On the Road

Have you been good? Santa checks his list in North Pole, Alaska. He also has a gift shop and RV Park, and names the streets with cute names like Santa Lane.

We stopped at the gift store, and on the wall are letters that have been sent to him. Cute!

We also stopped in Delta Junction, which is the other end of the Alaskan Highway. We have driven almost the whole thing except one little piece that we will do this afternoon when we drive to Tok.

We stopped to take pictures and have lunch, and check a text message on Jim's phone. Now, we did lots of preparing for this trip, and with that engineering kind of mind, Jim thought he had all bases covered. But, there are still glitches. Like early in the trip when our credit cards were canceled "for our protection" and recently when a prescription was called in and filled in Endwell instead of Fairbanks. This time it seemed the billing company had put our phone on "vacation" billing, but neglected to tell us that they would not be sending any money to the cell phone company while we were in this program, so the cell phone company was letting us know that the cell phones were going to be canceled. Arrghhhh! After talking to supervisors of supervisors, and managers of managers, it is solved, and we can still use our phones...... except in Canada.

And on we went. We stopped in Tok overnight, and headed for the Taylor Highway and Chicken, Alaska, and then the Top of the World Highway. We had heard many varying reports of the highway. And all of them were true. The driving was slow, some of it was teeth chattering, and it was beautiful. You are truely on top of the world. The road is above the treeline, and you can see it winding far in the distance. It was a pretty clear day with some smoke in the valleys, so it was really lovely.

And when you come to the end of it, you get to ride the ferry across the "mighty" Yukon River to Dawson City. There is a man with a STOP/SLOW sign in his hand, and he directs you on to the ferry from the gravel road that ends at the river. We were on with one other truck and trailer. Believe me, you carefully follow his signals, and he fits you on. They take off and make a very wide curve to get to the other side while fighting the current. Remember those algebra questions from highschool? Just like that! And you get to the other side, where there is no dock, and he rams the ferry up against the shore, and you drive off. And then you can breathe again!

Dawson City is still a gold rush kind of town, with board walks and a dusty dirt main street. Out of town are gold mines that are still being mined, and the process produces piles and piles of "tailings" or loose rock. They use lots of it on the roads, and to make parking lots, and RV Parks. So it is pretty dusty all over. It is all over the hillsides too. In fact, that is what the hillsides are actually made of.

We drove out of town a bit and saw Mom bringing home dinner.

There was a spot on the Bonanza Creek that the Visitor's Center had for panning gold. Oh, well, Sourdough Jim had no luck.

From Dawson City we went to Whitehorse, Yukon, (stopping for beer), and will head down to Skagway, Alaska.

Sue and Jim

Fairbanks, The Golden Heart City

Here we are, as north as it gets, at least for us. And some of the first rain that we have had. But that is okay, it will wash some of the smoke from the fires out of the air.





One of the first things we did was find a Farmer's Market to find some fresh veggies. Pretty expensive, but really good strawberries, and some rhubarb! Jim's happy.





We had heard that one of the coupons for Fairbanks was really worthwhile. The Binkley Family runs a stern wheeler cruise. There were 601 people on this boat, and the whole thing was run like clockwork. There is a large gift shop (of course) where everyone gathers to wait to board. Coffee is available, and when you got on the boat, coffee and donuts were complimentary.


Soon after we left the dock, the captain announced that there would be a pontoon plane demonstration along side the boat. The pilot landed and took off twice. Pretty impressive.

Just a bit farther down the Chena River, we stopped by an island where Susan Butcher's family has their Iditarod dogs. They did a demonstration of their dog teams, this time with an ATV that had the motor parts removed. Again, it is amazing how those dogs are ready to go the minute they are harnessed in, and take off like a shot when the brake is released. As a matter of fact the brake by itself was not enough to keep the dogs from dragging the ATV so they also had it staked down.

The next stop was at the Athabascan Village that has been made especially for this boat cruise. Now, remember that there are 601 people getting off the boat. We were easily moved into three groups and taken to a spot in the village where two young ladies described life in a native village before the influence of settlers.

After visiting each area, we had about a half hour to wander around, see things closer and ask questions. Oh, and they had reindeer there too. Very cute. The big question is what makes a caribou different from a reindeer. The reindeer fly, of course!






In the afternoon, we went to the El Dorado Gold Mine. We rode on a train through a demonstration of the different kinds of gold mining while being entertained by the singing engineer. And the little girl scouts that sat behind us did a fine job of singing along. And, actually, they wanted to sing the Alaskan state song, and they really did do a good job.




When we got to the end of the ride, we were taught how to pan for gold by Yukon Yolanda and her husband. Quite the characters! Everyone was given a "poke" of pay dirt, and panned for the gold that was guaranteed. And, you know, that wasn't as easy as it looks!

