"Let's Go to North Pole where It's Warm"

It is very, very cold and windy here today at Fielding Lake, so despite the beautiful surroundings we decide to move on. Jere says "Let's go to the north pole....it's probably warmer there"

The scenery is gorgeous for the first part of the drive back north on the Richardson Highway. We make a few stops again to gawk at the scenery. Then, it starts to rain again. Oh well.

We also make another stop at the Pipeline:

And we stop at a gift shop, The Knotty Place. They have several sculptures made out knotty pieces of wood (funny) and an interesting porch made out of knotty pieces of wood.

We drive to North Pole, Alaska and stop at the Santaland RV Park. Jere was right - it is warmer here :-) We had planned to stay here two nights, but they're full the second night. So we'll need to find a different campground tomorrow. The campground is entirely Christmas themed, with everything from alternating red and green picnic tables to Christmas wallpaper in the bathrooms to Reindeer names for the streets.

We have a snack and then walk over to the North Pole gift shop. No way that Joe is talking or even making eye contact with Santa, but we spend time looking at all of the North Pole souvenirs. We take lots of pictures and then head back for dinner.

After dinner it's laundry time again. And who walks in the laundromat in bright red knit shorts/boxers and a tight white sleeveless undershirt and a long white beard - SANTA CLAUS! This is a view of Santa Claus that no one really wants to see :-) Jere and I look at each other and smile--"that guy really looks like Santa Claus".