We moved to Alaska. I was living at the BMEWS site, and Penny was in Fairbanks. First, she had an apartment that was totally unsatisfactory – the water had mud in it! So she moved to the Airport Apartments. I flew in once a week, either by commercial air or with a BMEWS employee who had a small plane. Penny was hating Alaska for a while, but then she volunteered to help out at the local elementary school, met people, was offered a teaching job, and startled to love Alaska, making friends with locals.
I had seen a Citroen DS19 in the showroom when we bought the Triumph TR3 in New Jersey. I wanted one, so I ordered it in Alaska. It was shipped up on a car carrier, strapped down. When they started the car to take it off, the hydraulic system tried to raise the car, but it was strapped down. So it blew a gasket somewhere. When driving, it would go up and down – looking stupid! The local mechanics told Penny they knew nothing about how to fix it. Finally, they arranged for an aircraft mechanic to come and it got fixed.
We did a great vacation the next summer, touring between Fairbanks and Anchorage.
There was a trailer village named Liaho (“Let It All Hang Out’- a party cry on the site) that was started by BMEWS employees near the site. A friend had a trailer for rent, so on a cold December day, we borrowed a Volkswagen bus, packed it up, and drove to the trailer village.
That day started out cold and kept getting colder as I move stuff into the bus. When we left Fairbanks late that evening, the bank thermometer showed something like -70 F. When we got to the trailer, the alcohol thermometer read -70,F – but it was frozen – the temperature was actually lower. For about ten days, the thermometer did not budge. Then it came up to about -35 F. We took off our parkas and romped in the sun!
While it was that cold, cars had much trouble. One man had a jeep in front of his trailer. He got in, backed up, could not turn the steering wheel, and could only go back to where he was parked. Another had to use a heater to warm his engine so he could start it. Then he tried to back out, but the car would not move. He thought the wheel bearings were tight from the cold. He decided to rev up the engine and then pop the clutch. He unrolled the tread off three tires – they were frozen to the ground more tightly than they were fastened to the rest of the tire!
I had a heater for the water coolant and a battery charger on all the time when not driving. I used ether spray into the carburetor to start the Citroen. One morning I was all set and tried to shift and the shift arm came off in my hand. It operated a hydraulic mechanism that had a steel moving part in a brass housing, that had shrunk tight. I had to shift with a screwdriver.
The first mile or so was weird – the tires had a flat spot where they had been on the ground all night. The ride started out thump thump as the flat spot hit. Then it was thumpity thumpity after some turns and the wheels were no longer in sync. Finally, after about a mile the tires became round and all was well.
The trailer village had an underground water pipe that was continuously circulating so it would not freeze. Each trailer tapped into it. The pipe was exposed from where it left the ground to the bottom of the trailer – maybe two feet. Most had an electric heat tape wrapped around it so it would not freeze, or they left water dripping in the bathtub to keep it from freezing. But almost every night, someone’s trailer would freeze. If the freeze reached to the circulating water system, it would stop the whole system. So it was party time – everyone would gather at the problem trailer with blowtorches, etc,. and set things right – then have a big party!