01 August 2006
Day 16: Zen & the Art of Automobile Maintenance
Before leaving Fairbanks, I went to a car wash. After about 15 minutes with the high pressure hose, and probably $10-15 in quarters and dollars, I got most of the thick layer of mud off the car. Then I went to the Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed. There was a long wait (lunch time crowd); when I finally got my car again at 12:30, there was a big crack in the middle (bottom) of the windshield. Oh, nice. So next I headed to the Toyota dealer — to check if they could do the 5,000 mile service and get a recommendation for glass repair. Between the Jiffy Lube and the glass repair place, I noticed a weird wobby vibration at higher speeds. It reminded me of a washing machine with an unbalanced load. So, after the glass repair, I went back to the car wash, and spent another $7-8 with the high pressure hose to clean the gunk out of the wheels. Then I spent another 15-20 minutes with my pocketknife screwdriver chipping away at the mud that the hose couldn’t/didn’t get.
Finally, about 3 PM, I left Fairbanks. No more weird wobbling.
Spotted:
• another moose! Not too far from Delta Junction.
I was in Tok too early to stop for the day, so I continued on to Eagle, Alaska (see maps.google.com for the location). It was late — after 10 — so while there were vacancies, no one was around, and I ended up camping for the third night in a row.
Departed Fairbanks around 3 PM AKDTArrived Eagle, Alaska (64°47'N, 141°14'W) at 10:20 PM AKDT
Sun:
Distance to Seattle: 1,382 milesDistance driven: 398 miles
Total driven: 5,621 miles
1 August 11:30 PM AKDT