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From Whitehorse it is a long way over some beautiful mountains to Fairbanks, Alaska.   
I spent most of my time keeping oriented to the Alcan Highway.  I wanted to be able to  
hike to civilization in the event of a forced landing.  It was lonely.  For hours we were 
out of radio contact with anyone.  We used low frequency stations for navigation.  Jim and 
I opened two U-Haul dealers in Fairbanks.  I remember that it was wet and cold there  
despite being the middle of July.
From Fairbanks we flew to Anchorage where we worked a couple of days.  Then on to  
Juneau, Alaska in the evening and night of the 18th of July.  We did not get into the city 
until 11 pm.  But it was light all the way.  We arrived before dark.  During the summer the 
sun is up about 20 hours in that area.
 
On Sunday July 19, 1981, your birthday, my diary reads,
“Up and did exercises.  We are in Juneau and we looked at the Mendenhall Glacier.  Scoped 
out 3 places, one of which we can open as a dealer for sure.  Then flew to Ketchikan, Alaska 
and took a ferry from the airport to town and taxis around town.  Again have 3 prospects 
and one for sure.  Back to airport and flew to Portland, Oregon.  Took four hours and  
arrived at night.  Bounced the plane on landing.  To the U-Haul quarters for the night.”
 
We covered some territory on the day of your birth for certain.  It was very late and 
dark when we landed.  The sun behaves differently in Portland as you know.  Jim Martin had 
left his car at the airport and he drove us to the U-Haul “quarters”.  These were in the 
basement of a house owned by the company.  The upper part was rented to the man who managed 
the adjacent U-Haul Center.  It was not unusual for us to work 16 hours in a day.  When you 
are “on the road” there is nothing else to do but eat and sleep.
There are two ways to loose.    
You can paint a manure spreader up like a circus wagon,    

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