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20050630 Fairbanks AK 62/86 Warm & clear, progressing to Hot and smoky. Picture Link
We got up in Tok, ate, and drove straight to the car wash at the RV park. I filled a bucket with Simple Green and water, then I scrubbed with a long-handled brush (supplied) and Dolores followed me around with the high-pressure hose nozzle. It took about 45 minutes and we still didn't do a really good job, just adequate.
That dust is everywhere. Even your mouth feels dusty. If you add water, you get mud. So you have to drink beer to cut the dust. :-)
Then we went to the Information Center. I said that the Denali Highway had been a pit two years ago and has anything been done to improve it. Then answer was no. She furthered that they haven't had too many reports of tires being shredded, just complaints of rocks like melons, and bumps that tear up cars, trucks, and RV's.
In light of the above, we're re-thinking our trip across the Denali Highway. Hmmm....
We fueled up (at 2.479/gallon, a lot lower than Canada) and headed northwest. A hundred miles later, we came to Delta Junction, which was really the end of the Alcan highway (the part from Delta Junction to Fairbanks already existed as the Richardson Highway from Valdez to Fairbanks). So we automatically merged into the Richardson and continued to Fairbanks.
We had no trouble finding the RV park since we've been here before. Dolores felt poorly last night and today confirmed that she came down with a cold, so we extended our stay here thru July 4th. The campground folks said the fireworks for the fourth are actually set off on the fifth, just after midnight, when it's a little darker (sunset is at 12:40am, sunrise is at 3:09am). They also said it consists more of noise than light.
We mentioned Wifi in our reservation request, so we have a location convenient to the headquarters of the place and a booming signal.
Dolores declared that, as soon as possible, she was going to collapse and do nothing but watch TV and partake of a whisky/lemonjuice/honey concoction she favors. But I caught her and forced her to go to Fort Wainwright with me to get whisky and other things, like food. We stocked up on Canadian Club, wine and some beer, now that we don't have to worry about customs, and the food needed. We fueled up here for 2.289, a dollar per gallon less than Dawson City, YT. Then we returned to the little house and put it away.
The thermometer said 101.1 after Dolores used it, so it's official and Dolores collapsed. The usual aspirin and Robitussin therapy was begun, and chicken noodle soup ingested. Then the whisky/honey/lemon drink was prepared and swallowed in between coughing spells.
I got into cleaning some of the trailer. I took cleaner to the whole kitchen area including the floor and finally got the dust up. Then I went after the rear window both inside and out, which had leaked the dust into the place and finally got it cleaned out. Tomorrow we'll do the rest of the place, which didn't suffer much dusting.
Now at 8:20pm, the sicklet is curled up on the couch watching TV and I'm finishing these notes. It's going to be a quiet night.
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20050701 Fairbanks AK 60/75 Cool, cloudy, rain off-and-on.
Not a great day. Dolores is still ill with her cold. She's staying in the little house and taking remedies hoping that she'll get better soon.
I left for a bit to get a new smoke alarm for the trailer and a spare 90* hose connector, also some 25-amp fuses for the truck's transmission cooler fan - it blows its fuse if I leave it on a long time.
Hamburgers for lunch, with other things.
I left for a while to get books. Then I went to Fred Meyer to get some grocery items. Back again after our little dinner to get a thermometer (ours died).
In between, we've had the internet via wifi and reading to keep us occupied. We both hope D is well tomorrow (farmer's market day), but she currently has a 101.2 temperature and still coughing.
Then I got word by e-mail that Bob Hammon, an old Seadragon shipmate, died a couple of days ago. Bob was a real character, smart as hell and just as independent. He did what he wanted to do and wore out a little early (age 68). I sent the word onward to others in the group.
Hope tomorrow goes better.
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20050702 Fairbanks AK Cloudy, rain. Picture Link
Dolores still coughing a lot and running a fever. We stayed in except that I did my laundry.
Sort of a lost day.
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20050703 Fairbanks AK Partly cloudy, warm.
Dolores was feeling a little better, but still not with it. So we hung around the trailer and read the Sunday News-Miner and read books and did internet. Oh, yes, Dolores did her laundry (with much help from yours truly).
In the early evening, we got down to the Chena Deck restaurant that is part of this complex and had dinner out just to change the routine.
Back early, the internet went down early (they have a very feeble Wifi setup). Back to reading and to bed reasonably early.
We're going to try to do something tomorrow.
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20050704 Fairbanks AK Mostly cloudy, a little rain, warm. Picture Link
We got out today. We went to Sam's Sourdough Restaurant for the best breakfast in town. We were totally stuffed when we left around 9:30. See map below for the route today.
Then we got onto the Steese Highway north, then the Elliot Highway north (total of 78 miles), then onto the Dalton Highway north. At MP97, we found a large black bear in the right margin. He tried to circle around behind us, but a pair of motorcycles discouraged him and he went off into the woods. A mile later, we found another large black bear in the left margin; he took off at high speed immediately. We couldn't get pictures of either bear, darn it.
At two hundred miles from our start point in Fairbanks, we came to the Arctic Circle sign at 66*33"N, 150*36W. We pulled in, took some pictures, dodged a bunch of mosquitos, looked around a bit and took a picture of a California couple for them with their camera.
We loafed our way back, stopped for a hamburger at the place at the Yukon River bridge, and stopped for some photo places like Finger Mountain.
