June 22nd to 24th - Fairbanks

June 22nd – Fri – Fairbanks
Some of us who don’t sleep as soundly had a terrible night. There was a large group camped beside Rick & Pat (across from us) and the kids played & screamed until after 2am! The parents were also outside with one female who laughed very loudly. Apparently Pat hollered at them to “shut up” about 10:30 but they ignored her or couldn’t hear her for all their noise. Terry & Dave didn’t hear a thing!!
We got a call early this morning from Neil & Robin wondering where we were and if we would be in Anchorage when they are going to be there in July. Dave & Margo were going for a walk so Terry convinced them to come in for coffee first. I was still in my PJs making reservations for a boat tour this afternoon.
After breakfast we all went to Pioneer Park only to find out that almost nothing opens before noon. We decided to go on a walking tour of downtown and were detoured when we saw a sign for the Morris Thompson museum which I thought Barb told us to see if we could. Turns out it was the wrong place but we all enjoyed the beautifully done exhibits and then walked a short path into town, checked out one store (where Rick finally found shoelaces that he has been looking for) and returned to the truck.
We went back and walked around Pioneer Park. Not all buildings are being used this year and some businesses were still not open so we went to a Denneys for lunch. We finished at the right time to go on our riverboat tour. The weather was wonderful – even hot – and everyone enjoyed the paddle wheel boat trip and presentations in the native “village”.
We dropped everyone off at the park and went to check out the huge Fred Meyer store nearby and to buy rolls & dessert for dinner. Dave & Margo made salmon for all of us for dinner and we sat outside to eat. There are some mosquitoes but we all had bug repellant on and weren’t bothered. Dave burned the firewood that he brought from Liard Hot Springs and I think that helped deter the bugs.

July 23rd – Sat – Fairbanks
We all headed in different directions this morning to do laundry and wash trucks. Pat & Margo went to the same laundromat but after they left I found a different one that just happened to have a car wash right beside it so Terry could wash the truck. I was waiting for the laundry so I could feed quarters into the car wash to keep it going.
After lunch, Dave & Margo went kayaking while we and Rick & Pat went on a “gold mine tour” that had a little train and went past a dredge. We did the tour 5 years ago but didn’t really recognize the area when Rick’s GPS led us to a closed road and then the tour seemed quite different. The tour moved from the Eldorado gold claim to Dredge 8 so of course we didn’t remember it! Rick got quite a few flakes of gold when we tried gold panning but Pat only got 2 so she received another little sack of concentrate and got more flakes. Their gold was valued at $42 but we didn’t stand in line to get ours weighed. After we wandered through the buildings & gift shop and ate cookies, we went back to the panning troughs, scooped up gravel from the bottom, worked it again and all got more flakes of gold.
We stopped at Papa Murphy’s pizza on the way back to get some breadsticks to add to Pat’s deep fried shrimp & chicken for dinner. We had finished eating and were chatting when raindrops sent us all inside. Pat came by later and asked if I wanted to go for a walk so we went to see a 10k run that was supposed to close the entrance to the RV park from 9 to 11. Turns out the race didn’t even start until 10. We watched a lot of runners go by and then raindrops and enough standing sent us home about 10:45.

July 24th – Sun – Fairbanks
The day dawned bright and sunny and we actually slept in until 8:30! Dave & Margo and Rick & Pat went kayaking. They put their kayaks in right here at the park and went upstream a ways. We did a little checking to see why we were getting so much dust in the 5th wheel and why a section of carpet was wet a few days ago. Turns out that when we blew a tire in Colorado last year, the repair shop did not replace a section of waterproof/dustproof fabric under the floor. Terry figured that spray caulking would seal it up so we went in search of the product. Of course the only empty slot in Fred Meyer was the one we wanted. We picked up a few groceries, found what we needed at another store and Terry made the repair just as the others were returning from their paddle.
After lunch we all went downtown to check out the Summer Solstice Festival. There were lots of vendor tents lining the streets, large crowds and three entertainment stages. We wandered around for a couple of hours enjoying the sunshine, entertainment and people watching.
We all made our own dinners. Dave & Margo had gone shopping and then stopped by for a bit before Rick & Pat came over to play cards. Pat & I broke the pattern by shuffling the cards by hand once instead of using the shuffler and we ended up winning.