Hi all-

Finished phase one. I'm at my brothers in Olympia, Washington for a couple
of days to recoup. Talk about a long drive. I left Mary Ann's (she is a very
good cook and a most gracious host! Thanks!) and drove straight north, it
was very cool. Part of the 191 Hwy went as high as 9300 feet, up in the snow
and pines. Then the four corners area was totally awesome, all the red rock
and cliffs. Made it to Moab, Utah that night around 8pm and had a good night
sleep. That day was just over 630 miles.

Saturday I really put the pedal to the metal. Man it was bitchin weather and
roads were clear and dry, light traffic, even through Salt Lake. It was 82
MPH on cruise control, man I was really doing some moving. Made Winnemucca,
Nevada about 3:30pm. Now I had to choose a route, took this back road that
went through some lonesome places. Made Oregon by dark and drove till about
7pm at this town. Stopped for gas but the guy said no motels there. Another
100 miles, oh boy... "Watch for deer" the gas station attendant said. "Yea,
I will".

Well he never said anything about cougars!!! About 25 miles from Lapine this
animal, low to the ground, light tan, and the size of a cougar and coming
hell bent out of the ditch. It slammed into my right rear door. It happened
so fast you couldn't count "1,2". BAM and that was that, I knew there was a
dent in the door. Oh well, that's why I have the full coverage...  Upon
investigation this morning my brother and I were picking these fine hairs
out of the door latch. Definitely not a deer. I know about deer because I've
shot about 20 in my lifetime. Where it impacted the door was about the right
height of a cougar.

Made it to Lapine that night and crashed about 10:00PM, logged 939 miles in
about 14 hours of steady driving. Sunday it was an easy 300 miles to
Olympia, Washington.

Just spent about $800, new tires, new oil, tranny flushed, new serpentine
belt, now need to get some arctic gear as all I have is Arizona clothes,
hehe...

The journey will continue in a couple of days. Shawn and Randi, Waterspider,
then CJ, sort of take my time and not get crazy. I've drove the Al-Can in
winter before, you don't f.ck around up there.

Total miles to date from Wickenburg, AZ is 2223.6 as of the GPS.

Updates as I can provide

Russ out......

Thanks, Pajaritaflora, your photos are beautiful!

I noticed you have a flea collar on QI; pleasepleaseplease throw that thing
away and use Advantage or Program or a similar product-- they work much
better, plus flea collars are toxic!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting Russ in person, maybe this weekend,
on his way back to Alaska.

Thanks for sharing your Photobucket.

Spidey

Mary Ann and Russ, this is incredibly sweet.  Thank you for all of this.
Really.

Kathy