Fairbanks

 It’s only 150 miles to Fairbanks from Denali, but that’s not taking into account Alaska mileage that with every passing day in this car is

starting to seem more and more like some time warp or crazy shit happens when you drive here. I can’t get anywhere in decent time. We’re stopping at things still because there are beautiful sights, but you can tell that Alaska’s DOT has fallen behind the plant life at their scenic views. Every time we stop, the view is obstructed by trees and all potholed and horrible. Oscar’s laughing and saying that he has whiplash, I’m afraid for the car and a bit mad that I can see amazing

 scenery from the road, but nothing from the scenic overviews…..come on Alaska….you only have millions or millions of acres of land to handle….We finally arrive in Fairbanks and at our amazingly
quirky bed and breakfast. Amazingly quirky and Oscar is kind of enchanted because we’re clearly in someone’s house, but it

holds enough people for a breakfast room and to put it in the hotel category. I don’t want to get in the car again and neither does Oscar, so John goes out foraging for Taco Bell of all things. But it gets us through the night and we are able to go to sleep on the softest sheets I’ve ever slept on. The bed, not the greatest, but the sheets might be. The next morning after sleeping in as long as we wanted, we went out to explore Fairbanks. We hit the Large Animal Research Station at University of

Alaska Fairbanks because the owner of our BnB mentioned that the animals are more active in the mornings. The station wasn’t open yet, but we were able to walk all the way up and down the fields to see the Caribou, Wood Bison and Musk Ox really well. Oscar wanted to make a full circuit around the huge place, but it got more and more overgrown as we went and the mosquitos were already out and I kept thinking of huge leaves with neurotoxins

all over us and said no. He continued to pout about it until we got to the musk ox and were able to see them run and hear the thunder that they created. John said that it was something that he had always read about, but didn’t think he’d ever hear. You could see how a stampede of musk ox or bison would be fearsomely loud and scary. We were able to see where they scratched themselves on many different posts which left their undercoat on there that is used to make quilvet to make incredibly soft and

   warm clothes out of. We went to the Museum of the North on UAF’s campus next and were able to hold and feel some scarves made of it that only cost $400 or so. So, no purchases of quillivet for us, but I would recommend it for those below 0 days in Michigan. The Museum of the North started off with a bang when we realized that from its patio, we could finally see the top of Denali. YEAH!!! After 4 days of searching for it and being in places where we could see it, we finally got to from 150 miles away. Good think too because the clouds were coming as we left the museum. We got to see all kinds of animals
(stuffed), information about the aurora and even got to watch a film on the aurora. This was the worst and most boring film on one of the most exciting things in the world. I can’t believe that they thought, let’s go with that and sell DVDs for it in the gift shop. But, it was informative. I learned a lot about how the aurora works, not that it will help me ever see the lights, but did you know that most of our forecasts about aurora comes from UAF? My app that tells me potential for seeing them in any city in the world uses their data to operate and while we’re in Alaska in summer, there is a solar storm that happens and could produce some pretty awesome aurora, but the clouds won’t go away.