July 25: To Do Lists; Possible Snags

I am feverishly working my way through a seemingly unending To Do list.   It is pleasant, however, seeing the list get shorter and short each day.  With 7 days to go, got the list down to about 75 items from well over 150 three weeks ago. 

I took the Defender in to get it serviced last week and told John (at EuroSport) to replace the radiator, fuel pump, water pump, and tires, even though I had no trouble with any of them, or at least I thought.  After he replaced them, he said they probably would not have lasted the trip.  Good move on my part.  (Better to replace them now rather than wait till they break down on the road and then have to wait days for parts to arrive, or have to get towed 150 miles as I did in Newfoundland in 2002.  It is not a nice thing breaking down thousands of miles form home with one’s dogs.)  Unfortunately, my thermostat was not replaced and the Defender overheated badly yesterday in 95 degree heat when I was in Middleburg with the dogs for Leben's weakly swim therapy.  Fortunately, I got home okay and took it in today and replaced the thermostat and everything seems to be OK.  Going on the trip knowing that I had an unsolvable over-heating problem with my vehicle would not make for a plesant trip or one worht doing. 

Another possible show stopper popped up last Friday when I discovered that Leben had a massive ear infection.  German shepherd dogs are prone to get them in the heat, and they can be dangerous. In fact, Kessie came down with one in similarly oppressive heat in July 1999 and she had to be put down five weeks later on July 29th after it ravaged her balance system.  At a minimum, I'll have to have vets along the way check the progress of the infection.  But while at the vets, I asked the vet to check Leben's rear legs as I noticed that he was walking strangely at times. She took an x-ray and the radiologist reported that everything was normal orthopedically, but he discovered a 2" mass either in the abdomen or on the prostate. (Leben was fixed last year because of problems from an enlarged prostate.)  I have to take him in to a specialist Thursday for a sonogram and biopsy.  This could stop the show ot scale it back depending upon the outcome, but I will remnain optimistic.

In 2001, when I took my first road trip to Alaska (with Sonntag), I made a list of the top 100 things that could go wrong to prevent them, be prepared for them or accept the risk.  Little went wrong for which I was unprepared. (The biggest item was a nightmarish one-hour lightening storm that I got caught in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and that hovered 100 feet above my head the whole time.)  Almost all of those items, and items from subsequent road trips in 2001 an 2002, have now been incorporated into my To Do and To Take lists, but I added a few new items this year.  One such item was a pair of bolt cutters.  Why?  Well,  several times during this trip I'll be at least 500 miles and four days form the nearest vet. Recalling that in 2003 at home here Leben stepped on the metal leash clip  (click here for photo) and it get caught  in the pads of his feet, and it took a team at vets to anesthetize him and cut it off with bolt cutters, it is a risk I do not want to take on this trip. I have also outlawed those clips on this trip to be safe. Another risk I will be prepared for this year is bad weather over Atigun Pass, the threshold to the North Slope. (Click here for description and click here for images.)   So, in a concession to being prepared, I am bringing along a set of chains.  If we had snow coming back down that pass in August 2000, mid-September weather could be worse. The same goes for Denali, which I hope to drive into 28 miles.

Back to my To Do list.

ED