July 7th - 8th

Another morning or is that the first and last morning in Chicken AK. After spending the night at the local RV Park (there are 2) we decided we just had to see the rest of Chicken so in the truck we climbed and headed for Chicken's Mini-Mall! It was fantastic! A bar, a café, a liquor store, and a mercantile, what more could one ask for. Well the tour lasted all of 10 minutes, as Grandma Arda had to buy a couple of baby books… "The True Meaning of Christmas" and "When Grandma and Grandpa were in Alaska". Lots of fun!

After the excitement died down we hit the road again – the gravel road that is. Canada's gravel roads are very good with few bad spots and I would say the US road a very poor with a very few good spots. Twenty MPH or less was the order of the day. After about 25 miles, we did get on to chip-seal roads and these were much better.

We did see some more Alaska wildlife. We have now added a Snowshoe Hare and another Moose to our list. How did we know it was a Snowshoe Hare? Because it was still wearing tiny snowshoes!

We also saw some beautiful spring flowers – we've seen many this year. These are called Wildfire because they grow mainly in areas where fires have burnt. They are peculiar because the blooms start from the bottom and as each level opens, another grows until the weather changes. Once the weather changes, they start dying from the top down.

We drove to Tok (rhymes with poke) and stopped at the Visitor's Center. It was a very nice center but the town library closed at 11:00 AM because as the young lad said, "I've done my shift"… I guess they get to call their own shots.

After Tok, we drove to Delta Junction that is the official end of the Alaskan Highway. The highway between Delta Junction and Fairbanks is called Richardson Highway and was built after the Alcan was completed.

We had decided that we were going to Dry Camp again that night so we stopped at the Shaw Pond about 15 – 20 miles west of Delta Junction. This is a man-made area with several very small lakes stocked with Grayling. There was one family that stopped for a swim and a picnic and 2 other cars that fished for a few minutes and other than that, Arda and I had the entire area to ourselves.

The next morning (the 8th), we headed for Fairbanks where we are staying at the Chena River State Recreation Park which has very nice campgrounds. We did some running around to get parts to replace the RV's one-way water valve, get some small welding done and then groceries, as we have not shopped for a week or two.

The rest of the day, we puttered around and I fixed two items on the RV, including the water, and broke one other thing… just like home. It never quits!

We are going to be here for 3 – 4 days and be real tourists by going on some tours, etc. so I will update you as I can. Both phone and internet service leave a little to be desired to say the least!

Take care and keep you loops open!