Wednesday July 16, 2014 North Pole, Alaska (near Fairbanks)

The Alaskan word for summer is "Road Construction"

 With only 140 miles to drive, I'll never know why so many people left the RV Park so early.  I heard engines starting at 6 AM.  Maybe they were concerned about the sign we saw when we arrived in Denali, "Road Construction Next 134 Miles."

I'm not sure when Gerri got up, but I stayed in bed until 7:30.

There are good roads in Alaska, too

I made coffee and started drinking it while catching up on e-mail and Facebook.  I continued drinking it while we got ready to travel.

We left the RV Park at 9.  We were among the last to leave.

Road construction began before we were far out of Denali and continued off and on most of the way to Fairbanks.  We were stopped by flagmen twice and traveled at 10-15 mph for a long way once.  I had washed the Jeep in Anchorage and then towed it through the rain to Denali.  It got worse today as we drove through areas of construction that had been watered down.

Tanana Valley

We got to the Riverview RV Park at 1 PM.  We are in a full hookup, pull through site with 50 amp electrical service.

After we got set up we redded up the inside of the coach a little,  sweeping and then vacuuming, dusting, and etc.  I even gave the floor a once over with a mop.  The vacuum hose still comes loose from the attachments.  Today it also pulled loose from the wall plug.  On our free day here I plan to get some Gorilla glue at Walmart and see if that will hold it in.  I also need to get some small washers and see if we can adjust the catches on the bay doors that pop open.  We have had them taped shut since Whitehorse.

Entrance to the Salmon Bake at Pioneer Village

Ridem salmonboy

After the chores I checked for nearby geocaches.  There was one about a quarter mile away.  I picked up Dave and we went for it.  The cache was near some horseshoe pits behind a local bar and grill.  The GPS reading jumped around quite a bit and we were looking for it outside the fence around the horseshoe pit area.  There were four sets of horseshoe pits, two covered and two in the open.  According to information on the cache page there is an informal tournament every Wednesday at 7 PM.  We wondered around for awhile with no luck.  The woman who owned the bar and grill came out and ask us if we wanted to go through the bar to the other side of the fence.  I asked her if we needed to.  She laughed and said she wasn't giving any hints.  She and the other two patrons of the bar got quite a few more laughs as we wondered around out back looking for the cache, they knew where it was.  Ground zero seemed to be near the fence in the grassy area.  I reread the cache page and then read the recent logs by other cachers.  One had written that the coordinates were about 45' off.  We expanded our search and I found it nestled atop one of the logs making up the cover to the horseshoe pits.  Flushed with victory we returned to the RV Park.

I showered and Geri gave me a hair cut before the bus came to take us to dinner at 4:30.

Dinner was a Salmon Bake at a restaurant at Pioneer Village in Fairbanks  It was another all you could eat meal featuring baked salmon, deep fried cod, prime rib and a salad bar.  There was also a dessert bar with several kinds of cake to choose from and a blueberry/apple sauce to put over your choice.

After dinner we walked through the Pioneer Village to a theater.  The village featured old buildings and various equipment associated with mining and shops.  here were several entertainment venues and a car show going on.

The theater featured a revue that gave a whimsical history of Fairbanks.  There were four actors/singers and a piano player.  The show was really enjoyable, especially a variation on the old Abbot and Costello "Who's On First?" skit.

Back at the RV Park we weren't up long.  I caught up on computer stuff and Gerri went to bed to read.  Do you remember I said the days were getting shorter?  Well, at 10:30 it was getting dusk.

Tomorrow we have a river boat tour, lunch and a visit to the ice museum.  So it's up early again, the bus leaves at 8am.