Today, we officially began to head toward home. We left Fairbanks, heading southeast on the Richardson Highway. We stopped at an interesting store about 30 miles south of Fairbanks. They sell all sorts of Alaskan items and gifts. It is called the Knotty Shop and I think you will see why.
They sell things made from burls. Burls are quite common on the trees here, in Alaska, and are used as decorative construction as you see here. They are also made into bowls and other items. They also sell things made from antlers, ivory, fur, gourmet foods, and other Alaskan crafts and souvenirs. Here are some of the things that have been made with the burls and are on display in front of the store. First there are the signs that warn you to behave.
There are several “animals” made from burls of all sizes that you can see in the grassy area. Also, I took a close up of some of them. That is “Alasquito”, a replica of the infamous huge mosquitos that Alaska is known for. We have been lucky in that we have not been attacked by hoards of mosquitos. Either we have been in areas that are less populated by mosquitos or they have been sprayed or maybe we didn’t taste good to them. Yes, we have been annoyed by mosquitos, but the insect repellant has done the trick to keep them at bay.
.Bumble really liked getting to play with the animals, even though the sign had said “don’t climb on the animals". She is a bee, so she just flew up and landed on the elk and on “Burl von Bruin”
Shortly before we got to Delta Junction, we saw a 1200 ft. section of the Alaska pipeline that is exposed as it passes over the Tanana River between two towers and continues above ground for awhile. This is second longest span of 13 bridges along the 800 mile long pipeline.
We found a nice campground in Delta Junction. It is the Alaska RV Ranch and it is a work in progress. There were only two other RVs there at the time we stayed. The couple who own the campground have been working on it and have gotten many things done, but the utilities are not up and running at the sites, so we had an inexpensive but nice dry camp at this place. What they have done, so far, is very cute. Here are a couple of buildings – the office with a patio in front and the gardening shed.
There is an outhouse like no other that you have seen. It is heated and has music playing. It also had posted rules for use.
I never found out if it was a working model or just for show to go along with the rest of the theme, but it sure was cute.
We took a drive through town after we got settled in camp and had dinner. Delta Junction, AK is where the Alaska Highway ends. There is a visitor center and a monument to the end, at 1422 miles. It was a very windy night, so the Alaskan flag was almost straight out.
Also, at the visitor Center, were replicas of the Alaskan Mosquito. They were almost as big as the one at the Knotty Shop, so it must be true that they are huge!!! There was a thermometer painted on the visitor center that showed the 10 coldest temperatures in Delta Junction. On January 6, 1972, it was –72 degrees!
I saw this sign at the Visitor Center (you can sort of see it behind me in the photo above). I think it means “watch out for bison because they can cause very bad things to happen to your vehicle.
Back at camp, this is our campsite and some sunset photos.
The first picture, below, is taken away from the sun. The sun is shining on the tops of the trees as the clouds above are beginning to get their sunset colors.
Tomorrow we will continue our drive on the Alaska Highway, heading east instead of west, like when we came.
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