Alaska - Day 2

Today began at 12:11am.  That's when I woke up inexplicably.  I decided to check out how much sunlight was still out. Before we left, Jeff Bilsland wanted a picture taken at midnight so he could see just how much sunlight there was at that time. I didn't take a picture, but I had to see for myself.  There was no direct sunlight, but more "twilight."  It was like the sun was just beyond the horizon, like you see early in the morning.  When I woke up later in the morning, I discovered that we were in for a rainy and overcast day.  We would later learn that this year has been unusually high in rainfall, which explains why all the creek and rivers look so full.

Right now, it's 9:15pm and it looks like 6pm at night at this time of year in Illinois.

Our orders for today was to meet before 8pm in the hotel lobby for us to head out on our riverboat tour.  We had breakfast first, but then waited in the lobby until our tour was ready to head out.  We were assigned on Tour 14A, bus #864 with driver "Gwen" who regaled us with many tails about growing up in Fairbanks. 

We arrived at the place where the riverboat, the Discovery III, was to head out.  They strategically drop us off in front of the gift shop before it left.  Within the barrage of gift shops, there's a place called "Alaska at 40 Below."  It was basically a room with a temperature of 40 below or less.  At $10 a person, you can experience what life is like in Fairbanks during the winter. Dennis, Jack and I signed up no more than we see that the current temperature is -60 or less (the thermometer was buried). They put us in parkas and we first entered a room at approximately 0 F.  Then we moved into -60.  It was cold.  I've been in -40 before.  We did a couple of experiments; we through a cup of hot water in the air and watched it dissipate.  We also blew soap bubbles and watch them freeze and when they busted, turned into ice crystals.  They even showed us frozen motor oil, demonstrating what an auto goes through in this part of the country.  We moved back into the air lock where it was 0 degrees... it felt warm.

Our riverboat cruise took us on the Chena River.  We made a stop at where famed sled dog trainer Susan Butcher trained her award winning dogs for the Iditirod race.  We also stopped at an "Arctic Village" to learn how Eskimos and natives made a life for themselves.  At this stop we were able to pet many sled dogs and see cabins where natives lived life in Alaska.  There were many demonstrations on the cruise regarding life in Alaska.  But this cruise also looked at many homes along the river. 

Once this cruise was over, we headed to a gold dredging facility for lunch, a tour and some gold panning.  The lunch was actually good... beef stew, biscuits and blueberry crumb cake.  It was a bit odd going into the "mess hall" of the gold dredging facility in a line and in order.  We were directed where to sit and what to eat.  I commented that it was run by the Soup Nazi.  

After the informative tour of the Gold Dredging #8, we got to pan for our own gold.  They gave us a sack of sand, which already contained gold flakes in them.  We gave a couple of extra bags to Jack so he got extra gold.... $30 worth according to the assessor.  I not only panned out my gold, but afterwards, I dug up a bunch of rock/sand from the bottom of the water pit and was able to pan an extra flake of gold out of it, undoubtedly left over from a previous excursion. I'm rich!!

One last brief stop off the bus was to check out a section of the Alaskan Pipeline.  Shari stayed on the bus as she had no interest in this stop.  Jack got off the bus to look at the site, but displayed very little interest as well.

We all ate dinner across the street at the Iris.  Several Heinekens later, I'm back at room 316 at the Westmark.  Our day begins tomorrow before 7am.  We were originally to take a train to Denali National Park, but the heavy rains and flooding they've had going on this summer has shut down the track.  So our plans have altered to a bus to Denali.  But they say this will take less time.  Once at Denali, we are suppose to tour the park, so hopefully, I'll have some pictures of wildlife.

So until tomorrow...

Alaska Fun Fact #1:
At the gold dredging, we learned that Fairbanks is an Artic desert and that Arizona receives more rain.  This summer has been unusually wet and cold for Alaska.  The locals claim that this is the most rain they've seen since the big flood of '67.

Alaska Fun Fact #2:

According to Gwen the bus driver, JC Penney opened its first store in Alaska in Anchorage in 1964 just a day before Good Friday.  Of course on the next day, Good Friday that year, Anchorage encountered one of the worst recorded earthquakes.   In 1967, JC Penney opened another store in Fairbanks... the year of a terrible flood in Fairbanks.

