Sunday..August 30..North Pole, Alaska

I really wanted to see the Northern Lights. According to the travel literature, they can be seen best in Fairbanks between Aug 20-Sept 20. So I stay up til 12am (that's 3am McMinnville time) and I bundle up good and go outside expecting the Aurora Borealis.... What did I find...Clouds, Clouds & more Clouds. I can barely see the 40' tall Santa in my parking lot.

After staying up late, we sleep in. The clouds have turned to rain. We go in for a few indoor activities in Fairbanks. While we are shopping, we hear the weather forecast clouds & rain for the next 2 days. No chance of see the Northern Lights in that weather. We decide to close up our little camper and head south.

This road is called the Richardson Highway..Hwy 2 south.. We have never traveled it before. The views, even in the rain are amazing. The Tanana river follows the road for more than 100miles from Fairbanks. The oil pipeline also follows the road. Here's a photo of one of the engineering skills used when they had to cross the large river with the pipeline.

This is a photo of a dirty truck and camper (now called the caboose) in the parking lot by the river.

We stop at the official end of the Alaska Highway, Delta Junction. It's still raining, but I want a photo of this landmark.

The Tanana river valley is so lovely. The trees are turning colors as autumn finds it's way here sooner that at home. The colors are the same: red, yellow, gold. The trees are different but lovely.

We drive on to the town of Tok, Alaska. We go back to Tok RV park and stay in almost the same spot as we did earlier this month. That night was very stressful as we were hurrying to Anchorage for the flight back home. This time, we take our time in Tok & enjoy looking around this little town & have a pizza at Fast Eddies. Yum....