When you were finished, you took your gold inside to get weighed, and were treated to coffee, hot chocolate and cookies.

Together, we had about $33 worth of nuggets. Seems like we are going to have to continue to depend on our Social Security to get by!

It really was fun, and again we were pretty impressed by the organization of the whole thing. And, it seems the Binkley Family runs this show too!



In Fairbanks, there is the University of Alaska campus. It has a wonderful museum, and a Botanical Garden with tours each day. It is an experimental garden, so they are trying to find things that will grow well in Alaska, with very cold winters, short summers with lots of daylight, and not very good soil. Some things are huge, like the cabbage and rhubarb, and some things don't do well at all. And, moose love apples, and apple trees, and will eat the tree down to the roots! So they are fenced in. One thing we noticed is that things that are spaced out over the whole summer at home are blooming together in the gardens here. Makes it very colorful.



So, here we are in Fairbanks, as far north as we had planned to go. But, hey, there is the Arctic Circle. Not that far away. We did a little investigating, and it would be an easy trip up the "Haul Road". All you need is extra tires on rims, and a few extra gallons of gas. Hmmm. Maybe not so easy. With a little more searching, Don found a tour group that goes in a small van to the Arctic Circle. Arctic Turtle Tours. No, we don't know why that is the name. Our guide, "Captain Jeff" says it is a secret.



And what a character he was! He is a good example of why we think they should change the motto of Alaska from "The Last Frontier" to "Home of the Free Spirit". He had more stories than anyone we have had yet. But he did do a good job. He knew the best places to take pictures, and was an excellent driver.

We left the RV Park at 6:00 AM, picked up one other couple, and arrived at the Arctic Circle around noon. The company provides lunch from Subway, and Jeff built a fire in the fire pit at the rest stop. It was a nice warm day, so it was more to keep the mosquitoes away than to stay warm.

The Dalton Highway follows the Alyska Pipeline.

There have been fires along much of the road, and the first thing to grow is the fireweed. Jeff stopped where the fields were full so we could take pictures.

In Alaska, people watch the fireweek carefully. When it starts to bloom, summer starts, and when all the blooms have reached the top, they know that there is about 6 more weeks before snow. Maybe we should be watching it closely too!




And here we are! It's all south from here.

Which is exactly where we are headed. Don and Marilyn will stay in Fairbanks a few more days to have some work done on his car. We are headed to Skagway, by way of Chicken, "The Top of the World Highway", Dawson City, and Whitehorse.

Jim and Sue

The Real Denali

Welcome to Denali! This is really the place that we wanted to come to, the reason this trip was planned.

Good thing that first impressions don't count for much! This is the Denali Rainbow Village RV Park. Wow. The sites are impossibly small, someone had parked their truck in the 5 foot space that was supposed to be part of our site. The log cabins that you can see behind the RV's are the backs of stores.

The water is nasty, nasty, nasty. And the parking lot is really dusty. If we have ever told you about our trip to the southwest, and you remember what Circus, Circus RV Park was like..... it was heaven compared to this! Oh, and it is expensive as RV parks go. Did we mention that the water was nasty? We had registered for 12 nights, and quickly decided that it was really more than we needed.

But we had booked a trip into the park on the Kantanisha Experience Day Trip, and that was going to give us a chance to see Denali the way we wanted to, so we were really looking forward to that. We had a day to explore on our own and we went into the park to hike with a Ranger. That was pretty good. Ranger Brittney had a good sense of humor, we saw lots of wildflowers and two Trumpeter Swans, and even sang along to a Denali version of "This Land is Your Land"

The next morning we all got going very early to get over to the Wilderness Access Center to board the bus for our trip to the very end of the park road. Can we all say SCHOOL BUS? For 13 hours? Well, the driver/guide was very good,we did learn lots about Denali,got to see animals,get off at some beautiful places, lunch was provided, and the mountain was visable at several points along the way. And that is a big thing. It had been very smoky on the way from Anchorage to Denali, and now and then the smoke would roll in again, so we were very lucky.

The buses will stop if anyone sees any wildlife, and sometimes a bus will be stopped, and everyone will be looking out in one direction, so other buses will stop also.

When the bus ahead of us stopped at one point, it looked like they were looking at a ground squirrel. But as the bus rolled slowly down the road, we realized that this fox was also watching the ground squirrel.

This brown bear was pretty far away, but Jim was able to use his lens to get a picture. On the way out, he was eating grasses. On the way back, 8 hours later, he was in about the same spot, sleeping in the sun.









We saw several more moose, including this moose and baby and the classic Moose-in-Pond.

