On my own. Wednesday 3 December 2008 Temp -17

About a week ago Chris had arranged to get a copy of his birth certificate sent up to a youth hostel in Fairbanks and the hostel called Billies is a great place to meet like minded travelers we both made some new friends and Chris last night had decided to have a night with some of the people from the hostel and i decided to do my own thing.
I took myself off to Radio Shack to look at a 2 way radio to use up in the arctic and on leaving met a lady called Lesa who is a scientist and does many field studies, she was interested in what i was doing and where i was going so invited me out for dinner we ended up in a bar later called the Marlin and i met many great people who are very individual,
Lesa had a great contact for me and called a friend to ask if i could visit the Alaskan field study station up in Toolik which is only 2 hours away from the Arctic sea, we emailed to the field station and they are happy to meet me, i have also from being in this bar made a contact for visiting Wiseman a very small village of people about 16 who live with Huskies and sleds in wooded cabins so i want to go their too.
I got back to Patricks the guy who is kindly putting us up, at about 2 am and had a lye in in the morning as i am waking up at 6am every morning and with the cold its wearing me out also its not getting light till 10 am.
I drove down to town to collect Chris from the backpacker lodge and then we could start our drive again north to DeadHorse, on arriving he wanted to have a chat to me and looked a little concerned, i asked him what was wrong and he told me he didn’t want to go into the Arctic and i told him that was ok he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to, i think the last few days have been very tough on Chris and the coolant problem and sub minus 40 temperatures had made him realize how dangerous things can get if something goes wrong. Chris took the rest of the things from the vehicle and we gave each other a hug, he told me he can find work in Fairbanks and would be ok.
He is doing the right thing and chris had been looking a bit ill the last couple of days he needs the rest.
I want to thank chris for the help and support that he has offered me over the last few weeks we have both learnt so much, Chris has been really effective at getting the expedition with local sponsorship and i am impressed by how he has gone about this.
The high point of his work has to be setting up the Smithers skateboard project with youth Kenny Thomas i look back at our time their and that was a job well done, so thank you Chris for all your hard work.
Chris burton has a blog too which is in my links column and he is hoping to continue promoting RamblingRat benefiting StreetKids on his own travels too.

Tim dennis