Day Thirteen - North Pole to Cantwell, AK

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Because of all the fun with RV repairs yesterday we weren't able to squeeze in the Fairbanks Ice Museum so we decided to do it on the way to Cantwell today. The drive to Cantwell would be a short one giving us plenty of time to tour the museum. The only trouble we would run into is where to park our behemoths. Teri again to the rescue. She called the museum and asked if their parking lot would be big enough. Turns out they didn't even have a parking lot. The person on the other end of the line (is that still correct when you're using a cell phone?) said the Morris Thompson Cultural Center a few blocks away had RV parking. Problem solved!

We left our dogs in the trailers with snacks, water and the tv remotes and headed off to get some chilly culture. The Fairbanks Ice Museum was housed in an old movie theater. The Lacey Street Theater was built in the Art Deco style in 1939. It opened its doors in 1940 and showed movies into the 1970s. It's also hosted many events over the years. I can't confirm through the museum's website, but one source that claims they did confirm said the Ice Museum, "...founded in 2004 by a group of ice sculptors and enthusiasts..." moved from a smaller venue into the larger Lacey Street Theater in 2008.

The lobby was small with a few benches, a small gift shop sat adjacent. The gift shop was rather pricey and consisted mostly of crystal items. Shows started every hour and visitors were escorted into the theater seating area by the resident artist. It was, by necessity, a bit chilly in there. The sides and the front below the movie screen had glass walls but you couldn't see what was on the other side. The screen hung between balcony seating that ran three-fourths of the way around the interior. The seats were somewhat cushy, but lower to the floor than I expected. At the rear of the theater were two rows of plastic theater seats facing a glass wall at the back. Again, it was dark on the other side. His explanation of what we would see and experience was entertaining. There would be a 20 minute film about ice and the museum followed by a tour of the ice sculptures. He explained the museum was interactive and we were encouraged to sit on various animal sculptures and have someone take a "ch-ch ... photo" (mimicking the sound of a camera's shutter clicking while imitating taking a picture with a camera - not a phone). He told us to sit at the bar and hold our drinks up and "take a ... ch-ch ... photo." He rattled off several other sculptures we should pose with and have someone "take a ... ch-ch ... photo."

The video was somewhat interesting. Not a lot of background information about the museum itself; mostly scenic shots of snow and ice and video of the outdoor museum created in the winter. The first part of the film was difficult to watch. It was probably produced long before digital video cameras and the conversion turned out a bit like looking at one of those 3D changing pictures where if you looked at it from one direction the Tiger's mouth was closed and when you turned it the other way the mouth was open. If you moved it slowly enough from one angle to the other you could see the picture change line by line - that's what the first half of the video looked like. The footage of the winter museum was much easier on the eyes.

After the film finished the lights behind the glass walls came on to reveal what had been hidden behind Door Number 1, Door Number 2, and Door Number 3. Several large ice sculptures sat waiting for us to go through the doors and take ch-ch photos. In the narrow lane along the right side was a dog sled team waiting for you to hop aboard the sled and show your face through the cutouts in the hoods of the two mushers' coats. The larger center section housed several very large sculptures of polar bears, grizzlies, a moose, snowmobile, one-seater train cars being pulled by a sea serpent, and a bar complete with bar stools, cocktail tumblers and, the only non-ice item, aluminum beer bottles filled with ice to weigh them down. The left lane held the pièce de résistance - an ice slide running from the top row of the theater to the bottom. If you weren't prepared for the 25° temperature inside, there were loaner jackets piled on top of the front row seats.

I grabbed one of the jackets, zipped it up and walked through the portal into a world of ice. It was obvious these were not fresh carvings. Many hands had worn smooth any edges, though the detail was still visible. Each sculpture begged to be sat on or looked through. At the bar the tumblers with their frozen contents slid easily from one end to the other. One handlebar of the snow machine had broken off, but the fun to sit and have a ch-ch photo taken was intact. The moose was tall and required a step stool in order to sit astride it. But yes, the slide, in my opinion, was the best part.

When everyone had exited the cold room the final part of our tour began. Our guide and resident artist An, Zhe (locally known as Andy) stepped behind the fourth wall and gave a demonstration of how color is added to a piece. On the table in front of him sat a block of ice about 12 inches by 18 inches and probably 6 inches thick. Into the back he used a drill of sorts to carve a large flower with vines trailing out behind. He then used the snow he had created and filled in the flower. Using large syringes filled with food coloring he brought the picture to life. Coloring completed, he then picked up a hair dryer and began to clean up the ice until it was crystal clear all around the 3-D design. The end result was incredible!

When we arrived back at the Cultural Center Teri and I both went in to use the restroom. We both thought it would have been nice if we had the time to actually tour the exhibits. We were able to see glimpses of some of them on our walk to the opposite end of the building to where the restrooms were located.

Back on the road again we worked our way toward Cantwell and our home base for the next four days. Two days ago it was a man pulling a rickshaw, today it was someone cross-country skate-skiing up a slight incline on Alaska Highway 3. The things you'll see in Alaska!

Houses were few and far between out here. One house we passed had a yard full of sled dogs, each with their own shelter to protect them from the elements. There must have been 12 or 15 dogs.

The RV park is located about 25 minutes south of Denali National Park and is pretty much just a gravel area some entrepreneur decided to bring water and electricity to and turn it into a place for tourists to call home for a night or five. It's not even really gravel. It looks more like a dry riverbed with posts every so often with power lines and garden hoses connecting them. Definitely not one of our better choices. What can you do when you have certain requirements you want met and all you have to go by is the park's description of itself, reviewer descriptions and a subjective rating system? But the sites are long enough and have the minimum amperage required to run our appliances and air-conditioners. We'll have to mind our water usage because we don't have sewer hookups at the sites and we're here for a while! If we need to empty the tanks while we're here we'll have to hook up, go dump the tanks at the dump station near the office and re-park. It's a good thing we'll be gone for a good portion of the day for three of the four full days we'll be here.

I'll see you tomorrow.

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