For better or worse, electronic devices play a big part in our travels. Keeping all our equipment charged and ready to go can be a nightmare. The solution? Mains power in the truck. It was time to go shopping for a power inverter.
We were finally relaxing on the beach on the coast south of Rosarito in Baja. We had nowhere to drive, no visas due to expire, no interstates to contend with, no schedule, no maps and no plan. We decided it was a good opportunity to go and watch some other people who were in a rush.
There comes a time in two perfectly reasonable people’s lives when they decide that driving cross-country to New York is a sensible thing to do. “Now wait a minute” I hear you exclaim “Aren’t you driving to Argentina? That is quite a lot further away from Alaska than New York and therefore a slightly madder thing to do!” I’ll grant you that the plan of driving to Argentina does sound a little crazy, but ultimately it comes down to a question of timeframes.
Who doesn’t like a new pair, or four, of shoes?
Somehow the 4Runner was filling up with stuff (more than could fit in the front seats if we needed to sleep in the back). Also, our spare fuel container had leaked inside the car on the Dalton highway, which prompted us to never have any sort of fuel stored inside the car. The main roof rack was taken, we could have arranged something with the new tow hitch/bike rack. But in the end, after a visit to ReRack (a company in Portland that sells new and used roof rack systems) we decided on a second roof rack.
Oh yeah! Hot water at the touch of a button—or rather the attaching of alligator clamps… and a 15min wait for the car to warm up.
Second Battery There are a several reasons why we decided to install a second battery. The main reason being we intend to install a fridge in the car, but it would also run the power inverter and LED lighting. Although we could run it all from the main battery, it is perhaps not a good idea when you’re relying on that battery to start your car after staying in one place for a few days.
Factory Roof Rack fail. It was about six the morning of the third night in our roof top tent when we heard the first loud pop, which was followed about 15 minutes later by second loud pop but this time it was accompanied by the tent shaking … oh dear.
Our flight arrived into Anchorage shortly after midnight. As we had flown north it had become gradually lighter and lighter, so that by the time we were coming in to land we could see the rugged snowcapped peaks receding into the twilight. The excitement was building—we were finally arriving in Alaska.
The main reason we stopped for 10 days in Arizona was so that we could drive up to Flagstaff to attend Overland Expo 2014. For those who haven’t heard of Overland Expo (we hadn’t until we started planning this trip). It is a gathering of people who like to go adventuring in their vehicles. Whether those be 4WDs, motorbikes, or massive post-apocolyptic survival vehicles.