We woke this morning to the lake shrouded in fog and a steady light drizzle. Temp 48 degrees. We had our coffee and breakfast, as usual, then packed up the camper and headed down the road. Everyone from this area has been saying that this has been a really wet Summer, and to expect rain.Thank goodness for rain jackets and quick dry pants.
On down the road, the ladscape changed into a wide valley with really weird looking vegetation
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And the road conditions changed, too. This is, by far, the worst section of road on the Alaskan Hwy. When the US Army built this road, they encountered real problems along this stretch in dealing with glacier formed permafrost. As they cleared the vegetation from the road site, the permafrost thawed and practically liquefied, creating a very poor road bed. Any refreezing just caused the road to heave and buckle. Both Canadian and US engineers have been trying to solve this problem ever since. Well, it doesn't look like the are having any success…..
After bump, bump, bumping along, we finally reached the border – ALASKA!
After having whooped it up a bit at the border……….We stopped just past Delta Junction at Rika’s Roadhouse, a restored historic roadhouse – or way station- where travelers from Valdez to Fairbanks would spend the night.
This is a picture of Rika Wallen and 2 neighbor boys.
The garden was beautiful. I couldn't believe how far behind the growing season is here. Broccoli and cabbage were thriving.
Rika’s had a restaurant that was supposed to have great pies – maybe a Northern pie tour? :- ) But the special of the house was Strawberry Rhubarb Pie – so we passed on that and had the Turtle Cheese Cake instead.
We are spending tonight just south of Fairbanks in a town called North Pole. Tonight we will do laundry and sort our stuff a bit and regroup. Tomorrow we will buy groceries (we have been eating well!) and head on to Denali – with maybe just a short stop off at the Christmas shop here at the North Pole…… : )
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