Lots to See (Sunday, July 26, 2009) After finishing the breakfast won the evening before in the Pancake Toss, I completed the exterior part of breaking camp, i.e. removing and storing the water hose and removing and storing the electrical cord, allowing us to leave by about 8:15 AM.  Kay drove the first portion of the day, with stops for moose along the road. We saw several cow/calf pairs, and a couple of singles. The snowcapped mountains of the Alaska Range finally came into view shortly after departing Tok. After the first hour and a half, we switched drivers, and stopped at the Delta Meat & Sausage. Kay sampled their wares and bought a small package of reindeer sausage. Another stop followed just up the road at the visitor center at Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaskan Highway. Because of our detour via Top of the World Highway, we have not yet driven all of the Alaskan Highway, but will complete the highway in late August on our return. Rika’s Roadhouse is a must see. We were surprised by the extent of preservation, and quality of displays. I almost bought a $2,000 beaver coat for $150, but Norfork is not cold enough! We stopped again at the Knotty Place, a store featuring carvings and figures made out of burled wood; and free ice cream with a copy of the Milepost. Seeing all the burled wood made us think of our friends and neighbors, Rod and Rita, wood turners who could do magic with the burled wood. Our next stop was to purchase fuel before parking the RV for 6 days in North Pole, a suburb of Fairbanks; we paid $3.059 per gallon.

While waiting for our site assignment at Riverview RV Park, Kay picked up our mail at the office, forwarded by dear friends, Loretta and Wayne. We checked out the park, situated on the banks of the Chena River; it is fishable, but really colored with silt and glacial flour, so maybe we’ll fish somewhere else. A forest fire on 55,000 acres some 25 miles south of Fairbanks resulted in significant smoke in the air, with an almost overcast haze clouding the sun. Caravan members boarded a bus for an evening engagement at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks where we were treated to an all-you-can-eat buffet of grilled salmon, fried halibut, fried ling cod, roasted prime rib, salads, desserts, and drinks at the Alaska Salmon Bake. Seating was both indoors and out, and the food was great! Kay tried all the meats, while I only tried the fish. Excellent! After dinner, we adjourned to the theater for a song and dance comedy telling the story of the founding of Fairbanks. It was quite entertaining, but a little long—definitely worth seeing, though. With full stomachs, we returned to the RV park for some R & R. Oh, by the way, the sun set at 11:22 PM.

Day 2 in Fairbanks, AK (Monday) Another action packed day awaited! The morning began early with Kay making calls to take care of business. The emergency warning system on our auxiliary brake quit working several weeks ago, and Kay returned it to BrakeBuddy while we were in Great Falls. They were to repair it and send it to us here in North Pole, but it wasn’t among the mail she picked up yesterday at the RV park office. A call to them revealed it had been sent via UPS—this will require further action. Our air card wasn’t working, and Kay spent many minutes, if not hours, on the phone with Verizon to troubleshoot the problem; no such luck. Also, my CPAP mask broke during the night, and Kay made some calls to find the number of the supplier in Mountain Home; I called them and they cannot get it to North Pole before we leave—this will require further action, too. So, three calls were made, with no success.

We boarded the bus with the rest of the caravaners at 8:30 AM for a trip to the Ice Palace. This was awesome! Both the video and carvings were incredible. The young Japanese man who ran the place did a small demonstration carving while we were there. If you’re ever in the area, you’ve got to see this. Fairbanks has become the ice carving capital of the world, and has a big show in March every year.

A brief trip was then made to the visitors’ center, fast food lunch on our own, and a visit to the University of Alaska Museum of the North where exhibits focused on the cultures, wildlife, geography, and history of Alaska’s five regions. Included were the largest public display of gold in Alaska, a mummified Ice Age steppe bison mummy, historical artifacts, and historical paintings. The University of Alaska Fairbanks sits on a hill overlooking Fairbanks, and smoke from the immediate area of the forest fire was readily visible.

