TUESDAY, SEPT 3

TUESDAY,  SEPT 3: 

     Rainy again/still.  So took our time getting out of the RV.  But by the time we got to our destination, a viewing point for the oil pipeline, it was clearing a little.  Yea!  Just north of town is a designated viewing area, right off the road, where you can walk out and see THE pipeline. The pipeline is underground when possible, but where there’s permafrost, they built it to be above the ground, so as not to melt the underground ice.  There are interpretive signs which contain facts & figures about the measurements of the pipe, how much pipe it took to build it, the length (800 miles), the cost ($8 billion), etc.  No matter how you feel about big oil, or the possible impact on the environment, you can’t help but be impressed with the magnitude of both the concept and execution of the project.  In a sense, we saw the whole thing – we stopped at the airport at Prudhoe Bay on our way to Barrow, and saw the terminus at Valdez (neither point now has tours for the public, since 9/11).  So it was appropriate that we could now see the virtual mid-point. 

 

                                          A "pig" inserted into the pipe at every pumping station to clean deposits off of the inside of the pipe:

 

     Then we went to Creamer’s Dairy.  This is a nature area which used to be a prosperous dairy farm for 50 years.  The pastureland became an annual stopping place for birds migrating south, because of its natural openness and the grain grown there for the dairy herd.  Both the Creamer family who owned the dairy (aptly named!) and the public always looked forward to the fall birds coming.   

 

 

                                               Old family farmhouse, now the Visitors Center:

 

So when the dairy closed in 1966  due to increasing regulation and no longer being able to compete with the Lower 48 dairy products,  no one wanted to see this annual ritual come to a  halt.  So, Fairbanks residents raised money through bake sales, school kids’ contributions, etc. to raise enough money for the State to purchase the land and turn it into a wildlife nature center.  Alaska’s Fish & Wildlife now administers it, and continues to farm it so that the birds & other wildlife will continue to find hospitable habitat. 

 

 

There were a couple of really nice nature trails, which gave us really good views of some sand cranes and Canadian geese.

 

                                                                     

     Our last stop was downtown.  We thought we’d better take advantage of the dry skies to walk around & see what we could of downtown.  But we were getting hungry, so ate right across the street from where we’d parked – at Soapy Smith’s (that low-down scoundrel we’d heard so much about in Skagway).  Had a very nice, enjoyable meal.    I’d been craving prime rib ever since Bill had his salmon/prime rib dinner on our boast cruise in Whittier.  So now as my chance to get it.  Bill got baked salmon.  Now we know enough to ask what kind of salmon.  This was King, so, sold!  You really can taste the difference!

 

 

After dinner, we just poked around the immediate downtown area.  Crossed over a footbridge over the Chena River.

 

 

Spent time at the little riverside park there, Golden Heart Plaza, where there’s a bronze statue of The Unknown First Family, along with many bronze plaques highlighting the history of the city.  A very attractive little civic center, even though the rest of downtown is nondescript. 

 

 

As we were driving home, raindrops started spilling onto the windshield!  So, it’s a good thing we grabbed the little dry break when we had a chance!