Day 24
Friday, July 1
On the road to Fairbanks

It was raining this morning when I got up. So much for all the clean RV's and vehicles. I guess a little rain didn't mess them up too much. We got around and left the park about 9:00 on our way to Fairbanks. It is 206 miles and the road was very good - thank goodness. I've had enough of terrible roads. We drove about 80 miles to the Delta Sausage and Meat Market where we bought some Elk summer Sausage and two freshly cut rib-eye steaks. They had a sample trey with Elk, Buffalo, Beef summer sausage and some Teriaki (sp) meat sticks. They also had a honey mustard dip and some raspberry bar-b-que sauce. Um um was it good - so I got a bottle of both. We'll have the summer sausage and cheese for lunch when we are on the road. The steaks are for one of our days in Fairbanks. We are having a pot-luck on the 4th of July so we won't be eating them then. One of the couples have a freezer on their motorhome, and their freezer went out yesterday. They went around at social tonight and tallied everyone who will be here on the 4th. Some are going on excursion and will be gone all day. They are offering steak, chicken, or pork chops to everyone who sticks around here on the 4th - so I guess we will be cooking out on the 4th too.

We reached the end of the Alaska Highway when we got to Delta Junction. The road divides there with one road going to Fairbanks and the other going to Anchorage.


 

They had two mosquito sculptures there that adequately represented the mosquitoes we have been dealing with. Their are millions of them in Alaska and they are huge.

 

We also picked up some hat pins and a few other souveniers. It is hard to believe that we have driven all 1542 miles of the Alaska Highway. When we crossed the Robertson River we saw a lot of ice still on the river.

Hard to believe it's July 1 and ice is still there. We also saw part of the Alaska Pipeline as it was crossing the river.

 


We are probably going to see more especially when we get to Valdez.

About 70 more miles down the road we came to Rika's Roadhouse. This was the sight of an old farm that served as an inn or roadhouse for travelers back in the early 20th century. There was a barn that showed how to keep your animals warm in -40 degree weather, a sod-roofed log cabin that is a museum, the original farmhouse, a garden, and a restaurant.

 
 
 
 
 

 
We decided to have lunch while we were there. We shared a sandwich and each had a bowl of crab/corn soup. Jenna had cheesecake and I had strawberry/rhubarb pie with ice-cream on top. It was delicious! Rika's Roadhouse was a very peaceful place with large well manicured yards and lots of trees and good food along the river. I enjoyed just walking the grounds and looking at the big baskets of flowers they had hanging everywhere.

Still further toward Fairbanks we stopped at the Knotty Store - not an Adult toy store - a gift shop with unique Alaskan made gifts. We got a magnet and a sticker for the trailer - we were big spenders. They gave you free ice cream if you brought in your Milepost book, but we were so full from lunch that we passed on the ice-cream.




























12 miles later we came to the North Pole and made a stop to see Santa. TO get there we had to go around 3 roundabouts within 3 blocks. It was a little tricky pulling the 5th wheel, but we got there in one piece. 
 

Balley wanted to know why Julia was crying earlier today and he hoped she had not been bad. He said he had been keeping tabs or her and so far she is still on the "good list." Zoot told us that he really likes how Lily is treating her brother Cooper. He is sure that she will stay on the good list too. Jenna sat on Santa's knee and talked to him about Lily, Julia, and Cooper. He signed a book for them and asked her to tell them to continue being good.

 

A short drive later we arrived at the River View RV park on the Chena River in Fairbanks. We quickly set things up and went to social. Again we swapped lies and stories about our adventure today. Ken made announcements about tomorrow and we left to do laundry and get dinner going. After that lunch I don't think I need too much dinner!

By the way, I talked to a guy from Ontario while we were at the North Pole. He said they had been following us for a few days but lost us when we took the Top of the World Highway. It seems they got a late start and got to the border about 20 minutes after 6:00 P.M. The border closes at 6:00 P.M. and they had a choice: turn around and drive 68 miles back to Dawson City and hope to find a campsite, or drive back 10 miles to the Top of the World rest area. They chose the latter and found 10 other RV's who were in the same boat. They all dry-camped there, built a big bonfire, and had a party. I guess good things can come out of bad circumstances.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day. We leave on a bus tour at 8:00 A.M. and don't return until 5:45 P.M. I think it will be a terrific day! I'll tell you about it next time. Til then - Happy Trails!