Road trip to Fairbanks

When Cecelia came out to Maine in May to help me pack up the house and get ready for our trip back to Alaska, she put all of her stuff in storage in Fairbanks, where she used to live. We made airline reservations to fly up (it’s a 6-7 hour drive) and planned to rent a U-Haul truck to bring it all back. We called U-Haul the day before and found out that they needed at least 3 weeks notice to reserve a truck!!

The next plan was to try to get a trailer, but that ended up the same way. We were told there wasn’t one available until sometime in September. On to plan “C”, which was for both of us to drive up to Fairbanks in separate vehicles, fill them as full as we could, and drive home again. That’s what we eventually did, and were surprised that we could get it all in. The car and truck were very full!

It was a sunny weekend (the only one we’ve had so far), so not only did everything stay dry, but the mountain was out for us to see most of the way there and back.

The summer is so short that road construction is done with a vengeance here. Miles of road is torn up and worked on, and 20-45 minute delays are the norm. The flagman stops you, and you have to wait for the pilot car to come and lead you through the construction. As the waits can be long, everyone gets out of their cars, and it turns into a social event, or if you happen to be in the right spot, a berry picking event.

As mentioned, the weekend was sunny and the scenery was Alaska at it’s finest.