July 30-31, 2006 (Days 67-68)

We left the campground shortly after the leaders, and went back to town to a truck stop where they had an RV/truck wash. We couldn’t face going on with the Black Bear and Silver Tent being so dirty. Car wash cost $10. It was 44 degrees and raining. There were dark, heavy clouds in the sky, and we couldn’t see the mountains. We traveled with the Steurer’s and Waters’. They waited on us at the campground until we were done at the RV wash.

Our first stop was at The Knotty Shop. They featured a lot of nice souvenirs and knotty wood products. There were many products made with burl wood, and that was interesting.

On down the road, we were in the NORTH POLE! I never thought I would see the real North Pole, but now I have. Santa’s house was there, along with the corral full of reindeer, a toy shop and souvenirs. The buildings in the North Pole were all decorated for Christmas and are the whole year. Christmas music was playing, and it made you feel as if you were in Branson in December!

We traveled on then, as the guys pulled all us women out the door after about an hour shouting and screaming. (I can do a lot of damage in an hour!) It was a fun stop.

We got into Fairbanks around 1 p.m. There was a meeting by the guide who is responsible for planning our trip to the Arctic Circle. He told us what times we departed, some on one day and some on another. We have Tuesday afternoon. More on that later.

Most of the restaurants have a menu of reindeer sausage, buffalo burgers, caribou. You can choose hamburger, if one can believe it is beef. We’re not sure and no one is talking.

On the way to Fairbanks, we passed Eielson Air Force Base. We were told not to take any pictures of the base as we passed by on the road. There is high security there. It is the farthest north fighter wing in the U.S. Air Force. It contains two fighter squadrons that are ready to deploy any where around the world at a moment’s notice. Eielson has more than 60,000 square miles of military training airspace, and has the largest aerial range in the country. Military units from around the world come to Eielson to hone their skills in the skies of Alaska.

Fairbanks City has a population of 29,954; Fairbanks North Star Borough has 84,979. The elevation is only 434 ft. Mountains tower around the city, and on a clear day, you can see Denali. Once again, Fairbanks is a city that evolved from a trading post to a bustling city during the gold rush days. It played a key role during the construction of the trans Alaska pipeline. Our campground, the River’s Edge, is on the edge of the Chena River.

Bedtime came early, and it felt good. Until tomorrow…..


Next day:
Since we had no schedule today, we had the day on our own. Once again, Dan had to fix some things in the trailer. The microwave had now fallen down on the second shelf. So he had to take everything out of the pantry and disconnect the microwave to fix it. A trip to Lowe’s and Home Depot was in order. It’s a good thing the town had them.

Since Darrell and Sharon, who are parked beside us, were on their trip to the Arctic Circle this day, we were to take care of their little dog. She is old, blind and can’t hear. We were to get her out of the trailer and put her on the grass. She immediately squatted and did her pee-pee. Only once did she do more than that. I had a plastic bag to pick up the half-Tootsie Roll deposit, but lost track of it and couldn’t find it. Four of us were looking around all over for the deposit. Quite a sight, and we are glad no one stopped us to ask what we were doing!

We visited the new Wal-Mart and Lowe’s. When we returned to the campground, Darrell and Sharon had returned and we went together to dinner, stopping at a wonderful quilt shop on the way. They had a great collection of wildlife prints and Alaska prints that you don’t see any where else.

After returning, we started preparations for our trip to the Circle tomorrow. That will be an interesting read. Till then…….