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Published: July 11th 2011
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Saturday, July 2, 2011 Teklanika Campground. Seriously overcast having rained again in the night. 50 degrees at 9:30. Starting mileage was 10770.
Slowly drove back toward Riley Campground, hoping to see more animals. Did see lovely views of mountains that we stopped to take pictures of. No animals were seen, not even the caribou herd on the Savage River, except for one snowshoe hare. He was on the side of the road, standing on his back legs, pulling and eating leaves off of a tree. It must have been something he really liked as grasses and flowers were all around him.
When we got to Riley Mercantile, we dumped the holding tanks, took showers, and got water. Checked and sent e-mail. Chatted with our fellow RTers who were doing the same things.
Stopped at the gift shops in the commercial area outside of the Park and looked at T-shirts. Didn’t find any we really liked. Looked across the parking lot and saw some tents set up and stopped to see what they were selling. Had some craft items and produce, but nothing we wanted to purchase. As we crossed back to Rosie, Valerie saw a Roadtrek in the
filling station where we had previously found such high priced gas. She went up to their window, since they hadn’t started pumping gas yet, and told them that they could get gas in Healy for about 50 cents less a gallon.
We then went on down the road to Healy to get another loaf of cheese bread. Since by now, it was lunch time, we bought a pastrami and cheese sandwich from this store and split it between us. Unfortunately, they had sold out of the cheese bread.
Drove back into the tundra with its ugly trees . Lots of State Troopers out in force. Most we have seen in the countryside.
Drove through several communities. Nenana is an Athabascan town that sits on the confluence of the Tanana and Nenana river and it was a hub for river traffic. It was the north terminus of the Alaska Railroad and goods were then loaded onto river barges for shipping into the interior.
By now we had climbed up into very pretty woods of aspen, white birch,
and evergreens. Great views of the river valley could be seen from the ridge we seemed to be on and we stopped to take pictures at a number of pull-outs.
Valerie had received a request from her friends in London for some T-shirts from a Roadhouse just outside of the community of Ester. We stopped there but they didn’t have all the sizes she needed. She purchased one shirt and a ball cap and we then continued on into Fairbanks.
We drove down a steep hill, out of the woods, right onto a 4 lane expressway, and right into Fairbanks. We easily found Pioneer Park where we were to meet up with all the other RTers. Paid for a 4-night stay. Settled in for the night in their parking lot as they allowed overnight parking, but no hook-ups. Raining again.
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