Jun 18, 2013 - Fairbanks - A Walk About Town, Day 18

June 18, 2013...Fairbanks, AK. Another beautiful, sunny, hot and dusty day. The temperature is expected to continue to be in the upper 80s until Friday. It nearly broke the record of 89 today, reaching 88. Whew. At least there’s no humidity to go with it! We visited with fellow campers this morning and caught up on our web site again. About noon, we headed out to visit the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and see the museum there. We spent about 3 hours at the museum, including viewing two documentaries, one about winters in Alaska and...

Jun 17, 2013 - Stayed over in Fairbanks

Today we went to Pioneer Park which has an old paddle wheel boat, an old train car from way back in the day, and has some old cabins that had been turned into little shops, however there was only one thing opened, I don’t know why nothing was opened as it was around 10:30, oh well we just walked around saw some old equipment and then headed out to find an RV dealer for a piece of drainage hose Buddy needed for the trailer, did not find it there so we tried Home Depot and Lowes which is where he bought one, but when he got back to the...

Jun 17, 2013 - Fairbanks - River Boat Ride, Day 17

June 17, 2013…Fairbanks, Alaska. John cleaned the bugs off the windshield (again!!) and the front of the Roadtrek. Now that’s a job! Traveling creates quite a bug collection. At 1:15 pm, we boarded the shuttle bus from the campground to the Chena River dock. After obtaining our boarding passes, we boarded the riverboat for the three-hour cruise. We chose the top deck (4th level). The Discovery III Riverboat left the dock at 2:00 pm. The Binkley family began the riverboat cruises in the 1950s. A bush pilot flew his float plane off the river,...

Jun 16, 2013 - Tok to Fairbanks - Day 16

June 16, 2013…Fairbanks, Alaska. Father’s Day. All three of our children contacted their father to wish him a happy Father’s Day. We decided to stay in Tok for the morning to catch up the journal while we had good signal. A local man with his sled and team of sled dogs came to the Tok RV Village to demonstrate dog mushing and take visitors for a ride in the sled. This is another warm, sunny, dry day. We got the journal caught up and left the park about 11:45 am Alaska Time (four hours different from home). It’s 82 degrees. We stopped at the...

Jun 16, 2013 - Happy Fathers Day!

We went to a Farmers Market in Fairbanks, there wasn’t much to it so did not take us long to see it, we stopped at a Thrift store and went into Sears to look around, then we went to Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska and also saw the Reindeer they have fenced up, they have to fatten them up to get them ready for Christmas . We headed back to the RV Buddy decided to take a nap and I sat outside reading and making some phone calls, mosquitos are pretty bad up here so I got my Citronella candle out (Thanks again Angie) and it helped, once...

Jun 15, 2013 - The mosquitos have landed!

6-15-2013 Fairbanks, Alaska. We are cooking here! It was in the mid 80’s yesterday and we had finally had to give in and turn on the AC. And the mosquitos have landed, with a vengeance! And yes, they are big and very persistent. In fact they are hovering outside the window screens as I write this! We took a riverboat tour on an old sternwheeler the other day and it was really fun. It took you down the Chena river, to where the Chena and the Tantana rivers meet. We stopped to see a floatplane take off and then land on the river, as the bush...

Jun 15, 2013 - Travel Day

We were at the gas station a little after 8:00 am this morning to get the tire put on that we bought yesterday, we also got a propane tank filled and filled up with diesel, while we were there we washed the trailer since you get a free wash, we had planned to just run into the grocery store and grab a donut for breakfast but by the time we got all done with everything it was around 10:00 and we were hungry so we went to Fast Eddies for breakfast, we both got 2 eggs, potatoes, toast, Buddy got bacon I tried the Reindeer sausage and with tip...

Jun 13, 2013 - Fairbanks is Fun!

6-12-2013 Another sunny day (75 degrees) here in Fairbanks. We are so amazed by this awesome weather! And it is supposed to be the 80's for the next few days. Spike, who carefully planned our trip, had me all prepared for rain and dreary weather. So I packed jeans, flannel shirts, sweaters and turtlenecks etc. Thankfully I did pack lots of t-shirts and a couple pairs of shorts. We took a trip to Fort Wainwright Army base to go to the commissary. The base is huge, we got lost trying to find the commissary, and MWR. The prices at the...

Jun 9, 2013 - Fairbanks

6-7-2013 to 6-8-2013 From: Tok, Alaska To: Fairbanks, Alaska via Delta Junction. We had an 11:30 appointment at the repair place for the motorhome tire. Spike was able to pump the tire up from the MH air system so we could safely drive over there from the RV campground, because the tire was as flat as a pancake! They found the puncture which initially caused the leak, but they also found a slash in the upper inner sidewall. We decided to go ahead and just change out the tire. We also filled up on diesel and propane, and got a free car wash...

Jun 3, 2013 - Museum of the North

Today we visited the University of Alaska Museum of the North on the UA campus in Fairbanks. We love to do museums ... we usually take twice as long as most people. I don't know if it's because we're getting older and can't read as fast ... or if other people don't care to take the time to read the entries and inspect the items and try to learn something of what the museum is trying to teach. Today a lady in the gift shop mentioned how long we were in the museum ... then mentioned how some people just walk through and don't really look at...

Jun 2, 2013 - Riverboat Discovery -- On the Chena River in Fairbanks

Many things to see and do in the Fairbanks area ... we hope to do a few of them before heading to Denali Nat'l Park later this week. Today we experienced the Riverboat Discovery, a riverboat experience on the Chena River within the city limits of Fairbanks. The experience included witnessing a bush pilot take off and landing on water next to the paddleboat, a stop at the Susan Butcher Champion Dog Kennels/Training Site, an interpretive presentation at a mock Athabascan First Nation village, and a guided tour along the Chena River. It was...

May 29, 2013 - Fairbanks ---- we struck it rich

We arrived FAirbanks at about 08:30 Pm late tea and into bed by 10:30, the sun was still shining brightly. Up and into it next morning and tried our hand at panning gold. We panned $41.00 worth. Next we headed of the cruise the river on a sternwheeler stopping off at an Indian village. Back to the hotel and prepare for tomorrow mornings train trip to the Denali National Park.