Alone too long in Fairbanks

Well, my solitude drove me to extremes this weekend in Fairbanks and I bought me a new Beemer.  Could not help it, the deal was WAY too good.  I am hoping it will get to Albuquerque by the time we are there this December.  The bike is cool.  It is not a GS (on road-off road) but more of a highway bike.  I will get luggage and all the goodies for it pretty soon here.  Its style reminds me of the old BMW of the past.  Can't wait.

It is WINTER in Fairbanks

Winter has arrived in the Far North.  I am 4 days into a 17day "shift" up here and ready to go home.  Not too busy so far this time, but it has been a long one away from home.  Here is the hotel where I stay:

Not far away is the Fairbanks Airport which has its interesting features.  there is a campground where a pilot can taxi up and pitcha tent.  There is also a large float pond, now frozen which has a couple hundred float planes moored on it.  The "non airline" side of the field has a cool gate:

There are a lot of old cargo planes that are used for parts, keeping others like them in the air flying whatever out to the villages:

Just North of the airport is the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the sunlit buildings in the picture:

If you drive around the surrounding area a few miles from town, you get the sense there might have been a litttle prospecting going on here:

And of course the ever-present Pipeline, which passes pretty close to town.  This is along the highway to Fox, a town North of Fbks:

I had a couple days off in the middle of my time here, so I went to Chena Hot Springs, about an hour away by auto.  Interesting place.  they have tapped geothermal energy to power all their electridity needs, heat the buildings, grow food in a greenhouse, and of course supply water to the pond we got to soak in.  I say "we" but in actuality, there were VERY few people there this time of the year.  Their very busy season is farther into the winter, when Japanese tourists come up to steam and view the Aurora.  They believe a child concieved under the Northern Lights is somehow special.  They get a lot of summer tourists, also.

There was a lot of cool old junk sitting around like this horse drawn grader and very ancient snowmobile.

The lodge itself was a log structure.  This is the restaraunt and bar area.

So back to Fairbanks now and digging in for the last few days.  Cannot wait to get home.  While here I have also worked on a wood model ship Wendy got me for Christmas last year:

And finish three books:

And of course visit the local motorcycle shop and get a SCREAMING deal on a BMW R1200R, white like the one in the picture from the brochure. I will have it shipped to Albequerque and have it there when we are down in December.  Still a good deal despite shipping costs.  Gotta go to work.

September-October Trip

Wendy and I got to take a trip up the East Coast visiting relatives and seeing some of the country.  Warning: I was a delinquent photographer on this trip and there are some HUGE gaps leaving out people I should have taken pictures of.  I will do better next time when I know I am going to make a blog.

First stop was Nashville where we attended the wedding of Krista Stanberry, daughter of our old friends from Alaska who now live in Nashville.  Amelia and Jack flew in from Wyoming to join us.  No pix of the bride and groom  (sorry) BUT one of Jack.  He is dancing with Molly, who is the neice of the bride.  We had a great time visiting with the Stanberries and Sparagas, plus some other friends who were all together for the event.  I will try to edit this post when I get my hands on some pictures taken be others.

Next we flew to Orlando and visited Wendy's brother Bob and wife Kathy.  They had graciously stored our bikes for us since last Spring.  We had a nice visit with them and started our journey North. We drove through Florida, abit of Georgia, and into the Carolinas.  Craig and Joannie Staab, son Brian with his wife and twins, were in Pittsboro MC and we spent a day and night with them.  We were all at Scott Bredenburgs home, a nephew of Joannies.  It was great to see them all.  Joannie was doing well, despite having just been out of the hospital.  the twins were a lot of fun.  What energy!  I did very badly as photographer on this stop but did manage a good one of Jen and the twins, and Wendy on their little trike.

After a great time in Pittsboro we drove the short distance to Mike and Eileens in Raleigh and spent two nights with them.  We had a very nice visit with them and waited out a day of rainy weather.  No pix, sorry.

From there we headed North, chased be a huge rainstorm which we managed to stay ahead of, but it did limit our ability to sightsee a bit.  We did get to drive part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and see some cool old Virginia historical stuff.

 Then it was push on to Erie where we got to stay with Dick andAlice for a couple of days.  I got to visit with an old high school friend and catch up on the scut.  With Dick and Alice we drove out to Presque Isle and got to see the beaches.  Wendy and I also toured the USS Niagara, an old wooden warship which sits in Erie harbor.

It had been a long time since we saw brother Gene and Sue and their daughters.  We got to stay with them and go to the farm, where they keep nine horses.  They are into this.  I did manage to get some pictures of Gene and the farm.  Paul and Mindy were visiting her family at the same time and they joined us at the farm.   Hallie and Carly work at a horse racetrack nearby and we got to see them exercising some racehorses early in the morning.  Also we spent a few hours with George and Denny Engesser at their house.On the way our of town we went to the newly rebuilt Cider Mill on upper Peach Street.  Pretty cool to see it resurrected, even if it on a new site with strangers running it.  They used the old presses from the original mill, and George is lending his expertise to help them get it going.

One of the coolest things we did in Erie was to visit the old house on East Gore road, where we all grew up.  A nice older woman , Mrs Hess, lives in it now and she let Wendy and I in to check it out.  I got to go into the basement, which is basically unchanged since I was a kid there, and saw some very old memories.  Spooky.  The old potato bin, the butchering table, the work bench Dad used, the jelly cupboard, just to mention a few.  Most remeniscent was the black shoe polish which I remember rebelliously smearing on the old white chimney as I was "forced" to sit there every Saturday and polish my shoes for Sunday.  Damn, no pix.

We left Erie and stopped in Meadeville for another night to see Craig and Joannie.  She was feeling a lot better, having a few more days to pass since her latest cancer treatment.  Craig cooked up an awesome dinner for us and I got to watch Monday Night Football with he and his buddies.  they know how to do it up right!

The last leg of the journey put us back on the bikes, headed to Angier, NC to visit Paul and Mindy and the kids.  On the way, we went through the mountains of West Virginia and visited the Battlefields in Antietam and Fredericksburg.  Some awesome hsitroy there, and we would like to revisit this on another trip.  In Fredericksburg we could not pass up taking a picture of the street sign.  Also there we toured a 1700's doctor's home where in-character assistants showed us all the herbs, etc the old doc used and showed us the "OR" where he did surgery.  Cool.

Lastly, we arrived in Angier at Paul's for a couple nights.  Steven and the girls were there, too, so it was  a little active.  they all wanted Harley rides, except Paul, whose pride kept him from riding "bitch" and that was fun.  We drove to Wilmington where the girls go to school and saw their apartment.  We got to see tobacco and cotton growing.  That was a big deal for us tundra folks.  Sadly it was all over too soon and we had to store the bikes and head home.