Today was great! Linda and I drove down toward Paxson to visit a place called the glory hole. It is one place where the salmon spawn, and they are pretty fun to watch. On the way down we saw Duane in his truck going our same direction, and stopped to have lunch with him in Delta Junction. We saw plenty of red salmon swimming upstream, and as the days keep going by they will become even more densely packed in the river. Piffert (Emmert's dog) came along too and kept us company. I'm not usually a dog guy, but this is a pretty cool dog. That took a good portion of our afternoon and evening, and we were pretty tired by the time we got home. This morning I sent out a huge box of stuff ... read more

I've arranged a way to buy a plane ticket home whenever I want to. Linda was nice enough to sell some frequent flyer miles, and it makes no difference if I book a flight today or 6 months from now. So I plan on riding with Duane tomorrow, we are going to Tok and back here to Fairbanks. So it looks like I'll probably fly out Saturday or shortly after that. They aren't the best times to be flying, but at this point I don't mind. I'm looking at red eye flights. The nice thing is that I may be able to sleep the whole way home. I've been doing things with Duane and Linda, and having a great time! Linda took me to the El Dorado Gold Mine yesterday, and that was pretty neat. They ... read more

Last night I talked to a fellow KLR650.net forum member, and he lives down in Wasilla. He told me a shop just opened in Fairbanks about 3 days ago, and that I should give them a call. I checked out their web site, and it said they are open sunrise until sunset every day, and in Alaska that means 24/7. I was looking at their web site, and their shop is only about 5 miles from the Emmert's. I called Shawn at Adventure Cycleworks, the nearby shop, and he said he would throw on some boots and be right over. He was going to load up the bike into his pickup and drive me to the shop to have a look at it, since it is really hard on the bike to be driving it in ... read more

Over the last couple days, Derek and I made it to Deadhorse and back to Fairbanks. On Monday we drive to Coldfoot. Tuesday we drive to Deadhorse, took the tour of the oil fields and to the Arctic Ocean, and drove back to Coldfoot. We didn't get back to Coldfoot until 1am. Long day, but I think we did it the right way. We left all of our stuff in Coldfood the day we went to Deadhorse, and rode without being loaded down which was nice. Parts of the drive up the Dalton highway are just beautiful. Atigun Pass is one of the highlights. Steep drop off one side of the road, and the scenery is great! Parts of the road have a solution spread out that helps keep dust down. When they put it down ... read more

What a nice change from being stuck in Dawson! The Emmert's have taken such wonderful care of us, they are some of the best hosts you'll ever meet. They feed us well, we have good times of talking and fellowship, and we have the privacy of one of the sections in their house. It is really a neat setup. There is one main common area in the house, and there are 3 other separate sections. We've got one, their son and his family have another, and Duane and Linda have their own. The separate sections are all built around the common area. It is a different design that I have ever seen, but I really like it! Plus they have a nice view of the city and the mountains (when visibility is good enough). This morning ... read more