more Arctic Circle facts & pics

the journey to the arctic was at the top of the bucket list. the photos don't the do the road or the scenery justice. the road in some spots were good hard pack with rocks, other times slippery, the chip seal and pavement was broken up - constantly needing to keep your eyes open as some of the cracks were close to a foot and a half deep craters~ it was a huge relief when we made it to the arctic circle sign - but more of a relief when we finally got back to the campground - it was truly a white knuckle ride all the way. We finished off the evening on our newly claimed bar stools at Chena's Alaskan Grill (http://chenas.net/) sharing the stories of our day with our new bartender friend Stacey and the rest of the crew! The local people here in Alaska are absolutely amazing - friendly, caring and willing to share life stories with us. They all seem to think that we'd fit in quite well in Alaska since we seem to be just as crazy and adventurous as they are. and everyone loves our little camper!

Arctic Circle and back in 12 hours

Yesterday we spent the day driving to the Arctic Circle and back. Took 12 hours but the weather was absolutely beautiful. Heading to Anchorage today. Will post more pictures the next time we have service.

.....R WE THERE YET....YES WE R...

Started off with sunny beautiful 6am start on our way to Fairbanks. Encountered our first grisly on the road - he was extremely close and of course Donnie had to slow w-a-y down so I could get a good picture. However, I only got a couple half way decent ones - I guess I was shaking a bit with the others! LOL. Construction - my god - at one point the stretches of loose gravel went on for close to 60 miles~~about half way through we stopped at this quaint little bakery which had the best homemade cinnamon rolls ever! A short time later, back on the loose gravel road the bike suddenly lost power and we had to pull over as far as we could go towards the side of the road. Keep in mind, there are no breakdown lanes in the Yukon so as we sat there trying to figure out why the bike lost power - big rigs and trucks hauling campers were flying by us at high rates of speed spraying the loose gravel all around. Not really sure what the issue was - overheating or bad fuel - we added some octane boost the fuel tank and checked the oil - with no other ideas in his MacGyver brain - he started the bike and off we went. The total time on the side of the road was probably only about 15 minutes - but it seemed like a lot longer than that. Very happy that the grisly was more than 30 miles back down the road. I have to say at that moment, I wished I had purchased one of those GPS locator/emergency devices that can send out text message for assistance. We still had a long drive ahead of us to Fairbanks. Border crossing was easy - once the boarder agent saw we were from Massachusetts - she asked us if we had gotten lost and made it Alaska by mistake! Stayed at a great campground, Rivers Edge in Fairbanks. Donnie's made his goal of leaving on Wednesday and arriving in Fairbanks on Wednesday. 4452 miles. Today (June 2nd) we awoke to rain. We were scheduled to have the bike serviced at Thunder Road with new tires and an oil change at 9AM and planned on heading up the Artic Circle after that. Didn't get done there until noon and since the trip would take 5 1/2 hours one way - I managed to convince Donnie to wait until tomorrow (which is supposed to be a gorgeous sunny day). Off to bed, early start tomorrow!~ D&C

Pictures from May 31st

Pictures from May 30th

as promised.