Blackie Blog Day 13 - Farewell Fairbanks

A couple of post comments from the ride to the Artic Circle. We were flat out tired when we returned, so not sure how the story came across. Unbelievable scenery and dust (the trucks kick up quite a bit - there is a blind cloud that followed each encounter. Ironically, the Circle Day was also the hottest day so far on the ride - near 80 when we returned.

Day 13 was an easy one - leisurely pack up and roll to Denali. Never did find the personality in Fairbanks - for now, we head south. The roll from Denali was good road (a delight after yesterday), nice hills and sweeps. Halfway, my trip odometer hit 5000 (the embedded pictures are clickable - several mentioned not seeing the bear with Pete yesterday):



The closer we got to Denali, the better it got, and I mean good (the perpetual haze still there):



Had to get a shot for my buddies at Hermy's:



So here we are at the Grizzle Lodge at Denali - our nicest accomodations - river/mountain view and a patio overlooking the park. Tomorrow, we have a tour booked (you cannot drive through the park on your own, so a tour is required to see anything). We hope for good weather. Post tour, we ride as far south to Anchorage as we can, as we have a maintenance stop there Wednesday morning (good timing that).




My Dalton Highway rattle is gone, so either the part fell off, or the ingested rock theory held up.

A couple of family hellos:
Sam - tell Sparky good luck tomorrow
Molly - I hear the recent cooking creativity went well - great job (as always).

Internet is limited here, and with the long day tomorrow we may be dark for a while.
Blackie out.