Fairbanks, Alaska, to the ER, to the ER!

This is the only other way I could have gotten to Fairbanks, kind of a little airport, and kind of little airplanes, you know, like the ones that get lost in the sudden change of weather and have to put down in a secluded wilderness area, and I'm not very good at eating anything other than fast food, and I do not mean fast like in running fast

So we got up early and were out on the highway at 9am, we were following caravan motorhomes all the way, one guy, in one of the caravans told us that they had rules and one of them is they couldn't talk politics, he also said the exmarine drill sargent, wagon master yelled at him for getting out of line to take a picture and he told him that he hadn't paid $6,000 for this caravan to be yelled at, that he would tell him when he wanted to be yelled at, $6,000????

We hadn't seen much wildlife, we were thinking maybe because of all the fires, so we took this picture of one at the store, just so we'd remember what they looked like, and sure enough, Cindy see's one, I know it's hard to see but just left of the wiper blade

And then if you doubted, me there he is, just left of the center divider in the window, I don't know how Cindy see's them going 60mph down the highway, this one ran back into the woods when he saw us

You would think Alaska would have outhouses at the rest stops, but no......a phone booth seemed like a better idea to someone

Your daily mountain picture

We still have to wash the road dust off the RV, the car washes around here are pressure washers that cost an arm and a leg for just 2 minutes, like you could do anything on a motorhome in 2 minutes, in Fairbanks, the RV park that we are staying at, says it has free car washes

Remember I told you about the 3,600 black servicemen who built the Alaskan Highway, well they renamed this bridge, in honor of the Black Veterans

I don't know how this motorhome got out here, sorry it's blurry but Cindy was moving down the road, that's not water, but kind of a slough

This is Delta Junction, the end of the Alaskan Highway, it doesn't go to Fairbanks because they all ready had a highway to Fairbanks, 10 years before the Alaskan Highway, there isn't a whole lot here, a very big visitor center and lots of RV's that are running in to get their certificate that says they drove the Alaskan Highway, and survived, that's not much of an accomplishment nowadays, with it all being paved

Our first glimpse of the Alaskan Pipeline, years ago, we almost got to Prudhoe Bay, wanted to see the start of the Pipeline. when we get done here, we are going to go to Valdez to see the end of the Pipeline

The Highway turns into three lanes, what were they thinking?

Road Heaves, on the Alaskan Highway they have fixed them so that you just feel a gentle up and down movement, not that feeling like you are going to rocket in to space that the other roads give you

The Black Spruce spindly trees, we were told that most films about Alaska are actually filmed in Vancouver, BC and that gives people the impression that Alaska forest are lush fir forest when they really aren't, they are Black Spruce, hardy trees but not very lush

Gracie sleeps with her Cow, I told Rainier to go get the other doggie when he came to me with the doggie and Cindy said it wasn't a doggie, so I told Rainier to go and get me the Cow and he went right over there and brought me the Cow, geeeesh

This is White Birch Lake, where they have a State Park and a Recreation area strictly for the Armed Services, we think that they must have a rifle range on that one

I turned around and thought someone was following me!

They were just headed out to the lake, no one around

This is the Armed Forces Retreat, do you see the firing range?

Not far from there we came across an Air Force Base, I didn't see this sign until I had taken some pictures, but be assured I shredded the pictures and fed them to Gracie and Rainier

These are bugs on the window, but you can imagine all sorts of strange flying machines, that is just your imagination, these are NOT actual pictures of anything flying, just dead, used to be flying things

While around the Air Force Base. the road was beautiful, brand new, stripped. smooth as glass, even had green grass around it

As soon as you left the base, back went the road to slightly better than disrepair

We finally get to THE North Pole, which is just outside Fairbanks, I will spare you the numerous pictures of Santa Claus on top of many different buildings, but couldn't pass up this one, wonder if Rudolph is in here?

This is Chena River which is right next to where we have parked our motorhome for our stay in Fairbanks

This is the RV Park

This guy who is across from us, must have something in that trailer, three axles, he must be 80 feet long

And here we are, we got here in the early afternoon, took off for the ER at the hospital, where they had a full house, took awhile to be seen by the Triage Nurse, but once I did and she saw my leg I was put in a room and saw the Doctor right a way. Tomorrow I will show you pictures of this state of the art ER, really neat, but to tell you what he said, he thought that it wasn't a blood clot, because all the blood was out of the blood vessel and in my leg, but to be sure, he wanted to ultrsound it, tomorrow I have to go back in to get that done, the ultrasound guy had left for the day, so tomorrow, we'll see