Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Trip tales and travel stories from around the globe. Share your adventure!
ManxManiac
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:00 am
Location: Ventura, CA

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by ManxManiac »

Hey France... just wanted to let you know a bunch of the photos don't come up!!! Totally awesome scenery!!! Drive careful & keep having FUN FUN FUN!!!
Michael Cates
ManxManiac
#958
Ventura, CA
Original Meyers Manx "Xena"
M1609C8S22
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vincent9993
Posts: 793
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:00 am

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

ManxManiac wrote:Hey France... just wanted to let you know a bunch of the photos don't come up!!! Totally awesome scenery!!! Drive careful & keep having FUN FUN FUN!!!
they are still uploading. You're just too quick...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Vincent Parisien
MC Director - MC 2696
Long Haul League, '69 Kick-Out-S.S., '59 Berrien Nostalgia, '73 Manxter (in progress)
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vincent9993
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Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

Today it was a relax day. We were staying in the area of Lake Louise. This morning, we took our breakfast at 8am. It was raining a little bit but we decided to visit any way. We went to the Johnston Canyon by driving on the 1A. The closer we got to the Canyon, the clouds were going away. We even stopped to remove the top. We walked for about 3.1 miles (5km) into the wood along the falls and river, it was gorgeous. Before leaving that wonderful place, we decided to have lunch on site on the terrace. After, we went to Mt Norquay. Again, we had the privilege to see really nice sceneries. We were supposed to visit Banff but the sky was more and more scary. We decided to return to Lake Louise to take few pictures. When we were on site, Jon, Joe, Vincent and I rated canoes and paddled on the Lake Louise. In the middle of the lake, the rain came to say hello to us…but the beauty of the place worth it. We saw a Clark’s Nutcracker and a Black-billed Maypie (I am taking birds here). For dinner we went to the Post Pub…nice place but horrible service (didn’t have all the meal that were on their menu, took forever to get our plates, mismatch with the orders and bills), but I need to admit that my Cesar salad with anchovies was delicious (as well as my steak). Tomorrow we are leaving the Rockies (snif snif) to go to Moose Jaw. We should be wet. Looking forward to ride with Brent!

Mileage: 87 miles (140km)
Province: Alberta
Temperature: Min 57F (14C) Max 86F (30C)
Beer: 1 x Dunkelweisen, 1 x Rutting Elk Red, 1 x Honey Brown


Good night!

Vincent et/and France.


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vincent9993
Posts: 793
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Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

CANA-LASKA DAY 15: June 29th

Another beautiful day with our friends. This morning, we left with regrets the Rockies under a wonderful blue sky. It was only 46F (8C) when we left. We went to Calgary, at the Petro-Canada in front of the Olympic installations (1988 Calgary Olympic Winter Games), to meet Brent Highfield (who Joe knew from the forums). He guided us to go through Calgary (nice roads that he chose) and drove us to Medicine Hat. On our way, Jon ran out of gas. We stopped in a safe place. Just before getting back on the road, Jon’s dune did not run right. After quick investigations, they found that a bolt was missing on his muffler. Poor Jon, he will needs to pay again for the beer tonight. Brent had lunch with us and went back alone to his home in Airdrie. He is really a nice guy that we hope we will see again soon. We were hit by the rain today, but we were lucky because as per the radar, we would have been more wet if we had not stop a last time to put gas. When we arrived at Moose Jaw (around 6:45pm), the sun was back. Paul and Vincent went to Wal-Mart to buy the stuff to do an oil change. When everything was completed, we went for dinner to The Original Joe’s restaurant. A little sleep and hop, back on road to finish this time our day in the United States.

Elizabeth and Guy, good opening game tomorrow, Go Als Go!

Mileage: 538 miles (866km)
Provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan
Temperature: Min 46F (8C) Max 86F (30C)
Beer: 1 x Original Joe’s Blonde Lager, 1 x Original Joe’s Red Ale


Good night!

Vincent et/and France.

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aBuggymom1
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:23 am

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by aBuggymom1 »

I love all your posts! Happy trails!

