Fred Meyer, Salmon Bake, and The Palace Theater

So far we are having a great time in Fairbanks!  We started the day by shopping in the huge Fred Meyer store.  Believe me, this store has EVERYTHING.  Clothes, shoes, toys, furniture, hardware, a Starbucks, and a HUGE grocery store are just a few of the items that are found there.

In the evening, we went to Pioneer Park to have dinner at the Salmon Bake, and what a dinner it was!  All you can eat salmon, beer battered cod, and prime rib with sides, desserts,  and (non-alcoholic) drinks!  Steve, David, and I are not fond of salmon, but Jackie said it was delicious.  The rest of us feasted mostly on the excellent cod and ate 'til we could eat no more.

Raven statue and dredge buckets.  

After dinner we had plenty of time to wander around the park and shop at some of the quaint little stores that are housed in old cabins transported there from the old downtown Fairbanks of the early 1900's.   I was fortunate to stop in at Charms by CJ where i found  a pretty martini glass that was hand decorated by the shop owner, Jessica Curik.   She and I had a lovely talk about how she and her husband make the items in the shop.  She was a delight to talk to and the things in her shop were both beautiful and reasonably priced.

Jessica showing off a martini glass and some
of her other pretty things. 

Next it was showtime at the Palace Theater where we saw the Golden Heart Revue performed by 5 very talented and extremely funny actors.  The show tells the story of Fairbanks from its earliest beginning to modern times in song, dance and very funny comedy routines.  We all laughed until our stomachs hurt.  This is another "must do" for visitors to Fairbanks in my opinion.


Just for fun,  here are a couple of amusing things we have seen in Fairbanks.

At the campground, these planters are outside the
laundry room.   

This is just a few of the many RV's parked at the local Walmart.  I
have never seen so many parked anywhere else for free.   A lady who
is camped there said she counted 70 rigs one day!

Discovery III

What a beautiful day we had for a boat ride on the Chena River!  We headed out for the boat fairly early because we knew there was a humongous gift shop there, and it did not disappoint.  After good shopping and ice cream, we boarded the authentic stern wheeler, Discovery III, and started our awesome journey.

First of all, many of the homes along the river are just gorgeous!

 
 

The first excitement of the trip came when a Piper Super Cub buzzed the boat then demonstrated a landing and take-off from the water right beside us.

Next stopped at  Susan Butcher's 

home and kennels, and her husband, David Monson,  came out and talked to us.  Susan and her lead dog, Granite, won the Iditarod 4 times, but unfortunately she died from leukemia in 2006. We saw a dog and her litter of puppies swimming in the river, and then David did a demonstration of how the dogs work a sled by having them pull an ATV around a gravel drive on the property.  It was amazing to see how anxious the dogs were to pull and run, and how fast they could go.  

Mom and pups.

Swimmimg pups.

Sled dogs running.  

The end of the run.  

Cooling off after the run.  

Moving back up the Chena River, our narrator gave us a lot of information about the river where it joined the Tanana River.  Like the Yukon and Klondike confluence,  the two different kinds of water make a distinctive difference in color.

 
Dark water is the spring and snowmelt Chena.  Lighter water is the glacial fed Tanana.

 The captain turned the boat around for the return trip while the narrator  gave us lots of info about the land, the animals that live here,  and especially the natives who originally settled in this area.  There were even teen aged kids of Athabaskan and other Indian and Eskimo descent aboard who told us about their heritage and served as guides at the authentic Native American  village which was our next stop.  The kids did a great job of explaining how their ancestors managed to live and prosper in this harsh land.   It was a very informative and entertaining set of presentations and then we had time to wander about on our own for a while.   I visited David Monson and bought his book, Granite,which he autographed for me.

A native fish wheel for catching salmon.

David Monson autographing his  book for me.  

A parka made from a variety of animal skins.  

Salmon drying before being put in the smoke hut.  

We learned a lot about life in this area, and the boat ride in this beautiful weather was a pleasure.  A trip on the Discovery is a "must do" for anyone visiting Fairbanks.  

Back at the dock we shopped a bit more and also spent a few minutes in a room with a temperature of  -40 degrees.  It took me a while to get warm again after that! 

For happy hour and dinner we visited the Fairbanks Moose Club.  Imagine our surprise when a guy came in wearing a Jaguars hat!  Naturally we struck up a conversation with him and his dad and mom.  They gave us lots of tips on more things to see and do in Fairbanks.  A guitar player who sang a lot like Willie Nelson and a harmonica player kept us entertained.

Shopping and catching up

We used today for settling in and shopping and repairs.  Steve was concerned about a tire on the RV, so a guy came out to change it.  As it turned out, the tire was fine after all, thus saving us a bunch of money.




We took off to catch up on shopping, but first lunch at Wendy's in North Pole where it is always Christmas but where the food and service were not quite up to par.  The decorations, however, were very cute.



