DAY NINE - TRAVELOGUES NORTH TO ALASKA - TOK TO FAIRBANKS

TRAVELOGUES – DAY NINE – JULY 8th – TOK TO FAIRBANKS
HOLLAND AMERICA MS VOLENDAM
13 DAY CRUISE/TOUR
“NORTH TO ALASKA”

This was to be another day of motor coach travel for us as we moved more inland from Tok, Alaska to Fairbanks, Alaska along the Alaska Highway. We traveled along the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountain range, the third youngest mountain range in the state. The “younger” mountains have very jagged and dramatic peaks at the top as opposed to older mountain ranges that have been worn down with time and are smoother and more rounded. The second youngest mountain range is the Alaska Range and the first is Denali.

As we were moving along the highway, someone spotted a moose. Moose are in the deer family. They can get up to 1200 pounds. The hair of the moose is actually hollow which gives it a natural built-in heating and cooling system. The antlers of the bull moose fall off every season.

Construction began in 1942 on the Alaska Highway and when finished was 1,500 miles long. Every person who worked on the highway received a Purple Heart and there is a stretch of the highway that is named the Purple Heart Trail after those men. We were shown a documentary about how the Alaska Highway was built and constructed. It was a PBS film that Jim and I have seen before; nonetheless, it was interesting to see that again while we were actually traveling on it.

The landscape and the scenery is as majestic and beautiful as anything I have described to you before. Today the weather was noticeably warmer as we got closer and closer to Fairbanks and the interior of Alaska.

Our first stop for the day was at Ricca’s Roadhouse which was a charming roadside stop with several buildings and a fascinating story of how Ricca was hired by a gentleman to help him at the roadhouse and she would cook for the guests. While the owner would go out trapping or fishing, Ricca would perform repairs around the property and maintain it. At one point the owner left for three years; and by the time he returned, Ricca had
added on several other buildings and greatly improved the property. She had not received her wages the entire three years he was gone and was not real happy when he returned. She wanted compensation for what she had done to maintain his property and keep it running all that time. So, for $10 the man sold it to her and it was hers from then on. It is refurbished now and maintained as a tourist attraction. The main house has been decorated and furnished as it was back during the Gold Rush. There is a blacksmith’s cabin and several other buildings along with a new building that is home to the restaurant and gift shop (there is not one place in Alaska that does not have a gift shop attached to it in some way, shape or form).

After enjoying a warm cup of coffee and walking around the property, we were off again on our coach. With the Alaska Mountain Range to the left and the Tenana River to our right, we were again traveling down the Alaska Highway. There were many troughs as we looked down in the valley and could see the Tenana River. Troughs are just like little fingers running in the river bed. When the waters runs high with the snow melt, there are fewer troughs. The rolling hills climbed up to the majestic, snow-capped mountain peaks in the distance.

What is interesting is that when you look out over this vast land, it appears that there is a blanket of green grass covering the hillsides. In reality, it is a thick brush about 3-4 feet high with taller trees standing out. There are black spruce and white spruce. The black spruce looks like a pipe-cleaners standing tall with a very dark trunk and no limbs to speak of. The white spruce is fuller and more like the trees that I am used to seeing with more branches towards the base of the tree narrowing to one at the top.

We spotted seven moose along the highway today. The driver told us that is one of the highest number of moose sightings in one day that he was aware of. We passed by Birch Lake, a beautiful mountain lake and we traveled through the town of North Pole, Alaska. You all know who lives there!!

When our coach finally arrived in Fairbanks after our five our trek on the highway, we were taken to Gold Dredge No. 8 for lunch. Gold Dredge No. 8 was a working Dredge from 1928 to 1959 when it became too expensive to operate any longer. We were taken inside to a huge dining room with dozens of long tables all set out in family style dining. We enjoyed some hearty beef stew and delicious homemade biscuits along with a blueberry muffin. After lunch we walked over to the gold dredge and had a tour through that then we boarded the coach and were off to the El Dorado Gold Mine up the Elliott Highway about five minutes or so.

The El Dorado Gold Mine is where we all were able to pan for gold. Before we did that, however, we took a train ride through a tunnel where we were shown where the gold was actually found in the “bedrock” under the permafrost; and we saw how they transported the rocks and dirt out in the rail cars. Once we traveled through the tunnel, we saw a miner’s cabin and then watched a demonstration on how they actually panned for gold at this mine using different grates to ultimately sift out the rocks that would allow the gold (which is heavier than rock) to fall below the cracks and catch in a carpet like material.

After the demonstration, we were all taken inside to pan for gold ourselves. We were each given a bag of “pay dirt” and directed to sit along troughs of water where we found our own gold pan and we panned for gold. Whatever we found in the bottom of our pans once we were done with all the swishing and flushing of the rocks and dirt, was gold! We got to put what we had found into small, black plastic containers that we took inside the “gift shop” where it was weighed and we could purchase a locket or earrings where the employees would transfer our own gold into the jewelry. Jim actually found a nugget worth $8 which we put in a small locket by itself; and the rest we put into another locket.

We stopped by the Alaska Pipeline along the side of the road where we could actually get up close to it and touch it and see an example of what the inside is actually like and how it works; and then we finally arrived in Fairbanks at our hotel, the Westmark Fairbanks.

Now, I know this next part is not going to surprise any of you, but Jim and I signed up for the tour going to where else? The North Pole! We could NOT travel all the way here and not visit our favorite guy!! Our coach to The Santa Claus House picked us up and drove us back down the highway from where we had just come about 11 miles to North Pole, Alaska. And, on Santa Claus Lane is The Santa Claus House. It is a year-round Christmas store – complete with reindeer out back and that jolly man with the white beard and the big round belly! Santa sat in a huge chair in the middle of the store where anyone could go have their picture taken with him – free of charge – and the kiddies would receive a big candy cane. Jim and I did have our picture taken; and yes, we had to buy a Santa there! It is being shipped home.

The real highlight of the day was a surprise dinner that we did not know we were getting on the tour. We were taken over to The Pagoda – which is one of the restaurants Guy Fieri from the Food Network visited on his show “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives”. We were given a choice of Mongolian Beef, Sesame Chicken or Shrimp with vegetables. We chose the beef and the chicken and they were both delicious along with our egg drop soup and egg roll and rice.

We did not get back to the hotel until about 10:30 tonight and we were exhausted. But, it was a fun day. Amazingly, the sun was still high in the sky at 10:30 p.m. – so we once again pulled our black out curtains across the windows and fell asleep.