The story of moving south from Alaska did not end well. But it has ended. And now, so has this blog.
As of July 6, 2010 I start a new job back in Anchorage and I’m thankful for it. I’m returning to warm friendships and a city and state I know well, not to mention the opportunity to do a mix of interesting technology work with nonprofits and for-profits alike.
Thanks for following along.
I’ve been talking about getting a webcam for a few weeks. Finally did it, and here it is:
[ARCHCAM OFFLINE PERMANENTLY]
Just reload the page for the latest image or click it for a bare JPEG photo.
The quality isn’t great, but it works and it’s LIVE, which is pretty cool. I’ll be messing around with preferred mounting location and so on in the coming days.
When people find out I have more than 145,000 miles on my 1998 Honda CR-V, they’re amazed.
I’m not.
I expect to run this car to 250,000 miles or more. And that’s just standard practice for Honda cars that get regular care. Here’s my trusty 12-year-old steed just outside the Tlingit village of Teslin in the Yukon just a few days ago:
I bought this car brand new in the Detroit metro area in February 1998 — it was one of the first ’98 models manufactured (the 1997 CR-V was the first year of the series). Before this I drove a used Honda Accord. Before that, a used 1983 Honda Civic that my father had literally rolled in an accident (it was repaired, he was fine), and regularly got 45 miles per gallon back in the late 1980′s. (For a brief time I drove a Pontiac Grand Am in the early 1990s — what a piece of shit that was!)
In 2001 this amazing Honda CR-V moved me, my wife, our dog and cat to Alaska from Louisville, Kentucky as we drove the 4,000+ miles north in late February. Then it spent 2.5 years doing a 90-mile roundtrip weekday commute between Girdwood and Anchorage. In 2003 it moved with us to Anchorage and has been on several trips around Alaska, including the 60-mile gravel road from Chitina to McCarthy.
After some maintenance work in Anchorage, this beast was packed to the gills and drove 4,200 miles south to St. Louis. Not a single problem.
As a reward, I’ll buy her…
I almost bought a new car in 2009. I’m glad I didn’t. This one’s awesome.
Oh, and by the way… My wife used to drive a really horrible Ford Explorer. But we dumped that clunker and bought her a CR-V of her own back in mid-2002. Hers is also going strong. My sister drives a new CR-V, too. I’m not sure we’ll drive any other car brand, given the experience.
Well said! I have the 1997 Honda Accord my parents bought in North Dakota in 1999, we drove the car up here from ND, and for about 4 years it commuted from Anchorage to Eagle River, has done many trips, goes to Tok 2 times a year to Autocross now, and still going strong with 167,xxx on it (and have only had to replace the radiator as of yet!). I will only own Honda/Acura vehicles – My parents gave me the accord in 2003 so I”ll be celebrating 7 years with it this fall. I can’t imagine owning anything else. Especially when we can get 28mpg while going 90mpg to Tok and make it on one tank of gas (one way).
Now that’s an endorsement! We had one for 6 years and loved it too
Final Day. Drove from Kansas City, Missouri into St. Louis. 247 miles. A very short 4 hours.
Change of plans today. Instead of driving south to Denver then east through Kansas, we shaved 3-4 hours off the drive by driving east through South Dakota and then south along the Missouri River to Kansas City. 945 miles. About 7am to 11pm total drive time.
that can’t be right…it looks like you completely bypassed Wall Drug…
Yes, skipped Wall Drug. Foggy, cold and we were on a mission to get to Kansas City at almost all costs. Definitely not a pleasure trip, sadly.
Drove from Red Deer, Alberta to Sheridan, Wyoming via Lewistown, Montana. 1,239km / 770mi total driving. About 8am to 11pm.
I hope that this is the name of a place and not a fact
The name comes from a destructive storm event that hit the area many years ago. Apparently it was powerful enough to change the name of the village!
It’s amazing that after 500 plus miles you are on the same latitude
Yeah, you have to drive around the Wrangell-St. Elias mountain range — a really large and remote mountain system the highway engineers wanted to avoid back in the 1940s.
Can’t really blame them. That stretch is ia about a rugged as it comes.
When moving to Alaska in February 2001, we stopped at Destruction Bay in the Yukon for the night. No big deal. But when we woke, we found a fresh 18 inches of snow on the ground (with more falling fast) and wondered whether we’d make it out that day. We did, with some effort.
This is just a little clip of video we shot when taking our little Angus (then just about 1 year old) out into the deep snow. He loves snow.
I’m wondering what I’ll find at Destruction Bay tomorrow…
adam are discussing. 
Duncan Moon, 
