RV ALASKA - A Fair Shake for Fairbanks

I have to admit that I didn’t give Fairbanks a fair shake – at least not at first.  We didn’t spend enough time there on our previous trips to Alaska to really get to know the city.  In fact, I remember thinking it was sort of boring.  And I wouldn’t want to live anywhere you needed to plug your car in at the grocery store in the winter so that you could be sure it would start when you came out.  (The average high in January is 0; the average low is 15 degrees below zero.)  Once we were in Fairbanks on our own schedule, we were able to explore the city a bit more – and we really liked what we found!

Date(s) – August 9th – August 12th  

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 12,904

Wildlife Sightings to Date – We saw absolutely no wildlife on our way to Fairbanks or on any of the days we were there.

So, our current tally of wildlife sightings remains: 96 eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 12 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 9 sea lions; 27 seals; 17 sea otters; 4 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 1 grizzly sow with 2 cubs; 1 back end of a grizzly bear; 6 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 3 rabbits (including one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 3 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) – The University of Alaska’s Museum of the North.  It was excellent!  This museum hadn’t been on my radar at all, but it was recommended by our friends Bernie and Carol.  This museum definitely gets an A+ in diversity and quality of exhibits.  From native culture to gold rushes, and natural history to art, this place had it all, including an old blockhouse that had been carefully relocated to museum property.  My favorite exhibits were the natural history exhibits and the amazing collection of gold and gold nuggets.  Due to glass casing around some of the exhibits, my photos were pretty pathetic.  I did include some of them anyway, just so you could see the various types of gold.  I would love to know the value of that collection!  As seniors, our admission cost for the Museum of the North was $16.00 per person; regular adult admission was $20.00 per person.  A fair price, in my opinion.

The Ice Museum.  This museum was kind of unusual, starting with the fact that it’s housed in an old theater in the city.  There was an option to watch a video (maybe 40 minutes long?) documenting one photographer’s life-long love affair with the Aurora Borealis.  I’m not sure what that has to do with the Ice Museum, but there you have it.  The video is shown only twice a day, so Alan and I timed our arrival for 9:00 a.m. when the museum would open, and the Aurora Borealis video would be shown immediately thereafter.  The film explained how the photographer created specific techniques to capture the Northern Lights which often fill the sky and are always in motion.  His story was extremely interesting; the photography was spectacular, and it was set to the photographer’s favorite classical music pieces.  It was lovely, really, but just a mite too long for both Alan and me.  If you didn’t want to watch the video, you could just show up at any time during the Ice Museum’s regular hours to see the collection of marvelous sculptures created by an artist who has been carving ice for 27 years.  This time, there were no glass cases to mess up my photos – there were colored lights.  No matter how I tried, I couldn’t come up with pics that did those carvings justice.  They were just amazing.  It was the ice carver who showed us around the small museum and convinced Alan to ride a sled down an ice slide.  Yes, it’s that cold in the museum – 20 degrees to be exact.  And, by the way, they have a rack of coats available so that anyone who didn’t plan ahead can borrow one.  This particular museum and the Aurora Borealis film were both a “one and done” for us.  We’re happy we went, but feel no need to return.  That being said, the Ice Museum really was pretty “cool!”  (Sorry!  Couldn’t resist!)  Our admission cost, which was a combo ticket that included both the film and the museum, was $22.00 per person.  The Ice Museum alone was $15.00; the Northern Lights film was $10.00.  No senior discount was available.  Again, I thought it was a fair price for both.

The Cookie Jar Restaurant.  Despite the fact that it was tucked away behind some larger businesses and a bit difficult to find, this restaurant was a gem!  We went once for breakfast and enjoyed it so much that we went back a couple of days later for breakfast #2.  Excellent meals, friendly staff and reasonable prices.  But wait, there’s more!  Cinnamon rolls!  And not just any cinnamon rolls – LOTS of cinnamon rolls!  They have traditional, chocolate chip and raisin – all huge and scrumptious!  Unless something truly miraculous happens, Alan and I are pretty sure the Cooke Jar Restaurant is going to win the Cinnamon Roll of the Year Award.

The Chena Riverwalk.  Alan and I had access to this paved trail directly from Pioneer Park.  We biked from our “campsite” through town, along the Chena River, down (up? over?) to the Antler Arch near the Visitor and Cultural Center.  We turned around at that point, but the trail continued – I’m not sure how far.  We were happy and surprised to find a bike trail in the city of Fairbanks and fortunate that we were able to connect to it right from our campsite.  My surprise indicated my ignorance about Fairbanks - additional evidence that I didn’t give the second largest city in Alaska a fair shake.

