Ghost Town, AK

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After two days (or nights) of driving long distances in the dark, rain and snow, we made the decision to push on from Denali towards Fairbanks rather than returning to the park.

Our first objective was to find somewhere for a hot breakfast, as surviving on cold food in the snow was beginning to lose its appeal. We sped past Healy and made our way to the railway town of Nenana. The whole town seems geared towards tourism, but as we were there out of season, almost everything was closed, from the wood cabin tourist office to almost every diner and restaurant bar one. The Rough Wood Inn was open and serving breakfast, so we headed in out of the cold. There we were treated to the uniquely American experience of listening to the locals deride Obamacare. Daisy had the sourdough pancake plate and Laura had the eggs, but we both felt it was a little early to sample the German-style microbrewed beer on offer.

There were no towns between here and Fairbanks, so we reached our destination earlier than expected, although we did make one stop to admire the view along the way. With time to kill before checking into our hotel (a complete novelty at this point) we decided to explore all that Fairbanks had to offer. It turns out that this isn't a whole lot. Fairbank's historic downtown is mostly rather tired and with little geared towards tourism. The much lauded Pioneer Park was more promising, although 95% of the place had closed just a few days before, although we were still able to see Warren G Harding's train carriage and the Nenana steam paddle.

After yet a litle more food shopping (Safeway supermarkets are still going strong in this part of the world) we headed to our hotel and chilled out for the rest of the evening. It was nice to have a more relaxed day of not doing much so we could catch up on some much needed rest.

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