Fairbanks Tourist II

Day 17

 24 years ago we took the Riverboat Discovery tour and repeated that tourist attraction today. It really is quite interesting and enjoyable: a paddle wheel cruise down the Chena River including a stop at the Old Chena Indian Village. We enjoyed a demonstration of the take off and landing by a bush pilot as well as a stop at the home of the former Iditarod 3 time champion, Susan Butcher. Her husband and daughters continue to train dogs in honor of Susan who died of leukemia a few years ago. The Chena Indian Village held artifacts of the native life and traditions as told by young descendants of the Athabaskan Tribes. There was also a pen of reindeer-learned today that reindeer are domesticated caribou. We are hoping to see caribou in the wild but enjoyed a close up view of reindeer!

Tomorrow we leave the city (yeah!) and head for Denali National Park. This is a much anticipated return visit for Bob and I. Five days of hoping for a clear view of Denali, spotting many animals, and enjoying a wonderful national park.

Sorry, can't figure out how to remove the duplicate picture! Blogging glitch!

Arctic Circle-done!

Well folks, a ten hour day brings us our "claim to fame"...the Arctic Circle! It really wasn't a scenic drive, nor did we see any wildlife, but the pipeline and the haul road were unique.

The "Haul Road" or Dalton Highway was built during the construction of the pipeline. The pipeline runs parallel with the road, above and below the ground. It travels from Valdez (yes, we are going there) all the way to Prudhoe Bay (Bob says- NO, we are NOT going  there!).

The pictures show you the highway we traveled, the bridge over the Yukon River and the accomplishment. Everything you read warns you to be  prepared for this highway. It was not nearly as bad as claimed. Paved sections, broken pavement sections and hard packed gravel sections. Only problem was it rained on the way back, making those gravel sections a real mess! Had to run the truck through a quick car wash, once again!

Bob is out like a light at 6:30pm-a trying day for my personal driver!

A Fairbanks Tourist

Today we were typical Fairbanks tourists! Having been here before, we skipped the museums and headed out to Gold Dredge #8. It was actually a fun time complete with a ride on a narrow gauge railroad, history of gold mining in Alaska, tour of the historic dredge and panning for gold. It was topped off with viewing the pipeline. A great high school history teacher led our tour while some of his former students worked the various stations.

We topped off our day with an authentic Alaskan Salmon Bake. Since this gal doesn't do fish, I was thankful for the prime rib, big salad bar and dessert.

Tomorrow we are off at 6:30 AM to drive the Haul Road  aka Ice Road Truckers Highway (Dalton Highway) to the Arctic Circle and back. It will be a 12 hour day for us-ugh! Really hoping to not have rain so that we can enjoy the views and have an easier drive.

I did laundry today-gotta take time for the mundane!

One of the pictures below shows our campground at 10:30pm last night. Sunset is 11:45; sunrise at 4:30.

For my teacher friends, I talked to a waitress who is an elementary school substitute. I just had to asked her about recess in the dark! The playgrounds are lit and the cut-off for not going out is -20! She said when she subs in Kinder and 1st she spends most of recess helping with zippers, mittens, boots!

Gas @$3.47

Fairbanks

Today was an easy breezy drive to Fairbanks. We aren't in the wilds anymore. We have actually completed the 1492 miles of the Alaska Highway-certificate to prove it! We are 3500 miles into our trip with lots more to go.

Dinner out tonight along the Chena River where we will plan our adventures for here in Fairbanks.

Pictures show us at the end of the Alaska Highway, Bob fighting off the infamous Alaskan Mosquitos  and the pipeline bridge.

A Long, Rough Road!

This section of the Alaska Highway lived up to its reputation! Frost heaves, gravel sections, lots of construction. Truck and camper are filthy! But we arrived safely in Tok, Alaska. From here we will begin our major loop around the state.

Saw trumpeter swans several times today but no pictures.

Off to the Fairbanks area tomorrow.

I believe the photos will show you how bad the road was plus the grand scenery along the way.

Forgot to mention-I have fixed the problem with friends not being able to make comments. Go for it!

Staying at Tundra RV Park in Tok.
Gas $3.56 gallon

Sunshine, Fishing and a Bear!

7/26: Day 12

Last night we spotted a grizzly eating grass near the river and Bob caught a Dolly Varden (catch & release). It was a successful end to our stay in Haines, Ak.

Today we traveled to Destruction Bay on the shores of Kluane Lake, back in the Yukon Territory. Destruction Bay is so named because of a storm that destroyed buildings and much of the equipment stored there during the building of the Alaska Highway. Cottonwood CG is a beautiful spot right on the shores of Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon Territory. The wind is howling outside our windows, whitecaps are on the lake and the camper is rocking, but we have a spectacular view!

