We have been busy so it has been difficult to keep us on posts about our adventures. This will be a summary (a long summary) of our recent travels.
Fairbanks is the unofficial end of the Alaskan Highway. The official end is Delta Junction (talked about in a previous post). That was the part of the road that was completed in 1942. Fairbanks became the unofficial end when the 100 miles of road between the two locations was completed.
The original road from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska spanned over 1400 miles, and it was completed in an utterly unbelievable 9 months from start to finish. The road was built due to the fear of a Japanese mainland invasion through Alaska in WWII. The military wanted an easier (but by no means easy) path to the area for defense purposes. Hence the hurry to complete it. The road goes through very heavily forested land almost the entire way and through high mountain passes along much of the path. They had to clear the timber out of the way as the road crew followed to create the actual road. It is an amazing feat of engineering. If you drive the road you will understand why this particular stretch of 1400 miles is incredibly impressive in its completion.
The main reason we came up to Alaska this summer was to visit my father. He was anxious to see his grand kids (He pretended he wanted to see Marissa and I as well.) and he came up from Wasilla for a few days. When he was here we took a long trip north along a distinctly unimpressive road. On second thought, the road can also be called a distinctly impressive road as well. It is the Dalton Highway, although “highway” is a wonderfully generous term for a dirt path winding along and following the 
Alaskan Pipeline. The pipeline runs from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope on the shore of the Arctic Ocean 900 miles to Valdez (Val-Deez) on the Kenai Peninsula to the south. Despite the distance it only requires 13 pumping stations to move it the entire distance. Thankfully we only had to travel 200-ish miles of that trek.
To help navigate the rural roads we have an Alaskan guidebook which outlines each leg of highway through the vast wilderness. Books are what we had before smartphones, and since smartphones are useless in the Alaskan wilderness we were forced to use antiquated technology. The book suggested that it would be wise to take two spare tires on your trip north. I thought that was an exaggeration for literary effect and I was right. We only needed one spare tire, which was the only one we had. The road was a sufficiently powerful nemesis to best even a full size SUV with brand new heavy duty truck tires. (which were not at all cheap) After we replaced the tire the kids were worried about every little bump in the road, asking if we had another flat. They asked what would happen that were to occur. We told them we would likely spend the night in the Tahoe and figure out what to do the next day. Locals say it can take two days to get a tow truck up the road to fix your tire. I didn’t want the kids to worry about it more than they already were,
so I didn’t tell them that I was also concerned. Of note, we now have one tire that is a different brand and model than the other three because the model we have isn’t stocked here and it will take 14-21 days to get another one here. I usually have my go-to tire shop that I use because their service is great, but I decided to use Walmart since they are ubiquitous and I wouldn’t have to worry about availability to use my road hazard warranty. That was a mistake. Fairbanks has the only Walmart with a tire shop in the entire state of Alaska. No, that is not an exaggeration. I told the guy at Walmart I would just drive on my spare down to Anchorage. Despite being a city of 300,000 people, none of the Walmarts have a tire shop in them. Lesson learned I guess.
Back on the subject of the Dalton Highway, to help you understand how rural this road is, we paid $5.50 for fuel. There are only six gas stations along the 496 mile stretch from Fairbanks to the North Slope, one of the northernmost inhabited locations on the planet. Thus, supply and demand
had us forking over the cash for a product we absolutely needed. However, the owner of the gas station was wonderfully polite as she emptied my pockets and left us wondering how we would feed our six children. We have a Go Fund Me set up to take donations. Anything you can spare would be a great assistance.
To be fair, about 20% of the 200+ mile journey we took north was paved, but we wish it wasn’t. The paved portion is in far worse condition than the dirt road. It is a wild roller coaster of a path. There are huge bumps in the road called frost heaves. The frozen ground beneath the road expands during the winter and virtually destroys sections many miles long. Since it is a very lightly traveled road, existing solely for the purpose of access to the North Slope oilfields and maintenance for the pipeline, the bad road conditions are not marked and you come upon the frost heaves suddenly and without warning. They can throw the vehicle, and its occupants, all over the road.
The eventful road trip took us across the Yukon River of Jack London
and and Yukon gold rush fame. In 1900 it was the primary method of getting supplies to the interior of Alaska and gold back out until roads were built decades later. We took a break at the river to skip rocks and enjoy the scenery, and to get off of the road for a while as well.
You may wonder why we subjected ourselves to such gluttonous punishment. I do as well. The path taken really had one single purpose: to reach the Arctic Circle. We came all the way from New Orleans for this
adventure, so we weren’t going to allow 200+ miles of utterly hellacious roads keep us from taking pictures in front of a sign. I say that in jest, but we honestly would have regrets if we came all this way and didn’t make one final push to get to see something and go somewhere we likely won’t have another opportunity to see in our lifetimes.
Due to the long trip we had to hit up quite a few rest stops for bathroom breaks. Considering the path we were on I was surprised at the quality of bathrooms that were available…. Just kidding; we peed on trees. When stopping for the occasional bathroom break the mosquitoes were a crazy army hellbent on the destruction of all human lifeforms. These mosquitoes are genetically engineered freaks of enormous size bred solely for war with Earth’s dominant species. When someone would hurry to get in or out of the vehicle and quickly shut the door about 20 or so mosquitoes would get in. Everyone had to go to war to eliminate the threat. There could be no conscientious objectors and no quarter nor mercy would be given to the enemy. All were participants in the war for our survival. It is an epic tale of heroism and unification in the face of certain death, but we prevailed and are the stronger for it.
Due to this severe overpopulation of earth’s greatest menace, dragonflies were abundant as their primary predator. Perhaps the extreme availability of food was a contributor to the fact that the dragonflies were ginormous. The front grill of our vehicle made a 
phenomenal trap for the creatures. Seeing these gave us a great opportunity for a biology lesson, and Joseph, predictably, wanted to collect every single one on our grill and radiator.
Once we returned to civilization 
and had an evening to rest we sought other adventures. Another place of interest in the area is Santa’s House. It is situated in North Pole, Alaska, a few miles down the road from Fairbanks. Seeing Santa in June was quite strange, but he was still a jolly good fellow. Everyone has ways of memorializing their adventures. Silver spoons, shot glasses, magnets. Our memorabilia of choice is ornaments. I always walk into diverse places and immediately seek out these treasures. I hate to brag, but I’m a pretty bright fellow. I walked into Santa’s House with ornaments in mind and within 2 seconds I had located them. Really, there is nothing gets passed my
watchful eye. Then it dawned on me that trying to find ornaments at Santa’s House is like trying to find grass on a lawn. The entire place was a megastore of Christmas ornamentation. There are times I amaze myself with my intellect and anticipatory skills.
We reached an epic 30,000 miles on our trip, and we utterly failed to get a picture even though we reminded ourselves 96 miles before the odometer hit that milestone. 30,000 miles and we still have all 6 of our children. I haven’t had to follow through with my threat to bury them along the way and mark a map with the locations of their graves. They are quite impressive children.
Fairbanks has been a wonderful place. However, it is time to move on. The house wheels need to keep on turning and on the morrow we take our beautiful smiles south to the next place we will call home.
May our travels cross paths with yours.
#ThisIsHomeschool #Roadschool #FulltimeFamily #HomeIsWhereYouParkIt
