Good news. The truck with my engine on it got on the road again today at 1:45 p.m. Jennifer at Canada Cartage assures me that it will arrive in Edmonton at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow and be transferred promptly to Pacific Northwest's terminal in time to catch the 17:00 truck to Whitehorse. Marica at Northwest Pacific's Whitehorse office has assured me that that truck will arrive in Whitehorse early Thursday morning and be delivered right to John's Auto's front door, instead of his having to pick it up in town himself, as was originally planned, saving a whole day. This gives Travis two days to install the engine, maybe three if I can persuade him to start dismantling the old engine on Wednesdsy, once we know the new engine is on the truck. Then, if the Defender is up and running Friday evening, better than before its recent hiccup, I will start to load it on Saturday and return the rental car, and on Sunday break camp here and move on down to Skagway,
where the weather is supposed to be considerably warmer so Donner and I can sleep in the Defender at the ferry terminal so we do not miss the 2:45 p.m. ferry on Monday. We will arrive in Seattle on Friday morning and stop off at LaMorna garage to get the Defender serviced one last time and then hit the road again from there, the trip I have yet to plan.
When I get back into the Defender, the first thing I am going to do is to check that red check engine light. I am beginning to think that maybe it said, chuck engine, not check engine. I never was one for attention to detail.
Of course, I am keenly aware that anything can happen in this chain of events to throw a spanner in these plans, e,g., another truck breakdown, road conditions due to bad weather, and, of course, the unforeseen need for additional parts once Travis takes out the old engine. I am prepared for those things to happen. However, I am confident that they will not and that the Defender will be back on the road very soon with me behind the wheel and Donner sleeping in one of his two beds for the 5500-mile trip home.
The bottom line is that for the time being, I can put aside all my plans B and wait for Plan A to either unfold or unravel, whichever comes first.
I have said it before, but I will say it again, I am extremely impressed by the personal and professional attention that everyone involved with this (and believe me, I have called on a lot of people) has given to this. They have all raised the bar for what customer relations is supposed to be, everyone of them without exception.
In the meantime, I am sticking pretty much to my camp in this weather. With the temperatures during the day going just above freezing and after 5:00 p.m.dipping well below freezing, I do not want to be caught in that in-between zone and either slip and fall on the ice or skid the rental car into something that would ruin my day.
Speaking of car rentals, I noticed today that the combination of the snow and ice on the windshield of my Ford Escape rental and the heat from the defroster is starting to crack the windshield parallel to and just above the windshield wipers and dashboard defroster vent. The last thing in the world I need is to be accused of causing this and have to pay for a new windshield. Does anyone know this to be a problem with Ford Escapes or any vehicles? I never experienced it in any of my vehicles, mainly because their heaters were never known for producing much heat, which is one of the reasons I am anxious to get down to that 48th parallel quickly.
That's the report from the 60th parallel for tonight. Stay tuned tomorrow for the latest. Every day brings with it new surprises. I really do not need any more surprises.
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