Trips by Adventure

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Trip to Alaska to West Coast

August 19, 2013 – We awoke this morning to 51 F and rain. It looks like the weatherman thinks it will rain until Thursday. I guess we get to test out our rain gear. We had a fun night at “Cabin Nite” Dinner Theater. They served salmon, pork ribs, potatoes, corn, beans, biscuits, tea, coffee, water, and mixed berry cobbler. The group sang, danced and waited the tables. The meal was severed family style. There was no shortage of food. The group was older and a little more polished than the group in Whitehorse. However, Jo Ann and I both agree that we liked the show in Whitehorse, YT better. In Fairbanks a lady gave us a coupon book (Alaska Tour Saver). We got in for half price. I believe the books cost $100.00. The books are worth it especially if you like to fish. It has lots of half price cruises, fishing, train and plane trips plus other things.

Rain gear practice

Line waiting for theater to open. Many people here are from cruise ships.

Inside theater-- has long tables with benches.

"Cabin Nite " cast

"Cabin Nite" cast

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 18, 2013 -- We are now at the Cantwell RV Park about 27 miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park (Mt McKinley). We drove down from Fairbanks (200 miles) in about 4.5 hours. Gas here is only 4.55 a gallon; a lot better than 5.50 a gallon in Canada. GPS worked ok on inverter but no voice. We just gave Prissy her flea and heart worm meds. She is not a happy cat. The RV Park is a large gravel parking lot with wifi, electric and water supplies in rows. It is not wonderful but is not as expensive as the camps nearer Denali park. It is surrounded by mountains which gives it a wonderful view.You can camp in Denali park but their sites have no utilities. The Cantwell park closes September 15 about the time of their first snow.

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 17, 2013 – We got up late this morning (49 F). Many leafs have started to turn yellow. Fall is coming fast. I worked on GPS fix. It looks like if I will use our inverter to power the GPS; I can use my AC plug. I hope it still talks. I also programmed our little 76 GPS for Alaska maps. I checked that our laptop GPS works. They all seem to be a go. My phone GPS does not work here in Alaska yet. I will test them this evening when I go get gas. I checked all the trailer tires pressure and lug nuts. It all was good. We have had several naps today. We thought we would be tired after the all day trip yesterday. Tomorrow we go south and visit Denali Park. Plan to be at Cantwell RV Park 4 nights. We plan to go to a dinner theater, take a 54 mile bus trip into the park to see animals and visit the dog sledge compound.

Eielson AFB campsite

Driving to Denali from Fairbanks, AK

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 16, 2013 – We got up really early (4:00 am) to go on a tour to The Arctic Circle. We departed downtown Fairbanks by bus at 6:30 am and got back home at 10:30 pm. The tour was very interesting. We had an excellent guide who told us all about the Alaskan Pipeline, Alaskan history, PFD’s – each resident receives an annual payment from a oil reserve fund of $800 -$1200 a year, Arctic Circle plants, animals and conditions. We went up the Dalton Highway. The highway is shown on the TV show “Ice Field Truckers”. The early morning was foggy, rainy, and muddy. It cleared off coming home so we got to see many great sites. We stopped in Joy, Alaska for coffee and outhouse break and Yukon River Crossing camp for lunch and dinner. We received our certificates for having been across the Arctic Circle. They severed us whip cream and chocolate cake at the Arctic Circle to celebrate. Birds would come and eat out of your hand. They loved Arctic Circle cake. We got home about midnight and are going to be sleeping in. It was a great adventure. The wire on GPS broke so I will be working on other methods of navigation tomorrow

Alaska Pipeline in fog

Joy, Alaska- gifts, coffee and outhouse stop

Alaska Pipe Line

Yukon River Camp - housing and restaurant used during construction of pipeline
and now a stop for gas, food and housing on your way to Prudhoe Bay oil fields from Fairbanks.

Surplus Tug for sale. We just have to drive it down the Yukon River to Arctic Ocean
and then south through the Panama Canal to Pensacola. Sounds like a great trip.

These tree are 100 to 150 years old . They only get to grow about 3 months
a year and the ground is frozen all the time about 3 feet down so the roots
grow parallel with the ground about 3 feet down.

The spot on the road in "Ice Field Truckers" they call the roll-a-coaster

This rock points toward Fairbanks for the local pilot.

Arctic Circle -- We made it!

Birds like Arctic Circle cake

Jo Ann picking blueberries. The bushes and berries are really small

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 15, 2013 – We got up and went to library to use computer. We were able to get our reservation for RV park in Cantwell (about 30 mins from Denali Park entrance), reserved "Cabin Nite" dinner show tickets for Monday night 7:30, reserved Denali wildlife tour (54 miles in to park), and balanced our checkbook. The food court was closed for some reason so we had candy bars for lunch. We both got a haircut and then went shopping at commissary. Home just in time for air show. It is not hard to get RV sites this time of year. Most of the RV parks are half full or less. Also, there are a lot of public sites which are free but usually do not have any utilities.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 14, 2013 – Good morning Fairbanks! We had our morning and afternoon air show. If you like airplanes this is the place to be. Our day started with many chores, we could not get the schedule we wanted but just did what we could do. We booked a trip to the Arctic Circle for Friday (August 16). It is a 15 hour trip with 6 hour ride on bus up and 6 back. You only live once; so Arctic Circle here we come. Todays schedule included oil change and tire rotation for the truck, lunch at Oasis Bar and Restaurant. It is a true locals place. I am not sure all the locals would go there. The food was good. Tomorrow is haircut( first since July 2 for Jo Ann and I) and commissary day. Sunday we plan to leave for Denali National Park.

Oasis Bar and Grill- We found out from the oil change people
this place rocks at night not always in a good way. They looked really
surprised that we ate there. Its great being a tourist --
you don't know any better.

Bear Lake at FamCamp on Eielson AFB

River walk in Fairbanks. You can sit by river and eat, sip wine and drink beer.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

Downtown Fairbanks on river walk.

August 13, 2013 – We have had a great day. We went to Fairbanks and drove around. It still looks like a frontier town. It has very few tall buildings. We had lunch at Big Daddy’s BBQ. They have excellent BBQ. Coming home we stopped at North Pole, AK and visited Santa Clause’s House. Jo Ann and Prissy are doing the laundry here at the campground. We had to get quarters at the BX this morning. This morning at 9:30 am we had our first air show and they have been going on all afternoon.