KJRR
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- KJ
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2020
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- 14
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- Location
- Cleveland, OH
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- '19 Ford Ranger, '14 Ford Edge, '74 VW Type 181
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- Professional Curmudgeon
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This is a little overdue since I've been back for a week but I did get caught up around the house and got some Ranger time in.
I'll do this in sections, going back and editing my post since there is a lot to cover and it will likely be over several days.
It won't be AZScorpian worthy documentation but should give a good flavor of what we did.
My wife daughter and I went on a 2 week trip to Alaska to see the sights and visit friends.
We left on Saturday from CLE with FAI as the destination. We had around an hour layover in MSP which should be sufficient unless your flight is delayed. We were delayed out of Cleveland and ended up having to make a run for the connecting flight. Normally 15 minutes between gates we did in 5. Wife was not happy. Other than that, flights were uneventful. Friend picked us up at the at the airport and we went to the Midnight Sun Festival in Fairbanks. Got some food truck grub since we hadn't eaten since that morning. Spent about an hour total there walking around and eating and went to our friends' place, about 20 minutes away from Fairbanks. We were pretty tired since there is a 4hr time difference. It did not help that it was still daylight at 10PM. More on that later. Our trip was a combination of site seeing and visiting and we spent Sunday with them.
Rental car:
Picked up a rental car on Monday and got an upgrade to a 2022 Ford Escape with 21k on it. I asked about the Ranger sitting out front but no dice unless I wanted to pay for it. Love renting cars through Costco Travel as you get a second driver free and have always gotten an upgrade too. Rates also beat renting directly.
Didn't mind the Escape since I was already familiar with the controls and I've never driven a Japanese or Korean car that I've felt comfortable in. The seating was comfortable during the long trips we made and wife was comfortable driving it also. Fit all 3 of us and our luggage comfortable. Was able to connect my phone easily and have Waze up on the screen. Site lines were good without blind spots, ride was fine for a small SUV and gas mileage was great. I did get a low tire pressure warning Tuesday about a 1/2 hr after we left to start our sightseeing. Of course this was miles from any gas station but it was a very slow leak and we made it to a fuel stop with air no problem. I had to add air again once more during our trip and did it before we got the warning. We had plenty of rain the first few days and discovered the wipers had a squeak to them when the rain was light. They also hesitated at the halfway point of a wipe before they reversed. That may be normal but haven't ran across that in other cars. I don't know what engine/transmission was in it but suspect something smaller than our Rangers as it was a little sluggish and took some peddle to downshift but we weren't in a hurry and appreciated the gas mileage. It was buzzy when floored too. ASS would jolt the car when it restarted, must be a lot of torque in the starter. The tires had some tread to them, but seamed kind of slippery during the rain the first couple days. They were ok after that so it could have been just the road we were on. The windshield had a couple chips in it and the rental agent told us they call it an Alaskan windshield as most vehicles there end up with cracked windshields. They were small and I didn't even see the second chip until I was returning it. Our friends had a cracked windshield also and said it was due to treating the road with gravel in the winter since salt stops working. Best color too! I'd definitely consider one when its time to replace our Edge.
Roads:
Speaking of roads, many were noisy, I don't think it was the car or tires and suspect it was because of studded tire use in the winter. You could see the wear pattern in the road and if I moved out of it, the noise subsided. The roads didn't have many potholes as I expected but they did have some spots that would bounce you around pretty good. If you weren't expecting them, you will bottom out and even get airborne. I learned pretty quick to spot them and adjust speed as needed. I'm told this is because of the freeze and thaw of the ground on some of the roadways. The highways we took, Glenn, Richardson and Parks, were all in pretty good shape. You could clearly see where some areas were patched but we only ran into one construction delay which was surprising considering we covered about 2,000 mi. We were always making sure we had enough fuel, filling up usually before a 1/4 tank but went by plenty of gas stations. Traffic was usually light unless we were near a city or attraction. Some areas, especially the Richardson Highway were pretty desolate, and it would be 15 minutes without seeing a vehicle.
We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife on the roads and the trees are cut back from the road pretty far which makes it easier to spot anything that may be lurking though we didn't do any night driving.
OK, enough of the background stuff, let's get to the good stuff, the sights.
Sights:
North Pole, AK:
So if you are ever around Fairbanks, you gotta stop at the North Pole. Yes, its a little tourist trap right off the highway but really the only shopping we did. This was on Sunday after we adjusted to the time change a little. My wife of course had to buy a piece of the North Pole for our niece and nephew. It's a 1 sq" plot of land. I didn't ask what she paid for that but will find out when the credit card bill comes in unless she paid cash.
Santa was on vacation but his reindeer were around.