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abgiles
Posts: 226
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 1:00 am
Location: Yulee, FL

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by abgiles »

Amazing photos, and I'm enjoying this just as much as the ECVW trips from the last couple of years. Stunning scenery, and I'm sure it's even more amazing in person.
(Loretta) Manx # M2940D910E on customized 1970 chassis that has been "Wheelerized" by Joescoolcustoms
(Scarlett) Manx Resorter #12 (R0012B931S) on 1969 chassis.
(Gunther) Manx 2 # A0202A035E
Tow'dster # TF530G913S
Original Home built buggy that I learned to drive in back in 1995 (the one that started my passion).
Club Member # 4436

Loretta: http://www.manxclub.com/forum/viewtopic ... t=3365Manx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Glasser
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:00 pm

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by Glasser »

My very first post here on the Manx Club forum pages :-)
I had such a great time with you guys. It was something I was looking very forward to and was not disappointed. I enjoyed the cruise, the short chats we had. You are all fantastic people and represent the Manx and buggy community so well. Congratulations on another superbly organized trip. I was very impressed with the info you sent me when you invited me out to tag along with you all. Very easy to tell a lot of time and effort went into planning this epic adventure. I am very proud to have been a very small part of it.
While not very impressive to all your distances traveled that was the farthest I have ever driven my buggy. Now I know exactly how far it can go on a tank of gas :lol:
I have uploaded 7 video clips that I took of the adventure we had together.
Here they are if anyone is interested. No music just raw footage....

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e3fEvmVjpY[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyBuCwcs9mc[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP5U5rIOg88[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8GdT9Tp4MA[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RVqZLSrA0o[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYgiSshq4M0[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXI9uujHJ6Q[/youtube]
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vincent9993
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Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

CANA-LASKA DAY 16: June 30th

Today we knew that it would be a long day (due of the mileage). The temperature was again gorgeous this morning but a little bit chilly. We thought that the sun would warm us and that the mercury would climb but this didn’t really happen. The wind that we had the entire day and as well the arrival of the clouds (nothing scary) didn’t warmed us. Vincent is no longer sure if the Kansas wind was worst than the one today. It is normal to see so many wind turbine in Manitoba, with the wind that they have, it is the perfect place. We decided not to stop for lunch and continue on road to not arrive too late at the hotel (Bemidji, Minnesota). At the border, everything went well, few cars in front of us and the custom agent (not really smiley) was okay. We arrived at the hotel around 6:45pm. Like we always did, we removed everything from the dune, put the stuff on the cart and I go up at our room when Vincent was cleaning the buggy. Our room was on the second floor. When I arrived in front of the door, I tried to open it, no luck. I went down to the lobby, (with the cart and all our personal stuff) to get a new key. I went back in front of our room, same story…didn’t work. I went back to the reception and I think that she was able to read my body language. She told me that she will give me two new keys and it is still not working, than she doesn’t know why. Before I went back on our floor, I went to the parking lot to get Vincent so he can come with me…otherwise I would have been a champion for a new discipline at the Olympics, the ride of a cart with lot of personal stuff on it. When we arrived in front of our room…it was still not working (we tried the three cards). Vincent went downstairs while I was waiting in front of the door. A guy who saw me before, asked me: Do you have any problem? I told yes and that my husband went downstairs. He told me: Let me try (he was working at the hotel). Even with his two master keys that didn’t work. The mechanism of the door was dead. To compensate for our inconvenience, they offered us their best room, water view, Jacuzzi, table with two chairs, desk with two chairs, two seats sofa, one seat sofa with footrest, a little kitchen, short it was too bad that we will only spent few hours here but I need to admit that they did the effort to do all they can to have two happy clients. For dinner we went to the restaurant adjacent to the hotel…the guys were tired of their day (me I slept well in the dune for the majority of the day…not really exciting the sceneries of Saskatchewan and Manitoba). Tomorrow will be our last day and night with the guys (snif, snif).

Happy Canada day to our Canadian friends and family.
Happy Birthday Marla…enjoy your day!
Sorry Elizabeth and Guy for the Als lost 

Mileage: 637 miles (1025km)
Provinces / States: Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota
Temperature: Min 57F (14C) Max 68F (20C)
Beer: 1 x Bemidji, 1 x Summit Seasonal

Good night!

Vincent et/and France.




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hillmotorsports
Posts: 129
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:07 pm

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by hillmotorsports »

Check back to 1st post....
19 days, 7500+ miles
Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario
Canada
613 330 4862
Member #4502
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vincent9993
Posts: 793
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:00 am

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

CANA-LASKA DAY 17: July 1st

Another great day today just ended. We left Bemidji this morning around 6:30am. The sky was a flawless blue and bright sun. It was still a bit chilly this morning and to be different, we kept the top until the first fuel stop. We stopped around 8:50am to remove the top. Shortly after we stopped again so Jon could change a spark plug. After verification, this was not the problem, only clean the air filters. Later, I wanted us to stop to take few pictures on the shore of Lake Superior. When we arrived, Jon’s dune made funny noises. While the guys were looking for the problem, I took the opportunity to relax on the dock overlooking the lake. Finally, the guys adjusted the carburetors and everything seemed settled. Even if it was a short day, we decided to not stop for lunch so we could arrive early at the hotel to relax. With about 115 miles (185km) to drive before arriving to the hotel, we received a phone call. A guy found Jon’s cell phone (that we didn’t know that he had lost). The phone was on the road for about 3 hours, no body ran over it and it was still functional. Jon talked with the guy and he will mail it to him. We arrived at the hotel just before 4pm…that was cool to relax. For dinner we went to Applebee’s (second choice because the first had a 1.5 hour waiting time). We gave the Long Haul League pin to Jon who drove is buggy for more than 1000 miles, congratulation Jon. After that we went to take few pictures of the sunset (9:46pm). To conclude our last evening in style, what better than a good ice cream…to hell with the calories!

