Fairbanks to Tok, July 25, 2009

We left Fairbanks, after spending a week at the Wal-Mart there, and traveled to Tok, about 200 Miles south. This is about all you can do in one day, with stops to see various things.

This is the North Pole Post Office where we sent postcards to all the grandchildren. It is just down the road from Fairbanks.

We stopped to see Santa but he was busy with this lady.

This is the Eilson Air Force Airport, just south of North Pole. I guess they are there in case Santa needs help.

We stopped at a lodge which specialized in burl logs and sculpture. This is Jim with a short log.

This is a duck flying, made of burl logs. Pretty creative, I think!

We ate lunch at this lake, Birch Lake, about 60 miles south of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway.

Here is a view of the great Tanana River, which we saw quite often by the road.

This is the Big Delta Bridge crossing the Tanana River. It is the area where the pipeline crosses also.

Here is the pipline crossing the Tanan River by the big Delta Bridge.

This is a distant view showing both the pipeline and the bridge.

This is Rika's Roadhouse, an early lodge & restaurant which was an important stop for all those traveling from Valdez to Fairbanks.

This is a front view of the roadhouse.

This is the rear view. The lady who ran it, Rika, was an immigrant who was self-sustaining. She had a garden and a barn with animals in it. She had a spring on the property for water & refrigeration. Her garden was so successful that the Extension Service from the University of Alaska studied her methods.

This is her barn. Barns are rare in Alaska.

We went through Delta Junction, the official "end" of the Alaska Highway, which started in Dawson Creek, BC. This shows Jim by their weather thermometer. The coldest ever recorded here was - 70 degrees!

Lynda is by the sign indicating the north end of the 1,422 mile Alaska Highway.

This is a"pig" which is used to clean the sludge which builds up on the inside of the Alaska Pipline. Watch "Ice Road Truckers" or something like that to see how they have to travel the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay in the winter to keep that pipeline functioning.

These two guys from Cleveland, Ohio, were just arriving at Delta Junction, the north end of the Alaska Highway while we were there. They left in April, I think, and have ridden their Trek tandem bicycle all this way. They were beat! They planned to fly home! :-)

This shows their trailer and the extra tubes & tires. Note the solar pannel on top of the box which they used to recharge AA batteries for their I-Pod, which gave them internet access.

I still love these photos of Birch , Willow and Spruce trees, all growing together!

This is a view of the Coastal or Elias Range Mountains when driving south from Delta Junction on the Alaska Highway.

We took a side trip to see an Athabascan Indian Village called Tanancross. This is a typical house.

This is one of their log houses.

Here is a street scene in Tanancross.