Monday, August 19, 2013 (Travel to Chena River State Park, Fairbanks, Alaska)

First of all, I have a little information that I forgot to mention regarding the dog sled demonstration we attended yesterday.  The dogs are actual working dogs in Denali National Park.  The Rangers use them to patrol the 6 million acre park in the wintertime. No vehicles or snowmobiles are used after the first snowfall. They also hauled all the building materials used to construct the suspension bridge that we crossed on our hike along Triple Lakes Trail.

Well, we woke to rain this morning and of course, it happened to be a travel day.  So Steve had a wet pack up outside.  After a stop at the sani-dump, we were on the road shortly after 9:30 heading for Fairbanks.

What would a travel day be without a little rain and some road construction?

The highway parallels the Nenana River for awhile...

Then we went through some major road construction...

Some blue sky and sunshine is coming through as we cross the Tanana River....






...however it was starting to get smoky out from surrounding forest fires...

 

We arrived in Fairbanks at the Chena River State Campground at about 2:30.  As we entered the campground, a woman was waving at us.  After a moment of trying to place her, I realized it was Ginger...we had met her and Herb at Williwa Campground near Whittier.  We also learned that Alan, Cec, Rob, Joyce, Bob and Sue were also camped here...not surprising since we have been shadowing each other on this whole trip!

After getting all set up, Steve called Cascadia International here in Fairbanks to make an appointment to have the truck serviced.  Although not quite due, he decided to have it done here since it would be way overdue by the time we got back down to Prince George.  With the appointment for tomorrow morning, he off-loaded the boat in preparation for taking it in.  While he was doing that, I took advantage of having an internet signal and worked on our blog.

At about 5:30, we headed over to join Alan, Cec, Rob, Joyce, Bob and Sue at their campfire.  We enjoyed a great visit with them...and before we knew it, it was going on 10:00, another long "Happy Hour"!  With the daylight so long, you really don't realize how late it is!