Saturday, April 24, 2004
Lifestyle Research trips create an RV addict Julianne Crane
- The Spokesman-Review
Alaska mystery writer Sue Henry knows the Inland Northwest.
Not only does she have family in Richland (brother, John Hall, and his wife, Sue), she's traversed the region in her Winnebago Minnie Winnie while researching “Dead North” (2001), the seventh in her Jessie Arnold Alaska Mystery series.
Henry's first Jessie Arnold book, “Murder on the Iditarod Trail” (1991), won the Anthony and Macavity Awards for Best First Novel. Since then, the critically acclaimed series has extended to 10 books.
In “Dead North,” Jessie, a musher and sled dog trainer, agrees to pick up a friend's new motor home in Coeur d'Alene and drive it back to Alaska.
“I drove the Alaska Highway four times while writing ‘Dead North,' ” recalled Henry during a telephone conversation from her home in Anchorage. “I even stopped once in Spokane to do a talk and signing for Auntie's Bookstore.”
When Henry decided to feature the Alaska Highway, she purchased a used 26-foot class C motor home. “People kept saying, ‘You can't do that by yourself,' ” said Henry, “and I kept saying, ‘Why not?' ”
A similar independent, can-do spirit is evident in Maxie McNabb, a gutsy, 60-something, widowed RVer introduced in “Dead North.”
Maxie and her dachshund Stretch befriend Jessie and her lead husky Tank in the Dutch Creek Campground in southern Alberta. The two travelers repeatedly cross paths as they move north through awe-inspiring scenery and a mystery that surrounds a young hitchhiker, his dead mother and violent stepfather.
Maxie, according to Henry, is a combination of a no-nonsense Tyne Daly and a sensual, earth-mother Colleen Dewhurst.
Because of Maxie's popularity in “Dead North,” she now has her own series. Both Maxie and Stretch return in the newly released “The Serpents Trail.”
Henry's vivid descriptions of the scenery and her attention to detail reflect her background in college administration and interest in research.
“I don't like to write about things I haven't seen or experienced,” said Henry. “Once in a while I have to, but if so I talk with someone in depth and ask a lot of questions.
“When I wrote ‘Murder on the Yukon Quest,' I flew to Fairbanks and at 2 o'clock in the morning and in minus-40 degree weather, I watched the mushers come in off the Yukon on their sleds,” she said. “It was wonderful. I love doing that kind of thing.”
With her new “Maxie and Stretch Mystery” series, Henry hopes to explore more of the lower 48. But first she'll need to replace her old RV because she sold her Minnie Winnie a couple years back to a Kenai Peninsula fisherman.
“I loved my little motor home,” said Henry. “She was a dependable beast, but after four trips on the Alaska Highway, it was time to give her a good local home.”
Henry said she is only temporarily motor-homeless. “It took just one RV to addict me totally,” she said. “I love being able to carry my house along with me.”
Henry's books are available through the public library, online book dealers and local bookstores including Auntie's Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave., (888) 802-6657, www.auntiesbooks.com.
Awhile back Philip J. Mulligan of Spokane wrote in about a trip he and his wife took in 1974 on the old Alcan Highway.
“It really began from Travis Air Force Base (between San Francisco and Sacramento) and was not completed until we reached Eielson Air Force Base, about 25 miles southeast of Fairbanks (for a total distance of about 3,000 miles).
“The whole trip took us about a week in our 1954 Cadillac because 1,100 miles of the Alcan was still gravel or mud which began about 70 miles north of Dawson Creek, British Columbia. I wanted to pace us, gently, in an old car for which parts might be hard to obtain (over such an isolated journey) if we had broken down.
“Averaging about 20 mph on the gravel turned out to be wise, because we later encountered abandoned vehicles which had passed us earlier at double our speed.
“I was glad I'd wired cardboard padding under our gas tank, too, given advice on the possibility that our wheels might throw rocks which could puncture our gas tank. While still in Dawson Creek, we brought clear plastic covers for our headlights and wired a fine mesh framed screen over the front of the car to protect it from flying gravel, which oncoming vehicles threw at us.
“By Fort St. John, B.C., we went through mud up to our hubcaps. In Fort Nelson, B.C., we had to sleep in the car because all local motel rooms were booked up for a rodeo. It was on our backs through our car windows that we saw our first display of Northern Lights. The view of the St. Elias Mountains was breathtaking, too.
“We were near Snag, Yukon, on Aug. 23 (my wife's birthday) and awoke to about five inches of snow cover. Fifty miles later we crossed into Alaska and saw our first paved highway since passing along a 30-mile paved stretch which went through Whitehorse, Yukon.
“Though the hardest part was behind us as we rolled along the smooth Alaskan pavement, we encountered one more surprise. Bang! We unexpectedly hit a frost heave in the pavement -- a 5-inch crack where the freeze/thaw cycle had separated parts of the highway.
“The rest of the trip was almost uneventful as we continued to the Alaska Highway terminus marker in downtown Fairbanks. I said, almost uneventful, since an Alaska State trooper pulled us over because my wife resembled a suspect the police had been looking for. I was glad we cleared that up.”