Fairbanks, AK – Tuesday, August 30 thru Saturday September 3, 2011
We awoke in the sleepy little town of Nenana to rain and 43 degrees. Worked around the RV waiting for it to stop. We were rewarded with an Alaskan rainbow, which are supposedly even better than those in the lower 48. As usual, the pictures do not capture the colors or brightness, but it was pretty.
We went into town around 2pm and took a walk along the Tanana River, checked out the mural progress, visited the Cultural Center and RR Depot and got a snack at Kristi’s. We were some of her last customers as she closes up tomorrow for the winter. I guess not many tourists after labor day.
We left for Fairbanks around 4:30 and enjoyed the ride. The road was pretty good. First stop was Sam’s Club. We fueled up for $4.12/gal diesel. We did some shopping then off to Walmart to park for the night. We purchased the much needed kitty liter and immediately had a satisfied customer.
It was late, so we decided to do Walmart restocking tomorrow. Relaxed until EJ heard the toilet “hissing”. It turns out it was leaking in the back and the water was draining outside. We turned the pump off and Frank will deal with it tomorrow.
We were curious about all of the short poles with what looked like outlets on top. We thought Walmart was really getting into providing service for RV’s. It turns out most places have them, they are for plugging you car into in the winter. It gets so cold that if you don’t plug in or leave your car running, the oil will get too thick to circulate, your battery will freeze and your antifreeze might even freeze.
It is amazing how often you need to use water when you don’t have any. We have to keep the pump off, so it’s bottled water to the rescue. Frank took out the toilet, found the broken part and began to call around to see if anyone had it in stock. Turns out there are only two RV parts places in Fairbanks, but one of them had our part. We were so lucky that it happened here and not somewhere out in the boonies. Well, you know what Frank ended up doing all day. EJ did the shopping and we are stocked up for now. Once everything was accomplished, we did make it to the visitors center to pick up some info and use their computers. Maybe tomorrow we will get to explore Fairbanks.
September is here and it started off with a sparkle. EJ’s B’day.
Frank let EJ decide what the day would bring. Out for breakfast, river walk, tour around town, and of course, shopping. The flowers around here are really great, almost everywhere you look there is a display. Some get really big. I guess all of that sunshine 20 plus hours per day helps.
Downtown has nice river walk, fountain and memorials.
We went back by the visitors center and spent a little more time.
We finished off the day with a movie (Harry Potter – Deathly Hallows Part II) and dinner. Great birthday in Alaska.
Friday looked like good weather, again, so we opted to head to Pioneer Park. This area has a lot of relocated log cabins (now used as shops), the Pioneer Museum & Air Museum, Gold mining town, an old Riverboat, Native Center and train. Needless to say, it was a full days worth of things to do and see.
Also inside the park was a Salmon Bake place. It was a huge area with separate buildings for salads, deserts and the main course of plank baked salmon, crab legs and prime rib. It was all you could eat and the place was packed. No way could we do it justice, so we opted not to join them. EJ did find a salmon she thought she could handle.
Saturday we headed for the UAF (University of Alaska, Fairbanks) Botanical Gardens. It is a nice area where they experiment with what plants will thrive in the long daylight summers and cold winters.
Well, we have been in Fairbanks for five days and as many nights in Walmart. It has been interesting, but it’s time to be moving on. This place is getting a little too “homey” for us. Some of these campers look like they won’t be moving on any time soon.
We really thought this guy was taking it a little too far, but you have to give him credit for keeping up his workout!
We can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
| BG Miles Today | 60 | BG Total Miles | 7136 |
| Eat Out total $ | 1055.56 | BG Total Fuel $ | 4004.44 |
| Entertainment total $ | 588.63 | Total Camping $ | 1162.03 |
| E Miles Today | 97.6 | E Total Miles | 2514.6 |
| E Total Fuel $ | 534.72 | Day # of Trip | 91 to 95 |
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