The 1961 Red Comet II

The family car way back when, forty-nine years ago. Four doors, and away we go. This is back in the day when no one used infant seats or child restraints. Jim reminded me of some facts about this red beauty (?) I had forgotten. It was actually our second red '61 Comet. The first two, one for Jerry his twin brother and one for Jim, were to be used as work vehicles. We all waited impatiently for the cars to come up to Alaska by barge. Unfortunately, a storm in the Gulf of Alaska demonstrated its power and the barge flipped over and both red Comets went into the drink. We waited another six months for the new ones. Not such a wait considering we were still on a waiting list for phone service and we got on the list when Jim was discharged from the navy in 1960.

Jim also reminded me the "formable" tires were made of nylon, not rayon. They were still flat as a pancake in the cold winters.

Back to Eagle River and the flashing red oil light. At that moment my brain started working overtime. "We are only 13 miles from Anchorage. We could turn around, get the car fixed and head out again." No place to live, no job. I still thought it. Jim said, "we're going to make it." He is a man of vision, and seeing the vision fulfilled! Four quarts of oil and we were on our way. I noticed people on the road were looking at us. What do they see? I turned around to look behind us. Ooooohhh! It's the blue smoke coming out of the exhaust! We're still on our way.

We had the best kids. They loved the cozy in their very own play room in the back seat. They entertained each other, napped, sang to Jesus (hymns in those days), did some running around exercise when we made frequent stops and asked "are we there yet?" Our kids, all of them are a blessing!! One of their favorite stops was in B.C. where they got to explore an old miners cabin not too far from the road. It was about this time that the "washboard" road began to get to my stomach. The answer is swollow hard.

On the road again. About 600 miles out of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, in Watson Lake. Funny sound, the car is making a very loud noise. Jim has one word, "muffler." Part of the noise of driving the Alcan is going over rocks. They are constantly hitting under the car, plus winter driving for two years on ice melt containing salt had rusted out the exhaust pipe. Now the kids really believed Dad had a very hot car. No gas stations, repair shops, Sears. But lots of wilderness. We keep pressing forward.

Fifty miles out of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory I woke up to another very loud sound. This time it was the engine and Jim is pulling over to the side of the road. It's still wilderness. It's a warm Canadian Sunday morning. Haven't seen other humans for a long, long time. As much as we knew about prayer, we prayed and had the kids praying. Jim decided he had to hitch hike and walk into Whitehorse. Jim's guess was the engine blew a rod, seized the engine, blew the oil pump. Oil pouring out, he saw a crack in the engine. Our money is quickly depleting. My only thought as we got out of the car for exercise and took a look at Canada was, all this beauty is from God.

Amazing the memories that keep flooding through in writing this. To keep it short, I'll continue on part III soon.

Even in tough times, His beauty and goodness remains all around us.