We like Fairbanks (in late summer). I wish we had more time to spend here. Unfortunately because we have to be in Colorado by early October, we need to be moving along. As I had predicted, one summer was not long enough for us to see everything we wished in Alaska. We'll be back again someday. Today we re-provisioned for the long road ahead. While we stayed up late hoping for a repeat showing of the aurora, it disappointed us. The sky was clear, but there was no show of the northern lights.
Leslie Wednesday, September 3, 2008
We began our journey south. It was 42 degrees at 8:00 am this morning. We have 3000miles to cover in our return to Denver. Because of additional travel plans to the AFS Sweden 1976 reunion cruise in early October, we have to get back to Denver by October 1st. We like to average 100 miles/day. What that means is that we travel 200 or 300 miles then stay for 2 or 3 days. We don’t like to do one night stays. Today we drove 200 miles from Fairbanks to Tok, Alaska. Despite my prior comment, we’ll stay here only one night so we can “bank” an extra night somewhere down the road. Tok is a crossroad that we visited previously on our trip from Haines to Palmer in late June/early July. The road today was different because we approached Tok from the north and west instead of the east and south. The leaves changing colors provided variety along the road with nothing but trees.
At one point we approached a bridge and wondered why there was another bridge just to our left. We wondered aloud if the other bridge was a railroad bridge but we hadn’t seen any railroad tracks. – ah ha! As we crossed our bridge we saw the pipeline crossing its own bridge.
We had only one exciting moment along the drive. As we entered a very small town there was a person flagging traffic to exit the main road and turn left onto a very small road. Our rig is really big and we don’t want to get stuck on a road where we may not fit (due to height or width restrictions). We measure out at 100 inches wide and 13" 4" high. Being cautious, we pulled in an abandoned area and I walked up to the flagman to ask how we could get around. He replied that there was a man with a gun in the gas station 200 ft ahead so they thought it was a good idea to close the road! I thought so too. We decided we might as well stop there for lunch in the trailer. By the time we finished lunch apparently the gunman had been apprehended and we were free to continue along our original route.
For those of you following behind us, we’re staying at Tundra Lodge & RV Park, 0.8 miles west of the Tok Cutoff. We highly recommend it. The sites are much nicer than the places further east and the price can’t be beat. We paid $29.00 for a full hook-up site. (Okay, we used to be shocked by such prices, but this is Alaska.) They have free WiFi in the main building (with tables & chairs for your use) and in the cocktail lounge. I checked out the bathrooms and the free showers are very clean. We are one of only 4 rigs in the park tonight.
Robert agreed to cook outside on the picnic table. I wanted chicken fajitas and they spatter too much inside.
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