Fairbanks

Tuesday 7th September Denali to Fairbanks YAY the big smoke again

Bobby our coach driver took us from Denali at 9am, Bobby is a Yankie who lived at Armidale NSW, Orange, and Toowoomba so he was used to us Aussies ! We went up the Parkes Highway through Healy a coal mining town, also a pub stop (see previous day!) We went over dry creek, yep, no water fancy that! Tatlinka township, Nenana was our pit stop, on the Tananna River, I rang Shazza and said we had found the missle of s*** creek, I would have loved to have had more time to explore this really interesting township, very old and really interesting, alas, we were soon off and learned about some fact relating to the Iditarod, it began to commemorate an event in history that saved many lives when a dog sled team travelled to Nome from Seattle with a diptheria vaccine. Such a story teller this guy is, he told us they have ice fog, its like our fog, but because its so cold it freezes ! We passed through Skinny Dicks Halfeway Inn..and arrived at Fairbanks wherer we went on a mission to find the Post Office to get some boxes to post home some excess baggage, had a quick lunch stop then boarded Discovery 3 for the Chenna River cruise, its a lovely paddlewheel boat, they have complimentary coffee and doughnuts, was that ever popular. The homes on the river are beautiful...sprawling mansions, so very different to what we have been seeing . We cruised past the home of former Iditarod champion Susan Butcher who sadly has passed away, but we were greeted by her husband and her very excited dogs, they have a wonderfull property, so much like Bonnie again ! We landed at a Native Village where we had a tour and learned a lot about the Athabascan history. The tour was great, another bunch of dogs amused us, as when the ship blew its horn all the dogs jumped up on their kennels screaming with joy, yep, she fed them, so Bonnie like again. The girl here is in training for the 2013 Iditarod, she looks way to petite to manage all those dogs!
Back on board to return to Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge and our final Scenic night dinner. There were speaches and jokes and hugs and a fair bit of sadness to be saying farewell to this great group of friends.