Day 27 – July 2, 2001 – Monday began with more overhauling in the parking lot of the Super 8. While they worked, Nancy and Jennifer went to the office of the Alaska Marine Highway to try to get the trip to Skagway straightened out. It seems that the AMH had a ship being repaired and had pulled our scheduled ship to cover another run. That meant our reservations for the last leg to the ferry had been cancelled.Since Juneau is isolated from the rest of the state by water, ice, and mountains, we were at their mercy. Our schedule would be seriously impacted by the proposed three day delay and could cause us to have to change reservations for a week or more. Fortunately, we were able to get the five cars (and the people and dogs in them) out on the 5th as scheduled. Bill and Betty Smith of Portland, who had been driving their modern car along with us, decided they wanted to spend a little more time in Juneau and opted to stay until later in the week. Then they and their friends, Arnold and Dorothy Marschman, would travel to Skagway by ferry and return home to Portland by car. In the afternoon, part of the group went shopping while the others continued to work on cars. In the evening, everyone but Ken and Joyce went to the Hanger on the Wharf for a seafood dinner to celebrate our safe arrival. The seaplanes flew in and out of the Water Hanger under the restaurant as we ate. Ken and Joyce stayed at the motel awaiting word on the delayed arrival of their daughter, Cindy Hudgins, who finally arrived around 11:30 that evening.

702a – Ken had decided that he needed to pull his engine to fix an annoying, although not critical, problem. A local garage loaned him an engine puller and, with the help of Ross Lilliker and Steve Markowski, a friend of Nancy and Ben Hardeman, the engine was soon out of the T and onto the ground. Steve had arrived from Bryan, Texas, during the night and before he even had a chance to see anything besides the motel parking lot, was involved in a major rebuild on the engine. The Capps, meanshile, continued working on their car in hopes of getting everything fixed and back together before the 4th of July parade on Wednesday.

702b – Ken used to believe that no one else could work on his car except himself but, by his own admission, has changed his mind on this trip. Here, Ross, Ken and Steve discuss the magnitude of the problem.

702c – There were huge cruiseships, the sidze of hotels, in the water outside the window of this restaurant. The small seaplanes would taxi out from under the building, weave their was among the cruise ships and the numerous smaller boats and ships in the harbor, and take off. We were amazed that they were able to fly in the middle of such confusion. Later we learned that they fly strictly by sight – no tower, no radar, no one saying “ok, you can go now”. From left around the table: Nancy Hardeman, Sue Capps, Ginger Hardeman, Ross Lilliker, Jennifer Hardeman, Steve Markowski, Bill Capps, David Johnson. Ben Hardeman took the picture.