Jun 2007

We're eating breakfast and we see Mrs. Claus come out of the campground office, and a few minutes later, we see Santa Claus. They live in the travel trailer right across the lane from us!

This is a unique RV park but we need to leave since a 23-unit caravan is checking in later today and is taking over much of the park. We pack up and make a quick stop at the North Pole gift shop to take a picture for our 2007 Christmas letter:

Since we couldn't stay at SantaLand, we decide to 'camp' in the parking lot of Pioneer Village in Fairbanks. For $12 we can dry camp in the parking lot and they give us coupons for their salmon bake and miniature golf. So the camping is free if you use the coupons.

After setting up in the parking lot we walk around Pioneer Village. They have some old cabins that are now gift shops plus some small museums.

While we're in the one museum, it starts to hail so we stay in the museum til it's over. It storms off and on for the next several hours so we go back to the RV to wait out the storms. We had planned to go to the salmon bake tonight, but we're not sure what to do with all of the rain. Around 7:00 the rain finally stops so we go over to the salmon bake. It's an all-you-can-eat grilled salmon, fried halibut, fried cod, and prime rib. Except for the salmon, the food is very good. The salmon is dry and tasteless. I love salmon, so I'm disappointed with the meal. However, the halibut is delicious!

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".

Beautiful sunny morning as we take off to drive the Denali Highway. The Denali Highway starts about 10 miles south of our campground and we make several stops before reaching the Denali Highway.

Our first stop is for another informational sign about the Alaska Pipeline and then we stop at a beautiful lake to take some pictures and enjoy the reflection of the sky and mountain on the lake.

After several more stops we finally get to the start of Denali Highway. The first 20 miles are paved, but the next 65 miles that we drive today are dirt.

The scenery is nice, but we’re also hoping to see some wildlife. We end up seeing 4 moose, including a mama moose and her calf, 3 bald eagles, 3 porcupines and lots of squirrels.

The skies have clouded up and we don’t think we have any chance of seeing Mt. McKinley, so we decide to turn around and head back after having a snack at The Gracious House.

More Denali Highway scenery on the way back:

Joe again has a wonderful time playing with the floating ice on the creek behind the trailer. The ice is coming off Fielding Lake, which yesterday was almost completely ice covered and today has a large portion without any ice. Later we take a walk around the campground and do some bird-watching. Lots of different birds here, including trumpeter swans and arctic terns.

Joe’s feet finally get cold from being in the water, so we return to trailer and watch a History Channel video on the Alaska Pipeline.

We take our time packing up this morning and finally head out to the Delta Junction visitor center around 11am. We take some pictures of their “End of the Alcan Highway” sign, look at their exhibits, and buy some Alaska hats.

Then we walk across the street to look at the Roadhouse museum. It’s free and one of the most interesting small museums that we’ve seen on the trip. Lots of photographs on the wall from when the roadhouse was used in the early 1900s.

Then we take off down the Richardson Highway, making lots of stops along the way. It’s raining again (it has rained 6 out of the 7 days that we’ve been in Alaska-it rained 3 out of 4 days in Skagway).

Today we get our first look at the Alaskan pipeline today. We see it several times today and stop to read the informational signs about it.

The rain finally stops and the sun starts peaking out occasionally. The mountains are beautiful with the sun shining on them.

We stop at a state park that offers free camping, Fielding Lake. No facilities, but the price is right and the mountain scenery is beautiful. The lake is still frozen! It’s been cool today, high in the 50s, but we didn’t expect to see a frozen lake. The ice on the lake is starting to break up and large chunks are floating on the stream behind our campsite. Joe enjoys playing with the ice chunks as they float by us.

We have a very late lunch and relax around the campsite. As more and more blue sky appears, the surrounding mountains become more and more beautiful.

We walk around the campground and see moose droppings everywhere (including our campsite), so we’re hoping to see a moose here sometime. We see several arctic terns here and enjoy watching their aerial acrobatics.

After dinner I read the bulletin board about the campground and see pictures of the 2002 earthquake here (7.9 magnitude). There’s a picture of a crack in ground less than 20 feet from our campsite—hmmm…not sure that I wanted to know about that. I may stop reading the bulletin boards at campsites.

It’s 10pm and it is still super-sunny out!!! I think sunset is 12:45am tonight. View from our RV:

We pack up again, get some diesel, buy an “I Love Potholes. Chicken, Alaska” bumper sticker (Joe’s choice) & some “Made in Alaska” silver earrings (my choice), and take off for Delta Junction. As we’re leaving town, we stop by the Chicken, Alaska Post Office and take a picture. Mail is flown in on Tuesday and Fridays. The post office is small, but not as small as the Ochopee post office on the Tamiami Trail, Florida.

Soon after leaving Chicken we get to paved road--we all smile, especially Jere.

The scenery is interesting, but not as spectacular as some places. We see no wildlife, and again we see a lot of forest fire damaged forests.

There is very little traffic on the Taylor Highway; however, when we get to the Alaska Highway, lots of RVers again.

We make occasional stops when there is something interesting to see. Our first stop at Delta Junction is at the Delta Sausage Store to buy some reindeer breakfast links, frozen buffalo burgers, and buffalo summer sausage. We have tomorrow’s meals all planned :-)

We get to Green Acres RV Park in Delta Junction and before setting up we wash the truck and 5ver. They are filthy with mud from the Taylor Highway. The mud was caked so high yesterday that we were knocking the big chunks off the truck with our feet, but there is still a lot of mud remaining today. The washing gets rid of most of the mud, but the rig is still nowhere near clean. By the time we finish washing, it begins to rain so maybe the rain will help.

I'm getting tired of cooking, so we go to the Delta Junction Diner for dinner, and then back to the RV to relax.