Car 11 leaves in the AM with 50+ GB of music to attempt the Empeg latitude record (at least the latitude record in a car!).

Our out time is 8:11 AM. Temperature at our northernmost destination currently about -41 C.

The true goal is to find the elusive tanstaafl. Our obligatory pre-departure Empeg decal photo here . Updates en route available here: www.teamd.org/rallys/2004/alcan.

Doug, we are coming to find you!!

Good luck!

Goddamn i'm jealous. I want to do this next year... seriously. The pictures from last year were amazing.

oh, and i posted a comment on your weblog about this, but when you get back i gotta pick your brains about some of the wrx mods you guys did. AND about the rally in general. Good luck, i'll be watching your updates!

Sounds like you might want to take a blanket. Maybe some coffee too.

Now, this is wonderful. I'd love to be there! Good luck and enjoy it!

woohoo! Have a good drive Jim!

Gool luck Jim. Maybe sometime in the future we will run in the same rally. (when I'm not too much of a wuss with my cars)

to attempt the Empeg latitude record (at least the latitude record in a car!).


You aren't going to make it -- unless you want to take a 50 mile drive [North] out the Elliott highway once you get to Fairbanks. I've already been 42 miles out that road...

You'll be in town next Wednesday, and I will definitely look you up. What time do you anticipate arriving?

tanstaafl.

Best of luck, Jim. I'm sure Doug will have a hot chocolate waiting for you.

You aren't going to make it -- unless you want to take a 50 mile drive [North] out the Elliott highway once you get to Fairbanks. I've already been 42 miles out that road...

Heh. That's how a roadtrip from Toronto to Vancouver turned into a roadtrip from Toronto to Tiajuana, via Vancouver:

Driver: You know, since we're over on the left coast, it's only a couple days to go visit California, and we've never been to California.

Me (looking at map): Yeah, you're right. Wanna go to Frisco? We can drive down the coast and see the redwoods!

Driver: Sure! (pause) LA is only a half day from there...

Me: Hmmm... Mexico is close...

Two and a half weeks, 15,197.4 Km, and one speeding ticket. No empeg.

Two and a half weeks, 15,197.4 Km, and one speeding ticket. No empeg.

That explains why you received only one speeding ticket....

You aren't going to make it...

Greetings from Whitehorse.

Will 68° 18' N 133° 29' W work?

FYI, we will be at the Capt. Bartlett Inn on the evening of the 25th. It's a short day -- only ~550 miles -- but I don't have precise arrival info yet.

Jim

Sorry to see you lost your car Jim.

Empeg south record

I got it ship cruised round south of cape horn

I don't think you get further then that

Humans occupy stations in Antarctica; I know one who has, but he was a grad student, with no money for an empeg.

Will 68° 18' N 133° 29' W work?


Yep. That trumps my 64.82N 147.87W Fairbanks,AK, even when I add the extra 40 miles on the Elliott Highway (that would probably put me at about 65.0 N).

Of course... that record would only stand if you had a working empeg when you were at those coordinates. Was that before or after your WRX alternator went Tango Uniform?

Wednesday evening at the Captain Bartlett, eh? I'll be hanging out there waiting for you. Just look for the ShoWagon (vanity plate: SHOWGN).

Want me to see if I can track down a Subaru alternator here in Fairbanks? Is the WRX alternator "special" or would any alternator from a Subaru boxer 4-cylinder do the trick? There are a lot of Subarus here in Fairbanks, and chances are there are a few in the wrecking yards. Probably I could find a standard alternator for about $35-$50.

tanstaafl.

Sorry to see you lost your car Jim.

Thanks. When the alternator went *poof*, I was bummed, but we had some other fun as a result. Dan got to pilot the Baron Von Richtofen's S4 down the Mackenzie River and we got to join the sweep crew in pulling the ill-fated Montero out of the ditch on the Dempster.

We got back to Dawson City and got a new alternator installed in exactly 48 minutes. Not sure I set the Empeg north record, really, as it got to Tuktoyaktuk in somebody else's car. We are definitely signed on for 2008, though, and are lobbying organizer Jerry Hines to go back up the Dempster. Gorgeous.

Oh, and did I say that when you go on the Winter Alcan you *may* get the chance to hear the best cars stereo in the world? Yeah, the kind of car stereo that makes average Joes like me feel not quite adequate....not really a man??? Well, all that psychological shite aside, getting to listen to Doug's rig (and even slide the SHO wagon around around Fairbanks) was completely worth all of the ensuing feelings of inadequacy!

It was a blast. Video snips of dopey Jim driving into the snowbank on the course on Fish lake in Whitehorse up on the web (www.teamd.org/rallys/2004/alcan) "real soon".

Now back to planning for 2008!