Alaska - Day Twenty-Four: ??? Still in Fairbanks

We got our wake up call from our credit union at 7am, she totally forgot about the 1 hour time difference. But it was good because we had lots to do before going back to the dealer. After breakfast...

Not only did the hotel have a very nice room but a homemade hot breakfast bar every morning...

Packing the backseat of a truck is totally different than the back of a van. We had to do some thinking about how we were going to easily access the things we needed often, keep the back of the truck empty for sleeping at night and store any food inside away from bears.

Once we got that sort of figured out, we went to the State Trooper's office to get a new insurance form. Turns out when you've just been in an accident, you aren't thinking clearly. I screwed it up and we needed a new one. We waited a LONG time to find out we could do the whole thing on-line or by fax... Ugh!

Then we went to the dealer, signed papers, got the keys and went back to the hotel to pack...

We got it all loaded up and we were on the road again... sort of.

Actually, we just went down the road to check out Pioneer Park...

Originally known as Alaskaland, it was built in 1967 to celebrate the centennial of the purchase of Alaska. The name was changed in 2001 to Pioneer Park. Personally, I like Alaskaland better. It is a city park with concession stands, shops, museums, playgrounds, river access, mini golf, carousel, sternwheeler, narrow gauge railroad, wifi... It's a very nice park!

While we were in the Pioneer Museum we discovered you can legitimately buy land in Alaska. We were so excited that we bought "1 square foot of fully developed moose pasture near McCarthy" for each of us and all of our family for our "compound"!

We also checked out the quilt show at the Center for the Arts, rode the train around the park and just wandered through enjoying the sunshine...

Just inside the entrance to the park is the Harding Car, part of a three railroad car train that carried President Harding through Alaska in 1923. He was the first president to visit Alaska and was part of the ceremonial completion of the railroad between Fairbanks and Seward. Just part of his Voyage of Understanding, he then headed south and died of a cerebral hemorrhage only two weeks later. I have to say that even in 1923, Presidents traveled in style...

When it's in the 90's in Fairbanks, the locals head to the Chena River to float down. We didn't have anyone to drop us off or pick us up, so we just paddled upriver until we just couldn't anymore and then enjoyed the trip down...

Paddling a kayak upstream works up an appetite, so we headed up to the Silver Gulch Brewing Company in Fox for dinner...

I really wanted one of their pint glasses but I just couldn't justify it when I really didn't need it and we had just bought a truck... ;)

Back at the campground we put up our new truck tent for the first time. I think it was rather entertaining for the neighbors. We were also hopeful we'd get better at it with practice...