Visiting the Big Man

This morning was sunny with blue skies, at least for a while, and as we hoped yesterday, the Alaskan Mountain Range was visible as we drove from Delta Junction to Fairbanks.

The Alaskan Range to the west with the Tanana River in the foreground.

I think this is where we are headed when we go to Denali.

Just outside of town we crossed the Tanana River with the Alaskan Pipeline crossing the river, too.

One of the stops along our short, 98 miles, trip to Fairbanks was the Knotty Shop.

Interesting formations on the trees.

Inside the shop were Alaskan souvenirs and this diorama of... 

Alaskan wildlift.

Another life-sized sculpture of an Alaskan mosquito made from the "knotty" wood. 

A little further along we passed Eielson Air Force Base and noticed several F-18s preparing to take-off.

They were very loud as they roared passed into the sky.

Twelve miles from Fairbanks, we stopped in North Pole, Alaska, to visit Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, we came on Santa's day off, today being Monday.

Since the Big Man was not available...

Grandpa filled in.

Our first stop in Fairbanks, while we were waiting for 1 p.m. when we could check into the RV campground, was the Visitor Center. They had several nice displays and exhibits inside and this frontier cabin outside.