Day 26 – July 1, 2001 – After a long and truly miserable night, we finally arrived in Juneau. Because the Alaska Marine Highway had bumped our sailing up by nearly five hours, we arrived in Juneau at 5:30 am. As you might expect, the Super 8 didn’t have our rooms ready. We drove into town, thinking we might find a place to have breakfast (and also because we missed the motel on the way past) and were making a turn around when the Johnson/Capps car made a sudden loud snap. The rear axle, which had been off the car twice before already, had snapped. Ross Lilliker towed the injured car back to the Super 8 where we took up residence in their parking lot and lobby while the men pulled the rear end out of that car. Some of the women did laundry while others simply waited in the lobby as a silent (or not so silent) encouragement to the motel staff to find us a place to sleep. Finally, around 2:00 pm, the last of the group received room keys and those who weren’t under a car went to bed.

701b – Driving off the ferry at Juneau. After a long, uncomfortable night sleeping in chairs, deck chairs, and on the floor, we drove off to what we expected to be a day of sightseeing (and sleeping) in Juneau. The front car belongs to David Johnson and gave no indication here that it was getting ready to breakdown. Actually, with a four-day layover in Juneau, this was actually the best possible place for the axle to snap. Repairs could be made without requiring a change in the schedule or for them to catch up.

701a – Joyce and Ken were the last one of the Model T’s to leave the ship. If you think you are looking through the ship, you are right. There were massive doors on either side of the ship, depending on the pier. Huge trucks had to back down that sloping gangplank and make the turn into the ship, all the while seeing the ocean on the other side. Our T’s were packed in among 18-wheelers loaded with lumber and gigantic motor homes and still managed to attract the attention of most of our fellow passengers on the ship. Most people were excited for us for making it this far but there was one fellow who insisted we were all nuts for even thinking we could drive the T’s north. We were drawing straws as to who would get to push him overboard when the ship arrived in Juneau. Then he turned up at our motel!