Day 6

 Written August 20th, 2012 on UAF Campus (A bit delayed writing this one...)

We drove 670 km, which corresponds to 416 miles.

We woke up from the lakeside motel on Kluane and headed off on the road. We weren’t sure if we would reach Fairbanks that day or not – we figured we would drive and stop as many times as we liked, and in the afternoon we’d see where we were and where that meant we’d end up!

A river we drove by - I think it might be the Kluane River? It is the one on the end of the lake... I think.

Another beautiful lake. There are a lot of those.

Our car changed color on us!!

So did half of our bikes....

A rest area along the way. Those mountains look so much smaller in the photo than they did in real life!

We drove across the border pretty early on in our day. You get to cross the border before going thru customs, so we stopped off and read what the information panels said and took some photos. There was a big old plaque talking about how we have a peaceful border, free to cross, etc… and then of course you have to go through customs….

There is a clearing that goes all along the border, about 20 ft wide. It was first created in the early 1900s!

 Then we continued on through Alaska. It looked so much different than Canada... ;)

Like a completely different land! Or not...

 We continued to make a few small stops whenever there was a beautiful pull off. This is a river that we drove along in Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.

 Luckily we saw a moose!!! Otherwise we would have been completely animal deprived again. This was a scraggly little moose, he seemed like a teenager. However I am no moose expert, so he could have been any age, really!

Animals crossing the road really just gives us a legitimate excuse to stop and take pictures of them. Thanks, animals!

We were definitely on route to reach Fairbanks that day. Especially since the time zone had changed. Even though we would arrive around 7 or 8 pacific time, it would only be 6 or 7 Alaska time – plenty of time to find a place. 

As we approached town we saw a large fire ahead of us. Based on the direction we were heading, it looked like we were driving right into it. We tried to look up fires near Fairbanks but we couldn’t find much… The sky was smokey, we could see large plumes of billowing smoke, and it even glowed orange. Though that may have been early sunset. It seems like the smoke makes sunset last for hours on end.

It looked like it was right in front of us!

Eventually it we drove north of it though. :)

But the whole area was still smokey, even as we got close to town!

 

Then before we knew it, we were entering civilization. First we went through North Pole, which seems like it embraces its name with candy cane and Santa themed decorations. At some point we will probably head back that way and see all of the cheesy stuff it has to offer! 

And then finally we made it! We arrived in Fairbanks … but with no idea where to go. Suddenly we were in the middle of a city. With exits. And lots of cars. We were a bit overwhelmed. We had no idea where to go. It reminded me a bit of Hawaii – when we spent a full week in the middle of nowhere, enjoying nature – and then arrived in Honolulu. I mean, I’m used to cities at home. However when I spend a lot of time in the middle of nowhere and then show up in a new city… its just so different! Laura and I were both thinking that we should have stayed just out of town and then drove in the next morning, so that we’d have a full day to do… something. 

Since we weren’t sure where to go, we just looked for a large park (Pioneer Park) figuring that they would have a place for us to park and then.. you know, figure out where to go. So we sat in the parking lot for a while, figuring out where to stay. The problem was that there were too many options, and they were all more expensive than we were used to. It makes sense because we’re in a city, however it made it hard because we were trying to find the best deal. That is tricky when there are a lot of options. There are also a lot of places with really bad reviews. Eventually we decided on a few places that had good prices and reviews, but the first two were booked. It was a Saturday night after all! So eventually we decided on a Super 8, not the cheapest, not the nicest, but they had space and that way we could bunker down somewhere and not feel so stranded. 

 

One thing that is fun is that there really are car plug-ins everywhere! It makes sense, but it is just cool to see. Every one also has little cords sticking out of their cars. Its fun to see something so different from what we’re used to, but obviously so normal here. 

So, we spent our first night doing research. Looking through craigslist and any other house listing sites we could find. There are places available – but most of them don’t work for one reason or other. Since we weren’t settled in the motel until after 8, we decided to wait to make calls until the next morning. So we researched and researched some more. I even created page long application like things for each place – with space to answer all of the questions we’d need. That way we could fill them out and compare and have all of the information in one easy place. 

We were both sad to end our road trip. We both love road trips and the wilderness, and Fairbanks means finding a place to stay, school work, meeting people and filling out paperwork. Basically Fairbanks means real life. And the road trip was a vacation for both of us, so it was sad having it come to an end. But now we are ready for our next adventure!