Wittier and Anchorage
We started out early Tuesday since we still didn't fully adjust to the time, to begin our sightseeing. We had a flexible schedule with only one item scheduled, a boat tour of Glaciers that left out of Wittier on Wednesday. We decided to take the long way down the Richardson and Glen Highways to our cabin outside Anchorage. Beautiful sites along the way of which I'll just give you a few pictures.
I wanted to do a little off-road exploring here and the wife felt the need to remind me that the rental car agreement didn't allow for that. so we just stopped and had PB&J samiches.
Plenty of this while on our travels
And then we saw our first glacier. Of course I forgot the name of it (found it - Matanuska Glacier) and didn't take a picture of the sign. The color doesn't really show here but it definitely had a bluish tint. There are roads to it and you can take tours but we had more of them scheduled for tomorrow.
We were doing good on time and the weather wasn't looking good for the rest of the week so we decided to stop at Independance Mine State Historical Park.
This was a gold mine originally established by Richard Lee Hatcher. We were too late to take a guided tour but we hiked around and read all the information and spent about 2 hrs here. Lots of history of the mine and people.
A lot of buildings and materials were left just as they were found.
Thinking about getting one of these to take care of the little rodents running around my yard.
Mine train. One of the engines was electric and still had batteries in it.
View from the Water Tunnel entrance
The Water Tunnel that really improved the mining.
Boom Town
We stopped off at a few spots on the way back down from Hatchers Pass to view the river. I can only imagine how much more its flowing in the spring.
We had a nice drive along Chickaloon Bay to get to our cabin. Now my wife spent a couple months planning and finding places to stay but she is cheaper than I am and I make her share the places we are staying before booking. She has scared the crap out of me with some of the places she has booked in the past because they were cheap. I told her we were going to spend a little this vacation so not to find the cheapest place. Well this one was pretty good, Indian Alaska Escape. We booked through booking.com since it was cheaper the VRBO.
This guy came to visit. Now we have a peacock that lives in our city and survives the winter but in Alaska? I never would have guessed.
And then we had this visitor. Now we were told not to feed the peacock or any bear we saw but I didn't really expect to see a bear at our cabin. We were outside when my wife spotted him and she started pushing me back inside right away.
He was eating the food I guess someone left for the peacock. A couple butchers from across the parking lot yelled and scared him off. He was back the next evening to finish the food.
Also had a peahen and her chick hanging around. She stayed her distance and would disappear into the brush when the bear showed up.
The details in this cabin were incredible. Everywhere you looked you would spot something new. It was originally part of the Indian Valley Meats property but was sold off. The Meat store is still there and we picked up some smoked jerky; salmon was delicious, elk and moose were a little tough but good.
Next up Wittier and the glacier tour.
I'll do this in sections, going back and editing my post since there is a lot to cover and it will likely be over several days.
It won't be AZScorpian worthy documentation but should give a good flavor of what we did.
My wife daughter and I went on a 2 week trip to Alaska to see the sights and visit friends.
We left on Saturday from CLE with FAI as the destination. We had around an hour layover in MSP which should be sufficient unless your flight is delayed. We were delayed out of Cleveland and ended up having to make a run for the connecting flight. Normally 15 minutes between gates we did in 5. Wife was not happy. Other than that, flights were uneventful. Friend picked us up at the at the airport and we went to the Midnight Sun Festival in Fairbanks. Got some food truck grub since we hadn't eaten since that morning. Spent about an hour total there walking around and eating and went to our friends' place, about 20 minutes away from Fairbanks. We were pretty tired since there is a 4hr time difference. It did not help that it was still daylight at 10PM. More on that later. Our trip was a combination of site seeing and visiting and we spent Sunday with them.
Rental car:
Picked up a rental car on Monday and got an upgrade to a 2022 Ford Escape with 21k on it. I asked about the Ranger sitting out front but no dice unless I wanted to pay for it. Love renting cars through Costco Travel as you get a second driver free and have always gotten an upgrade too. Rates also beat renting directly.
Didn't mind the Escape since I was already familiar with the controls and I've never driven a Japanese or Korean car that I've felt comfortable in. The seating was comfortable during the long trips we made and wife was comfortable driving it also. Fit all 3 of us and our luggage comfortable. Was able to connect my phone easily and have Waze up on the screen. Site lines were good without blind spots, ride was fine for a small SUV and gas mileage was great. I did get a low tire pressure warning Tuesday about a 1/2 hr after we left to start our sightseeing. Of course this was miles from any gas station but it was a very slow leak and we made it to a fuel stop with air no problem. I had to add air again once more during our trip and did it before we got the warning. We had plenty of rain the first few days and discovered the wipers had a squeak to them when the rain was light. They also hesitated at the halfway point of a wipe before they reversed. That may be normal but haven't ran across that in other cars. I don't know what engine/transmission was in it but suspect something smaller than our Rangers as it was a little sluggish and took some peddle to downshift but we weren't in a hurry and appreciated the gas mileage. It was buzzy when floored too. ASS would jolt the car when it restarted, must be a lot of torque in the starter. The tires had some tread to them, but seamed kind of slippery during the rain the first couple days. They were ok after that so it could have been just the road we were on. The windshield had a couple chips in it and the rental agent told us they call it an Alaskan windshield as most vehicles there end up with cracked windshields. They were small and I didn't even see the second chip until I was returning it. Our friends had a cracked windshield also and said it was due to treating the road with gravel in the winter since salt stops working. Best color too! I'd definitely consider one when its time to replace our Edge.
