August 11 – 23, 2024: Fairbanks was supposed to a be 4-day stay with an option to leave earlier if we thought we saw what we wanted to see. Needless to say, it turned into an 11-day stay as we started having fuel injector engine warnings south of Anchorage and limped our way with intermittent problems for 360 miles. We had the code checked at the Chevy dealer in Anchorage, and they said it could be a problem, but weren’t all that worried. It turns out, the alarm kept resetting and allowing us to drive another 30 – 50 miles before returning. Once we got into a garage in Fairbanks (the Chevy dealer in Fairbanks could only see us on September 20^th), we found that we needed to replace one of our 8 fuel injectors. We had a 4-day wait for parts and then a quick turnaround on the repair that turned into a full week delay in Fairbanks.

As frustrating as the process was, it all turned out fine as I had built a week of “slop” into our schedule. We had to miss a few stops on the way back to the Lower 48, but our “worst case scenario” was not even close to being experienced.

Since we were effectively truckless, we learned to use the Fairbanks bus system that actually had a stop on the highway in front of our KOA campground. We did some short little trips around the area with the truck before it felt that we were pushing our luck. We also were able to keep our planned flight from Fairbanks to Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk National Parks. Uber also was an option, but rather pricey as we were about 10 miles out of Fairbanks. We ended up meeting a friend, Jenny Campbell, of my good friend from college, Kim Albe’s, and she entertained us for a couple of days, which was a huge blessing.

Here’s a smattering of what we did get to see…

Downtown Fairbanks and the City

North Pole

North Pole (August 19): Interestingly enough, the North Pole was about 8 miles south of our campground and the terminus point of the bus that traveled from downtown Fairbanks, past our campground. It’s a real town with quite a few folks who support the various military bases living in the area. Of course, what North Pole would complete without Santa’s Village and a giant Santa. We missed seeing the reindeer farm, but the place was quite ready for Christmas.

Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge

Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge (August 20): I have to admit, this was my highlight of our time in Fairbanks (other than the flight up the the national parks). It seems like we have theme going on this year of chasing the Sandhill Cranes. We saw them in Southern Texas and SW Colorado this winter and spring and now we saw where they were headed for the summer.

We also learned a lot about Fairbanks and the area as we spent the day with Jenny. She’s lived in Fairbanks for 35 years after growing up in San Diego. She’s a retired structural engineer, so we all got along just fine. We all went to the movie, “Deadpool and Wolverine”, the next day as it was rainy.

Alaska Pipeline (August 22)