I have to backtrack for a bit of info I forgot to share earlier. Joyce's father worked on the building of the Alaskan Highway! She is actually honoring him and retracing places he would have been, during his time on the project.  ( Joyce is one of our traveling buddies) We took a side trip when we left Dawson Creek, to drive across the Kiskatinan Bridge-over an original portion of the AH. It is a curved wooden structure, pictured below.

Tomorrow we will drive the most challenging portions of the Alaska Highway, between here and Tok, Alaska. The road is infamous for frost heaves, construction, reconstruction and chip sealing. It will be a long, rough 200 or so miles!

A Sunny Day!

Hallelujah! We had a sunny day! After 5 days of rain, it was so great to see the sun again (sorry, California friends & family).

We visited the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Chilikat State Park and viewed the surrounding glaciers. Scenery continues to be great.

I love talking to folks who manage the campgrounds or in the shops. It's fun to find out if they are here year-round. Most are not. Here at Hitch-Up RV, the hosts are from Tennessee. The arrived here mid April and will depart mid September.

Tonight we go back to the river to watch for bears and for Bob to fish. John and Joyce stayed a little later than we did last night and were rewarded with a mama bear and her cub making an appearance. I am in hopes that they will be hungry again tonight!

Drama and Laughs

July 22- 24: 2800 miles of the Ultimate Road Trip...and we have only begun the adventure!

Day 9: We started the day with great sight-seeing plans for Whitehorse, but "stuff" got in the way. After Bob solved some plumbing issues and I did a little laundry, we headed out to find Walmart. We never found Walmart but something called Super-similar to a WinCo in California. You have to pay a loony (Canadian dollar) to use a grocery cart. A kind local showed us how to unlock a cart from the rest. Sadly, no one was around to show us how to replace the cart and get our loony back-so we blessed someone with free use of a cart! Plumbing fixed, laundry complete, all stocked up-ready for an evening of fun!

The Frantic Follies were great! It was an evening of humor and relaxation after a day of frustrations. Just simple humor, old west, vaudeville type acts. Great fun!

Very excited about heading to Skagway tomorrow and onto Haines the following day.
Day 10: We originally visited Skagway 25 years ago as a port-of-call on an Alaskan Cruise. A lot has changed! Skagway is a tourist spot full of shops and cruise ship passengers making purchases!
Our friends, John and Joyce, rode the train through the Whitehorse Pass to Skagway,  while we drove and planned to picked them up at the train station. Trains came and went, but no John and Joyce! After discovering their particular train unloaded passengers in a different location, off we went, map in hand, to find our friends! Did I happen to mention, it was raining??!!! That map was destroyed in the rainy search and still no John and Joyce! I finally spoke to a ticket agent, who gave us excellent directions to a station 12 blocks away! We hopped in the truck and met them walking toward the original train station! Many of you are wondering why we didn't call or text each other...NO
 PHONE SERVICE!!! We enjoyed a fun lunch at The Red Onion Saloon, an historic brothel! Our men enjoyed the "authentic" costumes of the waitresses...While a little wine and some beer helped us forget the drama!

Before heading back to camp for our final night in Whitehorse, we headed out to Whithorse Rapids Fish Ladder. It is the location of the longest wooden fish ladder in the world and the migration of Yukon River Chinook salmon. Those fish travel some 900 miles back to where they were born!

 We keep passing in and out of Canada and the USA.  It plays havoc with groceries since neither country allows fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs or chicken across the border. We leave Canada tomorrow but come back through in a couple of days on our way to a different section of Alaska. There are limited roads into the various parts of Alaska so this back and forth is to be expected until we hit Tok, Alaska. Then we will luxuriate in a full month of enjoying travel through the last frontier!

July 24: Arrived in beautiful Haines, Alaska early enough to explore. Bob is researching his fishing possibilities and we all went out to spot eagles and hoped for a grizzly sighting. This is what I expected Alaska to look like. It's a combination of Jurrasic Park and Land of the Dinosaurs! Beautiful mountains and green water. Haines is home to the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. During their migration, there may be 5000 bald eagles in the area. Many stick around and we are enjoying the sightings. 

The Chilkoot River is also a prime spot to view bears feeding on salmon. The salmon run is not quite here yet, so no luck for us-as of this writing. I don't give up easily!

As you look at the pictures, please note the eagle shots were taken at 10:30pm. Oh the Land of the Midnight Sun is wrecking my sleep pattern!