After a while (about 7:30pm) we got back to Fairbanks, after a round trip of almost 400 miles on a mix of good and gravel roads. The Steese and Elliot are paved to the Dalton, and there are about 20 miles of the Dalton that are paved. That leaves about 100 miles of gravel road that wasn't as bad as the middle part of the Dempster, but was worse than the best part of the Dempster.
Lots of traffic on this road. A good part of it is pipeline traffic - pickups full of work crews going here and there. Another set is the truck traffic for Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay hauling fuel, food, and whatever. The pipeline moves the crude oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez for shipment south; there's a tap at Fairbanks that goes to a small refinery that supplies most of Alaska and some of the Yukon.
Then there's the tourist traffic in their own trucks or cars and in tour buses or vans. We came across one of those that had people from Punta Gorda FL, with whom we chatted briefly until they had to go on. They just now got their windows back in after the hurricane last year.
We stopped at Fred Meyer to get Dolores an ice cream, then came home to the little house. Blankety-blank Wifi is down again.
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20050705 FairbanksAK 55/76 Clear, cool (low 70's). Picture Link
We got up in a leisurely manner and had breakfast. Then we got a little ambitious, even though neither of us is well enough to take prisoners, and did some shopping. Some socks, food, robitussin, ice cream, and so forth.
We brought that back to put away, then had an impromtu lunch.
We wiled away the afternoon reading (I'm on a biography of Will Rogers) and just taking it easy.
In the early evening we went downtown to Gambardella's for our bi-annual Italian feed. They're still good. We returned to the little house and resumed taking it easy.
Early bed tonight and then we'll go do something tomorrow.
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20050706 FairbanksAK 53/80 Partly cloudy, scattered thunderstorms with hail. Picture Link
We started slow but then got going. We drove the truck east out the Chena Hot Springs Road some 60 miles to the Chena Hot Springs Resort, a very rustic place centered on a natural hot spring.
Enroute, a moose hopped up out of the right-hand ditch, ran across the road, and disappeared in the growth in the left margin. I only had time to recognize it, say "Great God", and to count three before it disappeared. It was about 30 yards away when it left. It was a large female. We had no chance to get a picture. After my heart slowed back down to normal, we went on.
At the resort, we did lunch first (halibut, fries, coleslaw). The dining room has a squirrel-feeding station at the largest window. Many red squirrels came and went.
So today we saw Moose and Squirrel.
We rented a locker and strolled out into the hot pool. We were relaxing until a rain cloud came along and pelted us with cool rain. That reminded me of our time in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland when we were warm in the water but had snow in our hair. The rain eased up, so we stayed and talked with a young couple from the Netherlands. They're having quite a trip, too, having seen brown bears, black bears, and other beasts.
We moved inside into a less hot hot tub. After a bit in that, I'd had enough. We got out (I found myself slightly dizzy) and headed for the lockers and showers. After dressing, we headed for town slowly so we would have a chance to see moose before they hopped onto us.
Sure enough, we saw a moose away from the road in a pond. He slowly walked out into the woods but Dolores got several good pictures of it. Farther down the road, another moose appeared in a pond closer to the road. This one left more rapidly, but Dolores still got a couple of shots. A third one was next to the road but bolted away before we could snap it.
We saw in a pasture some strange animals. They looked like cows shedding really long hair. We'll ask people around here just what they might be.
We got back to Fairbanks and headed for the RV park. As we approached the trailer, the rain started. We got into the little house alright but then the rain increased and some small hail even fell. It got a little loud in the little house.
It's still a little early (6:30pm) but I'm getting these notes done so we can (if it's not raining) attend the free entertainment tonight in the campground. We don't know anything about the two people featured, since we only received a notice taped to our door.
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20050707 Fairbanks AK 55/77 Few clouds, breezy, cool. Picture Link
The entertainment last night didn't stand a chance. They got going a little late, and at 9:20pm the skies opened and the rains came with a vengeance. The crowd scattered to their RVs. The rains stopped fairly soon, but the enthusiasm had gone.
This morning, we went to the exchange and commissary to get a few little things. We stopped at the base service station to fuel up for tomorrow. Then we returned to put it all away.
Then we drove to the UAF (University of Alaska - Fairbanks) Georgeson Botanical Garden. Dolores loves to take pictures here, as it's always very colorful. They've added a few things since our last visit two years ago, a large pavilion being one of them.
Dolores strolled all over the garden (we're here a little early for the vegetables and some flowers) taking pictures. I took over for a moment when I saw a bee fairly close to us. I got one picture of him on the flower and another just as he took off; the picture shows the bee head-on but his wings are moving so fast that only one can be seen. Guess I'll have to find more bees.
Neither of us were feeling top-notch this morning. Dolores is still coughing and I'm having a little pain swallowing, so we decided to give ourselves more rest. We returned to the little house and did just that.
While relaxing, we found that there's a hurricane named Dennis heading for Cuba, the Lower Keys, and the Gulf, with every prospect of finally getting to the panhandle. It's big and looks bad.
We called our friend and lawn-care guy, Ray Andrews, to check on things. He said he hadn't forgotten us and he'll drop the hurricane shutters probably Saturday. Ray had surgery not long ago, but he says he's almost back to normal. Ray said in the past that he won't evacuate no matter what. We'll see.
Tomorrow, we'll head down route 4, the Richardson Highway, to Glenallen. We'll stop there briefly to look at the visitors center for the Wrangell-St.Elias Nat'l Park & Preserve (we missed this when we visited that park two years ago). Then we'll go on to a park we've used before, four years ago, to stay the night.
The next day, we'll head into Anchorage. Sort of a round-about way to get there but we have time.
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