Every Day is a Gift!
Day 48: Tuesday, July 2, 2013
To get up close and personal with the Alaska Pipeline we stopped at a park on our way to tour the Gold Dredge 8.
The tour started with a train ride with demonstrations of gold mining techniques and a stop to learn about the dredge before we got off the train to pan for gold. We got to keep our gold!
As we were leaving the tour we stopped at a section of the pipeline to learn a few facts about it.
Day 47: July 1, 2013
If you are a fan of the show Ice Road Truckers you have heard of the Dalton Highway. If not, the Dalton Highway is the road the truckers take to get to the industrial camp at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. The road begins 84 miles north of Fairbanks and ends 414 miles later in Deadhorse on Prudoe Bay. The road was originally called the Haul Road because all of the supplies for Prudhoe Bay were hauled by truck to get there. The Arctic Circle is about at about milepost 115 on the Dalton Highway.
The highway is mostly dirt and gravel with some paved sections. The road follows the Alaska pipeline and was built because of the pipeline. The scenery changes as you go along from birch and spruce forest to tundra. Purple wildflowers bloomed in many of the fields.
The Bureau of Land Managment manages a small campground and picnic area at the Arctic Circle. When we arrived two young women from the visitor’s center in Coldfoot were set up under a tent with mosquito netting. After having our pictures made, we received a certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle! We ate lunch there and decided to continue on to the Visitor’s Center at Coldfoot, another 60 miles north.
The visitor’s center had a lot of interesting displays including a display showing the location of the Arctic Circle all around the world. At the Arctic Circle we were farther north than Moscow, Helsinki, and Stockholm. For both of us we were farther north than we had ever been in our lives.
By the time we finished at the visitor’s center we had been gone from our campground for 7 1/2 hours and had to drive all the way back. With so many miles to go, we only stopped a couple of times on the way home.
It started raining on a dirt portion of the road when we were almost at the end of the Dalton Highway. Henry said driving on the wet dirt road was the worst driving he has had to do this whole trip. When we got back to Fairbanks, we had to stop for road construction at 9:00 at night. Fourteen hours after leaving the campground, we arrived home and collapsed into our chairs. A long day but well worth it.
Day 46: Sunday, June 30, 2013
What better way to spend a beautiful, warm, sunny Sunday afternoon than to take a tour on the Riverboat Discovery.
Our first stop was at the kennels of late Iditarod Champion, Susan Butcher, for a sled dog demonstration. Susan won the Iditarod sled race four times and passed away from leukemia in 2006.
The boat docked at an Athabascan Indian Village where two native tour guides showed us what life was like in the village.
The same family has been operating cruises on the river for many years. We passed by the original Riverboat.
Ted and Ruth Ann, our friends from Michigan who we were with in Haines, arrived at our RV Park yesterday. They left Haines after we did and traveled a different route to get here. It was good to visit with them again this morning.
Day 45: Saturday, June 29, 2013
My reward for cleaning all the dirt and dust from the camper was to go see Santa Claus and North Pole, Alaska.
Lunch at another restaurant from Diners, Dive Ins and Dives was next. Henry had a Bulgogi sandwich at the Country Cafe. It was like a Korean version of a Philly Cheese Steak.
Day 44: Friday, June 28, 2013
Today was a much needed shopping and work day for both of us. With a list that filled up an entire page in my notebook, we set out to find a new latch for the screen door, a new door handle for the bathroom door, and groceries. Two RV supply stores and a home improvement store later, we had the latch and door handle. A Walmart in Fairbanks had everything else we needed.
After unloading the truck back at the RV park, Henry took the truck to get the oil changed, a front end alignment, and have the ABS system checked out. It started beeping during our trip across the Top of the Road Highway and has been beeping off and on ever since. I did laundry.
Our reward for all our hard work? A visit to one of the restaurants featured in a Christmas special on Food Network’s Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. I studied the descriptions of all six restaurants Guy Fieri visited and we decided to try the Elf’s Den which is located in North Pole. The menu sounded perfect – pizza, pasta and calzones are their specialty.
The parking lot is on the side of the building and we entered through the lounge area. We thought the restaurant must fit into the Dives category when we stepped down into a dark pool room. We were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice dining room with table cloths and the waitresses in black and white uniforms. We discovered the restaurant entrance when we left.
We had decided to split the Elf’s Special Calzone. Before we ordered, Henry asked the waitress what Guy Fieri had tried. That was what he chose so we knew it must be good. And it was delicious. And huge, too. We ate what we could and took the rest home.
Wandering Dawgs 