Day 12, July 15
Bird Creek to Fairbanks AK
401 miles
Lunchtime isnt exactly relaxing these days, as I’m hunkered over the iPaq finding rooms and Mike is calling and getting prices and trying to figure out if something will be okay without any way of knowing what we’re getting until we show up hours later. Steve and John seem to think this is a waste of time, and act like they want get the show on the road, the only problem with this is that at some point we need to stop, and we’ve already found out how wonderful life is without a room reservation.
Fairbanks is booked solid. We try every hotel in town, and even if we wanted to spend $200 a night, theres nothing. Finally, we find one named the Downtown Log Cabin and they have a room.
We ride past the entrance to Denali on our way to Fairbanks. The clouds are gone, and it would probably be our only chance to see Mt. McKinley, but we’ve got to stay on schedule, so sadly we ride past.
I am really allergic to something here. My nose starts to run and I’m sneezing inside my helmet (yuck). Not much I can do about it at this point.
The road in to Fairbanks starts up high, just before you get to town, there’s an overlook with a great view of the city below. A beautiful green place, Fairbanks sits in a huge meadow with meandering streams wandering in and around. Hills rise on all sides. This bowl design is probably one reason its so warm here in the summer. We’ve chucked our cold weather gear, and have the vents open on our pants and jackets.
We find Thunder Road without much trouble and leave the bikes. Randy is loaning us his truck to use until the bikes are done tomorrow. This incredibly nice guy has gone over and above the call of duty, that’s for sure!
All four of us hop into the truck and go to find our hotel. Unfortunately, its not a hotel, its a B&B inside someone’s home. Ugh. They have a dog. Double ugh. My allergies are worse now than I can remember in years, this blooming town is really kicking my rear! I wait in the truck and Mike goes in to Alan and Verna’s living room to help us find a real hotel, but there’s absolutely nothing. We are stuck. We bring our things in to the bedroom, it’s nice, but its like staying at your grandmothers house. The guys work out a deal to camp in the backyard. By this time my eyes are about swollen shut and I’m in search of a large stash of Kleenex. I take some emergency allergy meds and all I care about is sleep. Mike’s really unhappy, but what can we do, were stuck. We absolutely don’t want to be here tomorrow night, so I get on the phone with Priceline and find something open for tomorrow, it’s $160. Yeouch!!! This is the most I have ever spent on any room anywhere, but there’s no other option. It’s called A Taste of Alaska, located a few miles out of town.
mikefalcioni.com 