July 31, 2008. Day 50 - Inuvik ~ Road to Nowhere~ Inuvik ~ Mackenzie River Ferry ~ Fort McPherson ~ Johnny D. Charlie Visitor Centre 1km from Peel River Ferry

Marcelo makes the most of the morning, calling and emailing updates and contacts before Dez from Inuvik Drum make a visit to the Arctic Chalet for an interview and photos. Olav and Judi drive with us to town where we park beside the Igloo Church. Chris from CBC meets us there and whisks Marcelo away for a telephone interview with Yellowknife CBC while the rest of the crew collect supplies for the return trip. Shortly after 2pm, Marcelo leads the way to the "Road to Nowhere", a potholed, dirt road that leads to a dead end that happens to be the most northerly point accessible in the absence of the winter ice road. - "hey Inuvik administrator, please sent someone to fix the Navy Road (road to Nowhere), it was more challenging than driving on the Dempster. We almost didn't make it." = The going is tough, but the XOF1 makes the official halfway point of this journey at 3:10pm. Marcelo turns the car around and the return leg begins. We stop at the first gas station to fill up the van and Max makes this his departure point. With limited vacation time, Max made the decision to fly back to Dawson (where his car is) rather than stress about time on the roadtrip back. Mo takes the wheel and we wave goodbye to Inuvik as sun encourages us on through patches of long clouds. With a good charge in the battery and the skies clearing we make good time, reaching the Mackenzie River ferry before 7pm. Marcelo uses the short wait for the ferry to dash towards the mighty Mackenzie river for a toe dip, he was talking about that for a long time. Don't worry he also got it on video. So, most likely you will see Marcelo's toes on a documentary about XOF1. Not too long after we left Inuvik the clouds started to get bigger and bigger and eventually we made to Fort McPherson where we drove under a large mass of gray clouds. We prudently gas up again while Marcelo tried to squeeze some energy out of the faint sunshine before making the final stop of the day in the pleasant Visitor centre parking lot~ 2km from the Peel River ferry. We are still getting lots of comments and questions about Marcelo's encounter with the wolf. We thought the solar car would be the talk of town here in the Northwest Territories but the wolf encounter is getting just as much attention if not more. Marcelo is more know here by

	XOF1 by the Igloo church. As the news of the solar car arrival spread, people came in waves to see the UFO looking car. Thank you all who came to see us, specially to the couple from Edmonton, thanks for the coffee mug.
	XOF1 at the "road to nowhere" (Navy road). Really! this road leads to nowhere.
	Max's closing XOF1 for the last time.
	Max's wave us off as we leave Inuvik. He is probably thinking 'no more sleeping in the trailer' yeah!i
	Still in Inuvik, two cyclists also made to Inuvik. Here the wave at the solar car as it passes.
	If you ever come to Inuvik you will see this airplane on a post at the main road. No particular reason for having this photo posted.
	Only 8,000kms to go before we arrive in Buffalo, NY.
	A bus full of European tourists drive by the solar car. They all had their nose against the window looking at the solar car, it was pretty funny!
	This two bikers came to a complete stop to take a close look at the solar car.
	We often came across a construction crew repairing the road.
	At the Mackenzie river ferry.
	More construction crew repairing the road. They were busy.
	Hey, we think this truck passed us about 8 times already!
	No sun in the land of the midnight sun.
	Answering to Brian's question "does XOF1 get muddy?". Yes, very muddy. At the end of the day it is carrying a few kilos of it but we clean it every day. The solar array is also cleaned everyday, sometimes twice a day. When the road is not muddy from all the rain it gets very dusty.
	It is hard to tell which direction the wind goes, the lower clouds move one directions the the higher clouds the opposite.