The bus was abuzz with the news story of the Celebrity tour bus that had overturned in Juneau. One person was seriously injured and a number of people had broken bones and injuries. The other story was the closing of the road south to Anchorage. It was causing huge delays for both the tour buses and the railroad. We were fortunate to be heading north.
To keep the ride interesting, Scott and Nick had a little Alaska Trivia Quiz…
Interesting Alaska Facts:
* Alaska has 3 million lakes – 1.5 million with names. One of our guides said that since Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, Alaska could be called the land of 300 Minnesotas.
* The State of Alaska is 2 ½ times the size of the state of Texas.
* It has 100,000 glaciers.
* Alaska has 5000-6000 earthquakes/year. 1000 of them are a 3.5 or higher. They have 11% of the world’s earthquakes and 50% of all U.S. earthquakes. They have had 10 earthquakes over 8.0.
* In the Good Friday earthquake of 1964 the earth shook for 5 ½ minutes.
* Alaska has 80 potentially active volcanoes.
* State Flower- The Forget Me Not
* State Sport - Dog Mushing
* State Fish – Salmon
* State Mammal – Moose
* State Mineral - Gold
Exploring Fairbanks:
We arrived into Fairbanks at noon and we dropped off in the center of town for lunch
on our own. We found a little Italian restaurant, Gambardella’s, and found-once again- that fine Alaska service. These restaurants have an influx of cruise ship buses arriving on the same day every week- and don’t seem to staff up for the crowds. As a result, you have to fight for service. We didn’t have much time to shop in downtown Fairbanks—but with a 2 block main street, there really wasn’t much shopping to do.
We were off to the El Dorado Gold Mine. The mine started back in 1902 and today they’ve made it a tourist stop—for those wanting “an authentic experience learning to extract gold from the earth”. We all agreed that it was more of a way to “extract gold from the tourists”. We departed on a replica of the Tanana Valley railroad out to the ‘mine’. The conductor provided narration on the mining operation complete with stops in a permafrost tunnel to see the rock formations.
Once we got to the “gold camp”, our hosts, Dexter and “Yukon Yonda”, explained how gold was panned and mined. We were there on a day when the yellow-jackets were swarming. I have never seen so many wasps in my life. They were literally crawling over Mom and even though she was completely still, one of them decided to bite her. Old Yukon Yonda heard her yelp and immediately called for the emergency kit (evidently they were used to dealing with multiple wasp bites on their tours). We took the little vial of something to combat the swelling and went to the Visitor Center. Mom convinced me to do the ‘gold panning’. Everyone was given a bag of dirt and led to a huge area to pan the dirt for gold. Of course, everyone got just enough gold dust (and an occasional tiny nugget) to make a locket or earrings. We, too, succumbed to the ‘gold fever’ and got a little locket with our gold dust inside. It was actually quite cute. We were definitely the “gold mine” for this family—just about everyone on the tour was wearing their new necklaces. (We also got the story of many wasp bites from everyone on the bus…)
On the way to the hotel, we made one last stop at the Alaska Pipeline (the Trans Alaska Pipeline System). A timely stop since the recent news story of the BP closure of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay due to corrosion of the pipes. The pipeline was quite fascinating.
Interesting Pipeline Facts:
* Oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968
* The first pipe was laid in 1975 and oil began flowing in 1977
* The project involved 70,000 workers from 1969 to 1977
* There are 800 miles of pipeline, 420 miles are elevated because of permafrost
* The construction required 832 state and 515 federal permits
* The projected cost was $900 Million – the final cost $8 Billion!
* It crosses 34 major rivers, 3 mountain ranges and can withstand a earthquake of 8.5
* It takes 9 days to travel through the pipeline at 4 mph – 1 million barrels per day travel through the pipeline (17% of the U.S. domestic oil production)
* The pipeline has an outside diameter of 48” and ½” thick walls.
The Pipeline Pigs are interesting (and the lack of the use of these pigs to detect corrosion caused the BP problem). There are 3 types of “Pigs”:
1. Made of Teflon, it cleans the pipeline by scraping the sides.
2. An electronic version with video camera sensors to detect corrosion. Run every two weeks 3. The corrosion detector – spreads an anti-corrosion agent on the walls.
* State Fish – Salmon
* State Mammal – Moose
* State Mineral - Gold
Exploring Fairbanks:
We arrived into Fairbanks at noon and we dropped off in the center of town for lunch
on our own. We found a little Italian restaurant, Gambardella’s, and found-once again- that fine Alaska service. These restaurants have an influx of cruise ship buses arriving on the same day every week- and don’t seem to staff up for the crowds. As a result, you have to fight for service. We didn’t have much time to shop in downtown Fairbanks—but with a 2 block main street, there really wasn’t much shopping to do.
