Tok - Day 1

As promised, we motored on down to Tok today. We arrived shortly after noon and checked into the Sourdough Campground for the night. Dianna began doing laundry and is still doing it as I write this a little after 9 PM. I think this is the 7^th load.

We just got back from the “show” here at the campground. They have a singing group who were not bad, and a comedy act that includes throwing pancakes into a bucket for a free breakfast. It was a hoot. We also had pie and coffee along with a couple roasted marshmallows.

I checked on our U.S. mail this afternoon and it was not here yet. I really did not expect it to be, so we will be here until at least Monday since the post office is not open on Saturday or Sunday. We will not stay here in the campground but will find a place where it does not cost anything and the nearest neighbor is a lot farther away. That will also mean less access to internet so postings may become more sporadic again.

One thing I am expecting in the mail is a new prescription for my thyroid medication. I asked at the visitor center where the nearest pharmacy is, and they said Fairbanks. That’s 220 miles the wrong way. Guess I will have to wait until we get to Whitehorse, YT again. Fortunately, I have enough to get me through. Just consider that this is on the main highway. What do people who live out in the boonies do? Plan ahead, I suppose.

South to Delta Junction

We headed south today, but not very far. We left Fairbanks a little after noon and drove to a pull out about 5 miles south of Delta Junction. Along the way we saw a couple moose grazing by the road.

After we had been here a while another rig pulled in behind us for the night. I looked out the window and laughed. It was the couple who had been sitting next to us at Pioneer village the last two nights. It turns out we have been following similar routes and similar time schedules for the past two months. They said they have seen us in many places. People tend to notice our rig.

Tomorrow we will go to Tok where we will stay for a few days. We have had our mail sent there so we need to wait until it gets there. Then we will head up toward Dawson City.

My new family in Fairbanks

We decided to stay in Fairbanks another night and see a couple more things before leaving. We went to the museum at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks but decided we did not want to pay the $20 admission fee. It was probably a fair price, but we have seen so much in other places for far less that we just decided to pass. So, we went to Walmart and spent $70 on groceries in preparation for leaving the “big city” and heading for more rural places for the next couple weeks.

This evening I did go to the aviation museum here at Pioneer Village. It was quite good and well worth the $2 admission fee, if I had paid it. I was behind a lady and her grandson who told the clerk “family ticket”. The price for a whole family was $5. The clerk assumed I was with them and sold them the family ticket. When I handed him a $20 bill he looked confused. I explained that I was not with the other two and he tried to give them back their extra dollar. The lady said “He can be part of our family tonight, if that is OK.” The clerk thought it was fine, and I did too. I wanted to give her the dollar but all I had was a twenty so all she got was my heartfelt thanks.

Tomorrow, for sure, we head south toward Delta Junction and Tok. Or maybe not.

So, you think your car is dirty?

I only thought it had stopped raining. It rained some more during the night and we awoke to very dense fog. It burned off around 10 so we decided to go into town and take care of things. We left the trailer and the first stop was a bank to get some cash. Next was a truck wash. We spent $29 and used the high pressure washer to get off the worst of the mud. It is not clean, and I missed some spots, but it is much better than it was. Do you think it needed it?

Next was some grocery shopping and fuel, then we returned to get the trailer and bring it in to town for the night. We are staying at the Pioneer Park parking lot. It is a city run pioneer village that has lots of shops, museums and old cabins and other buildings from the Fairbanks area. Best of all, most of it is free. It’s a nice place.

We found we have internet service here in the parking lot so we are updating the blog again. I have also posted to the gallery all the pictures from the Dalton Highway trip to Prudhoe Bay.  They have not had any descriptions added yet.  That will wait for some later date.

Home Again

What a miserable day. It was raining and the wind was blowing when we woke up and it did not stop all day. We had originally planned to move down toward Fairbanks somewhere and do some shopping, post the blog, wash the truck and get back to civilization today, but I could not bring myself to getting out in this mess to hook up and move. So, I let the rain wash as much of the mud off the truck as it would and we spent the day playing games on the computer, working on needlepoint and reading.

Oh well. After the hard day yesterday, I guess we needed a day off. It finally quit raining about 7 PM so hopefully tomorrow we can get out and do something.

