We had breakfast and packed up the car, then walked downtown to visit a couple more places before we left. One of the places was the Visitors and Cultural Centre which had some interesting exhibits of the different cultures of the area.
Even managed to find an aircraft in it. This aircraft was owned by the Bishop of Alaska back in the 1950’s. At the age of 29 he was the youngest Bishop in the Church, and he took up flying to get around the interior.
Flying Bishop
Outside of the centre was a memorial to the Russian and US airman who lost their lives flying from the US to Siberia via Alaska to deliver WW II aircraft to the Russians as part of the lend lease programme.
Memorial
Also outside is a log cabin, standing in its original location, that was typical of the homes in Fairbanks in the late 1920’s.
Log Cabin
From here we headed out to Jo Ann fabrics (!!) for some much needed material. After gassing up the car and coffeeing up us we headed south down the Anchorage road towards the Denali National Park. The trip was not as interesting (can’t really use the word boring up here) as other trips. The first 75% was through gently rolling hills and heavy forest.
The last part of the trip took us back in sight of the mountains and the 20,237 ft Mount McKinley, so it brought up the interest level. Mount McKinley is the highrest mountain in N. America. We checked into our “room” well more like a cell really. We are in a cabin at an RV resort, accommodation is hard to get up here unless you go for the sky high priced lodges, the cabin is probably 10ft x 15ft, but does have its own bathroom! It also has fantastic internet. As we will be out all day tomorrow, we’ll only be spending sleeping time in it anyway.
Just heard our friends managed to get past the wild fire and are now in Denali. They were lucky as the road was closed again due to smoke reducing visibility. Hopefully everything will be back to normal before we head back to Anchorage on Wednesday.