Alaska 2014 – Day 10 June 23rd

  What a beautiful morning that greeted us today. The skies were clear and the temperature was right at 60 degrees. So after we ate breakfast, packed the SUV, we headed back to Denali National Park just to drive back to mile 15 and enjoy the views one more time. Who knows if we will ever make it back up to Alaska again. The only unfortunate part was that someone, me, forgot to charge the camera over night. So no new pictures from the park with the exception of a massive rock formation that I took with my Iphone. Denali, the mountain, was standing clear and tall this morning and I felt sad that I didn’t have a camera that was capable of zooming in a little better. From my position, Denali was 75 miles away, so the Iphone did it no justice.

Leaving the park, I was quickly re-introduced to Alaskan road repairs. Unlike the lower states, Alaska does a couple of things different. They will put up stop lights for long run repair work and you will sometimes sit for 10-15 minutes at a time. The other is the escorted with a pilot truck that normally runs 1-3 miles. So wait times can be very long. We ran into 3 stop lights and 3 pilot trucks along are travels to Fairbanks today. Also when they repair a road, they repair a road. They completely strip it down to the dirt, smooth, pack and resurface. Checkout some of the dual sport motorcycles I caught in picture today. Like good dirt bike riders, they were standing up. Good boys! I found myself a week or so ago, standing on the pegs of the Goldwing riding through 50 yard dirt patch. It worked.

The highlight today was food. We stop at a bar/hamburger joint on the side of the road that we almost didn’t see. It was off the path. Monderosa, checkout the reviews but do not follow the directions. The directions missed by some 5 miles. The cheeseburger I order was awesome. Juices and parts of the burger were dripping and falling out everywhere, plus it was about 6 inches around. This thing was huge, but I finished that burger. The fries? Not so much, but Lori helped finish those off. No dinner required tonight. What a gem to find out in the middle of nowhere.

So after lunch, we made an uneventful ride to the North Pole, Alaska so Lori could go to the Santa House. This is where they have to much stuff and all of it’s overpriced. Well, that’s my point of view. I turned the corner on one aisle and all I saw were  eyes and people everywhere staring at me. Dolls out the ying-yang. Check out the pictures. Ok, luckily, I escaped the Santa House without Lori spending the remanding vacation cash on hand. 

Lastly, we drove the last 12 miles to our B&B and setup roost for the next 2 days. It is very cute and private. We have working wifi that doesn’t work like dialup. Yea!! We even have our own kitchen if we dare think about cooking anything. I doubt that happens, but at least coffee and tea can be had at a whim. So here we sit on 230 plus acres, overlooking Fairbanks and the Denali Mountains. Oh, it’s also 71 degrees and sunny.

Tomorrow I scarcely have a plan, but we are going to drive to Chena Hot Springs and maybe take a dip in the pool. That’s a big maybe. Afterwards we will head back to Fairbanks and find a museum to see. I’m sure that I will find something for us to do and see. Basically, I’m here to relax, so that is the plan for the most part. Still undecided if I drag Lori out to Arctic Circle just so she can say she has been there. I will ponder that drive.

Pictures of the Day