Alaska - Day 1

It is 5:11pm Alaska time (8:11pm Central time) and we have all arrived safely and have now settled in the Westmark Fairbanks.  Currently, Dennis, Shari, Buffy and myself are lounging in our room watching the Alaska channel while my Mom rests and Jack takes a bath.  Jack is pretty wound up right now after a full day of travel.

We started off sometime after 9am Peoria time, leaving Byerly Aviation.  After about 3 and a half hours, we stopped in Edmonton, Alberta Canada to refuel the plane and ourselves.  Our first order of business was taking care of some business... meaning potty stop.  In getting to the rest room, we passed by a terminal at the airport.  It was here where we saw scores of beat down, hunched over people waiting for a flight on a 737.  Perhaps hours earlier, these people were having a good time at a pub and then suddenly hit over the head.  Later, upon waking up, they find they were shanghaied and now forced to work in the vast oil sands of northern Alberta.  Just speculation.  Fact is, it looked pretty depressing in there.

We went to Zambelli's restaurant near Edmonton where I tried some of the local brew, Roughneck.  It's logo was that of an oil well, simply because of all the oil sand business in northern Alberta.  I thought it would come in a bottle, but was a can.

Back in the air, it was about 2 and a half hours left, thanks to less than stronger headwind.

We landed in Fairbanks, only to discover that Holland/Westmark did not know anything about picking us up.  A hour and a couple of phone calls later, the shuttle was there to whisk us to the Westmark.

After check in, we met up with Josiah, our cruise director for the land tour.  He ran down our activities for tomorrow.  We paid good money for people to tell us what to do!  Tomorrow starts off with a riverboat tour (couldn't we have done that on the Spirit of Peoria... I don't think it would be the same).  For lunch and the afternoon, there's a gold dredging outing.  Jack is excited about that because we told him he could keep any gold he finds.  Good luck. 

I hope to have some interesting photos for everyone tomorrow.  I didn't really have any today.

But right now, we researching some restaurants to go to and the all important saloon.

Just Before Leaving For Vacation...

... this is what happened at the office the night before we left for Alaska.  The power was out for hours.  All is well now and that tree is coming down all together.

I Just Saved $5,000...

... and I didn't even have to switch my car insurance to Geico!

On Friday, July 25, 2008, President George Bush traveled to Peoria to help fund raise campaign dollars for the 27-year old Republican candidate for Congress, Aaron Schock. The event was held at Weavers' Farm around 1:30pm and it cost $500 a plate, and for another $5,000, you could have your picture taken with the President.

A few hours later at 4pm, when folks finally got off work, Democratic candidate Colleen Callahan held a fish fry at the Kickapoo Sportsmen Club, where it was only $15 for the Walleye dinner. Photos were free!!

Actually, I think I saved $10 grand because I had 2 pictures taken.

President To Stay Overnight

Peoria, IL (RLO News Service) - President George Bush will be staying overnight in Central Illinois after flight crews had difficulties with Air Force One. Bush was in town to spearhead a fundraiser for Aaron Schock, who is running as the Republican candidate for the 18th Congressional District.

Bush had originally asked Schock if he could just "flop on his couch for the night." Schock claimed that his house was already full of family guests and that there was no room to spare. "If I still had one of my rental houses near Bradley University, it would have been perfect for the President," Schock testified.

Instead, Schock summoned his assistants to secure lodging facilities for the President. Within the hour, President Bush and the First Lady were booked for the night at the Ragon Motel in Creve Coeur, IL.

"I am truly honored to stay at a motel that bears the name of my favorite president and role model, Ronald Reagan," stated Bush as he entered the room. No one informed the President that the spelling of the name was different.

As the Bushs' entered the room, the President's eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Hot Damn! Look honey, they got the magic fingers bed." Bush handed one the Secret Service agents a $10 bill and ask if he could go get change.

As the evening drew to a close, Secret Service reported that the Bushs' ordered a pay-per-view movie, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and were settled in and comfortable.