Roads:
Speaking of roads, many were noisy, I don't think it was the car or tires and suspect it was because of studded tire use in the winter. You could see the wear pattern in the road and if I moved out of it, the noise subsided. The roads didn't have many potholes as I expected but they did have some spots that would bounce you around pretty good. If you weren't expecting them, you will bottom out and even get airborne. I learned pretty quick to spot them and adjust speed as needed. I'm told this is because of the freeze and thaw of the ground on some of the roadways. The highways we took, Glenn, Richardson and Parks, were all in pretty good shape. You could clearly see where some areas were patched but we only ran into one construction delay which was surprising considering we covered about 2,000 mi. We were always making sure we had enough fuel, filling up usually before a 1/4 tank but went by plenty of gas stations. Traffic was usually light unless we were near a city or attraction. Some areas, especially the Richardson Highway were pretty desolate, and it would be 15 minutes without seeing a vehicle.
We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife on the roads and the trees are cut back from the road pretty far which makes it easier to spot anything that may be lurking though we didn't do any night driving.
OK, enough of the background stuff, let's get to the good stuff, the sights.
Sights:
North Pole, AK:
So if you are ever around Fairbanks, you gotta stop at the North Pole. Yes, its a little tourist trap right off the highway but really the only shopping we did. This was on Sunday after we adjusted to the time change a little. My wife of course had to buy a piece of the North Pole for our niece and nephew. It's a 1 sq" plot of land. I didn't ask what she paid for that but will find out when the credit card bill comes in unless she paid cash.
Santa was on vacation but his reindeer were around.
Wittier and Anchorage
We started out early Tuesday since we still didn't fully adjust to the time, to begin our sightseeing. We had a flexible schedule with only one item scheduled, a boat tour of Glaciers that left out of Wittier on Wednesday. We decided to take the long way down the Richardson and Glen Highways to our cabin outside Anchorage. Beautiful sites along the way of which I'll just give you a few pictures.
I wanted to do a little off-road exploring here and the wife felt the need to remind me that the rental car agreement didn't allow for that. so we just stopped and had PB&J samiches.
Plenty of this while on our travels
And then we saw our first glacier. Of course I forgot the name of it (found it - Matanuska Glacier) and didn't take a picture of the sign. The color doesn't really show here but it definitely had a bluish tint. There are roads to it and you can take tours but we had more of them scheduled for tomorrow.
We were doing good on time and the weather wasn't looking good for the rest of the week so we decided to stop at Independance Mine State Historical Park.
This was a gold mine originally established by Richard Lee Hatcher. We were too late to take a guided tour but we hiked around and read all the information and spent about 2 hrs here. Lots of history of the mine and people.
A lot of buildings and materials were left just as they were found.
Thinking about getting one of these to take care of the little rodents running around my yard.
Mine train. One of the engines was electric and still had batteries in it.
View from the Water Tunnel entrance
The Water Tunnel that really improved the mining.
Boom Town
We stopped off at a few spots on the way back down from Hatchers Pass to view the river. I can only imagine how much more its flowing in the spring.
We had a nice drive along Chickaloon Bay to get to our cabin. Now my wife spent a couple months planning and finding places to stay but she is cheaper than I am and I make her share the places we are staying before booking. She has scared the crap out of me with some of the places she has booked in the past because they were cheap. I told her we were going to spend a little this vacation so not to find the cheapest place. Well this one was pretty good, Indian Alaska Escape. We booked through booking.com since it was cheaper the VRBO.
This guy came to visit. Now we have a peacock that lives in our city and survives the winter but in Alaska? I never would have guessed.
And then we had this visitor. Now we were told not to feed the peacock or any bear we saw but I didn't really expect to see a bear at our cabin. We were outside when my wife spotted him and she started pushing me back inside right away.
He was eating the food I guess someone left for the peacock. A couple butchers from across the parking lot yelled and scared him off. He was back the next evening to finish the food.
Also had a peahen and her chick hanging around. She stayed her distance and would disappear into the brush when the bear showed up.
The details in this cabin were incredible. Everywhere you looked you would spot something new. It was originally part of the Indian Valley Meats property but was sold off. The Meat store is still there and we picked up some smoked jerky; salmon was delicious, elk and moose were a little tough but good.
Next up Wittier and the glacier tour.
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