East of Delta Junction to Fairbanks – 118 Miles
It was 61 degrees and cloudy with high overcast at wake-up time this morning at our campground ten miles east of Delta Junction. After a shower at the campground, we drove into Delta for breakfast and 10 am Mass at the local Catholic church, Our Lady of Sorrows. The church, like all the Catholic churches we've seen in small towns along the way, is located down a side road, just past the town library and the Mormon church. It is small, seating probably 75 0r 80 at most. Behind the Altar, the Crucifix is mounted on a simple backdrop of common fir plywood. But what is not common is that natural grain of the plywood creates a recurring image if the Risen Christ with his arms outstretched. Not only that, over the head of Jesus is a wavy pattern in the grain that, for all the world, looks like the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. Right now I'm kicking myself for not going out and getting my camera so I could have taken a photo of this before we left.
We happened to be there the week that the pastor was on vacation up in Eagle, so we just had a communion service led by a layman. Afterward, we stayed for coffee and a slice of cake in the church hall. We asked one of the ladies how often they did the coffee and snacks, and she said, “We do it every week, otherwise we’d forget when it was time to do it again.” I guess that is the norm for the easy-going life in a small town in the interior of Alaska.
Just west of Delta Junction, the highway crosses the Delta River. The Alaska Pipeline crosses the river alongside the highway bridge, supported by an elaborate suspension bridge-like structure. We stopped so I could get a couple of pictures. Speaking of which, I fully intended to include a couple of photos with each blog post, but I’ve found that with taking so many pictures I just haven’t had time to select, edit, re-size, and add the pictures. Probably what will happen is that I won’t get around to doing the photos until I get home and post them on my Smugmug gallery. (Smugmug is an internet photo hosting site; my gallery URL is jmcarp.smugmug.com – no Alaska photos there yet.)
We stopped again a few miles farther down the road to get a shot of the wide Tanana River which parallels the highway for several miles. Normally from this spot there should have been a very good view of the Alaska Range with its snow-covered and glaciated peaks several miles off to the south. I had been noticing a thick haze as we drove northwestward, and as I stepped out of the motorhome I immediately knew what was causing it – smoke. Another person stopped there confirmed it – there is a forest fire burning somewhere south of Fairbanks, too far away for there to be a visible plume of smoke, but close enough to be easily smelled and to create the hazy conditions. Wildfires are a way of life in Alaska and northern Canada, with the vast, almost limitless forests in the region. We’ve driven for miles through old burns on this trip, and most of them have been as large as, and in most cases much larger than the Hayman fire that burned so much of Colorado a few years ago. It’s interesting to see the various stages of re-growth, depending upon how long ago the fires took place. Nature truly heals itself.
Before getting to Fairbanks, you pass through the small community of North Pole, Alaska. This town seems to be built entirely on promoting Christmas in one way or another. We stopped at the visitor center as we came into town to see what it was all about. The visitor center is located in an old, settler type log cabin with a sod roof. I’m not sure if it is sponsored by the town or if it is a private enterprise, but it is operated by two charming ladies – mother and daughter (the mother must be close to 90 years old) – who spare no expense in describing every detail of the town, right down to the street lights that are shaped like candy canes. The main attraction is a large building called Santa’s House, which is a giant Christmas store, filled with thousands and thousands of Christmas decorations, Christmas tree ornaments, stuffed reindeer toys, cheap made-in-China Nativity scenes, and of course, tee shirts of every size and color. During most of the year, Santa Claus himself is in attendance, and little kids can sit on his lap and tell him the first installment of their Christmas wish lists. But alas, like the rest of us mortal beings, even Santa needs a time of rest every year, and he was on vacation while we were there. It’s probably just as well, since there were two tour buses in the parking lot and the store was full of overweight seniors in Bermuda shorts – probably more than Santa’s lap could have handled.
And wouldn’t you know it – also in the parking lot was the silver Nissan truck and travel trailer of the couple from Whitehorse we’ve more or less been traveling with since Dawson City. We hadn’t planned to meet again, but here we were. They hadn’t made plans for a place to stay tonight so we told them the name and location of the RV park we had selected. We went our separate ways after Santa’s house, but sure enough, they pulled into the park right after we arrived this afternoo. So once again we had friends to share a brewski and snacks with as the day unwound.
We’ll probably stay around Fairbanks for a day or so, and then head down toward Denali on Tuesday or Wednesday.
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