Credit: JBugs
Tag Archives: Beetle
Alaska’s “Haul Road” under water
Extreme flooding has overtaken the Dalton Hwy just south of Deadhorse, prompting the DOT to close the highway north of milepost 375. At some locations, over two feet of water is flowing over the road.
This is the second time this year that the Sagavanirktok River has forced the closing of the Dalton. In March, river overflow sent water and ice over the road, forcing its closure.
There is no time frame for the road to reopen. The river is expected to crest in four days, meaning the “Haul Road” may be closed at least a week.
I have already seen several early tourists on motorcycles coming back from the Dalton. I was wondering if they tried to make it to Deadhorse, considering the amount of mud packed onto their bikes. Now it looks like they wouldn’t have had to ride very far to collect all that mud.
The Dalton is an interesting road. I’ve driven up it when I needed four wheel drive for a hundred or more miles, and you couldn’t tell what color the truck was when I was done. I’ve also driven it in the Beetle, when we simply cruised the entire way and only sent clouds of dust in the air behind us.
Photo credit: Alaska DOT
Alaska’s Grizzly Plate Returns
Alaska’s original 1976 grizzly license plate
The State of Alaska has brought back the grizzly license plate, which was originally introduced in 1976 for the U.S. Bicentennial.
The 2015 version of the grizzly plate
The Grizzly has been updated in the new version, and some say it looks less like a curious groundhog than the original, but I think they look the same. With the tabs due on the Beetle, I think the griz plate would be perfect. I thought about getting them for The Rover, but if someone was willing to steal the front Chilkoot plate off of it in Montana, they are bound to make off with both grizzly plates the next time we’re in the Low 48.
Side Tracked
It’s a heat thing…
As I try to balance working on the house and working on the Rover, I’ve decided to complicate life even more by trying to do a little Beetle work. I’ve always wanted to hunt down one of the gasoline powered heaters that were a VW dealer installed option back in the day. They are difficult to find in decent condition, and for a price that is less than I paid for the car in the first place.
I’ve opted to try to add a pair of booster fans to the air ducts instead. The kits run around $169 when you can find them, but I’ve found a couple of inline fans that have a very good reputation within the VW Cult. $19.99 each, and available on Amazon. I just love free shipping.
Sign of the times…
I took the Beetle out for one last seasonal run today, then added some fuel additive to the gas tank, and topped it off.
With snow, rain, and more snow in the forecast for the remainder of the week, I figured it was time to take off the roof rack, park the car and put it under cover for the coming avalanche.
Practically practical
I was at a fish fry tonight. Fresh caught halibut and salmon. One of the wonderful perks of an Alaskan summer. I was suppose to go on the trip out of Seward, but the recent rains had my schedule so out of whack, that I had to cancel.
At one point tonight, the conversation took a particularly nasty turn, and someone admitted that they were looking to sell their pickup truck to get a “more practical vehicle”. I shook my head at the absurdity of such a thought, and at the exact time when a friend of mine said, “Well, don’t look to him for advice on ‘practical'”, while pointing at me.
I would have been hurt, if it wasn’t so accurate.
Another friend said, “I don’t know… he has that old Land Rover and he drove it all across the country and down to Mexico and back. Seems pretty practical to me.”
I thanked him for the support, and admitted that a Series Rover and Practical go “almost hand in hand”.
The friend who knows me better then came up and quietly asked, “Has he ever been for a ride in that old Rover of yours?”
“No. He doesn’t have a clue.”
La Carrera Panamericana
This 1956 VW Bug, is said to have ran La Carrera Panamerican in 1996. It is now for sale in Mansfield, OH for $5600.
The original Carrera Panamericana, introduced when the Pan-American Highway in Mexico was completed in 1950, was a border-to-border, open road race, that ran between 1950 and 1954. It was considered at the time, to be the most dangerous race of any kind in the world. The first winner of the race was Hershel McGriff who drove an Oldsmobile 88. The car cost McGriff $1900, and the race prize was $17,000.
The race was revived in 1988, allowing 100 cars to line up in Southern Mexico to race the 2000 miles north. La Carrera Panamericana lasts a week, with both experienced and novice racers running on public highways at top speeds, with the Mexican Highway Patrol clearing the roads ahead.
A video of a VW Beetle racing in Mexico in 1996. There’s a great moment at about 1:20 where the Bug is passed by an old Studebaker
The 27th Annual Pan-Am Race will run October 17-23, 2014.
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