On the Ship

I have met some awesome people already, first day in. When we boarded the boat on the 4th of June we get there early and I was glad for that. I say this because sommething we should have done was reserve a handicapped cabin. We had a 2-berth no potty reserved. Here again timing is everything. I just thought I would ask if they had one available, they did. Kayla who works for the ferry was very helpful and had such an awesome attitude. It is wonderful to run into people like that.

Roy and I have traveled the AMHS about 4 times each time we have had wonderful experiences. This time is no exception. Although I do say being in a chair you do see things in a whole new perspective. You also realize it is hard to make everything in a 50 year old ship ADA compatible. I have scoped out the 2 doors that will get me outside and inside. Once outside I am able to go completely around the ship.

I don’t know if it is fate, destiny, or just a small ship the reason I ask is all day yesterday I kept running into the same person. When this happened about the fifth time I asked for his name. We introduced ourselves and about 15 minutes later I see him and his wife and I say Hi, it was cute the look they passed between them. Long story short she was cool after we told her about the constant bumping inmto each other. Now I am still running into them. I will go for small boat.

First day out and we already had to turn the ship around. No, Roy was not acting up. Unfortunately there was a sick crew man that needed to be transferred for more intense medical care. I do hope he is ok. The bright side to this is the turn around gave it a chance for the sky to clear up. I was thinking not again clouds and blah for this trip.

There are quite a few photographers on the ship, when it clears you can get some awesome pictures. I did enjoy the fog this am and I think I have some working pictures of fog. that does make for some freaky moody pictures. I have not seen any whales yet, this is only day one. I trust that there are orcas in my future.

Well I am signing off for now. We are headed towards open waters to make up time and I am headed to lay down due to the motion of the ocean.

I did not know I would have internet in port so I am posting this and hope to finish writing the lead up to the ship. We are in Ketchican Alaska. The journey to the first port was super long. Dramamine is my friend. I will post some pictures when we hit dry land.

Still More Trippin

Day Tripping I mean. So we had to make a stop to see Santa while we spent so much time in Fairbanks the Noth Pole and Santa’s Workshop is only about 15 miles down the road. It also gave us good reason to get some fudge. i believe that the North Pole has one of the best fudge I’ve ever tasted. This is another place we visited a few times while in Fairbanks. North Pole does have a Chinese restaurant I even liked called Pagoda we ate there twice and had enough for 4 more meals. Enough about food, back to Christmas. Since we were here last they still do not have the RV Park up and running again it looks like that is something that will never come back. They did add on to the building which is a good thing because it was cramped, now you can really begin to want to shop instead of just taking a quick look and run.

About shopping they have a Dept56 Christmas village on display with some retired pieces for sale. (I refrained from buying any). Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation house was available but we passed not enough lights. I bought our yearly dated Christmas Ornament and of course a t-shirt. Enough shopping onto sight seeing. The Post Office gets in on all the sugar sweetness of candy canes outside of the building. If you look closely you will see there is snow on the Police Car lettering. I enjoy visiting the North Pole and sharing some Christmas Spirit with everyone. BTW Christmas is less then 5 months away if you are counting.

Another side trip we took was to Nenana Alaska close to Banana but not close enough. We are still on the quest for the ‘HOLY BANANA’. Nenana had a native craft bazaar where you could talk to the artisans and find out how they made the trinkets. This town is also a stop for the all familiar tour buses. There were 2 at one time at opposite ends of town. Speaking of town this has been the first checkpoint for the Iditarod several years, that would be fascinating to hear all of the barking dogs and excitement. The other excitement that the locals look to is the ice break up on the Tanana river. Lots of money can be won if you can guess the exact day – hour – minute – second this happens. They are already selling tickets for the ice break-up in 2020. That black and white metal stanchion has a clock which stops when the ice breaks. I had to include a picture of the gift store in town because it is ‘The Road Less Traveled’ which is the unofficial theme of this year’s trip.

Speaking of gift stores this is one that is halfway between Fairbanks and Denali I’m just saying it was pretty skinny.

I am glad I never got stationed at Fort Wainwright because winter travel in these would have been an adventure.

Speaking of adventure, on the 30th of July we enter Canada for the last time this trip and meander over to Yellowknife for a glimpse of the northern lights late August.

