Fairbanks to Anchorage - August 21

After yesterday’s long trip to the Arctic Circle and a late night, we still had to get up fairly early for another long day’s drive back to Anchorage to turn in our rental car.  So we headed east on the Richardson Highway with a stop just 13 miles down the road at North Pole, Alaska.  It’s a touristy sort of town that will come to life soon even though it was pretty quiet when we arrived.  We saw the giant Santa Claus statue, Santa Claus sign, Santa’s reindeer (real, in a pen) and the gift shop that is billed as the North Pole.  The inside is decorated nicely and Christmas carols play year around.  Santa Claus was there and he said he knows where Wimberley, Round Rock, and Georgetown are located near Austin which gives him credit as being the REAL Santa Clause, right?  Rita had her photo taken with him and he was telling us of his upcoming busy schedule.  He was very talkative.  We also mailed our granddaughter, Sophie-Claire, a post card from the North Pole.

We continued east along the wide Tanana River to the town of Delta Junction.  Here we stopped to view the Historic Rika’s Roadhouse dating back to the gold rush days.  Santa Claus suggested we stop and see this and we were glad we did.  We viewed the sod roofed cabins, barns, gardens, and the big, main lodge dating back to about 1903.  We even had a coffee and cinnamon roll.  Then back to the car.

We took highway 4, still the Richardson Highway, south along the wide Delta River.  This soon became very remote and wild looking with very few buildings or towns along the way.  We crossed the Alaskan Mountain Range with large snowcapped peaks then drove down to the river’s edge.  Near the only town along the way, Paxson, we saw several lakes in pristine settings.  Summit Lake was one that looked beautiful.  We also saw the occasional glacier in the mountains. 

At the town of Glennallen we returned to civilization and highway 1, or Glenn Highway, to Anchorage.  We stopped for views of the Nelchina and Matanuska Glaciers and arrived in Anchorage about 6:00 pm.  We checked into our hotel then returned the rental car to the airport.  For dinner we walked a short distance to a local restaurant where we had delicious halibut and shrimp once more for dinner.  While walking to the restaurant we came across an envelope containing about $150 and a man’s driver’s license.  This morning (Wednesday) we walked to the Credit Union whose name was on the envelope (and is nearby) and turned it in.  They said the man was a customer and was looking for the money so we felt like we did our good deed for the day.