Upon returning to our site, Kay received a voice mail advising that the emergency warning system had already been sent and was received here at the RV park on July 20th—more to do, but getting closer, and I repaired the CPAP mask with superglue. This limited success called for Kay to do a shopping trip to Walmart!

Day 3 in Fairbanks, AK (Tuesday) No activities were scheduled this morning, so we got to sleep a little later than usual, then I continued trying to obtain another CPAP mask via mail. Dealing with med suppliers and insurance companies while on the road is a laborious process, and they are extremely rigid. I offered to pay to have a mask expressed shipped to us, but United Medical absolutely will not ship other than via ground. Consequently, I may or may not get this much needed mask in Anchorage.

We boarded the bus at 11 AM for lunch at the Pump House, a National Historic Landmark facility in Fairbanks. It was used to pump water from the Chena River over the mountain for hydraulic gold mining of the area. The food was better than average. After lunch, it was off to the Riverboat Discovery II for a cruise on the Chena River to its outlet in the much larger Tanana River. The cruise featured several neat activities. First, a float plane took off and landed adjacent to the boat. Next, we stopped by Susan Bucher’s kennels for a presentation on sled dogs. Susan Bucher was an Iditarod winner 4 times. She died from leukemia a couple of years ago at the young age of 55. Her husband talked to us, and with the help of two assistants, gave a demonstration of sled dog racing using a 4 wheeler, absent the motor. The dogs were eager to run, but very well mannered, and were incredibly fast! We thought of our friends and Quetico guides, Harry and Mary, who race sled dogs in the winter. We were both surprised to learn that the breed of dogs used is Alaskan Husky, which we didn’t know existed, rather than Siberian Husky.

We were also surprised to learn that while river lots are valued at about $100,000, and houses at $150 per square foot, the most expensive house in Fairbanks will cap at $750,000, because the market will only support a maximum of that value, regardless of square footage, etc.

The riverboat continued to the silt-laden Tanana River, turned around, and began its return journey. We stopped at an Athabascan (First Nation) village, where we were joined by the Riverboat Discovery III, a sister ship, for demonstrations related to their culture, daily life, animals, etc. (As an aside, the Discovery riverboat company uses only Alaska natives, though not necessarily First Nation, and most are in college at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.) The young interpreters were very good. Most of the visitors liked the reindeer best—the difference between a reindeer and caribou is that the reindeer is domesticated—and several were in a pen. Also noteworthy was the fish processing area where fish were filleted, dried, and smoked, and the clothing area where original Athabascan jackets were modeled.

Day 3 in Fairbanks, AK (Wednesday) The last of our planned activities didn’t begin until after lunch—a tour of the Eldorado Gold Mine and a site visit to the Alaska Pipeline. Surprisingly, the air was free of smoke for the first time since arriving in Fairbanks. Richard Raikes, the caravan tail gunner, and I spent a good portion of the morning repairing the potable water inlet for another motorhome in the caravan. Seems like the inlet hose was higher than the tank, and filling was difficult, if not impossible. They took the top of the bed apart to access the area, and straightened the hose as much as possible. Also, the bathroom door would not shut, so they moved the striker plate. One of the neat things about a caravan is people helping people.

Our bus departed at 1:30 PM and almost made it out of the park before the engine stalled. We waited awhile, de-boarded the bus, waited awhile, opted to carpool, were called back to wait on another bus, and finally boarded an operable bus. (As a side note, all of our activities in and around Fairbanks included bus transportation.) Our first stop was at the Eldorado Gold Mine. We caught a hokey open-air train, and listened to an announcer play guitar and sing old country western songs. He was a good enough singer, but pretty annoying when we were trying to have a conversation. The train made several stops to view demonstrations of various gold mining techniques, including a permafrost tunnel. Upon arriving at the actual mine site, we saw a demonstration of a long sluice and trough, and were given a bag of “gold laden” material, led to troughs of water, and allowed to pan for gold. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not that difficult. We both managed to pan a total of $16.50 worth of gold flakes, which Kay promptly had made into a drop for her necklace. Panning for gold was fun! We were then off to view the Alaska Pipeline. Our brother-in-law, Gerald, was one of the workers who helped build the pipeline, and we thought of him as we viewed this engineering wonder. It’s not as big as we thought, being only 4 feet in diameter, but delivers a million barrels a day.

