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| August 13, 2008. Day 63 - 68 Miles outside of Tok - Delta Junction - North Pole - Fairbanks: CCHRC & Davies Home |
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| The sun shining and Michael's special raisin porridge made for the beginnings
of a great day. With the array in place, we prettied up the solar car for
Fairbanks, replacing the black and yellow tape and removing road muck. Back in town, we fuelled up and called up our contacts in Fairbanks. Greg, Cathy and Bruno from Remote Power have been absolutely amazing - despite not knowing us from Adam- they were working furiously away finding us a place to stay, spreading the word about the project, being the essential contact between us and (the also incredible) John Davies from the Cold Climate Housing Research Council, members of the press and other interested people in Fairbanks. Over the phone he told us that a meeting with the press had been tentatively scheduled for 16:00 that day. We have learned to expect the unexpected on this tour so we asked if perhaps the meeting could be pushed back to give us a little more time. Greg said no problem, he would see what he could do and update us on our next phone call. We headed over to Sam Porter's house (Custom Steel) and arrived around 11:00. Sam rounded up some enthusiastic kidfolk and thoughtfully called the local paper before checking out the inner workings of the solar car. The local paper has a "traveller of the week" section and the friendly reporter said she was quite happy for a change to the usual rv'ers. We took some photos of the car with the kids, Sam & us, Sam and his Custom Steel sticker on the car before getting back on the road again. Not but a few hundred feet on the section of the road under construction and the left front tire blew. We pulled over to a suitable spot and changed the tire in a much more respectable time unfortunately minutes passes waiting for the pilot car to drive by in our direction again. Back on the road we made pretty good speed. Alex alerted the rest of us to the flashing lights and soon we were standing on the side of the road answering questions from a state trooper. Filming ok - he pulled us over - the Alaska move over law??? - took photos - Time ticking away . . .it didn't look like we would be able to make it to Fairbanks comfortably by 17:00. Luckily Carrie's cell phone had reception and we called Greg who promised to call back right away with a plan. Meet Greg and Cathy in red prius by highway . . . of course we missed the turnoff. Greg called us and came and found us in the parking lot we stopped in. While we waited, a curious crowd gathered around the solar car, people driving on the road were turning around and driving into the parking lot. We answered and many questions as we could until Greg and Cathy arrived. Wanting to get word out about the car, Cathy had sent a press release to the Daily News Miner and communicated to the reporter about the reactions of people we passed on the way. Greg drove ahead and led the way to the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC). John Davies welcomed us. An enthusiastic crowd was waiting for us at the CCHRC, it was a warm reception and everyone made us feel right at home. Marcelo talked about the car, the project and the adventure. John and Linda provided us with a tailgate party - homemade hummous, garden peas, crackers, brie, softdrinks and beer! Linda created a masterpiece of a meal - bbq corn, melt in your mouth salmon that John had caught in the Copper River (Michael later said that in he could taste the river and the mountains - in fact Alaska - in that fish) salad from her garden, corn bread . . . Morgan made music for our hosts before bed. Fabulous sleeps for all. |
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