Fairbanks and the Northern Parks Highway

A journey of a thousand miles, begins with one step. She wants to keep up with her big sister so bad, so we found a consignment store in Fairbanks and got her a tiny pair of @merrelloutside shoes and a push walker. #onesmallstepformaekind #thiftstoreshoes #ohandmatchingpurpletutus

Okay, it seems like there have been a rash of electric tongue jack issues going around lately. A couple weeks ago, ours made a screeching sound instead of retracting. With the help of the great customer service at Barker Manufacturing, we figured out it was a stripped "idler gear" which they sent us and we were able to replace ourselves. Others have run into problems with burnt out fuses. It's a 40 amp blade fuse. Take yours into an auto parts store and grab a spare, or in a pinch, wrap your blown one in tin foil and reinsert. Then ours quit again the other day, this time with no response when pushing the toggle down, but it worked in the up direction. By switching the wires on the switch around, I was able to determine that the motor still worked in both directions and that I could even get the toggle to work in the other direction (but not both at the same time). That meant the switch was okay, though they are known to fail and are available from the manufacturer. By manually flipping the white plastic paddle to activate the small black plastic switches that prevent over extension or retraction, I figured out that the right one wasn't working. While my personal approach was to futilely ask blank-faced clerks at Radio Shacks and auto parts counters around Fairbanks for a replacement switch since we don't have time to have a new one sent from Barker Manufacturing in Battle Creek, Michigan, Jason from Bodeswell opened up the tiny dead switch, located the crumbling connection inside and was able to solder a short piece of wire between the contacts to bypass it. Let me know if you ever need details on this hotwire. And of course, make sure you didn't toss that one extra metal crank thing you found in the storage compartment of your trailer when you bought it. It's probably the manual handle that fits on the square silver head on the right after you pop off the bubble level. Seems like it's just a matter of time for all of us! #airstream #tonguejack #toomuchtongue #jackedup

@advodna_dave our threenager had other ideas besides giving you a relaxing Father's Day today. I found this picture of you taking a lakefront, fireside nap a few weeks ago. Just pretend that happened today🌾

I just have to keep telling myself, strong-willed is good. #HFDtome

It's the solstice at 65' N and despite some shadows in our tree lined campsite, the sun is simply moving sideways with no plans to set. Out on the street, it feels like 3 pm, and we finally got "the shot" of one of the huge airliners coming in for a landing right over our campsite. And as much as @angrehm tries to keep feeding me beers and talk a big game about going to see midnight baseball, I'm gonna head to bed wondering what would happen if you cut the front off an Airstream and put a '71 VW bus inside and then cut off the front of the VW bus, like, what would put inside there? #airstream #VW #Westfalia #deepthoughts

Bye for now to the Bodeswell crew. Living in a 25' Airstream is a lot different than living in a vintage VW bus, but they have a lot more in common when compared to the alternatives. I guess the same could be said about a 3 year old girl and a 10 year old boy who did a pretty darn good job at finding common ground in the interest of having a playmate for the weekend. They'll head north up the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle, and we'll head south to keep our reservations in Denali National Park, but plans are in the works for a possible meet-up over the 4th of July. #airstream #VW #Westfalia #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #airstreamtoalaska #littlecampgroundfriends

The radio this morning said 40 new fires had been started in Alaska overnight by lightning, and it just so happened that two of them were on either side of the northern section of the Parks Highway that we needed to take down to Denali. We figured it was better to get through them early before there was any chance of them growing and cutting us off from the park. After a pretty dark and smokey drive with firefighting helicopters buzzing the road and fire camps setting up in the pullouts, sprinkles appeared on the windshield. By the time we rejected the first RV park for being expensive and skeevy (even tho it did have a location right next to the 49th State Brewing Company going for it!) and found another with a great view of the woods and foothills of the Alaska Range, it was raining buckets, a good thing for the fires all over the state and a nice change from heat we'd had in Fairbanks. Tomorrow into the park. #airstream #liveriveted #airstreamtoalaska #plus4barsofLTE