The De-Icer Conundrum
As you know, in preparation for my upcoming trip, I’ve been reading all about driving the Alcan in the winter and have learned tons. Among other things, most of the sites on this topic include some sort of a list of suggested/mandatory items. These items are commonly referred to as “Survival Gear”, but let’s not be dramatic.
I’ve been running around town trying to cobble together all the items I don’t already own, which is proving to be an interesting feat since Arizona is not a big purveyor of winter “survival gear”, as you can imagine.
One of the items on the list is lock De-Icer. Several of the sites suggested that it would be bad news indeed if I found myself unable to open my car due to frozen locks. They also suggested that this would, of course, occur when I was hundreds of miles from any sort of help or warmth and would surely freeze to death as a result. Given this dire possibility, I located and purchased a can of De-Icer and won’t leave home without it.
But here’s the conundrum which occurred to me a few days ago. If I am unfortunate enough to find myself locked outside of my car in the minus 40 degree weather hundreds of miles from nowhere, won’t the De-Icer be locked inside my car behind the frozen locks? Or, if it’s not in the car wouldn’t it then be locked inside the UHaul trailer …also behind a frozen lock?
Hmmmmmmm. It’s a mystery indeed, one which had me laughing out loud as I ran through the possibilities in my mind. What am I supposed to do…take the De-Icer with me when I leave the car? Or, strap it to the outside of the car, perhaps on the roof rack with the spare trailer tire? How ridiculous. Then I thought, why on earth would I get out of my car and lock it behind me if I’m hundreds of miles from nowhere in minus 40 degree weather. I mean, really.
If any of you have any thoughts on this or are able to see what I must be unable to see, please let me know. I’m all ears.
I’m off to have a block heater installed on The Black Hole.
Stay tuned.
Alaskamarge Travels 
LOL I guess you need a holster for it to strap on your body right next to the useless cell phone when you’re in the middle of nowhere. This should be some adventure.
If you are out in the middle of no where at -40 what would you be doing out of your black hole in the first place, only dog mushers, an occasional crazy skier, or bicyclist or a geocacher would even be thinking about being “outside” in that weather and they most likely are not going to be interested in what ever you have.
The only real think I can think of being out of the black hole in that weather, would be to have to take a potty break and if it is in the middle of no where you are most likely not going to be running into the woods, (the side of the car away of the traffic works best, use a tire as a hand hold so you don’t slip on the ice!).
The other possibility would be checking out the old science experiment on how long does it take a cup of joe to freeze when you throw it up in the air. I would leave the black hole unlocked!
Have a safe trip and you won’t need the gravel guard in the front this time of the year the roads are ice/snow covered and when we drove thru Canada they didn’t allow studded tires so a set of chains was all I took but like the deicer if you’re stuck you’re most likely going to need a tow truck to get the trailer, the deicer, and black hole out of the ditch!
Drive safe! 🙂
I’m cracking up! Am so glad you guys see the humor in it too. I love the holster visual as well as the tow truck pulling, The Black Hole, the trailer, AND the De-Icer out of the ditch.
Too funny! As always, thanks for the comments. I always appreciate them.
See you soon Leroy!
That’s funny! I like Leroy’s answer also. But you did remind me to go to Walmart and buy the deicer windshield washer fluid. That one actually works better than regular non freezing windshield washer fluid. By the way, tonight is supposed to be the first night with temperature below zero in Anchorage this season.
By the way since The Black Hole is a sister car to Sally Sorento (our SUV) you should have no problems handling the snow, unless it is REAL terrible.
You need a REALLY big purse….put all of your survival gear in it. I thought you were already underway when I read recent weather reports from Alaska. Happy you are just getting prepared and not in the blizzard. Happy adventures!
Dave’s suggestions: When you get out of the car, squirt some of the de-icer into the lock, to prevent it from freezing, then toss it back into the car. The de-icer will get rid of any moisture that might be in the lock, which would cause the freezing. His other thought is that you would merely need to heat up the key if the lock were to freeze — therefore, during your potty break, while you’re holding onto the tire with one hand, use the other hand to hold onto the key while peeing on it. You’ll be good to go!
Just passing the suggestions on! Please let us know if you need any further advice or suggestions. Dave’s full of ’em!
Take care and have a safe trip!!
Oh Sue…you make me laugh!!!! Please thank Dave for the helpful tips. Can’t wait to see you guys and for you know what!