Day 26--Monday, July 19--Fairbanks

Raining--S's coffee spot. Forecast for clouds and rain all week. Spent the day seeing the sites in Fairbanks.

We're in Santa's hometown--the North Pole--incorporated January 16, 1953. Interesting how "new" the cities are here. Soldotna was incorporated in 1947.

There are several mining locations--the two surviving for tours are the Eldorado and the #8 dredge. S was trying to find a place to pan to no avail so we toured neither of these.

The University of Alaska at Fairbanks has a premier museum which had displays featuring the main geographic areas in Alaska and several interesting stories about the individuals homesteading in Alaska.

This is the Alaska Range and the city of Fairbanks from the UAF campus. The clouds make it hard to see--they are pretty!

The university also had a wonderful botanical garden.

Back at camp, S tried fishing again with no luck.

This is the Chena River right at our campground.

Kirly updating his "blog"--a piece of driftwood from Captain Cook where he has recorded our travels since then. The Good Sam club trek up the AlCan Hwy pulled in tonight and the campground filled up.

Lots of bikers--visited with one guy headed to Purdue Bay on his bike. Another camper had just returned from there in a camper and said "don't go!" It is 500 miles north at 25 mph, and I can't imagine doing it on a bike. Off to Denali in the morning!