The caribou are often hard to see, and they move really quickly. At this time of the year they are being really bothered by mosquitoes. They often head for river beds where they can get a little relief.

Here is Mount McKinley from the Eielson Visitor's Center that is at Mile 66 and just opened in the last few years. The center has several displays about Denali, and a very beautiful quilt depicting the season's of Denali. Unfortunately, when we got to Wonder Lake the smoke and clouds had covered the mountain and there was no reflection to be seen.




One of the other things that can be done at the park is go to see the sled dog demonstration. These dogs are working sled dogs, not the ones that race. They just love to run. They know when it is time to be hitched up to the sled, and the minute each one is in his harness, he is ready to go. If it weren't for the brake on the sled, they would take right off.



One of the days we were there, Don and Marilyn joined us to take a ride on the Denali Highway which is not in the park. We got some very nice views of the surrounding mountains, Mt McKinley, and some Moose-in-Pond.

We only intended to go halfway along the highway, about 53 miles. We were looking for someplace for lunch, but there wasn't much available. We ended up stopping at a cafe that ended up being closed. The adjoining bar was open, and the grandson that was visiting for the summer said that his grandmother would fix some lunch. See, first looks were deceiving again. Lunch wasn't bad, the family was really nice to talk to, the bar had dollar bills all over the ceiling and walls, and Grandma made really, really good cinnamon buns. She did say that tourist travel was down alot from last year, which is why the cafe was closed, and only the bar was open as needed.

We were able to sign up for a Discovery Hike with a Ranger. Each one is different, and an area can only be used twice. The objective is to have a loose plan in mind, get people out into the wilderness with a ranger, and see what can be found. We were headed toward an area that had been where a wolf family had once had dens, but had left, and foxes had moved in. We headed down a river bed, up over a hill, and back into the river bed. While we were relaxing having lunch, we caught sight of the fox family. We were far enough away that we didn't disturb them and got to watch for quite a while.

After watching the fox, we climbed back up to the top of the nearby hills to walk along the top, see some wildflowers that were in bloom, and maybe see Moose-in-Pond. Our ranger told us that we would be walking on "tussocks". They are clumps of grass that are growing up through the mossy tundra. It was fun, and pretty tricky. Kind of like trying to walk on basketballs that may or may not decide to move. When you opted to step between the tussocks onto the moss there was no guarantee that it would be solid. Sometimes you would sink six inches and sometimes just a little making it very difficult to walk.

It was a small group, we were bused out to the start of the hike, spent about seven hours on the hike, and picked up on the road for our return trip.

We also used some of our coupons. Don and Marilyn did some more rafting and went on a Jeep tour. They had a really good time, I think Don is up for more! We went on a covered wagon dinner trip that was not worth it, and also did a Cabin Nite Dinner Theater that was very good. Kind of an Alaskan Whoop-de-do Review.

So, what started out as disappointing turned out to be fine as long as we focused on Denali National Park and not on the tourist area outside the park.

Now, we have gotten a bit behind on our blogging. A little because there is lots to do and not as much time to write, and a little because sometimes the internet connections aren't very good. So, this update in Denali is actually about a week behind. We will update as soon as possible with our stay in Fairbanks.

Sue and Jim

City Life

Hello from the city! After small towns and crossroads, it took a bit to get used to more than one traffic light and many intersections. Our RV Park is out on one side of the city, several of the attractions that we want to see are also out of the city center, but we will be spending some time downtown.

One of the first stops is the ULU Factory. The true Alaskan Knife. They were demonstrating its use, and you could see the steps in manufacturing them through windows into the shops. Pretty interesting, and yes, several dollars later, we left happy. In fact, we did our part to bolster Alaska's economy several places in Anchorage. We had great pizza at the Mooose's Tooth, and found one of the only Irish Pub's in Alaska. Well, an Americanized version of a pub.

We visited the Botanical Gardens, and walked through the perennial gardens and out along the Nature Trail. It's still amazing to see what 20 hours of daylight will do for a garden. One of the flowering plants was a Blue Poppy. It hardly looks real!

We had had such a good time on our Raft Float at Copper Landing, that we decided to ramp it up and go for a little "white water" In our coupon book, there were several in the Anchorage area, and we drove out to Sutton for the Matanuska Madwater Rafting Company. Driving down the road into the area where we were supposed to meet looked a little, well, "rustic" comes to mind. Can you hum "Dueling Banjos"?

After getting suited up in wet suits and helmets we were taken to the drop off point and given paddles and instructions. Note the serious looks on our faces. That would be because of the information about rescues, and staying afloat, and not getting caught on trees and rocks that our guide was giving us. And he did mention more than once that he was a certified Wilderness Rescue Personal.

