June 16 Day 30 Fairbanks, Alaska
Here are the pictures of the burl animals at The Knotty Shop, which I mentioned yesterday (Pictures 1 & 2) I think the second one of the big mosquito is particularly relevant, as the mosquito in our RV is adding 2 bites a day and making me itch like crazy.
Dean spotted a Carl's Jr., his favorite restaurant, on our way into the park and tried to find it for our late, late dinner last night to no avail. So today I used the Internet and found the address. He's driven and worked hard, it's Father's Day, and he deserved his favorite brunch.
We were surprised to open our RV's door and step out into a very comfortable, not muggy 81?. We headed up to the park's car wash because our headlights were so caked with dirt that you couldn't tell if the headlights were on or off. It worked well, except for the soapy wand/brush that is supposed to dispense soapy water. It didn't dispense anything. Dean put lots of 5 dollars in the slot and the car looked much better when we left. It's $2/4 minutes. Dean says what you need to take along a really firm brush to cut through the gunk.
Dean enjoyed his Father's Day brunch at Carl's near Walmart, and we later discovered that there is another one only 2 blocks from the park. When we came out and saw the car, we were disappointed. It is much better, but it looks like someone went over it with a muddy paintbrush. At least we can see out of the windows now.
I love going to the Farmers' Markets in Alaska (actually, everywhere, but especially here). Fairbanks FM is open on Wed., Sat., and Sunday (today). Saturday is the big day, and today there were only about 10 booths open. However, I did get to talk with a local photographer and some local residents about where to find moose. We bought a mouse with locally-grown catnip for Sherlock and one for my daughter's kitten.
The Museum of the North at the U of A is open until 7:00. I thought we'd have a lot of time to see everything there, but the time flew. We got there around 1:30, and we closed it. We paid for 2 admissions ($24), 3 movies ($10), and an audio-guide with 2 sets of earphones ($4), totaling $38. An 8'9", 1250-pound brown bear that was killed in 1950 greeted us. They say he can easily run 30 mph. (Picture 3) I'd skip renting the earphones next time. The exhibits are so well signed that the audio-guide doesn't add much.
Next we met Blue Babe, (Picture 4) the steppe bison who died 36,000 years ago. I was amazed at how much information they could determine. He was killed by an American lion (an extinct species), and he was 8-9 years old. It was really cold in the museum. We watched 2 of the 3 movies. One was about winter in Alaska, and the other was about the Northern lights. Both were excellent.
The art gallery was very good, but paled when compared by the beautiful carvings in the gift shop. Everything there is high quality, and they had a small moose carved from walrus ivory that fascinated me. However, he was part of a set that included sled dogs. The single pieces were between $250-$350. When there's a heavy mist in the air at home (Southern California), our schools get calls from concerned parents who don't want their children playing outside at recess. I bought a book at the gift shop called Recess at 20 Below. Up here, kids go outside for recess if it isn't colder than -20?. I also bought a porcupine puppet that I can use to reach kids in my daughter's classroom. They had beautiful whale bone carvings, also. Only First People's tribal members can kill a whale or walrus to produce these beautiful pieces.
We had been told by Alaska Fish & Game, a wildlife photographer, and numerous Fairbanksans that the place to see moose was about 30 miles out Chena Hot Springs Road, past the residences. They said the best time was around 8:00. The timing was perfect!
We stopped at Sourdough Sam's, a mom & pop cafe, for a quick bite. Our fish & chips (I substituted a salad for $2 upcharge) tasted fine. Alaskans are so practical, as this cafe solves their fresh produce problem. They had a late spring break-up. A man told us that just 4 weeks ago, it was -14?, so there wasn't any produce at the Farmers' Market, and produce is expensive. They have lots of greenhouses and will have good produce, more reasonably priced, soon. The salad I had was tiny, and they used canned tomatoes with the lettuce. The fish was served on a popsicle stick. Odd, inexpensive at $26, and filling.
We saw several ponds that had no moose. After MP 28, I saw a young bull moose munching away in a pond. I've seen more than a dozen other moose, but never before a bull! I yelled at Dean, "STOP!" But, we'd been doing the speed limit of 55 mph, so we had to find a spot to turn around, and he was waiting for us still. We watched him for a long time, as he dove his head under the water, came up with green stuff, and shook his head. (Pictures 5, 6, 7) I'm sorry that it was so late in the day with dimming light, so the pictures came out odd. It was still light enough that we could have read a newspaper without difficulty, so we never considered that it would affect picture quality. The colors aren't even close to right. A few miles down, we saw a moose cow. I haven't enhanced or changed the color in any way, but she did not have the ghostly quality this picture implies (Picture 8).
Then came the grand finale! I was looking at the water at each pond/river fork. But at the North Fork of the Chena River, there is a gravel area beside the river, and I saw movement. I was speechless--actually could not get a word out. Trotting toward the bushes was a wolf! I've only seen a wolf in the wild once before, and I got a much better look at this one. We circled back, but of course, he was gone, so there's no picture. But, what a thrill!
There was a price to pay--mosquito bites from putting down our windows, and something bit me on the forehead, leaving a huge lump. However, I hope to go out earlier tonight, around 5:00, and try for better pictures. Will the moose be out that early? There's only one way to find out.
Staying at River's Edge RV Park.
