Hello from North Pole (Fairbanks, Alaska)

27 June - Tok to Fairbanks

     Left Tok for an easy drive to Fairbanks....some mountain views on the road and road conditions better than we've been used to....nice change. We did not see any animals on the roadside and have not for several days now....still looking for that elusive moose.

Between Tok, Ak. and Fairbanks, Ak.

Between Tok, Ak. and Fairbanks, Ak.

     We rolled into town with rain and we are actually staying in a small suburb of Fairbanks called North Pole at the Riverview RV Park....pretty nice place. They advertised entertainment in their community building "Alaskan Stories, Tales and Lies" and it was pretty informal and entertaining. The guy speaking was an author himself and a storyteller....storytelling seems popular in this area as we also experienced some storytelling in Whitehorse. This gentleman recited a lot of work by Robert Service....pretty entertaining stories from the gold rush era.

North Pole Resident

North Pole

28 June - Fairbanks
     We headed out to the University of Alaska Fairbanks museum of the north in the morning and spent all morning there....it was a good visit with a lot of interesting artifacts and a few informative movies. The school has expeditions every summer to recover dinosaur bones...apparently they roamed the landscape here millions of years ago. They also had a stuffed grizzly that weighed 1250 pounds and stood 8 feet tall.....wouldn't want to run into him.

Kathy posing with Otto

     We have friends here in Fairbanks, Rob Robertson and his wife Donna (of Sun City Peachtree fame) ......they spend winters in Sun City and summers here in Fairbanks. He has been great in guiding us to the better places in the area. We met him for lunch after the museum at the Pike's Landing restaurant....a good choice. Over lunch with Rob we discussed what to do the remainder of this day and made plans to play golf the next day.

     After leaving the restaurant we made a quick stop in Lowes and Walmart before heading up towards Chena Hot Springs....a highway said to be your best bet for viewing wildlife and the Moose we are looking for. We rode for the better part of an hour in that direction without seeing any animal activity at all. We decided it was the wrong time of day so we headed back to camp.

     Resting an hour or so was a good call and we came off the rest looking for a dinner option (without cooking). We heard that there was a terrific Chinese restaurant in town called Pagoda's that was now pretty popular after a visit by the diners, drive-ins and dives TV crew....we tried it and it was pretty good. Both couples opted to split a meal each and that was a good call as the portions were huge.

29 June - Golf
     We made plans to meet Rob at the North Star Golf Club around 8:30 for a round of golf. The weather was unbelievably good.....shorts! It was about 62 degrees when we left camp and it did get to a balmy 72 degrees by the time we finished. (Sorry - I know it's hot at home).

Rob Robertson, Ed & Darrell

     The North Star Golf Course's claim to fame is that it is the northern most golf course in the United States. Ed was driving us to the golf course and when the GPS started taking us on a dirt road he was concerned but sure enough.....out of the woods opened up to a pretty cool setting and pretty golf course. They had been dealing with a lot of rain so there was casual water but otherwise a pleasant track and beautiful day.

Frost Heaves - The challenge for road maintenance up here is what they call frost heaves.....the ground freezes so solidly that it moves up and down with the freezing and thawing.....well the golf course apparently has the same problems with their greens. Hole #13 didn't have a level spot on it. They had a sign posted there that the green was built (level) in 1996. I had to take a photo of it but it is not easy to see the undulation.

Hole #13 Green - not a level spot on it

Golf course animals - at the pro shop they had a white board where people would write what animals they had seen on the course recently and in what area....example - a moose on 15 (not!). Ed and I did see an otter in one of the ponds but that was all. The score card did have an interesting animal entry under the local rules.......see below:

The last local rule is interesting

     After golf we rode out another mile or two to see a portion of the Alaska Pipeline. 800 miles of pipeline that runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez....an engineering accomplishment for sure. Much of it is underground but a lot is above ground too.....interesting placards there telling about it and a couple samples of the "pigs" that are used to run thru the pipeline to clean it.

Alaska Pipeline

Alaska Pipeline "Pig" - for cleaning the pipe

     On the way back to camp, eagle eye Kathy spotted a mother moose and her baby near a pond in a field just off the highway. Unfortunately I didn't have my long lens with me so I did the best I could with what I had. We parked and got out to watch them for several minutes before they ran off into the woods. We can now check moose off the list but would still like to see a bull moose. We will continue to keep or eyes peeled.

Mother moose and baby

     Dinner at the Silver Gulch Brewery, owned and operated by Rob's stepson. Rob's wife, Donna and her dad joined us for a nice dinner, sampling of their beers, and a fantastic tour of the brewery operations. It was way more than we could have expected and a nice surprise. It was billed as the farthest north brewery in America. Yes, more tee shirts (and a six pack to go!)

     I really enjoyed talking with Marvin, Donna's dad, who is 84 years old and telling a lot of local stories....quite the character and sharp too.....at one point I said "I sure hope I live to be 84 years old" to which he quickly replied,  "I hope you do too....stop by and see me".

30 June - Maintenance Day
     We extended in Fairbanks an extra day to take care of some maintenance items.....Ed is getting a spring modification applied to his truck, we need to do some maintenance on the rig, shopping, haircuts, laundry, cleaning, etc.....yes, we are taking all the same chores from home with us on vacation. I am trying to schedule my next oil change while we are in Anchorage next week.

Happy customer at the barber shop!

Next stop is Denali National Park!