Mile Post 1523.  The construction of the Alaska Highway began in March 1942, approximately 90 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  The Alaska Highway begins at Mile 0 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  The official end of the Alcan (as it used to be called – and still is by some folks) is at Historic Mile Post 1422 in Delta Junction, 95 miles southeast of Fairbanks.  I read sometime during this Alaska expedition of ours that the Alaska Highway actually runs west to Fairbanks from Delta Junction, but because the road between the two had already been constructed, it was considered an extension rather than part of the main highway, and it remained the Richardson Highway beyond Delta Junction.  I can’t recall exactly where I saw that information, but I believe it was in an exhibit at one of the museums or visitor centers we stopped at along the way.  I tried to check that fact while drafting this post, but I didn’t find anything to substantiate it.  My overly active imagination makes up a lot of things, but I really don’t think this is one of them.  Alan and I figured we’d better cover all of our bases, though, so we found the marker for Mile Post 1523 on the corner of First and Cushman Streets in Fairbanks, and we planned to stop in Delta Junction at Historic Mile Post 1422.  Fun fact:  The mathematicians among you may have realized that 1,422 miles + 95 miles does not = 1,523 miles.  Over the years, the Alaska Highway has been reconstructed so that the actual mileage no longer exactly matches the original mile posts.  So, now we have Mile Posts and Historic Mile Posts – which makes it a bit difficult to figure out exactly where you are sometimes.

A miracle of sorts.  Alan uses his battery powered drill and a socket to raise and lower the four stabilizers on our travel trailer, so that he doesn’t have to crank them up and down by hand.  It’s a pretty common practice among RVers.  The morning of our departure from Fairbanks, we were just about set to roll.  The only thing left to do was pick up the boards we had put down under the tires of the travel trailer on the curb side to level the rig.  Since Alan’s our driver, picking up the leveling boards is my job.  That morning, when Alan said, “We just have to pick up the leveling boards,” he happened to be standing right next to the back wheels of the trailer, while I was standing up near the truck.  I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I offered, “I’ll move the truck up, and you can get the boards.”  I have NEVER driven the truck with the trailer attached.  Never even moved it before that day.  But it’s a good thing I did.  Why?  Because Alan was standing next to the back of the trailer, waiting for me to move the truck forward and the trailer to roll off the leveling boards, and he noticed that the socket he uses to raise and lower the stabilizers was still stuck on the stabilizer.  I never would have noticed it.  If we had driven off with it still stuck there, we most certainly would have lost it on the road somewhere – maybe even right there in the parking lot.  Which would have meant an awful lot of hand-cranking of the stabilizers – or the expense of another socket.  I may no longer be a practicing Catholic, but somebody was looking out for us, and I’m pretty sure it was St. Christopher, the Patron Saint of Travelers. 

Lowlight(s) – No additional lowlights to report – yay!

Tip(s) – When I was talking about grocery store discounts in my last post, I forgot to mention something.  In addition to budgeting extra for gas and groceries, consider taking an extra supply of anything you really can’t live without like a particular brand of cereal, vitamin or the only moisturizer you can use that you’re not allergic to.  Groceries were available everywhere we went – we certainly weren’t going to starve - but the selection was often limited and I wasn’t able to find a number of products we used regularly.

Campground(s) – Still at Pioneer Park.  Still enjoying our oasis of green.   Getting sick and tired of that damn train whistle.

Special Message(s) – Happy Anniversary to our friends Patty and Rick!  Crank up that ice maker, Rick, and ice down a couple of beverages to toast your marriage!  Best wishes to both of you!

Pics(s) of the Day

Museum of the North - impressive exhibits!

Yikes!  Impressive claws!

The gold collection

Gold poke

Most of the gold nuggets had notes as to where they were found.

Copper nugget, 5,495 lbs., uncovered in Dan Creek in the Wrangell Mts. in 1836

Carefully moved and painstakingly reconstructed blockhouse

Sled, musher and dog team at the Ice Museum (hard to tell, I know)

Photo opp!

Alan's slide - maybe we should call it the Icicle Express!

The artist carved the vignette in the center while we watched.

Now THAT is a cinnamon roll!

The Chena Riverwalk

I didn't realize how loud that shirt was until I saw this photo taken at the Antler Arch.

Milepost 1523 in Fairbanks

 

Up Next – On through Delta Junction and back to Tok.  Alan and I planned to retrace our steps along the Alaska Highway as far as Watson Lake.  After that, it would be the Cassiar Highway – a road through a remote section of western Canada with plenty of wildlife.  Allegedly.   We’ll see.