We were off to the El Dorado Gold Mine. The mine started back in 1902 and today they’ve made it a tourist stop—for those wanting “an authentic experience learning to extract gold from the earth”. We all agreed that it was more of a way to “extract gold from the tourists”. We departed on a replica of the Tanana Valley railroad out to the ‘mine’. The conductor provided narration on the mining operation complete with stops in a permafrost tunnel to see the rock formations.Once we got to the “gold camp”, our hosts, Dexter and “Yukon Yonda”, explained how gold was panned and mined. We were there on a day when the yellow-jackets were swarming. I have never seen so many wasps in my life. They were literally crawling over Mom and even though she was completely still, one of them decided to bite her. Old Yukon Yonda heard her yelp and immediately called for the emergency kit (evidently they were used to dealing with multiple wasp bites on their tours). We took the little vial of something to combat the swelling and went to the Visitor Center. Mom convinced me to do the ‘gold panning’. Everyone was given a bag of dirt and led to a huge area to pan the dirt for gold. Of course, everyone got just enough gold dust (and an occasional tiny nugget) to make a locket or earrings. We, too, succumbed to the ‘gold fever’ and got a little locket with our gold dust inside. It was actually quite cute. We were definitely the “gold mine” for this family—just about everyone on the tour was wearing their new necklaces. (We also got the story of many wasp bites from everyone on the bus…)
On the way to the hotel, we made one last stop at the Alaska Pipeline (the Trans Alaska Pipeline System). A timely stop since the recent news story of the BP closure of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay due to corrosion of the pipes. The pipeline was quite fascinating.
Interesting Pipeline Facts:
* Oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968
* The first pipe was laid in 1975 and oil began flowing in 1977
* The project involved 70,000 workers from 1969 to 1977
* There are 800 miles of pipeline, 420 miles are elevated because of permafrost
* The construction required 832 state and 515 federal permits
* The projected cost was $900 Million – the final cost $8 Billion!
* It crosses 34 major rivers, 3 mountain ranges and can withstand a earthquake of 8.5
* It takes 9 days to travel through the pipeline at 4 mph – 1 million barrels per day travel through the pipeline (17% of the U.S. domestic oil production)
* The pipeline has an outside diameter of 48” and ½” thick walls.
The Pipeline Pigs are interesting (and the lack of the use of these pigs to detect corrosion caused the BP problem). There are 3 types of “Pigs”:1. Made of Teflon, it cleans the pipeline by scraping the sides.
2. An electronic version with video camera sensors to detect corrosion. Run every two weeks 3. The corrosion detector – spreads an anti-corrosion agent on the walls.
We got to our last hotel about 6:00 and checked into our room at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge. We had a beautiful view of the river, a mini-refrigerator and we were on our own. We had our own happy hour. Amazingly, we had planned our wine supply out perfectly. We finished our last bottle- with a small water bottle filled for the following day’s flight. Dinner was at Pike’s Landing Waterfront Restaurant. We tried the tables on the river, but they had a pesky yellow jacket problem, too.Interesting facts:
* Fairbanks- population 33,000 - is only 120 miles from the Arctic Circle
* We had traveled about 500 miles into the interior of Alaska.
* It’s often called “SquareBanks” because car tires freeze flat in the winter
* Also called the “Town of Midnight Sun” with summer daylight of 21 hours and 49 minutes.
* On June 21st each year, they have a baseball game at midnight without lights.
* Winter temperatures can reach 66 below- without wind-chill! The parking lots have electrical outlets for the cars.
* 85,000 people live in the “borough” (county), many living off the grid. Houses in the borough typically have only electric service provided. Most have their own 1500 gallon water tanks in their house (or have their own water tanks on the back of their trucks).
* Fairbanks- population 33,000 - is only 120 miles from the Arctic Circle
* We had traveled about 500 miles into the interior of Alaska.
* It’s often called “SquareBanks” because car tires freeze flat in the winter
* Also called the “Town of Midnight Sun” with summer daylight of 21 hours and 49 minutes.
* On June 21st each year, they have a baseball game at midnight without lights.
* Winter temperatures can reach 66 below- without wind-chill! The parking lots have electrical outlets for the cars.
* 85,000 people live in the “borough” (county), many living off the grid. Houses in the borough typically have only electric service provided. Most have their own 1500 gallon water tanks in their house (or have their own water tanks on the back of their trucks).
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