Denali Highway Revisited (08-19-14)

After our adventure to the Arctic, we stopped overnight in Fairbanks to regroup.  Regrouping consisted of doing laundry, rinsing the grime off the rig, and picking up my new glasses, which had been delivered to the RV park.



While we were busy taking care of business, Dozer was outside trying to climb into some nearby bushes.  That's not unusual for him.  He loves to explore, so I thought nothing of it, but took him inside for dinner a short time later.

 
After chatting with my neighbor for a few minutes, he told me he was getting a kick out of a mommy mole who was quickly relocating her babies by carrying them one at time in her mouth, from one bush to another. Of course, the bush she was evacuating was the one Dozer had been exploring!  So cute to watch and I am so glad he didn’t catch them!



Once our chores were accomplished we decided that we needed to go in search of a few things. What were we searching for?

1) Denali.  We’re here, and didn’t really see the mountain so we decided that one more shot at it would be worth it.

2) The View- We had already driven down Denali Highway in the rain and fog.  With improved weather in the forecast, we were hoping to actually see the mountains that line the highway.

3) The Aurora Borealis- The aurora forecast is saying that we might be able to see them for the next few nights- IF we have clear skies.

So, here’s how we did on our quest:

1) Denali- Nope, sad to say, after spending more than 2 weeks within sight of Mt. McKinley, we just got one glimpse of it one day.

2) The View-Yup!   We were a little nervous since the clouds were thicker than we hoped and it kept raining on us, but that just created numerous rainbows for us.

We spent a great day driving down this dirt road again.

The mountain views were outstanding and made up for not seeing “the big one”.

We spent the night along this road and Dozer got to get out and explore. The weather was perfect.

We even got to watch a Bald Eagle go about his business.

This is where we spent the night.  We both agree that its our favorite spot so far.










3) The Northern Lights (aurora borealis)- Yes!  This is still ongoing.  We saw the lights for about 5 minutes one night- not enough time to even get a camera.  It was mostly cloudy so it wasn't the best display, and just whetted our appetite.  But at least we saw them!



Every night that the weather might cooperate, we make sure the window is facing north (where the lights would appear). One night that looked particularly promising, we actually slept on the dinette so we could watch out the window.  The lights did NOT show up that night.

I did take the opportunity to play with the settings on my new camera, since I was awake most of the night.  Not many stars were visible. mostly just the big dipper.

We’ll keep trying to see them as we make our way out of Alaska and through Canada.

(We are in Canada now, so internet will be spotty for a while)

Fairbanks Museums (08-11-14)

As the second largest city in Alaska, Fairbanks has a fair amount of things to do.  It sits on the Chena River, which is open to all kinds of boating.  There are several museums, and its a great place to see the Aurora Borealis, when the timing is right.  We are hoping that before we leave Alaska we’ll have a chance to see them.

We chose two museums to visit.  The first was the Museum of the North at University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

We visit a lot of museums, so sometimes we scout around looking for something we haven’t learned about before.  I thought this arctic fox was unique.  I had never seen one before.

I usually skate right past the dinosaur type stuff.  Its never been a huge interest of mine, and we’ve been to some world class dinosaur museums already.  But this display had an interesting, easy to understand explanation of carbon dating.


Carbon 14 combines with oxygen in the atmosphere, creating carbon dioxide.  Plants and animals absorb carbon dioxide, and thus, carbon 14, over time. When an animal dies, carbon is obviously no longer absorbed and the carbon 14 starts to deteriorate at a very slow, but very steady, rate.
After a period of 5,558 years, half the carbon will have converted to nitrogen.  By comparing the amount of carbon left in ancient bones to the amount of carbon found in a modern sample, they can determine how long ago an animal died.

Fountainhead

Fountainhead is a private antique car museum. All the cars are owned by Tim Cerny, a local businessman. Other than a few cars that have not been restored at all, this is a living museum- all but a few of the cars are operational.  This old Ford was converted into a portable saw mill. 

One we got inside the building, the cars were in pristine condition and ranged from the late 1800s to the 1930s.

In 1917 a New Hampshire man patented his “snowmobile” kit- made from a Ford Model T.  Although many cars were adapted to drive on the snow, this was the first recorded use of the word Snowmobile.








 
In and among all the cars there were other displays.  This was a 7 minute movie, perhaps the first 35mm film ever made.  It showcases the interaction of a variety of methods of transportation in San Francisco.  It was filmed just 4 days before the great earthquake of 1906.
It really shows the chaos of life before traffic regulations.





All of the cars have a unique story, and many of them are one of a kind.  This 1898 Hay Motor Vehicle was found in a barn in 1940.  Its a prototype and was never built for production.












This 1907 Ford Model K Roadster was one of several Ford vehicles in the building.










From gangster cars to family sedans, there was a huge variety of automobiles in the museum.  We were given audio players so that we individually hear stories about each car.

The museum was very well done!

Fairbanks, AK (08-10-14)

Posting this in a hurry, since we have decided to trek at least part way up the Haul Road, or Dalton Highway and will have no connection at all.

