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The travel day that made the two RV Gypsies say "What were we thinking" |
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| The car windshield got cracked and pitted in several places and the front of the car ended up looking like it was sand blasted because it was totally pitted and needed a whole new paint job. The decals were completely ruined. The motorhome has also taken a beating on the Alaskan Highway, not to mention the stress on both vehicles and on the two RV Gypsies. Several RVers have said, "Why are we all doing this?" Good Question! |
During this trip in 2009, most of the last 350 miles on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon Territory were dirt/gravel roads, many covered with mud or just full of bumps and dips called frost heaves. The two RV Gypsies found this to be extremely stressful. The worst frost heaves were marked with red flags, but many frost heaves were not marked. The motorhome shook, bounced and rattled like you would not believe, even though it was a fairly new motorhome. Clothes fell off the closet rack and sweaters fell from their shelves making it almost impossible to open the closet doors. Covers to ceiling lights fell off. And passing cars scattered the dust and gravel high into the air, at times so heavy that it was difficult to see the road. Trucks were the worst offenders. Roads were sometimes watered and that kept the dust down, but then the road became muddy. Have you ever written "wash me" on a dirty car? Of course you have! But guess what? When the mud dried on the toad of the two RV Gypsies, they could not write on it because it caked and became thick like clay. Even though the two RV Gypsies met a minimum amount of traffic on the Alaska Highway, more than enough damage was done to their toad. Scroll down below for photos of this event. |
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The car's headlights do not have a cover - that is caked on dirt. A regular car wash did not help. It had to be pressured cleaned off with a
very powerful pressure cleaner in Tok.
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| In The Milepost book (which is a must for anyone driving in Alaska) - it says "Tok is known as the Sled Dog Capital of Alaska" and "Judging by the number of Alaska Highway travelers cleaning their cars and RVs in Tok each summer, it may also qualify as the Vehicle Washing Capital of Alaska as well." - an Understatement!!!!! | |
- DRIVING THE ALASKA HIGHWAY
2009 - WE ARE DOING THIS BECAUSE......................?????? |
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| The tiny pieces of gravel got thrown on all vehicles - this is how the two RV Gypsies' windshield got cracked in several places and the paint job got pitted. | |
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Passing the water truck
on a hill |
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It was hard to photograph the frost heaves because they just don't really show up in photographs. Actually some of them are hard to see until just before you hit them, and some you don't even see in time. The dirty muddy roads above caused the filthy cars and cracked windshields, but the frost heaves are really stressful on the vehicles. |
| Permafrost 101: Permafrost is ground that is frozen year-round. The roads ripple like waves on an ocean, local residents notice it every time they drop an orange and it rolls all the way across the room. Permafrost causes the most trouble when it melts under the road and the road sags - thus called frost heaves. | |
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