After the North Pole adventure we spent some time exploring Fairbanks. It is a small sort of dreary city this time of year. All the snow along the roads is black and dirty. Also, there is a big abandoned hotel right in the middle of downtown, just down the street from a new Marriott. They built a big new courthouse, but the old one stands ill used with space for rent signs in the windows. We went by the Visitors Information center, and picked up some literature.
We then went to an art type store advertising 40% off on any dog art. Jerry parked out front since the signs along the street said 2 hr parking. I went in for a while, but am having trouble going into stores when dressed for the outside. I rapidly overheat. I went for a walk down the street which is when I discovered the abandoned hotel I mentioned. Along the way I met a little fellow who was marking the tires of various cars, enforcing the 2 hr parking. He seemed pleasant. I watched him write a ticket for a car parked in a no parking zone after which he snapped a photo of the crime scene. When I got back to where we parked, I saw a parking ticket on our windshield. I looked, and the whole street we were parked on was 2 hr parking except for a little space in front of a loading door. It was marked 30 minute parking for loading. I got Jerry, and we scoped the situation out. It was crazy cause we could have parked anywhere on the stree t. The art storekeeper overheard the conversation, and said she’d see what she could do about it. Seems like the storeowner was someone important. She talked to someone, and got the $40 ticket reduced to a “Stern Warning”. “You tell them when they are in the loading zone, they are supposed to have their flashers on”. Later while strolling around further, I discovered many more tickets. Apparently the young fellow was very zealous about his job, and Fairbanks is serious about their parking laws. Seems a little odd this time of the year when the streets are largely bare of actual folks parking.
After the art store, we went to see the mushers’ museum. For some unknown reason it was closed, Tuesday only, this week. We moved on to see the ice sculpture museum, and it was closed. It’s closed during the ice sculpting competition. We headed for the Artic Treasures Gift Shop and it was open. This was cool cause we had 10% off certificates. We found Vickie a nice Alaska fleece top with matching hat. I got a big floppy Alaska hat, and we found really cool windbreakers for the Vette. We have been looking for windbreakers that would stuff into a little pouch to keep in the back of the Vette for impromptu roof down times. Of all places to find them, in Alaska, and on sale. We had a nice lunch of soup and sandwich at the Fudge Pot, which sells food, coffee, gifts, and fudge.
After lunch we headed out of town to the pipeline viewing location along the highway north of Fairbanks. In this location you can walk right under the pipeline, touch it, take pictures with it, and read information about it. We really enjoyed actually experiencing something we’d heard about for years. After the pipeline, we rode further north on the highway just to see the scenery. This particular highway turns to gravel 56 miles outside the city. We didn’t go that far. The rental car companies around here specifically forbid venturing on to the gravel highways. This is a little crazy however due to the penchant they have for spreading gravel all over the roads for traction on the ice. We decided it does make sense though cause they can’t use salt due to the very low temperatures.
When we got back to town, we went to the Alaska Bowl Company the girls had read about. This is a little manufacturing company that makes all sorts of wooden bowls and stuff out of native birch. We watched them cutting out bowls and finishing them. We decided we really didn’t need any bowls however since a set of 3 was around $200 and we’d have to ship them home. After that we went to Pioneer Park where I wanted to see the restored steamboat from the early days of Alaska. Well it was closed also, but we were able to see the steamboat and Warren G. Harding’s rail car. Seems like Fairbanks is sort of closed for the winter. We headed to our final stop, called Santa’s Smokehouse. This is a place where they smoke, sell, and ship salmon and other meats. It was open! We went in and sampled their various products. We bought a pack of smoked chum salmon strips for dinner, and took a price sheet to see if we might want to ship some home before we left. We then headed back to the motel and had a nice dinner of smoked salmon, fruit, cheese, veggies and dip. We turned in leaving again a wake up call if the aurora appeared. More later.
Wes
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