June 19-24 & 28: After stuffing ourselves with the most delicious pancake breakfast, we waddled to the motorhome and set out for the next destination of Fairbanks, AK. This was where we would be doing a lot more shopping for groceries and other necessities. This would also be where we would have to do some maintenance on the motorhome and truck.
Headed to Fairbanks on the Alaska Hwy. Mountain range in the distance.
Rough road again due to frost heaves. These guys have their hands full with fixing pavement all the time.
Crossing over Robertson River, still has lots of ice.
Arrived in North Pole/Fairbanks area in the afternoon. Initially, Sean wanted to wash the motorhome before getting settled in the site.
I took the pups in the truck to Fairbanks to pick up some items we ordered online at the UPS Store and took the pups into Petco to get their errands checked off the list. They had a great time in Petco and were very well behaved.
When I got back from town, I pulled up to the site we thought we were staying in, but Sean told me there was something wrong with the electrical and we were being moved sites. Regardless, we got settled in the new site and everything was in working order.
This was part of the trail around Chena Lake.
SS Nenana
And let the pups play in the Chena River before their drop off at the kennel.
In the above picture you can see smoke from the close (within 50 miles) wildfires plaguing Fairbanks.
The next morning, we headed out to take care of some more errands, like loading up with provisions. If you know us, you know we can't skip a Costco.
No way! Plinko game!
More supplies... and by the way, I love this store!
Look at all the potential!!!
Once we got all the supplies stowed away it was time for a bit of fun. We took the biking trail near the Chena River Overflow Project out to Chena Lake and Moose Creek Reservoir.
On the other side of the levee. There was talk online of lots of moose in this area, but we weren't so lucky.
Near Moose Creek Reservoir is the dam for the overflow project which was neat to see. There was lots of construction going on in this area. We got back from our biking excursion around 10:30p and had completed about 14 miles.
Driving back to our campsite from biking. Smoke filled air with the evening sun.
We started to notice the skies were becoming more populated with water bomber planes to help fight the wildfires. Fairbanks was by far the closest we had come to wildfires and actually experienced some ash falling on us during one of our days there.
The following day we found ourselves in town again and joined in on the Farmer's Market.
We were sad to not find any fresh veggies/fruit yet, but there was plenty to look at.
When rolling by downtown Fairbanks and many closed streets, we realized we missed The Midnight Sun Festival and passed right by all the festivities. We ended up on the street that had a display of all the state flags along it.
Once the morning fun was over, it was down to business... truck oil change in the O'Reillys Auto Parts parking lot right by JiffyLube, lol. Lots of smoke in the air in this picture.
We got back to the campground and let the pups blow off some steam. Sean was trying to capture some of the smoke in the air in this picture. I didn't get a picture of it, but Sean had started to work on changing the motorhome air filter and it was disgusting! The clamp holding the chamber in place broke, so we spent the better part of the afternoon trying to track another down. It was an unfruitful attempt, but luckily Sean remembered he had stowed another clamp somewhere. Once he found it, we were back in business!
Sean decided he didn't have enough bike riding the night previous, so we went on another bike ride into Fairbanks from our campground. I was lured into this with the promise of ice cream.
We got to a point on the trail that the DOT worker was blocking the way. The employee had the truck door open and couldn't see in the mirror as it was pointing out toward the highway and was wearing headphones, so couldn't hear us. They ran out of water after about 1/2 mile being stuck behind them and they took off down the bike path like they stole it, lol. It certainly was entertaining. Once we got into town, Sean tracked down a Mexican Food restaurant that offered fried ice cream and we decided we would try it out. It was awful hot inside the restaurant due to not having air conditioning and it being 75 degrees out. We ate our ice cream outside where it was much cooler. We weren't big fans of the corn flake coating they used for the fried ice cream. This bike ride took us about 18 miles total.
Starting out the day with more smoke, but we won't let it stop us. Yes the smoke is annoying, but this is life around forests. This fire was caused by lightening.
We decided to go kayaking! Sean drove us to Tanana Lakes Recreation Area where we launched off of a beach. In this picture, Sean has decided his kayak is too dirty and decides to clean it out.
I decided to wash mine down, too. They were both very dirty.
Clean kayaks work better. Lol!
It was getting warm, so we decided to jump in the lake to cool off. I told Sean he could go first. It was cold!
After running a couple of errands in town, we hurried home to the pups and took them to play.
We soon found ourselves partaking in a game of horseshoes. We were both sucking at it and Sean kept changing the rules as we went along, so of course he won, lol. We also played corn hole and again Sean won! I think he was cheating!
We earned ourselves some R&R and decided to visit Chena Hot Springs! It was rainy and smoky as we set out.
After quite a long journey, we finally arrived!
Then, before we got out of the truck, we noticed these bugs... they were awful. Sean was glad we didn't end up camping here, lol.
Luckily at the hot spring pool, there were significantly less bugs.
A duck family decided to join in on the fun. I'm surprised they like the hot water.
The next day, in preparation for the next leg our journey, it was time to relocate campgrounds to Pioneer Park because it's cheap, $12/night. This entire day was about setting us up to go to Prudhoe Bay.
We walked around the whole park to see what they had.
Lots of artifacts from the mining era.
We heard the train before we saw it, lol. Cute little train that circumnavigates the park.
President Harding's train car.
Swanky!
Lots of miniature towns and trains that replicate the area boom towns of the gold rush era.
Look at the little peoples!
Pump room.
This shows the route of this ship.
Next up! Mini golf! Again, Sean won....
We explored the walking/biking trail that runs by the park.
The pups are ready for their kennel stay, although they don't know it yet.
Holy Dog, Inc. An outstanding place to board your pets.
Just dropped off the pups for their vacation. Now for another adventure to the Arctic Ocean!
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