Up and on the road by 7:30 again this morning as it was a short drive to Fairbanks. I arrived by late morning, and since I was early, took the turn off onto the Steese Highway and headed north about 10 miles to Fox to see if any RV parks were out that way (toward the Dalton and the Arctic Circle). There were none, so I stopped for gas, and then returned but on the way back stopped at the information center for the Alaska Pipeline where it is picked up north of Fairbanks and took some pictures. I talked with the boy at the information booth and he said he had driven the Dalton last summer with his truck and had no problems. He did not know the status of the road right now.
Then I decided to head south to North Pole, Alaska, and SantaLand RV Park which is a popular "Good Sam" RV Park. It was only a 10 mile drive out of Fairbanks. This town (North Pole) actually gets all the mail that is sent to the North Pole by children in the US, and post marks from here carry the North Pole stamp. I sent a number of post cards. The RV park is reasonable ($16) and has good services including a modem connection, so I plan to stay here for a few days. I went down the road to the North Pole Information center and talked with them, and the woman said her brother took the Dalton up to Coldfoot and had 5 flat tires on his truck during the round trip. There are so many stories, I finally decided that I will just have to go see for myself. I did decide to leave the trailer here in the RV Park and make it a day trip with the Jeep. So I will load up with food and water and take off early in the morning. The drive is 4 to 6 hours each way depending on how much you push it. The faster you drive the tougher it is on the tires. It will depend on how good the roads are at this time of the year.
I drove around in Fairbanks and stopped at Alaskaland which is a park with many old houses (log cabins) that have been moved there and now house souvenir or arts and crafts shops.. Not much to see, so I left and drove to a shopping center and went into a Sears that was attached to a Pizza restaurant and had a slice of pizza. Fairbanks is a nice town and easier to get around in than Anchorage. The scenery coming into Fairbanks on the Parks Highway was beautiful also (so what else is new... this is Alaska). The temperature here right now in the late afternoon is 77 degrees, and will be in the mid-80's for the rest of the week. Up at the Arctic circle it will be in the upper 40's I am told.
It feels good, relaxing to be here... I turned on my air conditioning to try it out and it worked ok... I may need it here depending on how fast it cools off at night. Not much air moving so I have turned the AC on air to get it circulating... I can already tell I will enjoy spring/fall camping much more than summer.. I have been spoiled on this trip I guess.
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