Parody - Not To Be Taken Seriously

Obama To Stump For Votes Overseas

Baghdad, Iraq (RLO News Service) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama visited with some of the 140,000 US troops in Iraq on Monday as part of a vast campaign tour overseas. His latest campaign tour started off in Afghanistan and will finish up in parts of Europe.

While in Kabul on Saturday, Obama told a crowd of supporters, "It's great to be back in Afghanistan! I just got in from New Jersey and let me tell you, that place is a jungle." After a quick lunch with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Obama was off to Iraq. In Baghdad Monday morning, Obama greeted other supporters. "Let me tell ya," Obama stated, "it's great to be here in Iraq. I was just in Afghanistan, and let me tell you, that place is a jungle. There's no place like Iraq." The crowd became ecstatic and shot firearms off haphazardly in the air.

Meanwhile, back in the US, Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked by reporters to comment on Obama's wildly popular whirlwind tour. "Campaigning overseas?" McCain asked, "Huh? Huh? Iraqis can vote in US elections?" McCain's campaign staff immediately announced an overseas tour to campaign in China.

Parody. Not To Be Taken Seriously.

Bizzaro Tomatoes

Maybe this is the way they grow vegetables in the topsy-turvey world of the Bizzaro.

This planter allows for you to plant a tomato plant (or other plants) upside down. I planted what was called a "Boxcar Willie," a brand of tomato plant from country star Willie Nelson. I thought it odd because there's another country star with the stage name Boxcar Willie.

It was off to a great start as the plant was vastly outgrowing my other conventional tomato plants. Buffy has added more soil to it and we've had to relocate it once. Recently, it has started to droop and wilt a bit as I think it needs yet more soil. I can't put that much more into it. While it looks like it's doing better now, I don't know how long it will last as it just continues to grow more and expand it's root structure.

By the way, despite it's size, it has only produced 1 small tomato thus far.

A Wet Weekend

This past weekend, Buffy and I joined a group of roughly 20 other Jaycee members and friends for an annual camping and canoeing trip. We always stay at "Tree Island" at the Cherokee Village campground outside Turkey Run State Park in Indiana.

On the way there, we were running into and out of rain storms. Past Champaign, IL, we were finally out of it, but it eventually caught back up with us once we arrived and set up camp.

Buffy and I purchased a new, bigger tent along with cots for this year's trip. That was a good move! Sometime after I went to bed (2:30 - 3am), a thunderstorm came up. As I laid there, half asleep, I wondered how well this new tent will hold out the water. As rain dropped from the sky and onto the nylon tent, also equipped with an additional tarp, coupled with thunder and lightning, it made for very good sleeping weather. And the tent stayed high and dry.

Saturday morning was a muddy mess. We ate breakfast and called a few times to check on canoeing availability. We were scheduled to go at 11am and we were told to call 30 minutes in advance of that to check if any canoeing would be allowed. Our trip "leader" Kate suggested that the booze consumption be limited should go out on the creek as the water level could be high and somewhat dangerous. This would have severely hampered the entertainment of everyone at the expense of a certain member of our excursion.

We were called back with bad news. No canoeing, not only due to rain in the vicinity, but due to rain up north which was flowing our way.

As the weather cleared, many of us decided to hit a swimming pool at Turkey Run State Park. It was somewhat interesting to find many Amish people hanging out at the pool. I felt sorry for the Amish kids, especially the girls, as they wanted to get into the pool but were not permitted.

That evening, the sky clouded and the wind picked up. Thunder roared throughout the area and lightning occasionally flashed. This did not look good. The rain eventually started, but did not bring any violent weather. But at any rate, the steady rainfall brought miserable conditions as we all sat huddled under a couple of canopies placed side by side of each other.

Sunday morning, Buffy and I departed the Cherokee Village. On our way out, we crossed Sugar Creek where we would have canoed. Water completely filled the banks and was moving downstream quite rapidly. This is why the State of Indiana canceled all canoeing.

We all still had a good time and always seem to manage to do so regardless. It could have dropped to 28 degrees and snowed a half a foot and we'd still manage a good time. But maybe later this summer we might get in some canoeing yet.