AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
I really hope many will join in on this subject. I am sure we will find stories about just how small this world really is now days.
In August of 1986 when I left Alaska for the last time (well, maybe if I find the right motor home copilot?), I was driving down the Alaska highway headed to the family farm in southeast Nebraska to take care of my father his last year and at the same time for an interview as airport manager of the St Joseph, MO airport (actually located in Kansas). Since I live in Texas now, obviously, I didn't get the job but it got down to two of us and the nephew of a councilman got the job. It would have been fun really and might have actually met SJ and Dana, right? And be able to actually see that beautiful SC on the water?
Does that ever happen?
Anyway, I am driving down the Alaska Highway, my 13th trip over the highway with the first trip in 1954, loaded to the gills with everything I could get in the car and way over gross for the Ford. Kind of like trying to cram a C-208 load in a Super Cub. As I recall, the gas tank was like 3 or 4 inches off the ground. About half way down the highway, say 600 miles out of Anchorage, I am driving along real careful through a construction area watching for every rock bigger than a golf ball in front of me and where there was a big burm of gravel in the center of the road. I am driving like 40 mph and am watching this crazy driver coming up behind me and getting real close. Finally, they found a place to jump the burm and pulled up along side of me and really started waving. I looked over and guess who? My sister and brother in law. They pulled in front of me (chipped my windshield) and drove on down the road to a road house where we stopped and had coffee. They didn't offer to pay for a new windshield either.
They were headed north and I was headed south and I had no idea they were on the highway but Dad had told them to watch for me. Talk about a surprise. After a half hour or so, off they go north and I am back on the road headed south to Nebraska. Remember, there is only one road out of Alaska through Canada in one area so they knew they would run into me somewhere. Thank goodness my sister was not driving or they just might have really run into me.
I will try to think of more situations like this but in the mean time, how about others joining in and sharing your stories about unusual situations like this?
In August of 1986 when I left Alaska for the last time (well, maybe if I find the right motor home copilot?), I was driving down the Alaska highway headed to the family farm in southeast Nebraska to take care of my father his last year and at the same time for an interview as airport manager of the St Joseph, MO airport (actually located in Kansas). Since I live in Texas now, obviously, I didn't get the job but it got down to two of us and the nephew of a councilman got the job. It would have been fun really and might have actually met SJ and Dana, right? And be able to actually see that beautiful SC on the water?
Does that ever happen?
Anyway, I am driving down the Alaska Highway, my 13th trip over the highway with the first trip in 1954, loaded to the gills with everything I could get in the car and way over gross for the Ford. Kind of like trying to cram a C-208 load in a Super Cub. As I recall, the gas tank was like 3 or 4 inches off the ground. About half way down the highway, say 600 miles out of Anchorage, I am driving along real careful through a construction area watching for every rock bigger than a golf ball in front of me and where there was a big burm of gravel in the center of the road. I am driving like 40 mph and am watching this crazy driver coming up behind me and getting real close. Finally, they found a place to jump the burm and pulled up along side of me and really started waving. I looked over and guess who? My sister and brother in law. They pulled in front of me (chipped my windshield) and drove on down the road to a road house where we stopped and had coffee. They didn't offer to pay for a new windshield either.
They were headed north and I was headed south and I had no idea they were on the highway but Dad had told them to watch for me. Talk about a surprise. After a half hour or so, off they go north and I am back on the road headed south to Nebraska. Remember, there is only one road out of Alaska through Canada in one area so they knew they would run into me somewhere. Thank goodness my sister was not driving or they just might have really run into me. I will try to think of more situations like this but in the mean time, how about others joining in and sharing your stories about unusual situations like this?
