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| August 23, 2008. Day 73 - Wilderness Lodge (28 miles outside Tok) - A few miles past US/ Canadian border |
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| By 07:00 Marcelo had the solar array was facing the skies to capture every
bit of solar radiation and charge its batteries that was less than half.
However, the sun was yet to be seen as it was covered by thick overcast
and drizzly skies. Nothing new, according to locals this has been the rainiest
summer in over 30 years. It would been interesting to actually look at
the data to know for sure. The lack of direct sunlight hasn't stopped the
XOF1's journey but it has delayed the tour considerably. Marcelo expected
to already been back home, he is still on the road. Our hosts John and Jill were busy getting breakfast for all the guests. They previously owned a B&B in Tok. Our hosts are fantastic and made us feel at home. Once the current crew hits Whitehorse it will disperse. Carrie and Mo are returning home, Vancouver first but in September Mo will be heading back home to Germany to start school. The couple has already logged over 40 days on the tour with Marcelo extendending their participation 3 times. Michael, Morgan and Lucian who joined the project on August 10 will also be returning home; Michael is going back to Holland to resume school and later in the fall will be travelling to Uganda, Africa for some volunteer work. Lucian and Morgan are returning to Nova Scotia. In Whitehorse, Marcelo will be taking a break from driving the solar car for a few days to work, do some upgrades on the electronics of the solar car and look for new volunteers. At 10:00am we said goodbye to the great hosts of the B&B and we hit the road again. Unfortunately, it was still raining but sun or no sun we have have to keep going! At 10:27, whether it was because of the roads slick with rain or something with the steering but the solar car fishtailed into the other lane before almost heading off the road in the other direction. We stopped, tightened up the steering, checked to make sure no tires were flat and then - we were on the road again ... We reached Tok not long after 11am, stopped to gas up, get groceries, retape the leaky windshield and get fresh coffee before leaving a little after 12. Stopped again to adjust the steering for about 20 minutes. The road was in bad shape - worse than the Dempster. Progress was slow. We drove for about another 2.5 hours before pulling over for a coffee break and to put some oil in the car. We stopped again not too lmuch later to take advantage of a strong break in the ominous cloud cover ahead. Enroute, we picked up Emery - a musical hitchhiker from Alaska/ Virginia. Because of our incredible pace, Emery decided to try his luck with another ride. Not much traffic, so he jumped aboard again when we left after 6. With only 30 miles to the border, we were eager to press on and made it just after 7pm. It felt a little anticlimatic though, since the Canadian Customs was 20 miles on. It had begun to rain and the battery was low. Looking at the map, we decided to try and make it to Beaver Creek - 9km from the border. Despite Michael's cheers and jeers, the battery was empty and we just couldn't make it. We pulled over for the night -the skies opened. We sat in the dry van and watched an episode of A-Team before going our separate ways to bed. |
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