Day Tripping

We didn’t get a chance to do the Dalton or spend time in Chena Hot Springs or even boondock in Manley Hot Springs we did take some interesting day trips around the area. I have seen Ospreys, log cabins, native crafts, Sand Hill Cranes, baseball games and pipelines.

I did get the opportunity to watch an osprey bring a fish to it’s mate and then the mate bringing the fish home to the nest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey We came back a second time to get these pictures.

It was also amazing to see the interactions between both adult birds. The one who brought the fish in also took the remainder of the fish with it when it left. We noticed the nest on our first drive up the Steese so of course I had to come back to see if I could get more pictures, the cool thing is I did. The second trip up was rainy and there was a bike race going on, so more traffic then normal. Like a good mom she did keep her chick as dry as possible during the downpour. Most of the pictures are from behind as I thought I could get closer with my camera on the other side of the nest. It was about this time that the second bird decided to fly in with a fish. Watching the osprey feeding the chick was impressive.

On the way up to the nest Roy found a dirt road. It did have a sign F.E. Corp Gold Camp it was closed but we drove up to check it out anyway. It looks like it might be opening soon a lot of remodeling there was some old mining equipment on the grounds check it out. It’s funny what you can find on a dirt road. I need to be more trusting when Roy takes those dirt and gravel roads.

Heading up to the Steese we stopped by the pipeline. Which in itself is an amazing engineering feat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Alaska_Pipeline_System I look extremely small next to the pipeline. There is a pull off that shows the inside of the pipeline with what they call a pig that travels through the pipeline and keeps it clean.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigging

Another thing is the stickers people have put on the warning sign that tells people not to climb on it the pipeline. I also did not know some of the facts on the information board, the pipeline has 12 pumping stations and is 800 miles long just to name two facts.

We drove around Fairbanks and found ourselves at the train depot. The train was not in but I was able to get photos of the depot.

We also had time to visit North Pole Alaska and Nenana Alaska while we were here too. Pictures are on the way.

Living Large

that is what the animals do at Fairbanks Large Animal Research Station. I decided to live large here twice. I never thought I would see muskox let alone see them eat or see babies (6 born this year). https://http://www.uaf.edu/lars/ The muskox are not good parents in captivity because food is plenty and there are no predators, because of this the babies are usually separated from the moms to be bottled fed. The two babies in the pen though have stayed with their moms because the two females are really good moms. The animals aren’t trained but they are exposed to some human interaction so they are not totally stressed out when they have to have contact for research and to check the health of the herd. I will say that the tour guides have been trained by the animals, on the flip side especially Casey. The presentation involves showing how the animals eat, this is done by allowing them to eat willow branches which is high in copper. The greens you see in the pictures are actually fireweed due to the fact that the willow leaves are not in season now. I think these animals will eat anything, when they are in the stantions for the qiviut deshedding or vet checks they are bribed with cheerios. If Casey doesn’t get her snacks quick enough she will do a paw dance on the fence to get the attention of the guide. Even though they seem like docile animals there is always a chance the switch could flip in the animal’s brain and they start to act like the wild animals that they are. So she does stress that some distance is very wise. At the end of the tour she shows a stantion that is damaged due to an incident where the switch was flipped. The person who was in the stantion was not hurt.

These animals are built for the artic that is a definite. I am amazed at the fact that in the winter the amount of heat loss that occurs is very slim. Can you imagine standing outside in 40 below and being perfectly warm. The reason they can do this is they have hair in the mouth, eyelids, when they close both it allows nothing in and the fact that their nostrils have extra chambers to warm the air before it enters the lungs. The tubes you see in the picture is the warming chambers inside the nose Another adaptation these animals have for winter survival is the fact that under the hair is a soft down called qiviut or underwool. https://www.uaf.edu/lars/qiviut/ It is like having a down coat or insulated underwear on. The tour guide Christine has a cowl made from the qiviut that is spun into yarn then knitted or crocheted. She does not even think about wearing it until it is at least 10 below. I can tell you I did not buy any yarn or cowls they were selling in the store. I would never ever be able to wear the article had I bought it. The qiviut from the muskox at the facility is harvested then turned into yarn so the they can sell the yarn and products in the store and the proceeds go back into LARS. On a side note I did buy a t-shirt and a headband, neither of which were made of qiviut.

I also learned that once the muskox horns stop growing if one breaks you end up with a one horned muskox or an unicorn impersonator.