Mileage: 399 miles (642km)
States: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan
Temperature: Min 54F (12C) Max 72F (22C)
Beer: 1 x Found IPA BTL, 1 x Bell 2 Heart Brew

Good night!

Vincent et/and France.


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vincent9993
Posts: 793
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Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

CANA-LASKA DAY 18: July 2nd

We left Marquette around 6:30am this morning. Again, the sun was out for us. After 150 miles (242km), we were saying “au revoir” to our three “amigos”, Jon, Joe and Paul. We will see Jon and Paul end of July when we will do our trip to the Keys and for Joe, we will see him in October at MOTB. Like I told you at the beginning of the trip, road 17 is really a boring one. We stopped for lunch in a place where they know only one speed….slow. We arrived at the hotel around 3:45pm. Vincent cleaned the dune and took a nap. In the meantime, I was choosing the pictures and watching the soccer game between Italy and Germany. Oh yes I was as well planning our 2018 vacation, please don’t tell Vincent, he will die of a heart attack. For dinner, we went to “East Side Mario”…without our three “amigos”, it was not as pleasant. We got news from our three “amigos”. When crossing the Mackinow Bridge, Paul and Joe decided to pay for Jon and when Jon tried to pass, the gate went down on his windshield. Result, Jon will need to replace his windshield. Jon arrived home around 6:30pm…he was tired but so happy about his experience and he will recommended to everybody to do it one day. Our two other “amigos” ran out of gas, but thank god they used their reserve. If they are not yet in West Virginia, this will be soon. Tomorrow, small day of less than 375 miles (600km) to arrive home.

Mileage: 438 miles (705km)
State / Province: Michigan, Ontario
Temperature: Min 54F (15C) Max 79F (26C)
Beer: 2 x Okanagan

Good night!

Vincent et/and France.



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ManxManiac
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:00 am
Location: Ventura, CA

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by ManxManiac »

What a FUN FUN FUN adventure!!! I don't know what I'm going to do every night around 11:00PM, now that all of you are home or at least fairly close!!!
Thank you for taking us along, I for one greatly appreciate it!!!
Once again y'all have proven you can go basically "anywhere" in a buggy, that most folks would drive their regular car, minivan or pickup to!!! LOL
So everyone get rested up & I'll be looking forward to your adventure to the "Keys" & back!!!
Michael Cates
ManxManiac
#958
Ventura, CA
Original Meyers Manx "Xena"
M1609C8S22
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vincent9993
Posts: 793
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Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

CANA-LASKA DAY 19: July 3rd

This morning we left North Bay around 6:30am…no cloud, only a wonderful blue sky. When we passed near a river or a large field, we could see the fog like in a movie….it was really beautiful. We stopped for lunch in Rigaud and arrived home around 12:45pm. We has been such a lovely trip. All the beautiful landscapes we have seen, the beautiful places we visited, but more importantly, the people we met throughout our adventure and with which we could exchange. To put a smile in their faces, this will remain in our memory for long time. Just an example. Yesterday in the parking lot, we were almost ready to leave for dinner and a young man (early 20) while timidly approached to see the car. He said he had never seen such a beautiful car. I asked him if he had a smart phone and if he wanted to take a picture. He said: Can I really? I told him: Even better if you sit in the driver’s seat and gave your phone to my husband so he could take the picture. The young man was shaking, he was so happy he could not believe he could sit in the dune. Vincent asked him is name and shook his hand. I can guarantee you that Chris will remember this moment for long time and us as well. It’s moments like these that we experienced throughout our adventure. As the motto of Meyers Manx says, “More smiles per mile”…and that was the case with Vincent and I. The return to work tomorrow will be less painful because we know that we are leaving for another adventure at the end of the month: ECV-Keys, with several friends.

Mileage: 347 miles (558km)
Provinces: Ontario, Quebec
Temperature: Min 54F (12C) Max 86F (30C)
Beer: 1 x Isseki Nicho

Total distance of the trip: 7,556 miles (12, 160km) in 19 days.
We visited: 2 Territories (YT, NWT), 6 Provinces (BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC), 5 States (MI, WI, MN, ND, AK).
Number of pictures: About 4,200

Thank you for having followed us throughout our adventure.

