Fairbanks

We arrived in Fairbanks on Monday afternoon and are camped along the banks of the Cheena River, just down from where the first trading post was settled, giving birth to what would become Fairbanks.
On Tuesday, we did a city tour of the area to locate the stores and gas stations, get an overview of places of interest to visit on our own, and drove out to the pipeline.

The pipeline runs 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay south to Valdez, where tankers take the oil off to refineries.

In the afternoon, we took a ride on the Cheena on the sternwheeler Riverboat Discovery.

The sternwheeler Riverboat Discovery

We traveled upriver to a wonderful replica of an Athabascan Indian village and learned about their ways of life..how they built their homes, used animal fur to make beautiful clothing and parkas, how they hunted.

This beautiful parka is being modeled by one of our Athabascan guides.

This "cache" held food and supplies elevated to keep them safe from animals.

Along the way to the village, we passed the home and kennels of musher Susan Butcher, the first person to win the Iditarod 4 times in a row. She passed away from cancer in 2006, but her husband talked to us about the dogs and sled racing. He hitched a team of dogs to a 4 wheeler and off they went, coming back around to the kennel about 3 minutes later after disappearing from view in the woods. Those dogs are amazing, and all they want to do is run!

David Monson speaks to us from the shore in front of the kennels.

That evening, we went to a salmon bake...all you can eat grilled salmon, prime rib and lots of sides and salad bar. Delicious! It was held in Pioneer Park. Many old buildings from Fairbanks were moved there to preserve them.

An old log cabin

A totem pole

Carson rides a salmon 

Wednesday and Thursday were free days, so we went shopping for groceries and fun things like air filters for the RV. Took the rig and the car to Sam's to fill up on "reasonable" gas...$3.91/gallon.
We had a pot luck dinner on Wednesday night. Everyone brought a dish, including gumbo from one of our Texas gals! Just like home. This is such a good group of folks. It's going to be hard to leave them in two weeks.

This moose was HUGE...and stuffed.

On Friday morning, we are off to Denali.