Our AlCan adventure starts in one week!

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
08/22/2019 at 11:43 • Filed to: TQ3, AlCan

The first go around in 2015

One week. That is not enough time! ... Or too much?

(To catch up, in one week my friends and I are going to fly to Seattle, buy cheap cars pick up the cheap cars we already bought, and then drive to Anchorage. The cars are secret from each other and the world until 8/30. This is the third time we’ve done something similar, the first time being from San Diego to Seattle. )

Actually the whole project seems really surreal and abstract. Normally at this point, the slack would be buzzing with activity as we traded car tips, talked about our favorites, and debated when was “too soon” to call sellers.

Instead... well we’re actually pretty quiet at the moment. Taylor is prepping to take the “Mystery Machine” (oh dear god I hope it is a van) on its inaugural voyage. On Saturday he leaves from Austin and begins his trek to Seattle, unable to secure shipping for anything resembling a reasonable sum.

Taylor’s Route

If there are any oppos along the route who want to tow him for a couple miles give him some encouragement, I’m sure he is all ears. Certainly is going to be a hell of a warm up for the Mystery Machine.

The other two cars are, presumably, still en route. I have neither requested nor received updates from the shipper or the terminal. If I haven’t heard anything by this afternoon, I’ll go ahead and begin the pestering. They were due in on Wednesday, but with a late start and a badly damaged truck, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t Monday.

So yeah, months and months and months of planning, phonecalls, and buckets of cash and the trip feels like it is happening to someone else. Like it is this abstract thing that you’d want to do in theory but no one would be so insane as to do IRL. Nevermind all the bookings have been made, or that we’ve already bought cars... The concept of spending the next three weeks driving around Canada in cars we bought for less than the price of two new iPhones (not a joke, apparently) seems absurd and like it is about to happen to someone else.

Don’t get me wrong, I am excited. Or, rather, I am excited in concept but have enough going on in real life that I don’t really have the time or energy to be excited IRL. I am looking forward to it, at least.

In related news, I called BC ferries and confirmed we got a cabin for the Prince Rupert to Port Hardy ferry. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever posted the complete route...

The Complete Route

For those that are curious, here is what we’re planning on doing:

Hurricane Ridge from the 2015 trip

We’re going to start in Tacoma, take the Narrows Bridge over to Port Angeles where we hope to have time to go up to Hurricane Ridge, where we “completed” the last trip. From there, we’ll catch the ferry to Victoria. After Victoria we do 300+ mile drive to Port Hardy, where we have an absurdly early day, needing to be at the ferry terminal at 5:30AM to catch the boat to Prince Rupert. That said, from what we’ve read it’ll be worth it, with the Inside Passage cruise promising to be one of the more beautiful things we’ll be seeing.

After finally landing in Prince Rupert at 11PM or later, we’ll call it a night. The next morning we plan on driving to Stewart. A long haul, but also looks like it’ll have some awesome views.

From Stewart, we overnight in a number of smaller towns until we finally hit Whitehorse, where we plan on spending a day to rest, recover, and restock. From there, we overnight in Beaver Creek, Paxson, Trapper Creek, and finally “finish” in Seward before moving on to Anchorage to sell the cars.

It is going to be a lot, but if we’ve learned one thing from doing a bunch of these: We’re really good at planning trips. I’m sure there will be some hiccups, there always are, but... again, we’re really good at this.

EXCITE!

DISCUSSION (6)

AestheticsInMotion > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/22/2019 at 11:54

Be sure to grab lots of pictures and write things down as the adventure unfolds!

shop-teacher > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/22/2019 at 12:53

Man, that is going to be an epic adventure! I wish I had the free time (and cash, but mostly time) to pull off something like that!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/22/2019 at 13:42

Do you guys do any live updating, like on instagram or whatever? Not sure if internet will be a thing up there but I would enjoy following along if so. Always enjoy reading about your adventures with your friends. Its at least as exciting as any of the “professional-ish” youtube channels I enjoy following about stuff like this.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/22/2019 at 14:57

I’m going to try and do Oppo updates, though I don’t imagine I’ll have time or internet to deal with comments. If Kinja is being Kinja, I’ll post Taylor’s road trip blog.

SiennaMan > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/22/2019 at 19:42

This looks like amazing fun. Safe travels, and if you can update all of us who can't do such a thing will be grateful.

MM54 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/22/2019 at 19:57

I’m excited for you, sounds like it’ll be a great time! Looking forward to the updates.