Fantasy Caravan Day 25 part 1 - Tok to North Pole, Alaska

On Tuesday, we traveled from Tok to North Pole (near Fairbanks), Alaska.

Our travel day started the evening before with information from our Fantasy Ambassadors about the travel route, things to see and do along the way, what to expect at the next campground, potential places for fueling, etc. -- the campground had a meeting room inside that we could use.

On our way out of Tok, we decided to stop at the $3 for 10 minute car wash to get some of the "big chunks" of dirt off...

.. the Jeep was particularly filthy. Both the Jeep and the motorhome got rinsed off (we didn't use a brush). We were happy to get it done for $3 as the campground would have charged us $45-50 to wash them both there. Several in our group washed their rigs and toads at the campground before another enterprising soul in our group came back and let us know about the $3/10min down the street. Side note: now that we've arrived at Fairbanks, after traveling part of the day in heavy mist / rain on dirty roads, we're glad we didn't invest more than $3 in getting them washed as they don't look a lot better than they did before washing!

A cloudy day for traveling

Gerstle River Black Veterans Memorial Bridge - from the Milepost: "Built in 1944, the Gerstle River Bridge is 1 of 4 'steel through truss-style' bridge constructions on the Alaska Highway. It was renamed Black Veterans Memorial Bridge in 1993, to commemorate the 3,695 African American soldiers of the 93rd, 94th, 95th, 97th, and 388th U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their contribution in constructing the Alcan Highway."

We weren't sure what "through truss-style" meant -- but in doing some research, I'm finding it means that the truss extends both above and below the road surface (so the road goes "through" the truss).

Moderately brighter?

We decided to stop at Delta Meat and Sausage Company (https://deltameat.com/).

From the Milepost guide:

Delta Meat & Sausage Inc. was a dream come true for Doug McCollum and his family, young and ambitious pioneers from Montana, who one day longed to raise cattle again in Alaska. Today they are a successful family-run farm and own their USDA packing plant.

See also: https://deltameat.com/about/

The store and packing plant

Info inside the store

Info inside the store

While we were there, the lady on the far left side of this picture came in to deliver glass jars of milk. Her family produces milk that is sold in the shop, and they also raise bison for the bison meat sold in the shop.

The mosquito is known as the state bird of Alaska -- two big ones are after Carl outside the Visitor Center in Delta Junction!

The end of the Alcan

We have no idea what this warning sign is supposed to be cautioning us about!

Selfie at the end of the Alaska Highway, mile 1422. We have not traveled the whole highway since we took the detour through Dawson City, over the Top of the World Highway, into Chicken, and the Taylor Highway. I think we will be traveling on it again on our way back to the lower 48.

Comparisons of different pipeline diameters.

Documentation on the different sizes

Information on a pipeline pig...

...and a well-weathered example of one.

Inside the visitor center / gift shop at Delta Junction

Information on the walls in the visitor center / gift shop:

When we were at Delta Meats, the lady who raises bison mentioned that the drive-in in Delta Junction sold bison burgers made from their meat. The drive-in is only open for the summer (not sure exactly what months that includes, but say, May-September) and that they purchase 16(!) bison for making burgers for their customers during the season!

We stopped at the drive-in...

... and they indicated that they sold local meat... but... they were closed on Tuesday, so we missed out on getting bison burgers! Carl saw the proprietor inside the drive-in and tried to convince him to open, "There are 25 RVs that will stop here for bison burgers!", but to no avail...

A few miles down the road,

... the Milepost had let us know that the Tanana River Pipeline Bridge had an information display for the Alyeska Pipeline. "This is a 1,200 foot long section of the pipeline that is suspended across the Tanana River between 2 towers. This is the second longest of the 13 major bridges along the pipeline's 800-mile length."

The pipeline makes a large S turn on the entry to and exit from the bridge.

Information boards:

I had forgotten to mention that we are pretty sure that we saw a wolverine earlier in our journeys -- an animal crossed the road a little ways in front of us, it kinda looked like a fox or a coyote, but when we saw it on the side of the road heading away from the road, it had the characteristic white coloring on its back at the base of the tale. Of course, we didn't have time to get a photo.... bummer!

Support for the bridge

Span across the river

Continuing toward Fairbanks. We had been told that we might see the Alaska Range of 12,000' and 13,000' mountains, but... not in the clouds on Tuesday.

We eventually got to our campground, Fairbanks/Chena River KOA Journey in North Pole, Alaska -- the Northernmost KOA in their system.

We had ordered our mail to be sent to meet up with us here, so we headed over to the campground office to pick it up...

... just had to wait for another camper to get checked in and then we were able to get our mail.

We are staying at this campground for 4 nights! It is funny that we are feeling like this is a LONG stay, when it is more like our "normal" shorter stay duration. We are looking forward to having some time to rest and recover, as well as seeing things here in the area!