I freely admit that before I came to Alaska, I knew so little about the state, it’s really sad.  I knew that there are quite a few towns that are only reachable by plane or boat but I had no idea which ones they were- except Juneau.  I knew that one. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought that maybe Fairbanks was one of them (them being: Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Nome, among others). But nope. Fairbanks is in the interior of Alaska.   

The climate here is dryer than many parts of Alaska, and It can get quite warm here in the summer- today was 81 degrees and sunny. I think its the first time Paul wore shorts since we left the lower 48. I’m just glad we won’t be here in the winter, when it can reach –40.

First thing on our agenda was to check out Pioneer Park.  We figured it might be a bit hokey but we could walk to it from the RV park so we figured it would be worth visiting.  Its a free park that has several small museums, a miniature gold rush town, and assorted stores and eateries.

OK, I guess some parts of it are hokey!

One of the museums is housed in S.S. Nenanna, an old riverboat.  It was full of dioramas of the small towns along the route that Nenanna traveled when it was in service.  Most towns in Alaska are situated on rivers, since that was the easiest method of travel before the road system was developed.

After the diorama was finished, a 90 year old woman came in to see the display and realized that this diorama is of her and her father back in 1925.  Her father was one of several mushers to deliver serum to Nome in the 1925 Great Race of Mercy.

One of the other museums had a lot of memorabilia.  I was surprised to see this old typewriter.  I had no idea that the original typewriters had no shift key, so they had keys for both upper and lower case letters.









  After a surprisingly interesting afternoon, we started the trek back home.  The sky in front of us was a pretty blue.










The sky behind us was an ominous gray, with rumbling noises coming from it.  We had a 2 mile walk and ended up jogging most of the last mile. The weather had been so nice, we had left the skylights open.  We did make it back before we got soaked!







The other thing that's been happening is online. Anyone who “does” Facebook  may be familiar with the Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge was started in Massachusetts by athlete Peter Fretes, who was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He started the challenge to raise awareness of the disease and at this point, many professional athletes and celebrities have responded.  But it’s also spread like wildfire on Facebook.  The way the challenge works is someone makes a video nominating a few of their friends to take up the challenge within 24 hours, or forfeit and donate $100 to the ALS foundation of their choice.  The person offering up the nomination then completes the challenge themselves by dumping a bucket of ice water over their head.

I don’t usually participate in these types of things on Facebook, but in this case I was happy to do so.  27 years ago my mother lost her battle with ALS and died at the young age of 55 (the same age I am now).  Anything that brings awareness to the disease is worthwhile to me!

Benson and the (ghost) town of Fairbanks, AZ

 

Arizona has quite a few ghost towns- some that have been abandoned for many, many years, and some that are still in the process of being abandoned.  Today we went to Fairbanks, which was a small town that had its heyday when silver mining was actively being pursued in this area, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Because the railroad was nearby, it was a hub of activity for many years, but activity slowly dwindled  until the town was completely abandoned.



Paul exploring the stamp mill ruins



   One of the building ruins is the stamp mill. Once we came to it, I could see Paul's eyes take on their distant, preoccupied look.  He wandered off to explore the mill, and I sat on  the bench conveniently located nearby.  We both love exploring this type of place, but we enjoy completely different aspects.  So, I sat there and wondered where the people lived, where did they go when the mill closed? Were there children? How isolated did they feel?



Paul, on the other hand, is more mechanical. When he came back from his exploration, he had his theories on how the mill was set up, what kind of equipment they may have had, and where it would have been.

 


    I got my chance to do more speculating when we saw the cemetery.  It is the most primitive and rustic cemetery I have ever come across.  There were few headstones- mostly just wooden crosses nestled in a pile of rocks.  They looked just like the ones you'd see in a movie about the old west.




lunchtime on the trail- Brenda and Kit

    The weather in Benson has slowly gotten better, although its still been in the 20s at night. At least the wind and the snow has stopped though, so we have been able to get out and about more.  Yesterday we went for a hike in the Coronado National Forest, in an area that was the refuge of the Apache Chief Cochise.  The highlight of that hike was the company! After spending some time with Brenda and Kit over the last few days, the four of us decided to do the hike together.  The weather was perfect except for the fact that there was a fair amount of snow still on the ground once we got up to the mountain. We walked for a few miles, stopping once in a while to admire the view and give the guys a chance to do some boulder climbing.  Once we ate lunch and started to continue on our way, we were hiking in the shade, which ended up halting our hike.  The snow was getting a little too deep and slippery, and it wasn't worth risking injury, so we turned back a little sooner than we had planned.  Still, we hiked about 6 miles and had a great time.

    Tonight it was dinner at a great restaurant with 5 other couples.  They are all Escapees, staying in the same RV Park as us.  Dinner went by way too fast,  but we'll see almost everyone again in a week or so in Yuma.  Tomorrow we head out, stopping at Picacho Peak State Park for a night or two.