A Fortnight in Fairbanks

This Blog was intended as an insight into our lives on the road for the next twelve months, it would also hopefully provide some useful information for travellers looking do a similar trip, with that in mind here's a couple of really good tips:

1. Try not to fall off the bike

2. If you do fall off make sure you have good insurance cover..repeat good cover.

We arrived back into Fairbanks on Friday afternoon so sorting out the insurance was not going to happen until at least Monday, we were already booked into the University for that night, but now had to negotiate staying much longer. The people at reception were really helpful and gave us the room for a further 10 nights so that took the pressure off us having to look for alternative accommodation, Sue of course was just glad to get off the bike for a few days and I could at least use the internet and phones to get the repair of the bike on the go. The insurance company had a 24 hour helpline so I was able to log the accident claim and have a contact to ring for first thing Monday morning,

All the comforts of home, if your a student!

Next day I had the chance to clean the bike and see the full extent of the damage sustained in the crash. The robbing B£%$"$% at the car wash charged $1 for 1 minute with the pressure wash, my first attempt at cleaning BOB cost me $20. The pics below show the mess that Calcium Chloride causes, and the stuff on the exhaust header pipes had to be chipped off!!

I find it hard to look at these photos without swearing

I also called in at the BMW dealer which is attached to the main Harley Davidson agents in Fairbanks, they had a look at the bike and we made a list of the parts needed to get BOB roadworthy, as it was a small dealership most of the stuff would have to be ordered from the main importer in California. After looking round the bike it appeared nothing had escaped the gravel but the important thing was to get a comprehensive list for the insurance assessor, so it went something like this:

Windscreen and windscreen mounting frame - headlamp assembly - both front indicators - mirrors - hand protectors - right and left panniers - front mudguard - tank bag - exhaust header pipes - rear mudguard and all the fixings for the aforementioned items. Including shipping and labour the total came to $5300......at this point I was hoping that my insurance policy was watertight!!!! Roll on Monday.

Sunday morning was Father's Day so we went to a local roadhouse for breakfast. We got talking to Mark and Ann, a couple of friendly locals who must have taken pity on us as they invited us round that evening for dinner. Mark works for the local water company delivering drinking water and Ann works as a teacher, their house is located a couple of miles out of Fairbanks in the woods, it was a superb spot (apart from the mosquitoes!) Mark is a boilermaker/welder by trade and had a workshop almost as big as the house itself. That night it was great to relax and forget momentarily about the troubles of the past few days and those to come.

Alaskan hospitality

Mark and Ann were both bikers, and evidence of their love for collecting bikes could be found in the yard.

Monday morning I was up at the crack of dawn (which was strange at there is no dawn), our insurance was organised through a company in Denver which was 2 hours ahead of Alaskan time so it meant phoning them from the university at 6am. To our relief within 10 minutes of talking with them they assured us we were fully covered and would they give priority to getting us back on the road ASAP, I did detect a small gasp when I mentioned the estimated bill but they were really good about it. They were originally going to arrange for an assessor to come and view the bike but in the end relied on photos of the damage and the advice of the BMW guys, all we had to do now was wait for the parts. NOT THAT SIMPLE!

While we were waiting for the parts to arrive we did some of the usual touristy things around Fairbanks, one day we visited the Museum of the North which has museumy things in it!

Architecturally aesthetically pleasing

I didn't realise it until now, but look at the expression on the bear and then look at Sue, and if you look quickly...bear-Sue-bear-Sue....uncanny!

For most of the next week Sue stopped in our dorm room and tried to relax whilst I spent most of my time at the Harley dealership checking if the parts had arrived and chatting with fellow travellers.

Errr wrong dealership.

The news of our spill up north had preceded us and most of the travellers I spoke to knew more about it than I did. Here in the motorcycling fraternity your notoriety is measured according to the scale of the accident or occurence, so currently we were at number 3 right behind the guy who sadly died at Gobblers Knob and Keith who had hit a caribou and drove 200 miles with a broken collar bone! Sue had been hailed as the hardcase who rode two up to Prudhoe Bay and survived the crash, I was just the dumb guy who took his wife to Deadhorse! hmmmm.

Note to self...must get more stickers.

Michael from San Francisco..he runs a motorcycle touring company and for the right money will take you round the world. His bike had more gadgets than Ewan and Charlie! Note to self...must get more gadgets.

One night, Mark and Ann took us to the Golden Eagle in Ester, this was a real saloon straight out of the mining days, the only thing missing were spitoons! Ester is quirky community populated by academics, retired hippies and various artisans.

Wipe your feet on the way out!

Check out the front door

Make mine a Bud..

We took a trip out to the hot springs at Chena for a bit of geothermal therapy, on the way there we had the usual run in with the wildlife. This little fellow was stuck in the road after mum had hopped over the armco barrier in front of us, he was all legs and had no chance of following. In the end mum returned and they went back the way they came.

Muuum!

Get over this barrier now!

Right.. just wait till I get you home!

The hot spring were hot, bloody hot! but just the thing to get rid of the aches and pains.

Isn't she pretty, what a guy!

On the way back I had to stop and photograph these old bangers parked at the side of the road.

No...when I said old bangers...I meant..errr, never mind!

We also went to the town of North Pole, Alaska which as everyone knows is the home of Santa Claus..really. totally tacky and cheesy, and you wouldn't get me posing in front of a bloody 40 foot Santa.

Doh!

This really was Santa's house, it said so on the sign

And here's the North Pole...Yuuk.

The Parts for the bike eventually arrived and to cut a long story short, I spent a day and a half getting BOB back into shape using the facilities at the Harley workshop, which shaved a bit of the bill.

BOB stripped down before the refit

Ready for the road.

So after almost a fortnight we were ready to hit the trail again, we really were ready to go but at least the people of Fairbanks had made our imposed sojourn bearable.

To Mark and Ann we will always remember your hospitality and kindness (oh and your mosquitoes!)

Before we left Sue had time to practice her cross stitch. Ouch!....shut up you big baby