I like to believe that it is an unicorn. My story is all I’m saying. Losing a horn in the wild can be deadly at the station you just get separated. In the wild the horns are sharp and pointed but at the station the horns after they stop growing the tips are ground down for everyone’s protection. Seeing the difference between the male and female skulls just proves to me that males are truly hard headed. You have to be if you want to be king of the hill during rutting season. Even though the males do not have to rut to be king of the hill because the station is in charge of saying who gets to be king of the hill and who is in whose harem. That was a rabbit hole I went on because of a male’s hard head.

At Lars they also have Reindeer which are not domesticated Caribou contrary to popular belief. http://news.uaf.edu/news/featured/04/reindeer/difference.html follow the link to learn more about the differences. Female reindeer have larger antlers then female caribou, male reindeer have smaller antlers then male caribou. These are a set of caribou antlers The inteesting thing about antlers is they fall off every year unlike the horns on the muskox. These reindeer are being feed just like the muskox were, on my first visit the reindeer were all up in the guides back going give me the treats now. The second visit she basically had to ignore them after she put the fireweed in the fence. I guess they are not trained. Here you can see she is ignoring the reindeer and she is trying to get the guides attention. The second tour once the reindeer realized there were good treats at the fence they gladly ate the fireweed.

It was so enjoyable seeing the interaction between the animals, guides, and the tour groups. I am also happy that they provided a golf cart that allowed Roy to also enjoy the tour the first time and gave me a chance to come back and do the tour again. If you are ever in Fairbanks this is off the beaten path but well worth it.

Time Out

It is interesting how the best laid plans change. It has been an enjoyable time spent in Fairbanks Alaska. We even discovered the Osprey nest on the Steese Highway mentioned in the Milepost. I have also spent time practicing my landscape framing and composition when it comes to using my new lens. This lens is the one I will be using for taking pictures of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). I am looking forward to attempting to capture at least maybe one night. But I know numberous things have to come together, like the solar flares, the lack of clouds, darkness, location, and timing. The practice of shooting at night is getting close as it is now getting dark around midnight. Side note on the darkness factor I’m amazed at how much energy I feel from the sun. I do have the location this is going to be Yellowknife Northwest Territories (NWT), there is a park we are staying at that is supposed to be a great place for the Northern Lights. The timing is the end of August.

We’ve also spent the time in Fairbanks exploring Fairbanks itself, the Farmers Market, I have gotten my raw garlic fix, Roy did discover a salsa that he loves, I enjoyed seeing the homemade crafts and I even bought some. Pioneer Park, this is where we were able to rent two scooters to make it more enjoyable for both Roy and myself.

A little outside of Fairbanks is Chena Hot Springs we were going to be staying on this road for a few days, the fire that occured made us change plans. I am beginning to believe that this trip is happening just the way it should. Roy wanted to camp on a sandbar actually a gravel bar, we did drive on one though.

The campgrounds on the Chena Hot Springs Road were well maintained and level. So we were able to do the drive out to Chena Hot Springs as a day trip. The smoke from the fire had blown away you could see it in the distance and every once in a while you would get a sniff.

Chena Hot Springs is definitely touristic https://chenahotsprings.com/ . The lodge was an original log cabin. Bear rug on the ceiling pictures of the aurora borealis. I think Roy posed for the man looking up in the sky which is also inside the lodge. The grounds are home to the ice museum https://chenahotsprings.com/icemuseum. There are also old rusted cars, farm equipment, and mining equipment

A private airstrip adds to the resort.

This was just one of the day trips we’ve taken over the time in Fairbanks. We also took one of the nights to take advantage of the local baseball team the Alaska Goldpanners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Goldpanners_of_Fairbanks they are a college summer league. I was quite smitten by the mascot as you can tell from this picture. I think this is because of his beard. This is the team’s last home series of the season, the news said it would be a challenge for the Goldpanners. The home team won 17 – 10 no challenge there. He played the kazoo during the 7th inning stretch. Here’s a link to the official website http://goldpanners.pointstreaksites.com/view/goldpanners/home-page-822 The National Anthem was sung by a local women who hit all the high notes. Here is an action shot Roy took. Some of the places in the area we’ve returned to a time or two LARS and the Steese Hwy (AK 6) to mention just two. Pictures and details to follow

Farmer’s Markets

Fruits, veggies, crafts, and poems all in one place. There is a weekly farmers market that we discovered in Fairbanks AK https://www.tvfmarket.com/ the Tanana Valley Farmer’s Market. This week Roy found a mildly spicy homemade salsa, I found my garlic and green onions. The garlic is good for my cholesterol and it keeps mosquitoes away. I also found Becca http://www.poembybecca.com/aboutcontact.html .