South on the Dalton

We awoke to a rainy day and, unfortunately, it continued all day. We didn’t get as early a start as we would have liked considering we were driving all the way back to our house – 335 miles. That’s a long day’s drive for us under normal conditions, and today’s drive was far from normal.

Our first major hurdle was Atigun Pass…again. I prayed we would get down it safely and we did. But not without my being terror stricken and in tears as we came down the two mile, 12% grade on a slippery, muddy, wet road in the rain and fog. About the only good thing that can be said is we didn’t meet up with any other vehicles while Richard expertly maneuvered us down the treacherous Pass. How the truckers do that stretch of road in the winter on snow and ice we cannot imagine.

We spotted a black bear scampering across the road about 30 miles north of Coldfoot, but he was soon far off into the woods before we got close enough to try to take a picture. He turned out to be the only bear we saw on the Dalton Highway. We were hoping to spot a grizzly or polar bear but it wasn’t to be. Our guide, yesterday, said they had a polar bear there just a week ago!

Everything was green when we drove up last Wed. – Fri. I thought I noticed that the colors on the shrubs and trees seemed to be changing to yellow and orange today so when we stopped at the Artic Visitors Center again I asked if that were true. They informed me that within a week everything will be cloaked in fall plumage! The day after the longest day things started turning - absolutely amazing.

After a fitful night’s sleep and my stressful event earlier I needed a nap and was soon sound asleep. (I could handle anything after Atigun Pass!) Richard soon found himself on a stretch of black mud. It turns black where they have put calcium chloride on the roads. It turns them in to a slippery slime when they’re wet. He met up with two trucks and did a valiant job maintaining control. I was glad I slept through it all!

We continued on to our trailer still parked at Hilltop Truck Stop where we had dinner, cleaned out the truck, put everything away, took showers and climbed into bed, wondering how we are ever going to get all the mud off the truck and scooter.

The Arctic Ocean

The truck did indeed run all night and we were toasty. When we woke the fog was still completely obscuring everything. We fixed coffee and had our cereal, then drove to the post office to mail some postcards. Then we went to the Artic Caribou Hotel where our tour was to leave from.

At the hotel we met up with a young French couple, both school teachers, who we have become friends with. They flew into Anchorage and rented a Jeep SUV which they have driven all over Alaska. They purchased a tent, stove, sleeping bags, etc., (basically everything needed to camp) and have been experiencing the trip of a lifetime. We first saw them our first night out at the Hotspot Café camping area. We saw them again at Finger Rock, the Arctic Visitor Center in Coldfoot, and then they came into the campground at Galbraith Lake where we introduced ourselves and got to know them. It turned out that they had also scheduled the 10 AM tour for today.

The 8 AM tour consisted of three bus loads of tourists who had flown to Coldfoot and were bussed to Deadhorse where they spent the night. After their tour they will fly back to Anchorage in the afternoon and then board a ship for a cruise back down to the lower 48. Our 10 AM tour consisted of just the four of us; Dianna and me along with Stephanie and Alex, our French friends. The tour guide drove us through the oilfield and explained some of the specialized equipment and techniques they use. He also described camp life and what it is like to work there.

Our last stop was at the Artic Ocean. The tour guide said they had two certificates available; Dippers and Plungers. Three of us opted for the Dipper Certificate and dipped our hands into the 36 degree water, but not Dianna. She said she had not come this far just to dip. She brought extra clothing (the polar bear tee shirt) and sure enough, she waded in and sat down where it was deep enough so the water came up to her neck! She said it was cold, but not as cold as she expected. The fact that the outside temperature was only about 43 degrees at the time probably helped. She did not find out it was only 36 degrees until after she had been in. That was probably a good thing.

After the tour we watched a movie that explained a lot more about the oil operations and then ate a hot dog at their cafeteria for lunch. Then, sadly, it was time to leave. We headed south, the only way you can go from there, and soon saw the herd of musk ox again. A little while later we saw a peregrine falcon on a post not 10 feet from the truck. We thought surely he would take flight as we approached, but he merely spread his wings as we went by, giving us a tremendous view of his plumage. I stopped as quickly as I could and started backing up to get a picture, but he flew away as we got near. Sorry. No picture.

We continued on through a couple heavy downpours and stopped for the night at Galbraith Lake again. After dinner we played cards again and turned in.

This picture was taken at our campsite at Galbraith Lake. It and the whole area was amazing. There was a full rainbow behind the truck.