Fairbanks

We made it all the way from Chicken to Fairbanks after a brief rest in Tok.  The Alaska Highway is beautiful, especially compared to the Top of the World.  Fairbanks, as far as I could tell, isn't a lot different than many modern western towns.  You run out of pavement pretty quickly once you leave the main streets, but other than that they've got all the comforts of home (Walmart and Lowes).  We paid $2.67 a gallon for diesel, a little lower than Canada but considering how much oil they produce here, ridiculous.  I'm sure they blame it on refining capability.  I also found out they have no income nor state sales tax, and they give every resident family member about $2,000 a year.  That's over a billion dollars in handouts just for waking up in the morning.  Hmm.  Anyway, we spent 4 days knocking around town and seeing some of the sights.  I got an oil change in the motorhome, topped off with diesel and propane, and got a small rock chip fixed.  We then went about an hour north for a couple nights at Chena Hot Springs Resort.  This will be the northernmost point we reach on the trip.  This morning, it's back through Fairbanks and on to Denali National Park.  We didn't do a whole lot of scenic beauty in Fairbanks, but here are some pictures:

We hadn't shopped for groceries at commissary prices in awhile.  Eielson AFB is about 20 minutes outside of town, so we had to make a stop.  Pretty quiet place on a rainy Saturday morning.

At the botanical garden, University of Alaska.  These purple plants are everywhere.

The first car in Alaska, hand made.  We visited the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum.  Very cool, lots of turn of the century cars, many from Alaska.  They have 7 one of a kind autos.

Laurie and I going for a cruise in our new toad.  You see the term "Sourdough" up here a lot.  It sort of refers to the bread, but more a person who has spent an entire winter up here north of the Arctic Circle.  You keep your sourdough starter yeast close to your body so's it don't freeze.

Our home in Fairbanks, riverfront lot on the Chena River.  Roughing it smoothly, so they say.

The Chena Hot Springs Resort has an indoor ice sculpture museum.  It's 25 degrees in there, so we had to break out our coats for the first time in...I can't remember when.  This is a polar bear lying on his back with balls of ice on his feet.

The marquis award winning sculpture in the museum, two knights jousting.  It's years old, and slowly disappearing through melt and evaporation.

They grow their own flowers at the resort, and like most things in the summer up here, they grow spectacularly.

A reindeer walking in the woods at the resort.  This one's domestic more or less, but we did see another wild moose on our walk.  Those things spook easily.  I couldn't get a decent picture.

Laurie with two new best friends.  They're really into sustainable food and energy at this resort.  It's off the grid, generating it's own power using a geothermal plant.  The chickens in the pen lay eggs that they use for employee meals currently, not certified to serve the public.  I asked an employee if their meals included a lot of chicken and he said yes, but hadn't considered where the chickens come from.  Hmmm.

Like our buddies the horses in Williams Lake, everybody loves grass that can't be reached from the pen.

Tomato plants in the greenhouse at the resort.  They grow their own flowers, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce.  The vines are dozens of feet long, look below the plants.