She uses a typewriter and birch paper. I asked her how often does she get asked what that is? Her response was she gets asked more often the question about getting asked about getting asked what that is. I hope you followed that. It took me having her explain it twice. So the question about getting asked about getting asked what it is happens more then asking what it is. Now getting back on track. Starting off on with that exchange. I see the little things she has typed on birch bark, very motivational, I then see a sign which states she will write a poem about anything all you have to do is name the subject then pay whatever. I’m game for this. I still have sweet memories of Buki Bear and will always have these. So what subject do I pick.

I pick Buki, like anyone she needed to get a feel for what he was like. So I told her. I think she nailed it. I will let you decide. First off Buki hated to travel, poor guy got motion sick so he traveled through my blog. I also shared how he came home with me. Mr meow box he was although he would be quiet for me. Buki Bear was not his first name from me and it was a nickname. I think he had the longest name of any pet until he finally responded to Kabuki shorten to Buki Bear. (full name Sir Giblet Hufflepuff Shmoo Kabuki Quimby) The human aspect of him what cat do you know who will only eat beef when it came to people food. So after about twenty minutes I come back to this. poem1

Buki Bear
The road less traveled,
you knew how to get around without moving

Knew the ways to be human, the foods –
the beef only

On the road with you, 18 years, a cascade of names

A single moment of shushing a meow and hearing you listen

All to be taken in, to be left with the meowing we wish we could unsheesh.
Rebecca Lawhorne

We also talked about how things happen for a reason and people touch our lives exactly when we need them to touch us.

While I was walking around the market waiting for her to finish I stumble across some football themed kitchen stuff. You know we are redoing the kitchen so it is only logical that I have a new kitchen theme to go with so here it is. DSCN8956

Hot pads, bib for dish soap, and a hand towel. The other reason for this purchase is football season is coming. So I end this blog by saying

‘GO PACK GO’

Feet On the Ground

head in the clouds. That is how I felt when we went to the Arctic Lightning Airshow at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks AK Saturday the 13th https://www.eielson.af.mil/ArcticLightningAirshow/. We got up early for us to head out to the base beat traffic. You can see the vendor tents and people moving around here This was a good thing because the amount of people who were stuck in traffic at the start of the show was amazing. Front row parking and basic front and center on the bleachers for the airshow. Sitting front and center allowed me to wave to the pilots as they did a slow roll down the runway.

The static displays had helicopters, fighting vehicles , the warthog (also known as Thunderbolt II), and a B52. Also on the ground was a plane that could carry large tanks in their belly.

The same plane also doubled as the best seat in the house for these Airmen earlier in the day. I do not know how they got on the tail section but I bet they enjoyed themselves.

I did not see the Air Force’s flying gas station a KC-135 Stratotanker on the ground. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_KC-135_Stratotanker I did see it participating in the simulated war game refueling planes in the air.

The first plane up in the air was the F-16, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon I did realize trying to take pictures of these jets is like trying to take in focus pictures of birds in flight only on steroids. I am also glad that earplugs were being given out for free. (I forgot how loud planes can be).

The treat of the afternoon was being able to have a demonstration of the F-35 fighter jet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II The treat I had when watching this plane do the climbs and dives I was able to catch the wave of sound right before it would have broken the sound barrier, this link explains what happens. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-when-an-airc/

This jet will have a home here at Eielson AFB in the near future https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/06/02/alaska-communities-prepare-for-incoming-f-35-squadrons-at-eielson-air-force-base/ I was amazed with how impressive this new jet fighter is, the announcer said we saw everything the jet has to offer except it’s fire power.

After seeing the new we experienced the old.

Next up a T-33 subsonic jet trainer. One of my thoughts after seeing the speed of the F-16 and the F-35 is wow how slow is that plane moving.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_T-33 It may be old but it can still climb with the best of them.

Finishing up the day the Air Force joined with the Army to show how both branches work together to retake an airfield when they can’t go in and just bomb it out of existence. The team work is done to minimize collateral damage. Air support makes it safe for the ground forces to capture the rocket launcher held be insurgents, a bomb tech also was needed to clear any booby traps to make it safe.

