Posted on 11/24/2020 2:23:19 PM PST by lowbridge
A Fort St. John, B.C. man is earning praise for driving an American family in need from northern B.C. to the Alaskan border near Beaver Creek, Yukon.
The roughly 1,700-kilometre trip up the Alaska Highway in winter didn't deter him from volunteering to help out, said Gary Bath.
Bath said he noticed an online plea for help last week from an American woman driving to Alaska who was overwhelmed by the winter driving conditions and couldn't drive any farther.
"I didn't care how far it was, I just knew they needed help and they had a few short days to hit the border before they were going to get in trouble, so," Bath said, referring to the four-to-six day period Americans are given by Canada to drive from the lower 48 states to Alaska.
He said the stranded woman, Lynn Marchessault, is a former member of the U.S. military and was driving herself and her two children to Alaska to join her husband, a current member of the military.
Bath is a Canadian Ranger, and he said that was an added incentive for him to get involved.
Marchessault said she had never driven in snow before when she and her two children left Georgia to drive north.
She was driving a pickup and towing a large U-Haul trailer. As soon as she hit snowy roads she began having trouble with traction on hills.
Marchessault believed the tires on the truck were rated all-weather, but shortly after leaving Fort St. John a woman told her they were actually summer tires and helped Marchessault find a set of studded winter tires.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
Sometimes there is hope for humanity.
Might be a Hallmark movie in there somewhere :)
You can already see the Halo on this guy’s head :)
In the US they would have waited for their visa to run out and then arrest them; one Australian girl’s visa expired just when she was crossing into Canada. The US border guards arrested her, jailed for three weeks and family in AUS didn’t know where she was or anything. Finally the AUS embassy got involved, got her released and she made it home.
They probably were all weather tires in Georgia.
She came pretty close to qualifying for a Darwin award for her plans.
This is a man.
I think I’m a man.
This goes Way Beyond being a man! :)
A very, very good man.
Very, very, very good.
I’ve gone as far to offer an acquaintance a 90 mile ride once.
This is more than TEN TIMES that!!
And I Was younger. Now I’d offer 20 :)
This
“They probably were all weather tires in Georgia.”
Even in Florida we know the difference.
< one Australian girl’s visa expired just when she was crossing into Canada. The US border guards arrested her >
This the story you were talking about?
If so, decent looking beard on that Australian girl. “Baxter Reid, 26, was arrested on April 24 after Canadian border patrol agents denied him and his girlfriend entry to their country”
That's because Florida is stuffed full of Yankees these days.
Due to use of masks, can’t determine guilt.
I think masks on tires cost you traction too !!
Being Polish I just had to contribute.
So glad it all worked out.
The Mom is extremely lucky the people she met up with were sincere and only there to help that little family.
Next time, take a plane ride, ESPECIALLY in the snowy months of the year.
Three Cheers for this guy and his wife helping out.
He didn’t have to get involved. Fortunately, he knew what he was doing and prepared for it.
There is a Patron Saint for Travelers & Explorers, it is
Saint Christopher. My parents gave me a wallet card with a drawing of this saint on it when I joined the Navy.
I kept it for years, but lost it somewhere in Izmir, Turkey.
Nice story...BUT...
“Her husband would not be allowed to come to their aid because of COVID-19 restrictions.”
The US - Canadian border is CLOSED! How did she get into Canada in the firsts place? And how, exactly, did she plan to re-enter the US to join her husband?
Something just doesn’t add up.
She was driving a pickup and towing a large U-Haul trailer. As soon as she hit snowy roads she began having trouble with traction on hills.
—
With summer tires, that would be all over the road like a squirrel on crack.
The border is open to travel between the lower 48 and Alaska provided that the travelers are U.S. citizens and undertake to continue their journey with only necessary stops for supplies and overnight rest.
Some cases of abuse of these regulations have come to light, e.g., U.S. residents stating they are headed to Alaska but then they go to a ski resort for a week.
Not that I care because I believe most of this pandemic is a false alarm, but those are the actual regulations and situations ... I live near a border crossing in a small town and we do see the occasional U.S. license plate in town, people know that these are folks heading one way or the other to or from Alaska. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone here except for one restaurant which asked Alaska bound travelers not to stop in there (so we’re boycotting them as a result, they lost more than just their occasional U.S. visitor but probably figured they would get virtue signalling points from the local leftists).
As to the guy helping out, that is above and beyond, his reward awaits him in another life probably.
and they had a few short days to hit the border before they were going to get in trouble
***
“We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there...”
That’s a rough trip, even in summer. We did it in ‘71.
Definitely!
What a great guy!
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