Updates for July 23rd, 24th and 25th

July 23rd.

Left Palmer about 9:30 and headed up the Parks Highway. Made a grocery stop at Fred Meyers and gassed up. Tim and Barbara kept us well fed while in Palmer, but our own kitchen needed restocking. We were headed for the Talkeetna spur and arrived there about 3pm, Alaska Time. We had stopped in Talkeetna before and remembered only a museum, a few houses and a runway with a few hangers, so were surprised at the number of tourist areas here. Plus a nice campground. We visited the museum and read all about Denali (Mt McKinley). This is the town that is used to air lift most of the climbers to Mt McKinley to start their climb to the top. It is also used for rescue efforts, when they get in trouble. The little museum has a lot of information about the Mountain and the climbers, including a neat relief map of the area with big pictures on the wall that represent the view in that direction. I’ve seen a lot of relief maps before, but this made it so much more vivid and clear what it looked like. It also gives the names of all the climbers, what approach they took, if they made it and if they had a mishap. About 50% of the climbers make the top and 1% die. At this time there are around 1,200 per year that attempt the climb.

It was cool and rainy there and I was cold so went looking for hot chocolate. Found this neat general store, which had everything for a price! We ate supper, where else, a pizza place. Camped just outside of town for the night. We did pull out our little electric heater this evening, as it was cold and damp. We had good WiFi here.

July 24th

Left camp about 9:30, dumped our tanks, and drove into Talkeetna for some late minute errands. Mailed a letter, took some more pictures and Dale walked down to the river. Back out to the Parks Highway and continued on our way north toward Mt McKinley. Stopped at a nice pullout for lunch and took a nap. Read all the signs there for Denali, but could not see much for all the clouds.
Still very cloudy and after checking the weather report we decided to go on into Fairbanks hoping that later in the week it would clear off enough we would have a chance of seeing the mountain. The weather here in central Alaska is greatly influenced by the Mt McKinley mountain range and is cloudy much of the time. I read somewhere that the sun shines only 1 out of 3 days. Arrived at Fairbanks about 6 pm. Drove up and down looking for our campground, River’s Edge, and it was under my nose all the time. I didn’t do a very good job navigating! Ate supper at Wendy’s.

July 25th

We decided to spend another night here in the campground so reregistered for tonight before heading for Pioneer Park. It was the site of an exposition here in 1967 to celebrate the centennial of Alaska’s purchase from Russia in 1867. There were lots of old cabins that had been moved to the park and reconstructed for gift shops and what not. We did find a couple of nice museums. The aviation one was interesting but much cluttered. There was no rhyme or reason to the exhibits and a lot of pieces from wrecked planes.

Ate lunch at KFC, (bet you’re thinking when are we going to eat all that food we bought in Palmer right!?) Then gassed up and headed up north on the Elliot highway to Joy, Alaska to pick up another borough.

A sign we saw read, “There is not a single mosquito in Joy, they are all married with large families!” We also saw a road named “At Your Own Risk” road.

Found Joy, one trading post, where we bought a book and a pretty crocheted rug. Along the way we saw the oil pipeline off and on. There was one really good exhibit on the pipeline and Dale had an interesting discussion with a guy who had sold tools to the workers of the pipeline. Really neat to think my brother, Tim, had worked on that project years ago. Got back to the campground and took our supper down to the river to eat. The park has reserved some space and picnic tables for everyone to use down there. Dale is down there now with his computer watching the canoes and boats. It is just perfect here this evening, and really only a few mosquitoes here in the park. I’ve taken my shower and my walk and am relaxing in the camper.

Tomorrow we plan to see the museum at the University of Alaska than back down the road to Mt. McKinley national park for a couple of days.