The whole day turned out to be relaxing and exciting at the same time. I am glad I was able to get a glimpse into the power that is at the hands of our military in the event of an attack.

Lemons Make Lemonade

That’s a better title then ‘with smoke comes fire’. Unfortunately the fires caught up with us this year. I can report the most it effected us was we had to change our plans. Roy did say he wanted to do some SOP (Seat of the pants) camping this year. He clarified that with me by saying this was not what he had in mind.

The original plan was 3 nights in Fairbanks then boondocking around the interior of Alaska for 11 nights and return to Fairbanks for 8 nights. Mother Nature had some different plans. That picture was one of the nights you could see smoke in town, it also helped us make the decision to stay in town for the next few weeks. We are still planning on driving up the Dalton and leaving the trailer in Fairbanks (baby still needs a rest). As far as driving to circle this might be out of the question because it’s a little far for a day trip. There is still a fire burning by Chena Hot Springs which was in the plans at one time. This past weekend did help some of the fires because of the rain it also cleared the air for the airshow at Eielson Air Force Base. I am ok with this 3 weeks in Fairbanks it will give me enough time to explore plus eat at some good restaurants that we discovered on our last time here.

We spent one day at Pioneer Park which is a free park divided into sections covering history of Fairbanks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Park_(Fairbanks,_Alaska) The day was smoky and pictures were interesting in that you can see smoke in the pictures. The park itself was large we were able to rent 2 scooters for $10 an hour what better way to get around. Each of the buildings were moved from other areas of Fairbanks and each building has a plaque with where it was originally located. The brown building with the white trim was a house of Ill Repute. The park has a train but due to smoke in the air Roy had to settle on this to get his train fix.

He does make a handsome engineer. I think we need a trip back here to take the train for real. Speaking of trains they have the Harding Railroad Car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harding_Railroad_Car on display. There is also an aviation museum on the grounds of the park. We did not go inside though we are here long enough I think it is worth a trip back.

We have a birding friend who has been encouraging Roy to engage in more bird recognition. He is only interested in finding the big yellow bird known as Big Bird. So I am just glad Roy did not have a paint brush with him to paint this big bird yellow.

I was glad because I didn’t have bail money. I did ask our birder friend Lisa if she had bail money. I texted this picture to her with a note asking for bail money I said he got caught trying to paint it yellow. Her reply was I thought it was one of those scams. Then I sent this picture and she texted ok now I know it’s legit. I sent back Roy assures me it’s legit so please send money. This is what I got from her

so good news is I did not have to use her money. We are going to check out LARS (Large Animal Research Station) while we are here now that the smoke has cleared. Another thing we might do is head back out to the North Pole for some less smoky pictures. So the lemons we acquired have already been made into lemonade.

TOW

No we did not need a tow we were on the TOW (Top of the World) Highway, or Yukon 9. Guess what another dirt road. It was hard packed and worth the bumpy ride. I did see a caribou he had a nice set of antlers although you don’t get the full effect from the back side picture. I was surprised to see this guy, we stopped by the side of the road I got out to look for him. The guy gave me a chance for a headshot but I was surprised to see him looking at me so I missed the opportunity. The result was butt shot. At least I’ve seen a large animal on this trip. Someone posted a herd of caribou crossing this same area the day before. People we met on the road came through the day after we did and were stopped by the same herd. I think our timing is off. 🙂

I know my time is coming. I am learning to appreciate the scenery without animals. The rolling hills and vast views can be almost as striking as having animals in the scene. (my story). We made it through customs at Poker Creek which is the farthest northern US border crossing. That’s what the sign said it also stated that the population of Poker Creek is 3. After a brief stop over at the Walker Fork BLM campground and the side trip to Eagle we headed to Chicken Alaska.

Chicken Alaska https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken,_Alaska is famous for the annual music festival Chicken stock. It also has the famous chicken with road distances of towns.

The chicken is above the actual town they do have three chickens of their own. We stayed here three years ago and the town seems to have stayed the same. The place Chicken Gold Camp https://www.chickengold.com/ we stayed both times have a place to pan for gold using tailings from their mine claim.

Chicken is a place where you can unplug from all electronics because there is no internet, cell phones, or electricity unless you have a generator. You can also try and make you fortune here. Chicken is well worth checking out.