Tomorrow, 10 members of our caravan have opted to fly to Barrow, AK, most northern city in North America, where the sun doesn’t set for 84 days. We will stay behind, and enjoy a day of exploring.

Day 4 in Fairbanks, AK (Thursday) We awoke to heavy smoke from the forest fires south of Fairbanks, and decided to stay close to smoke-free air. We had planned to hike around the Creamery, a sandhill crane sanctuary, but the smoke was prohibitive. We took a couple of photos of cranes, and drove to Walmart to shop for souvenirs, the same place where most of the tourist attractions buy theirs, then we each had a great charcoal-grilled chili cheeseburger at Carl Jr’s, reminiscent of the ones served at Minute Man in Arkansas. We had planned to drive from there to Chena Hot Springs, but the smoke was so bad we opted to wait a few hours. Driving back to the RV park, we saw two moose in a marsh along a back road.

The rest of the afternoon was spent loading photos on Picasa Web Album.

About 6 PM we drove towards Chena Hot Springs. The road follows the Chena River for a good portion of the way; the river in this area is clear and has lots of riffles. We saw several moose along the way to the hot springs and back.

Day 5 in Fairbanks, AK (Friday) We both awoke with some congestion from the smoke, and several members of our caravan were having breathing problems. This was our last full day in Fairbanks. Because of our “slack” time yesterday, I had begun to have second thoughts about the area, but upon reviewing the photos, decided it was indeed a great place to visit, with lots of activities. Of course, smoke from the forest fires decidedly impacted our ability to hike. The smoke today was not as bad as yesterday, but still prohibitive to be outside. Two couples from the caravan traveled to the Arctic Circle yesterday. (300 miles round trip) One returned safely after 12 hrs. One returned at 6 AM (20 hrs.), having had two flats, a huge tow bill, and an unexpected cab ride. Neither couple saw wildlife. The caravan members who went to Barrow returned tired from the long flights—3 hours each way; most said they were glad they did it, but would not do it again. They went in two planes to Barrow on the Arctic Ocean. One of the planes had a fuel pump problem and had to turn back for service. Both turned back to stay together. The six hour trip turned into a 10 hr. trip. We saved $1400 by opting not to go. We prefer to spend our money on fishing or bear viewing. The caravan had a cookout at 6 PM and we both assisted. The rest of the evening was spent preparing for travel tomorrow, and wrapping up this portion of the journal.

Our Recommendations for Fairbanks, AK On the road between Tok and Fairbanks, Rika’s Roadhouse is an absolute must. We both enjoyed it immensely and spent considerable time there. Fairbanks offers many activities for the tourist. One of our favorites was the Alaska Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park. We really liked the Ice Palace—a definite must do. The Riverboat Discovery II cruise and Eldorado Gold Mine tour were great—we would do both again. The Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is also a must do. We both enjoyed viewing the pipeline. If environmental conditions (weather, smoke, etc.) permitted, there are several good walking and hiking trails in the area. A day exploring and fishing in the Chena River Recreation Area would definitely be worthwhile, and we’re sorry we couldn’t do this because of the smoke.

Campground Riverview RV Park is a decent park, and had good 30 amp electricity, water, sewer, cable, and wi-fi. The laundry was OK, but the showers were a little lacking. The pull-thru sites were large. Dust was a problem, but this is a semi-arid area, and smoke was really bad the last two days. This is probably one of the best RV parks in Fairbanks.

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 13,401.5
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM Alaska DST
Ending Mileage: 13,602.7
Ending Time: 2:30 PM Alaska DST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 201.2
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 4,211.2