Mr. "Eveready", the Ensigns and 30 Buffalo at 200 Feet

After a good night's sleep at the Blue Bell Motel the guys headed back to the airport only to find that their ride, the red Laurentian was dead again. The battery apparently just no good. Asking a motel maid if anyone had jumper cables she pointed to a truck pulling in for gas and said, "ask him he should know". On the side of his truck it said "Eveready". Laughling Rich approached him and asked him if he was the battery man, "no, but what do you need". Explaining they needed a jump start Dan the "Eveready" man said he did not have any but would be right back. Before they could protest he was off to get a pair. Returning quickly and starting the car he replied, "I've lived here a lot of years and I never leave anyone stranded." Thanks Dan!!
Arriving at the airport, it was deserted. The guys prepared the plane and as they were getting ready to depart a Bellanca Citabria landed and taixied up beside them. Two young men got out and came over and introduced themselves and aked if the men were the ones flying to Alaska. Turns out they were on their way to Alaska after just having graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis and they were spending their 3 week leave flying up. Dan Gift and Craig Wright are college buddys and hope to be flying F-18 someday soon. The men departed Ft. Nelson and flew the tough leg to Watson Lake in 3.3 hours and landed with 5.2 gallons of fuel left. At Watson lake
the guys were met by Valorie who quickly and efficiently refueled the "Last Chance".
Valorie and Angus her husband own and operate Angus Air Charters from Watson Lake. Valorie is herself a longtime pilot and has her own "Super Cub" on floats, (lucky girl!) After discovering it was a $60 round trip cab fare into town the men decided to press on to Whitehorse for the night. Off they went into the wild blue as the two ensigns had landed and were refueling. 2.3 hours later the guys landed at Whitehorse just in time to see the fire bombers departing to work a fire north of the airport. The ensigns landed soon after and all the guys were met by Lloyd on the ramp. Lloyd is from Colorado and is flying up to Alaska to spead his mother's ashes. Lloyd is a Vietnam vet and served there in the Army the same time Rich was there. All the guys agreed to meet in town for supper so there should be plenty of stories for the blog tomorrow!
There is no internet service available so Terry part owner of North 60 Aviation Center allowed Rich to use his office computer to write this blog. Thanks Terry!