Fairbanks and panning for gold

 The art museum in the top floor was my favorite part of the museum,

but we finally hit a threshold of information and left to get lunch at the Cookie Jar. Our Alaska book had mentioned it, it’s on the maps of the city given out for tours and walking and so worth it. They have cinnamon rolls as big as your head and then had the unbelievable idea of cutting it in half, dipping it in egg and making a modified 

French toast out of it…..heavenly. John loved his food and Oscar also ate all of his spaghetti, so a win all the way around at this place. It was now time for Oscar’s favorite part of the day, gold panning. He was sure that we were going to strike it rich. He just knew that we were going to find a gold nugget the size of the car an strike it rich. The work of actually going through pans of rock and mud and silt and 

sand settled him down quickly though and John and I ended up doing the majority of the panning. He wanted to bring us the shovelfuls of dirt to sift and was a tinge disappointed when we didn’t discover any nuggets of gold. We got some gold flakes though and I could see how gold fever could infect anyone. We stopped by Fairbanks’ Walmart to get some snacks for the road because we were going down the

Richardson Highway to return to Anchorage and everything says that it is slim pickings on that road. The guide book tells you to bring your own toilet paper and I’m already starting to wonder if we’re going to go over the 1200 mile limit on our rental with this trip. Gas is pretty pricey here compared to home of course about $5.45 a gallon right now. So, we stock up on that too and promise ourselves that we won’t miss any gas station on the way down because I thought we weren’t going to make it back to Denali the day before on the gas

that we had left. We hit Hot Licks for some ice cream from the place in town to get it and headed to bed with the idea of aurora in Fairbanks dashed when it rained all night long. The next morning, we don’t get the early start we promised we were going to because I decide that since we have good wifi at this location, we might as well get the COVID tests out of the way. It takes an hour for each of us to get online, get tested and proctored for the results to show the cruise ship so that we can board. But,

we have 3 negative tests and can get on our ship, so I’ll take it. We head to North Pole, Alaska and luckily everything is still closed, so it’s easy to see the Santa’s “reindeer”, say that Bronner’s is better and head out without a ton of Christmas stuff we don’t need. We hit Delta Junction in good time with the mountains capped with snow all around us. The views are amazing and the scenic look outs are actually scenic this time. At Delta Junction, you can get a certificate of completion for the cross

country drive from Florida to Alaska……I can’t imagine that, this 1200 miles we’re doing in Alaska is a killer. We have several times where the road is under construction and we have to wait for and then follow a pilot car forever…..we thought we would make it to Anchorage by 6pm, but now start to wonder if we’re going to make it in time to turn in the car at 10pm. We’re coming toward the Canadian Rockies and I’m pretty sure that I see it snowing in places around us, but John swears it’s fog.

   The scenery is beautiful and ever changing, but there is one gas station in Delta Junction after leaving Fairbanks until Palmer it felt like….that might not have been accurate, but bathrooms were sure in short supply and mainly just outhouses. Maybe we picked the wrong way to do Alaska….maybe in an RV or camping and being happy without running water and feeling okay having to carry bear spray with you would make us better travelers here. Let’s face it, here I see our travel deficits. We do amazing in a city like Rome or Amsterdam, can kill it when we have a nice resort to return to in Sedona or Santa Fe, but are woefully inadequate when actual survival skills are needed. I’m afraid to touch any plant, Oscar can’t eat anything around us, and John is thinking that he should have kept a Gatorade bottle with us for peeing on the road…..so, we’re happy to slide into Palmer and eat at an actual restaurant.