Category Archives: Ice Road Truckers

Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet

Have you guys been watching Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet on Animal Planet?  Jack and I love it!  Dr. Dee is the most adorable, funny, amazing woman.  And we know this for a fact since we took our two dogs and two cats to her over the years.  Every interaction with Dr. Dee is a positive one, since even when you’re putting your pet down she is as insightful and endearing as is possible at that moment.  The same goes for her staff – they are all very caring and terrific people.

Dr Dee Thornell, via aknoahsark.comDr. Dee: Alaska Vet shows the surgeries she does on a variety of animals, and she flies her bush plane out to various towns and villages.  The animals featured are dogs and cats of course, but also birds, horses, goats, and once, a bull.

A few years ago when a production company was filming a teaser about her to try to sell to a cable company, Jack made a cameo with our dog Sport.  Here are photos, click on the first one and scroll to the right.

And by the way, production people like the ones shown below are highly professional and friendly people.  That is the experience Jack had with all of the guys and gals who came up here to shoot Ice Road Truckers, and we want to make sure that everyone understands how great they are at their jobs.

You’ll love Dr. Dee!  You can watch video clips on the Animal Planet website, and also full episodes.

Save

Save

Save

Hauling Pipe Rack Units to Prudhoe

A few years ago Jack and some other truckers took these pipe rack units from Fairbanks to Alpine, an area of Prudhoe Bay owned by Conoco-Phillips.  You’ll see the units being loaded, then Jack driving behind other units. You can see the pipes in the middle of the structure as well as the valve controls on the top.  These units are lined up next to each other and connected as part of the process of extracting oil and getting it into the pipeline to go south.  In one of the ice road photos you can see a pipeline on the right.

They drive through tundra, over mountains, and finally on the ice roads of Prudhoe Bay.  The last couple of photos, the ones where the road doesn’t look particularly icy, they are passing over a river.  If you are also rather astute (and here I am giving you a clue) you can also see Jack’s reflection in the mirror, as well as a reflection of the small fan that he had mounted on the dash that could turn toward the windshield to defrost it or toward him on hot days.

(The best way to view the photos is to click on the first one and then click on the right arrow.)

Comments, links, & a question about Season 5

Jack really appreciates all the great comments from you guys!  Someone mentioned that we should post a link to Jack’s Facebook page, so click here to visit his personal page.

There is a fan page out there too run by a fan of Jack’s – click here for that.   (This fan page may be shut down eventually since the page’s goal was to bring Jack Jessee back to Ice Road Truckers for Season 6 and that definitely happened.)

Someone else asked why Jack wasn’t on Season 5.  And the answer is that Jack was burnt out with being filmed every second while he was driving, and the producing company just couldn’t pay him enough to continue at that time.  Turns out, a year later enough time had gone by and Jack was open to doing the show again.  Life sometimes takes a turn that you don’t expect, and being on national TV was definitely one of them for Jack!

So, now you have a little background info.  Have a great week!

Not Canada-Bound At This Time

Hello Everyone – It looks like Jack is not going to be on the next season of Ice Road Truckers.  Who knows what the future holds, but for now it doesn’t look like he is involved in filming in Canada for next season  .  We’ll keep posting though, so stay tuned!

Jack Jessee

Here is Jack a few weeks ago packing down snow so I can get out of our driveway the next morning.  It was really coming down!

(Just so you know, one of the pleasures of living in Alaska is seeing the landscape after a heavy snow…beautiful!)  Snow on the Trees in the Sunset

 

Congrats to Jack for winning the load count!

Well the season is over and Jack won the load count!

Jack says it was a hectic season.  We are now on a month long road trip, heading down to the states.  I plan on posting about our adventures when we get a chance.  For now, I want to brag about the AWESOME custom bed cover Jack made to keep our belongings safe while we are traveling.  It had to be custom because of his fuel tank (he hauls heating oil for our house) and toolbox that is already in the back. Here are a couple of photos of him building it and getting ready for our trip:

The end result:

It looks great and even makes the truck more aerodynamic!

We are all having a great time.

More to come!

________________________________

A Little Behind the Scenes

Right now Jack is back on the Dalton hauling “hot oil”, an oil that is needed at the asphalt plant in Deadhorse for repaving the airport runway.  We’ll try to get some photos of that soon, but here are a few from seasons past:

This is Jack in his truck back in March of 2010 when he was filming for Season 4:

And here he is driving his pick-up truck in April of 2009 when the snow was melting, filming for Season 3 (though I don’t think they ever used the footage):

Hope you’re all enjoying the show!

______________________________________

Mini-Me

If this isn’t the funniest and cutest thing on earth we don’t know what is!

This is a little Jack Jessee look-alike that that got posted on Facebook, by Jamie Stollings.  What’s so funny is that this little Jack Jessee appears to have recently been let out of his cage.  We warned Jamie Stollings to make sure he was put back in his cage at night…  so funny.  Jack and I laughed for at least an hour about this.  Thanks to the Stollings.  We really loved this.