So we awoke to a beautiful morning in what we nick- named that morning “The Mosquito Bowl”. 😆
After our morning routine of coffee, brushing teeth and doing our morning plank we were ready to hit the road again. The goal today was to get to Fairbanks!
Once we arrived there it would add another another 169 miles, putting our shakedown total at 984 Miles!
So as we left we drove The Ohana down to the bottom of the bowl, and out the other way for fun.
And shortly after we were on the road again!
You will see a lot of pictures whenever we come across a bridge in our stories. I think they are super interesting as down in Homer we don’t have any large bridges. Also, they usually are accompanied by some really awesome views!
A little while later we came across a mile mark for me- we went on the longest straight stretch of road I had ever driven on. I’m sure that people from down in the Lower 48 are pretty used to long straight stretches, but most the roads I had dealt with up here in Alaska always had hills and turns to adjust to the valleys and mountains everywhere. So when we drove 36 miles of straight stretch, I was pretty impressed!
I could just repeat the picture from above over and over again, but I will spare you photos from the big stretch. 🤣 One notable spot on the stretch though was right after crossing this bridge.
Though it wasn’t in the cards that we would camp here for the night- we did take note that it would be an beautiful spot to stay if our travels ever took us this way again.
So back on the straight stretch…
…that would take us all the way to Delta Junction!
So this is where we would have gone (And slightly wished we did) if we had not gone to Tok.
We didn’t do too much in Delta Junction, but did do a little bit of driving around. Laura had us drive to the public library to look at it from the outside. 🤷♂️
There was seriously nothing going on in Delta Junction, so I encouraged us to get to Fairbanks so I could show Laura the place where I had fond memories. In my memories, I remembered Fairbanks being like Alaska’s Hidden Tropical Paradise in the summer.
Then we were back in drive mode- this time back to the familiar hills and valleys style driving I was accustomed to.
We did drive up into a little secluded area off the side of a pullover on the way to eat a quick road snack, but it was notable because we would have never been able to take Serenity up there. There is a beauty to having a 4×4 with clearance!
Not long after we were entered the military area of the Eielson Air Force Base, where no pictures were allowed to be taken. I was too busy paying attention to the road but Laura saw a semi carrying a tank on the back! 😲 I was super bummed I missed it. 😔 Anyway, here is a photo of the exit sign to the base area. Wow… right? 🙄
Pretty much right after that we entered North Pole. I had been through here before- but Laura was super excited about this part! So with that, I am officially kicked out of the writer’s chair for a bit because, as promised, this part is all hers. 🚶♂️⌨️
Well, you all might not know this about me, but I am a bit cheesy. I really do love holidays, even looking at these pictures again brings a smile on my face I can’t quite explain. So knowing this now, you might have a bit of understanding of my COMPLETE EXCITEMENT of going to the NORTH POLE!!
So there is the sign to the North Pole… Did I mention, that we were headed to, the North Pole, where Santa is from??
Look! Even the poles are Candy Cane Striped!
Oh My Gosh! Is that Santa!!??
He must be trying to be incognito- or maybe his sleigh is in the shop?
With the whole pandemic, we weren’t sure if the Santa House would be open, or really, if we should go inside… but we were going to find it!
And so we did, it was located right were it should be… on Santa Clause Lane!
This is the part that Geoff really earned the ‘Best Friend in the World’ card, because he let me just gush all over this frufru stuff and even took pictures! Thanks baby! 🙂
Look at how BIG the Santa is?! Is my name on the good kid list?
I Was Seriously Feeling Judged In That Moment. 😰
Of course there are reindeer flying…
A bonus was there were actually real reindeer! I know, I know, they are caribou, but here in the North Pole, they are called reindeer….and I can say, they don’t really like the heat….and that their rack of horns seem really heavy.
It looks like in ‘normal times’ you could take a ride with them, and feed them…but I was happy to just look at them! 😄
Okay, I might have thought the Santa was big and exciting- but look at the Christmas Tree! Best thing about the day so far!
We decided to go ahead, mask up, and walk through the Santa gift shop- Geoff was excited…
Besides having every ornament known to man kind, a fudge shop and the best bathrooms we had seen on our journey, there was a vignette of where Santa would be sitting! Gushing some more here!
The Bus Schedule Must Be Behind… 🚌
This is somewhere I don’t need to go again, but I am so very glad that we stopped by and got to see Santa’s home! 😆
Maybe there will be an Easter Bunny town someday on our travels?
Whew! Good To Be Back!