But what a good time we had! We did get wet on this ride, and it was far more than a float. The rivers are glacial, so depending on melting in the mountains, and other runoff, the rivers change daily. Even more than that. What a river is like in the morning, isn't the same in the evening. So what had been a level I rapid at noon, might be a II or III at night. We did some that were II, approaching III.

Smiling faces, paddles in the water, we're looking good!

Look hard. We are there!

The owner of the raft company had a cousin in Alaska for the summer. She drove the van to follow us down the river, and picked us up at the end. She stopped a various spots to take pictures of us, and made up a free CD for each couple when we got back to the house, unsuited, and ate chips and salsa. Another example of not going by first impressions. Don says he is up for the next level rapids.

Back in Anchorage there is the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Each of the native groups is represented with a replica of the housing, and there is a museumish area with presentations several times during the day.

Besides educating people about the native culture, the purpose is to continue the education of the Native Alaskans in their heritage, customs, language and arts.

There is a strong feeling that the native cultures were adversely affected with the settlement by outsiders, and when Alaska became a state, nothing was done to help them. As with Native Americans in the lower 48, it is a reminder that in many ways, westward expansion is not one of our more shining moments in history.

As we have traveled around, there are some fairly obvious signs that the economy, housing and job opportunities are not the same for the Native Alaskans and those that have relocated from outside. Makes you wonder.

On the Fourth of July, we decided to skip the fireworks that were scheduled for midnight at the baseball field. We had heard from the guys we played golf with in Wasilla that they are a little hard to see. The ones on New Year's, which start at 4:00 in the afternoon, are much better. We had found a really neat local market, so packed up a picnic and went out to Lake Hood to watch the pontoon planes take off and land. When you think that two-thirds of the people in Alaska depend on getting in and out of town by plane, it isn't a surprise that there were rows and rows of these little planes at the airport.

But this sign did give us something to think about! Who is going to argue with something bigger than you with a propeller?

The RV park where we stayed was fairly nice. A bit tight for the really big rigs, and a fair number of sites taken up with units that were there for the full year (years?). They did have entertainment several nights during the week with snacks or pie or chili included. For the 4th it was a pot luck BarBQ-bring a dish to share-we'll cook the hotdogs night. That was nice because we sat and got to talk with other couples traveling the same routes as we are and heard about things we must see.

We are on to Denali National Park, which is one of the reasons we came on this trip. We'll let you know about the wilderness Alaska.

Jim and Sue

Spending time in Governor's home town

This entry is a bit backwards, because that is the way the pictures came out!

In the Palmer-Wasilla area, there are a couple of golf courses, so we took the opportunity to play 18 holes. We had a really good time, and played around with some "locals". They had been out playing most of the afternoon and had "hydrated" more that a little, so it was pretty interesting. Remind us to tell you how not to drive a golf cart across a sand trap!

Earlier in the day, we drove up to Hatcher Pass to the Independence Mine. It is no longer a working mine, but they tell us that there is gold in the mountain. So old Sourdough Jim tried his skill at panning. It doesn't look like the proceeds are going to pay for this trip. Maybe if he had had more time, but it started hailing and we ran for cover!

The mine is very interesting, and you can ramble around the buildings as much as you want. There are also tours, and a visitor's center. The mine will never open again as it would be far too expensive for the amount they would get, and there would be too many safety regulations in place now.

When we arrive in a town, one of the first stops in the Visitor's Center. In Wasilla, we found out that there was going to be a Scottish Highland Games on the weekend in Eagle River. What a great time we had! There were bagpipe bands, dancers, good food, and the games themselves. We had never seen the caber toss, hammer toss, and the stone toss, and it is really amazing.

Big strong men in kilts!

Also in the Palmer area are Musk Ox Farms. So we went out to see these left overs from the Ice Age. We learned about the way people comb their fur to collect the soft undercoat that is spun into yarn and sent to some of the Native Alaskans in small villages to knit into clothing. It is incredibly soft but not a very colorful yarn. And expensive! One skein which would make one scarf costs $90.

Each Friday in Palmer, there is a Farmer's Market, called Friday Fling. We stopped over to see if we could find any good produce, but found that BP Company was providing a free lunch for everyone that day! We know there are several of you that would be very proud of us! We spent some time at the Visitor's Center learning all about the Colonization of Palmer. FDR used it as a way to help out during the depression by sending 100 families here to start farming. Unfortunately there was little preparation done ahead of them, and the first years were extremely hard because most of the land was forested. In order to farm they to clear the land which took a considerable amount of time and energy. Many of the first families left within a year and had to be replaced with other families. Probably Palmer wouldn't have made it at all accept that during World War II there were men in Anchorage that were lonely and hungry and were "adopted" by the families in Palmer.