in Anchorage. Blue skies all day. 65*  We went to Wal-mart for drugs, then came home and watched Ryan work.

Cody, the service manager came by with a progress report. "Waiting for parts".

The "kit" had the wrong gasket. "The right one will be here in the morning."

It goes where the blue cover is and hooks up to that open pipe.

The good news! They tell us we should be out of here about noon tomorrow. So, we figure we should be headed for TOK by 3-4PM.      Maybe.

Day 60B - Haines Highway - August 28, 2011

Lon and Pam found a great little church, Four Square Cornerstone, in the basement of the Haines Creative Arts Center.  Service time was 10 am, it started at 10:20 kinda Alaskan Time.   There was a total of 17 of us there but a great service none the less, Matthew 18:20, look it up.  We got on the road about 1pm.

                                        Of course the scenery was beautiful despite the weather.

                                        Then about halfway to Haines Junction, near this creek

                                                                           we saw him

                                                                        and he was big.

                                                           A big old male Grizzly bear

                                                      tearing at the ground, eating roots.

                                                                 He ate, we watched.

                                                     We were glad he was a vegetarian.

The highway had so little traffic we sat in our lane and watched him for about 15 mins.  Not a car behind us.  The only other traffic was this other MH opposite us.

After he decided to disappear into the brush we continues on.   About 30 miles further up the road a very good size Black Bear ran across the road in front of us about 70 yards out.  He disappeared before we could get a photo.  We made it to Haines Junction and decided to spend the night at the same campground we'd stayed in on Thursday.

                                                        Great view, except for the constant rain.

Day 59 - Haines, AK - August 27, 2011

Rainy, drizzly, dreary day for the Britton's in Haines.  We took a few pics but not many.  We went exploring and found Ft. Stewart which is next to Haines.

Some of the former housing had been converted to condos.

We heard about a local micro brewery and of course had to find it.  It wasn't easy but we found it at the local fairgrounds.  Remember the movie White Fang?  We plan to rent it when we get home.  Apparently the movie was filmed in Alaska.  The town bought the movie set of "Dalton City".

They moved the entire set to their fairgrounds and set it up there.

We found the Haines Brewing Company operating there.

Lon had to sample the wares and found it very good.

They host various events like Salmon Bakes in Dalton City for a little local entertainment.

Then Pam went into the small quaint town of Haines and got some "retail therapy".

 Lon meanwhile found the Detroit Lions v. New England Patriots were on TV.  This made Lon very happy as he has been suffering from football withdrawal.  He was even happier when the Patriots put in Brian Hoyer at QB and the Lions put in Drew Stanton at QB.  Both former Michigan State Spartans as well as a few other Spartans got in on the game.  Happy the Lions looked good and  finally getting some positive news from the Cockerell's, the Britton's retired for the evening.

Day 60 ...Day 10 at Cummins shop

Monday the head was checked. The gasket and head were both good. So now, check the oil cooler for a leak. Of course, the oil cooler has to come off to be checked.
                                      The oil cooler was on the right under the exhaust manifold.

The oil cooler held 60psi all day. Not the problem. Back to #4 cylinder that showed some rust. Remove that cylinder liner and check it.

It takes a special tool to remove the liner. So I loaned them mine.

#4 removed, of course the piston had to come out first.

#4 liner

This is called "Cavitation Erosion".

The cavitation erosion is caused by excess in harmonic vibrations of the

engine and in some cases by loose fitting liners that result in a fast

formation and implosion of small vapor bubbles within the coolant which

attack the cylinders’ liner wall. The vibration in combination with collapsing

bubbles produces an erosive effect over the surface of the liner’s exterior

face. This occurs as the piston moves up and down within the cylinder

causing vibration especially over the area of thrust in the cylinder liner.

We can say that the wall of the sleeve, which comes in contact with the

coolant, quickly moves inwards and outwards striking these vapor

formations. During this process, tiny bubbles are formed that implode or

collapse violently producing shock waves against the liner’s wall. The results

of these implosions at the impact area of the liner’s wall have been calculated

to reach over 10,000º F with pressures of over 10,000 psi.

With this finding it was obvious all the liners had to come out.

This one got stuck 1/2 way and took a lot of valuable time.

By the end of the day, all the pistons and liners were out. All the liners looked similar to #4. New parts were ordered, be here overnight.

The blue you see in the left 3 cylinders is cement floor under the bus.

Sure enough, next day at noon they had 6 new cylinder liners.

Only problem.......they didn't send any rings.

Oh well, they will be here tomorrow.

The next day was Friday and the sun showed up for the first time all week. With cabin fever already being a problem. Heidi found an article on-line where we could go watch for Baluga Whales.

So we pack the cooler and we're off.

No whales but sunshine and nice scenery.

There wasn't snow on those mountains last week.

When we returned, all of the liners were in. We made arrangements for some overtime on Saturday and got 2 mechanics to come in.

By noon the 300 lb.+ head was on.

And all the valves and valve cover.

And the fuel injectors and jac brake

They also finished going through the air intake system. Finished at 8:00PM.

Monday, the cooling system, alternator,  and ?

We might be out of here Tues!  Maybe.

Day 58 - Haines, AK - August 26, 2011

The Brittons pulled out of Haines Junction, YT headed for Haines, AK.

The road was good and the day started out with sunshine but changed to mist and OVC as we motored on

The scenery was still beautiful.

Although, there was this now all too familiar site

But fortunately not for too long

We made it back into the USA

and continued along one of the most beautiful drives yet.

We made it to Haines, parked the rig right on the edge of the bay and went exploring.

Pam was the first (I wonder why? ) to spot the Brown (Grizzly) bears

They fished

and ate

and fished, we saw 5 total.

Folks were fishing the same river and it was good humor to watch them scramble towards safety as the bears came closer.

Then there were the Bald Eagles.  We lost count.

We saw eagles flying with salmon in their talons but couldn't get them on .... film?  Maybe tomorrow. But we did catch them watching.

We closed out the day meeting other RV'ers in the park around a campfire.  Nice people, great life, we wished J,G,H were here to share this with us.  Monday.....maybe.