So Laura got her exciting Christmas experience! And now it was time for my version of Christmas- going to the local salvage yards for parts!
Our mission was any parts we could get for The Ohana. In particular I was looking for a steering gear box (ours had a slow leak) and grab rail handles for the bathroom and the entry door.
Oh- and I should mention; It was a gorgeous day! ☀️
It was pushing the upper limit of Laura’s comfort zone as far as heat goes though. 🌡️💦 As she put it, she was not expecting that type of weather in Alaska.
To me it was the type of sunshine and smiles weather that reminded me of being somewhere other than the big AK. 🌞
Look at all those vehicles!
Hmmm… and I don’t see one Toyota. Okay, you can call be biased! But seriously, do you? 🤔🧐😉
Hmmm… strange.
We were also on the hunt for skylight screens for our rig and The Ithaca.
But the motor homes at this particular yard had no viable keepers.
And last but not least we were looking for bus mirrors for The Ithaca. There were a ton of buses here!
There were not only mirrors galore, but there were some really nice grab rails too!
We also found a decent hand rail on the semi sleeper cabs.
So after we snapped our photos and had our list of parts we wanted to pull, it was time to head back to the salvage yard shop to talk some shop; prices and availability that is.
It turned out the buses were off limits. They were all old Denali State Park Tour Buses, and the owner of the yard wanted to try and sell each bus as a whole unit. Which meant, no pulling parts. 😓 Bummer!!! No mirrors and no grab rails.
Actually, we got permission to pull one.
The yard attendants were all super friendly, and the attendant at the office was super helpful as well. He just couldn’t give us any bus parts. Overall it was a great experience, and we scored one handrail! This one we were going to put in the bathroom.
Also, the weigh station attendant let us weigh Our Ohana! I was super curious to see what she weighed in at. As she was fully loaded, she came in at a whopping 7,700 pounds!
The name of the metal salvage yard was Chena Power, and I would totally go by there again. 😎
So after that we were headed to another yard, this one was called MSI Auto Parts.
On the way there, after leaving Chena Power, our vehicle became extremely loud all of the sudden. To me it sounded like an issue with the muffler. When we arrived at our destination I discovered this… 🤦
It would have to wait until for after we got done looking through the junkyard.
This yard was a completely different creature. They let us walk the premise to scout for parts, and were very friendly. This yard was extremely organized, all of the vehicles labeled and placed in rows so that the vehicles were very accessible for pulling parts.
On a side note, I have to say Laura was super chill and awesome during all of this even though I knew she was very hot, and very hungry. 💖
We spent a good 40 minutes looking before going back and realizing that the attendants actually had all the parts on all of the vehicles in their data base.
We only asked the attendant about the steering gear box, which we agreed there would be no guarantee that new one wouldn’t have leaking seals either- so I decided to wait. All the other stuff I forgot to ask about because by this point I was worried about feeding Laura and fixing our exhaust issue.
Out in the parking lot, I quickly realized that the exhaust would not currently go back together. The end closer to the engine had expanded when it came apart, and had now cooled down to where it wouldn’t fit back around the tail end.
So the plan was to head to the closest auto part store to see how we could fix it. AND because some of the exhaust hangers were broken…
… I had to improvise and hang the tail end with ratchet straps.
Luckily there was a NAPA just a few blocks away. We picked a good spot out at the edge of the parking lot out of the way and headed in to see what we could do.
The only solution seemed to be a muffler patch. So I let the vehicle warm up for a minute, put on my gloves, and once the exhaust had heated up and expanded I slid the tail end in.
Once they were together, I had Laura hold the exhaust in place (on the cool side) and activated the wrap.
The wrap kit had come with a lighter gauge tie-wire, so once the wrap was in place I used the wire to tie the (rusted in place) U-Bolts together and hold the exhaust in place.
Afterwards we ran the rig for 10 minutes to heat cure the wrap in place.
Then we headed over to AIH to purchase some heavier duty tie-wire.
Ultimately the exhaust system was going to need to be replaced, but for now I had a plan to tie everything into place until that could feasibly happen.
So after we purchased some stronger tie-wire we went across the street to an open and less busy Value Village parking lot. Since it was getting closer to closing time for stores, we went inside and I scored a board game that was pretty much brand new!
Score!
Once we finished shopping some sweet secondhand goods I got to work binding the patch job tighter, and making wire hangers to keep the exhaust in place for the time being.
