Way Up North

What a busy morning: breakfast, RV wash, dumping tanks, hooking up the car, and getting fuel and we were still rolling by 9:00AM. There was less than 110 miles of the Alaska Highway left before the official ending at Delta Junction. In 1942 the military quit here because the Richardson Highway was already done, and it connected Fairbanks with Valdez on the coast.

It gets colder here than it does in Minnesota (no surprise)

After we left the Alaska Highway, we continued on the Richardson Hwy, along the broad Tanana River valley, northwest toward Fairbanks. To our left were the peaks of the Alaska Range

Just up the road a short ways we found 2 interesting stops, almost together: Rika’s Roadhouse and the famous oil pipeline.  Very interesting history of both, but I won't add it here.

It was a gorgeous day, with the temps hitting 89 in Fairbanks (can you believe it?)

We plan to spend a couple of days around here, since there is lots to see and do. This will be as far north as we get: 64.8 degrees N = 64degrees - 48’. This is about 3 degrees further north than Valentina’s other grandparents and also farther than our friends in Norway.

Since we are now past the summer solstice, the days are already getting shorter. If I can believe my old Garmin GPS, sunrise is at 3:01AM and sunset is at 12:43AM for 21hrs 42 min of daylight (90%) . This is shorter than it was just a few days ago.  The lack of darkness hasn’t kept either of us from sleeping our usual 7 to 8 hrs/night.

I forgot to mention the longest day, when we were back in Dawson, and what some other people were doing. Some of the Newmar owners we met the past few days had a golfing tee time at midnight, and some local Dawson people held an overnight party at the top of the nearby Midnight Dome.  We drove up there in the car, but didn't stay for the party.