Morning came way sooner than I wanted it to. It was very difficult to depart our stunning location on the river. Had my last cup of delicious hot coffee sitting in the doorway of the Airstream. As we headed north on the highway, our fire service helicopter flew over heading back to their basecamp on the rockbank. I waved my last goodbye to them out the window.
Drove past Eielson Air Force Base along the way. Our first stop of the day was, you guessed it … the North Pole. I stopped in real quick to give Santa my list while Tim turned around in the parking lot.
Our journey for the day brought us to Fairbanks. We have had a really tough time deciding where to stay. There are not a ton of places to camp here but what is here is a wide range. Free at Wal-mart with POWER. But they just put a stop to that last week. Someone dumped their black tank there recently ending it for everyone. Next one to consider was Pioneer Park (a historical theme park) for $12/night to dry camp in their parking lot. Then Tanana Valley Campground starting at $40/night. River’s Edge Resort was also a contender. They start at $80/night and if you want riverfront that’s $100. All had bad reviews and good reviews. Our luck every location won’t be good for us so we decided on Pioneer Park.
So far it’s okay. We are in a parking lot backed up to trees. We have great neighbors. A lovely couple on one side are from Colorado and an Airstream from South Carolina is on our curbside. There’s a nice community of like minded people that have stopped for the evening. We can stay here for up to five nights. I think because Walmart shut down, this place is crowded. There are six designated RV spots here. We are in one of them. But the adjacent parking lot is full with probably at least 27 others in addition to the six of us. Interesting that most of the rigs here are high end.
Basically as soon as we arrived in Fairbanks we found a gas station to get rid of our grey water and get fresh water. Then once at Pioneer Park we disconnected and took off to explore Fairbanks, eat and do a major re-stock of supplies.
I was starving by this point so we went to House of Fire Pizza. (thanks JH for the recommendation) Had one of their amazing specialty pizzas and a Caesar salad. Then we made the following stops:
REI
Costco
Sportsman Warehouse
Barnes and Noble
and my favorite …
Wal-Mart (not)
It was a busy day! Between the drive and all the stops I’m exhausted. But we are now re-supplied on groceries, DEF and Tim picked up a set of chest waders for fishing. Hopefully I’ll get my set tomorrow.
Sunset: 12:48 am
Sunrise: 2:56 am
Elevation: 460’
Miles from home:
4,603 miles
(possibly our farthest point from home on this Epic Adventure)
Miles driven:
6,112.6 miles
Wildlife viewings:
Seagulls
Squirrel (would not stay off our step at Pioneer … driving Jett crazy)
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