We also shopped at Eielson AFB base exchange and commissary, Walmart, and Sam's.  Boy, did it feel good to be able to find what we needed, and boy, were we tired at the end of the day!

We stopped for a drink at the Fairbanks Elk's Club on the way home.  They were having a wake in one half of the room, and by the time it was over we felt that we knew Brian, the deceased.   He was a very nice guy.

Delta Junction and North Pole

We left the comforts of our campsite in Tok and headed north for Fairbanks.  There was a lot of construction work on the Alaska Highway which slowed us down a bit, but we were in no hurry so no problem.

We stopped at Delta Junction, which is the official end of the Alaska Highway, even though it unofficially continues on for 96 more miles to Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway.  The visitor's center in Delta Junction has some great photo-ops, and only a few miles down the road we got our first glimpse of the Alaska Pipeline as it crosses the Tanana River.

Alaska's unofficial mascot.  

The Alaska Pipeline

We arrived at our campground, River View,  in North Pole in the rain, but glad to be here. We have lots of things planned for Fairbanks, just a few miles away, so we expect to stay here for a week.

Civilization at last! (June 25) and a rainy Sunday in Tok (June 26)

We were not in a great hurry because we only had 78 miles to go to reach Tok, so we enjoyed a great breakfast that Steve prepared for us before we got on the road.    While some of the highway was paved, and the scenery was again spectacular, most of it was again dirt, gravel, pot holes, etc.  etc.   By the time we reached the Alaska Highway, 12 miles from Tok, I felt like everything on me was shaken loose!  This is the 3rd time that Steve and I have traveled this highway, and we both agree that it will be our last!

The Tok Village RV Park is very nice.  It has 50 AMPs, cable, wifi, water and sewage.  We feel like we are in the Taj Mahal!  The thing the guys like best is the RV and car wash here.  They took care of cleaning our filthy RV's before we even went to our site!  We did a little shopping at the Three Bears Food Market then settled in for the night.

The RV's and tows get a much needed bath.  

We had a long, comfortable coffee time Sunday morning before donning our raincoats and venturing out.  We shopped at the Burnt Paw Gift Shop, which has a sod roof (just mowed yesterday) and cabins that also have sod roofs.  After checking out the Three Bears Outfitters, we enjoyed a late lunch at Fast Eddy's  then headed home for naps.  The evening ended with happy hour and Mexican Train.

.

Newly mowed roof on the gift shop.  

The small building is a cache-storage to keep bears out of food. 

The pole has large burls, tree growths in which the grain has grown in 

a deformed manner.  The little bear is a decoration.  

So long Canada, hello USA

Today we reached Alaska at last!  We took our time leaving the RV park because we wanted to avoid the line of RV's waiting to board the  George Black, the tiny, free ferry across the Yukon River at Dawson Creek.  We still had to wait about 2 hours in line because the ferry can only take 1 large RV and a couple of other vehicles at a time.

Approaching the ferry.  

Making the crossing.  

We both made it across and started up the Top of the World Highway, as the Canadian section is called.   The weather was perfect, the scenery was spectacular, and the first few  miles of the highway were paved which made for a pleasant drive.   Then the fun began.  The remainder of the highway to the border of Canada and the USA was sections of pavement interspersed with dirt and gravel, and it was full of dust, potholes, bumps, dips, and washboard sections.

Rough road. 

Great scenery.  

The border crossing was the easiest and most pleasant we have ever done.  It is a joint facility so the Canadian agent asked us a few questions, then the USA agent waved us through then offered to take our picture at the crossing sign.

Crossing the border into the USA!

We had a pleasant chat with him, then were delighted to find that the first 13.5 miles on the American side, now called the Taylor Highway, were paved! After that, we had many more miles of dirt, gravel, etc.  By the time we completed the 103 miles to the Goldpanner RV Park in Chicken (our destination for the night), both rigs and cars were covered in dust.  You could not even read the name on the rear of David's rig  or his license plate!  We were all SO ready to stop for a while.




We had dinner at the 40 Mile Steakhouse at the campground, checked out the gift shop, and some of the funny signs and chicken sculptures around the park, then  gratefully settled in for the night.

Chicken, Alaska, is such a funny little place.  It was originally supposed to be named Ptarmagen after a bird in the area but no one could spell it so they called it Chicken instead.  There are 3 commercial areas, each with an RV park, and a restaurant of sorts, and one has a saloon.  Each has a gift shop carrying many "chicken" souvenirs.  The RV sites have no water or sewer, and the electricity is iffy at best as it is run by generator and fluctuates with the number of RV's parked there.  There are only 2 flush toilets in Chicken, and there is no phone, TV, or internet service.  There is a post office, but mail is only received on Tuesday and Friday.