North Pole / Fairbanks

We left Glennallen early this morning, taking the Richardson Highway to Delta Junction, then on to North Pole, a small town on the outskirts of Fairbanks.

The highway was very narrow in spots, with no shoulders and drop offs on both sides.  The scenery was incredible, following the Alaskan Pipeline for most of the distance..  The sun came out for the first time in days and we saw snow-capped, glacier laden mountains instead of clouds.  We stopped at a wide spot in the road to take this view in, and spotted a beaver in the meadow just below us.

Taken from my seat in the motor home while travelling.  The road was too narrow to pull off or stop. It is hard to believe that Denali is over a mile and a half higher than these . . .

Delta Junction is the official end of the Alaska Highway project.  We now have travelled the entire 1.422 miles from Dawson Creek in British Columbia.  At some point, (in October) we will be covering the same territory, with much worse weather conditions and much less daylight.  The good news is that the annual road repairs on almost a third of the roadway will be completed.  Cathy (center) flanked by Barbara and Myrna.

We had lunch in Delta Junction (bison burger) visited a couple of shops, and toured a vintage log cabin used by early settlers to the area.  I had a good, wide-ranging conversation with one of the curators covering early telegraph insulators, tube radio equipment, and radio communications with the outlying, “off the grid” settlers. I will be sending him a couple of my books on the telegraph, telephone and power insulators for use in the museum.

Returning to the coach after the lunch and museum, we were met by my cat with a “where the hell have you been?” look on her face.  She was sitting on the dash waiting patiently.

The weather this evening was near perfect, in the low 70s with no wind.  Pulled out the grill and had some steaks.  Watched tv (outside ) until the mosquitos ate us alive and forced us indoors.

We are supposed to have decent aurora activity on Monday and Tuesday if we have clear skies.  This is our sunset this evening . .

There is a paved bicycle path in front of the park that continues all the way back to North Pole, about 8 miles. I will be running at daybreak and my sister will be biking part way back to town.  We have been assured that there is no bear activity in the immediate vicinity (hmmm).  After the run, we will head to Fairbanks for the day.