Ready to go

Today I moved all my stuff that I am not taking with me to the storage room. Truck is loaded and there are only few more things I will take with me in the morning before I head out. My first stop is Chicago, IL and fabulous home of Vesna, Nik and Max.

Moving from FJMojo to Arcticathon

Some of you have been keeping eye on me at fjmojo blogspot, but in order to better represent this trip I moved completely into new google account especially created for this trip(s). I am in the process of moving stuff over including calendar, documents, blogs, photos and emails. So please be patient.

Still yours,

FJ Mojo

Farewell Drinks

Today I will be saying goodbye to my soon to be ex-co-workers. At 16:59 we are heading to the local bar Snaffu for couple of rounds of drinks and maybe we'll get to shoot some pool. With only four days left before I hit the road, it's hard to accommodate all friends in one outing. Tonight is the co-worker night. I have to tell you having drinks couple of nights in a row can be exhausting. I am not conditioned for it :)

And on the sixth day...

Not every day of preparations is spent on preparing car, maps, travel routes, packing and all that good stuff. Some days it all about worms. Yep, worms! I am sure that we all have fond memories of digging for worms. Katarina actually has pet worms, which had babies, and the result is well, as you can see in the pictures attached...
With so much mess, dirt and mush how can the day go wrong. Kids will be kids. Remember, we used to be too! Kid == freedom, to be silly, and we used to get away with it, too. Aidan proudly watches his sister, show off her prize-winning worms.

Mojo, FJ Mojo is (down to) 007

Ladies and Gents,

The official countdown has started. There are only seven days left before the trip. Today was another productive day. With dedicated help of my brother Milan, I installed locking mechanism, axe/shovel carrier and spare tire carrier for Yakima Mega-Warrior basket. We mounted 2nd spare tire and I tied down 3x5 gallon Scepter Gas Cans as well as medium size shovel. Only things left to install are Hi-Lift jack carrier (next week when the jack arrives), Thule Escape II cargo box (sorry Yakima, but your local selection of cargo bags was non-existent) when I start packing and Cobra CB radio with antenna.

Later on in the afternoon I test drove the load to the local hardware store to grab some locks and lockable chains. Once I had everything securely locked down I took the FJ Cruiser for a spin on the highway to make sure I don't have any flying objects in my tracks. At 70 mph car felt comfortable and noise level none different.

And I finally got to publish online version of what I came to call Arcticathon Inventory 2007, partial list of items I will take with me on this trip.

CB Radio is coming

Finally!! I have a CB radio on the way. WalcottCB has really nice combo (BIGBILLCOMBO) with installation instructions. They were out of Bandi mount for some time, and today finally they got it back into stock. The order should arrive around April 23rd, so I am hoping to have some pictures posted next week about the installation and end result. I am so excited!!! Woo hoo!

Preparations Continue

It's all about preparation (not -H, unless you need it). FJ Cruiser comes pretty much ready for expeditions and driving off-road, if you are not going far, for those short weekend runs. If you are planning anything little more extensive, well you have to modify and prepare the truck.

I probably ran through 15-20 different scenarios on how far should I take modifications of the stock FJ Cruiser and I decided that since this mission will be more of exploratory than climbing rocks, I don't need heavy duty mods just yet. So, I settled for brand new tires Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo P265/70R17, set of 4 (see image above). In order to have 2 full spare tires, I bought steel 17" wheel from Toyota and I mounted one of the original tires on it, other 3 I stored.

Now, anyone driving FJ Cruiser has to complain about how small the tank is, since on average I can get about 220-280 miles per tank without draining it. That is all fine and dandy as I said for short trips when your next gas station is 40 miles away. How do you prepare for distances where your next gas station is 240 miles? In order to make sure I can cover 480 miles (round trip between Coldfoot, AK and Deadhorse, AK aka Prudhoe Bay, AK) I needed to get my hands on couple of Scepter MFC CARB-compliant Jerry style gas cans. And how do I carry all this? Well, since my truck came with roof rack (the first FJ Cruisers were loaded with option packages) I tried to stick with it, and I bought Yakima Mega-Warrior. I found out that I can fit tire and 3 gas cans comfortably (see image to the left and little above).


With some help (thanks Milan and Aidan) I was able to mount Yakima Mega-Warrior onto the front part of the factory roof rack. I had to move crossbars a little back to fit it, but I think it worked out okay in the end. It does look little bulky, hey factory roof is already taller than on most vehicles but when I tried it out on highway, there was practically no noise increase at 70 mph. Here you can see the end result, with Aidan in the shot.

Over all it was a fine Saturday afternoon to do some upgrades on the truck. There are only 10 more days before I leave for the expedition across Northwestern parts of United States and Canada and couple of more modification have to happen. I am expecting locking mechanism for the Mega-Warrior, spare tire carrier, Hi-Lift Jack carrier, shovel carrier as well as new set of snow chains. I am leaving you for now with few more shots of the last weekend preparations.