While I was tying up the exhaust a gentleman approached us and asked if needed help. We said we were okay. He did continue to keep us company and it turned out he also boon-docked quite a bit, and traveled around this area. He gave us some super helpful tips about some highlight points we could hit further along on our trip!
I don’t remember your name fellow traveler, but Thank You for the positive thoughts and advice!
It wasn’t the prettiest job, but when it was done everything was firmly secured into place. 😤🙂
By this point, you can imagine Laura was a very hungry Laura bear indeed. Since I super appreciated her patience thus far, and was smart enough not to risk life or limb by pushing a bear any further, it was food time.
I hadn’t realized it, but at this point we were in Fairbanks! It turns out North Pole is right next to it, so in our travels we had crossed over!
I had heard of a place called The Alaska Salmon Bake. Knowing we were getting closer to Laura’s birthday I recommended this place as a warm up treat. (Yeah, we were a few days away, but Laura spoils me a lot around my birthday so it could definitely be considered close enough)
We drove around trying to find it, but Google Maps kept showing it inside Pioneer Park, which didn’t seem right.
Pioneer Park is a large park in the middle of Fairbanks. On my last visit up to Fairbanks I never went inside. It’s hard to tell when lies within because it has a big wall built up around it.
So shrugging our shoulders we decided to head inside, in hopes we could at least ask someone for directions. When we headed inside we were completely caught off guard.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of old town Alaska displays- but this one took the cake.
Inside the walls, the park was almost like a hidden little Disney Land of Alaska! The park held a ton of different, and very professionally done, features inside.
This plane was not only an impressive display, but lead to the Pioneer Air Museum. There was also the Fairbanks Community Museum right by it, but both were closed. 😔
In fact, most everything was shut down due to Covid. It was really cool they still kept the park open at all though.
Eventually, we discovered The Alaska Salmon Bake was inside the park itself, and it was open!
Part of our plan for Laura’s Birthday was to break our fast and let her eat whatever she wanted, Seagan or not. The menu options were impressive, but we decided to hold out one more meal before breaking our fast.
From my understanding, this restaurant used to have more of a buffet approach. Now you picked your vittles, they gave you tickets, and you would go to your selected food choices. Once there you would talk to a server behind a plexiglass wall. They would dish up your food to your liking, and then hand it off to you at the end. It worked pretty well. Also the tables were spaced way apart.
Regardless, shortly after we were enjoying some wonderful salads and this:
Halibut, Roasted Potatoes And Crab. Now I don’t go off endlessly about food often; but this was awesome! Awesome food, awesome amount, and an awesome price! Something hard to come by locally where we are from. (And when you do, it doesn’t last long!)
After our seafood smorgasbord, we decided to further explore the park. We found the way people would normally come in, through this cool mining tunnel.
Over the tunnel is a train track that runs over the wall and around the park traveled by a train called Engine #1. I believe it was the first steam engine that came to Alaska. It was not running this summer though…
One moment in Laura’s life that she is very proud of, is that she rode the equivalent to a mechanical bull, but a mechanical salmon. Yeah, she caught air, but she is very glad she did it. Now we didn’t have a Mechanical Salmon for her this time, but you know she couldn’t pass up this opportunity!
As we walked around the park there were nice open fields, surrounded along one side with a disc golf course.
During our walk we found out that this place used to be called Alaska Land. But tourists kept traveling up to Alaska expecting an amusement park equipped with Roller Coasters and the whole nine yards. So Fairbanks, not wanting to be misleading, renamed the place Pioneer Park.
On the far side of the park we got to hear something we hadn’t heard in a long time; live music! There was a group of people happily jamming out while responsibly distancing at the same time. 😁🎶
Overall the park was amazing! This was hands down the most professional and pleasant place I had seen in Alaska overall. Good Job Fairbanks!
So it was time to find a place to park for the night.
We decided to end the evening with a nice shower, which meant it was time to dump our tank and fill up with fresh water. We found a Tesoro, but were disappointed to find that it was dump only. None the less, we closed the curtains and took a couple of quick showers and dumped our tank.
We decided to head over to a nearby Costco to crash for the night- determining we would hunt for a fresh water fill-up the next day.
Once we were settled in for the evening we were greeted by the blare of a train whistle- and looking at what Kalcifer was watching tonight, we watched The Alaska Railroad Train drive right on by.
It had been a long and adventurous day! But tomorrow was the day before Laura’s actual birthday, and we were excited to explore around Fairbanks for a bit before heading to her real birthday treat: Chena Hot Springs!
Geoff Murphy 8/31/2020