The Rover after pushing through a blizzard near Flathead Lake, Montana
It was six years ago, when The Rover & I traveled through the portal and back into Montana, en route to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. I could use a good, long-distance road trip now, as much as I did then.
The man (& Rover) need a plan.
Minnesota campfire
Maybe Alaskans over do it, but campfires up there seem so much larger than in the Lower 48. (Knoxville excluded) Don’t you have pallets down here?
Since I’m on the subject: What’s up with not owning an axe? When showing two near-teens how to properly build/light a fire, I was splitting kindling in a garage with a brick chisel and a drilling hammer! The travesty! Life lessons lose some credibility when one does not have the proper tools, and you are forced to repeat the phrase, “Now, don’t you do it this way.”
In other news, I know what my cousin is getting for X-mas.
After reading Brazilian Adventure, I wanted to read more of Peter Fleming’s work, so when I stumbled across One’s Company in a used bookstore, I didn’t hesitate to buy it.
While traveling recently I brought the book along and found tucked within it’s pages an old post card.
The card is of Egmore Railway Station, Madras, and was mailed from India to an address in Ottawa Canada roughly 30 years ago.
There are no words written on the post card other than the address. On the left hand side, where one would usually write with varying amounts of sincerity, “Wish you were here!” is a simple water color.
A picture worth a thousand words.
Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum
Between hockey tournaments, we stopped by the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. The museum is one of Fairbanks’ lesser known gems. It is quite the collection of classic vehicles. The Curator, of course, wanted to see the three midget cars, and I pretty much wanted to see everything.
Fountainhead’s three midget racers
The three midget racers include a 1934 Wetteroth-Offenhauser, a 1937 Winters-Ford Midget V8-60, and a 1938 Southwest Chrome Special Elto. The Offenhauser had been driven by Bob Swanson.
1906 Pope-Toledo Type XII 7-passenger Touring
One wing of the museum has a collection of cars with Alaska ties. It includes a 1906 Pope-Toledo, which was the first production car to arrive in Fairbanks. Also included is the Sheldon Runabout, which was the first car built entirely within Alaska. It was “manufactured” by Bobby Sheldon in 1905 to impress a young lady. The Sheldon Runabout is on loan from the University’s Museum of the North.
1932 Chrysler Custom Imperial Series CL Convertible Sedan
The ’32 Chrysler is one, absolutely beautiful car. I bet it’s damn fun to drive as well.
1927 Stutz Vertical Eight Custom Series Black Hawk Boattail Speedster
As I’ve posted on here before, I’ve had a life-long, yet sadly, long-distance love affair with Stutz. Look at those lines. Beautiful.
1919 McFarlan Type 125 Sport Touring
The McFarlan was once owned by actor Walter Reid. Reid, who starred in over 180 films during the silent film era, was obsessed with cars and racing. Sadly, the actor died in 1923 at the age of 31. The vehicles, especially in this wing of the museum, have been moved closer together to accommodate the private events that take place during the fall and holiday seasons. Unfortunately, some of the vehicle locations did not provide outstanding cameos. This was one such case.
Walter Reid in “The Roaring Road”, 1919
Due to the tight schedule we were on, we stopped by the museum on a day that they were closed because of winter hours. Luckily, we ran into the Fountainhead mechanic, and he gave us a quick, private tour. For which, we were both extremely greatful. The Antique Auto Museum is well worth checking out when in Fairbanks. I can not say enough, and will certainly be paying them another visit. Probably during regularly, scheduled hours.
Fountainhead is a working museum. In other words, the vast majority of the cars here, are operated at some point during the year. There are only a few exceptions to that rule. In all, the collection has over 80 vehicles at this point.
While in Anchorage, we took a side trip down to the Kenai Peninsula. It was a beautiful drive. The swans seemed to be floating in every puddle. Both trumpeter and tundra swans were migrating through, and their numbers were in the hundreds.
Autumn is a perfect time to visit the Kenai. Very little tourist action is going on this time of year, with absolutely no combat fishing. Although, that also means that almost nothing was open.
Kenai Lake near Cooper Landing
The Sterling Highway as it snakes its way through the Kenai Peninsula
Whitehorse Rapids, Yukon River circa 1898
“Geography has kept the Yukon to a slower pace, so that if I wasn’t exactly traveling backward in time, I often had the illusion of drifting more slowly in the present.”
—John Hildebrand – “Reading the River”
I camped out at Little Manatee River as I made my way north through Florida. A nice park with a couple of decent trails. I hiked the Oxbow Nature Trail the afternoon I arrived. It wasn’t too long, and does get out along the river, but the heat of the afternoon called for a shorter hike.
Of all the campsites I had in the Florida parks, I liked Little Manatee the best. Nice big trees, and the sites are not right on top of each other. In fact, the foliage was so thick, Moby Dick could have parked in the next site, and I would have barely noticed.
Canoe rentals are available at the park office, and it’s a nice, relaxing, meandering float. The river is not too wide, and it moved slow.
On the north boundary is a 6.5 mile trail. I did that one early in the day to avoid the afternoon heat. Part of it does follow the river a bit, but the vegetation is thick, so one really sees very little of the Little Manatee.
When I first dropped down into Florida, I camped out in the National Forest west of Tallahassee. I rewired a circuit breaker for the camp host before I had even paid for my site. The host came walking up to my tent that evening with some fat wood for my troubles. I’ve been carrying that resin-soaked kindling around ever since.
In Key Largo, I had a gentleman give me some firewood. The stuff was beautiful! I believe he said it was “live oak”, but I could be mistaken. “You use this stuff in campfires?” I asked. It should be savored in wood stoves in minus forty degree weather, not wasted in fire rings in Florida in the summer. Still, I’ve carried six pieces of that around in my small car too.
As the trip winds down, I’ve grown tired of the wood chips, although the wood scent is nice. In “Highlands” I finally broke down and had two consecutive nights with a campfire. That wood: twisted like northern elm, but grained and heavy like oak, seemed to burn forever. The fat wood I think could have damn near started itself. Wonderful stuff all around.
In the end, I left two pieces of the live oak with some campers who were staying a bit longer. It was beautiful stuff, but I wasn’t going to haul it back to Fairbanks just to feel those BTU’s at -40. Not to say, I did not give it some thought.