Good night!

Vincent et/and France.

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hillmotorsports
Posts: 129
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:07 pm

Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by hillmotorsports »

Gee Vincent....if you had a few more holidays you could leave right away, before the motor cools!
I think that was France's statement last time we saw you. :roll:
Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario
Canada
613 330 4862
Member #4502
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vincent9993
Posts: 793
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Re: Manx 2 Alaska 2016

Post by vincent9993 »

As many of you have read, Joe broke a valve spring on the Alaska Highway. It's difficult to describe that area but it's a really tough and serious environment. The Alaska Highway is paved but there are gravel sections. We knew this but I imagined a gravel section to be less than 1 mile at a time but it's more like 10 mile long sections and the speed limit is still 100km/h. The challenging part is there's no real civilization up there.

I wanted to share situation of our breakdown and our (mostly Joe's) ingenuity to get back on the road.

To give you an idea, here's where we broke down:
We had driven just shy of 300 miles from Whitehorse that morning and we were traveling on a gravel section up a hill. Joe/Paul came on the radio to report some noise and loss of power. We pulled to the side of the road to evaluate the situation.
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I was hoping it was a dirty jet but the noise was too loud to be a fuel related issue. Joe pulled his buggy to the side of the road facing traffic to angle the motor as to not leak oil and proceded to remove the valve cover on the passenger side. I was watching traffic pass by on the dirt road at speed of 100km/h when I heard Joe scream "Oh! woooow!" I figured it was either good or bad but could not tell. I pop over and he tells me it's bad. The intake spring on #2 cylinder was broken. Now what?
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We were 4km away from what they call a gas station. On the Alaska Highway, a gas station is nothing more than an above ground 300gal round tank with painted "GAS" on the side and, sometimes, a gift shop. One of these gas station we had stopped, the owner said he was the sheriff! About 5 people live in that 'town'.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWB60Ae4TZo[/youtube]

We had to tow Joe's buggy to the gas station where we hopped we would get cell coverage and perhaps query the few people there for help. We considered using Jon's Porsche powered buggy but he did not have any anchor point for the tow rope and his exhaust was in the way. We decided to use our Kick-Out to tow. We wrapped the tow rope around the lower part of the bumper and proceeded to the gas station with Jon holding the rear with his hazards. Still on gravel, we manage to pull Joe's buggy at times hitting speeds of 80km/h+.

Joe's motor did not have stock VW springs and we were hoping we could hopefully salvage springs from an American made motor. As we rolled in the gas station/gift shop, I spotted what looked like an small junk yard. Paul and I decided to go check it out while Joe went inside to chat with the owner. As we get to the back of the building, there was someone chucking wood and cleaning up junk. We approached him to see if he could provide assistance or parts and Paul spots a VW IRS transmission sitting on the ground in front of the man. What are the odds?! Unfortunately, that was the only VW part left and the man was not of any further assistance.

Back inside the gift shop, Joe was on the phone with a tire shop in Watson Lake about 25km east. The people at that shop thought that they may have old motor heads we could take a look at. We re-hooked Joe's buggy behind the Kick-Out and proceeded to Watson Lake hitting speeds of 110km/h at times. Joe managed the brakes from the back and I just stayed focus on the road. At least the road was paved to Watson Lake.

The tire shop was an old wooden building and a mechanic was very busy changing tires. Judging by the amount of work piled up, they change a lot of tires on that highway.
Here's the building
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Joe went in to the office and talked with a confused receptionist and got 'permission' to go in the back room of the shop to see if there were parts that may work. There were a few old motor heads on a shelf and using a C-Clamp, we removed a spring.
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The 1st spring we took off was not a fit but by luck, the 2nd head we looked at had a very close spring that ended being a match. Now we needed to get the spring back on the head. We had no intentions of dropping the motor or removing the head and I had head of the rope trick before. A few people suggested we use compress air to keep the valve shut. This may have worked but the air supply was being used and we did not have a way to seal the spakplug hole with the air hose. We located a nylon rope on the walls of the tire shop and proceeded to feed it in the the cylinder.
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We also located an old prybar and Joe used it to compress the spring.
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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL90rWOWUoY[/youtube]

We managed to get the keepers back on and re-adjust the valves. By my estimates, we were down 2h from the time we broke down on the gravel road. Not bad for field repairs in the middle of nowhere!

Yes we got very lucky:
- Valve did not bend or break
- Found the tire shop
- Found the spring and the tools needed

But I believe our perseverance played a big role in the success of this repair.
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