7-1-2013 Fairbanks to Healy

Heading down the road!!  We pulled up stakes from Fairbanks; this had been our northernmost campground.  Everything now will be south and west.  Made one more pass into town to fill up with fuel and fruits and vegetables and headed south.  This part of the road is known as the Parks Highway.  We had assumed that it referred to the fact that it connects Fairbanks and Anchorage to the Denali National Park.  No sports fans.  It was named for George A. Parks, the territorial governor from 1925 to 1933.

We drove through one of the areas of forest fires.  As we had mentioned, parking near Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks, we had seen both helicopters with buckets of water and the planes that open their bay doors and scoop up water to fly and dump on the fires.  Sharon has really had a challenge with the smoke in the air for about the last week.  Has had a smoke headache for several days, but hopefully getting south of the fires will help.  Anyway, the fires had come right up to the road and we could still see a lot of smoke coming up from the valley below.

We had seen this P19 crash truck when we first got to Fairbanks.  We had actually gone to check it out and see if there was the plate in the door indicating it had been rebuilt at Crash.  Sad though, it had been surplussed out and never brought to Dallas.  We had talked to the man who had it for sale and he really gave us the song and dance.  But we were excited to see it coming back and forth from the fire area!!

There was also a 10-mile long road construction area through here.  Slow going.   It was very much like what we think the original Alaskan Highway would have been.

We arrived mid-afternoon at our next RV site, after a few confusing moments; the sites we’d reserved had been given away, sites they put us in had ravens through them, and the sites we ended up with not only overlook the mountains but also the dump area, we headed out to do a little exploring.   We stopped for supper at the 49^th State Brewery and had a really good meal.  Bob had elk lasagna and a 4-cheese soup.  Very tasty.  Getting back, our site didn’t look quite as bad. 

See, we are back to front.

Aside, this is the 50^th anniversary of Alaska becoming a state.  Sharon can remember her mom not wanting to buy the World Book Encyclopedias until Alaska and Hawaii had become states.  We bought them in 1963.

Looking forward to exploring this area over the next couple weeks.