Friday, June 26, 2009

6/20 - 6/26/2009 The Week from Hell

I'm putting this whole week together because I want to put it behind me as quickly as I can. I can truly say I hope I never have another week like this one.

Without going into particulars all I will say is Bob and I had some issues to deal with. No, no, that's wrong, I had some issues that I had to work through. Nuff said, I'm fine, all is good. Now.

We left Sourdough Campground on the morning of the 20th headed to our next stop.

The scenery was pretty along the way as usual.

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We're in Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks. Its a nice Fam-Camp for which we are paying $16.00 a night. I finally got to do laundry! A dollar per wash and dry each.

Unfortunately, because of this difficult time we didn't get to do anything in Fairbanks. We managed to go to the commissary twice, the BX, Walmart (twice) and to one other store.

Bob was able to go fishing in the lakes here on base a couple of times and did the catch and release thing. Other than that we watched movies, read and watched TV.

I had heard about a place called The Knotty Shop and we passed it on the way in. Within the first few days here we went to visit it.

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Outside of the shop on the front lawn were "sculptures" made from none other than knotty pine.

This was is called: ALASQUITO

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We moved inside to see what that held. There were stuffed specimens of the animals local to this area.

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This adorable little girl had this Davey Crockett coon skin hat put on by her dad. Her dad just wanted to see what it looked like. Big mistake. He had no plans of buying it he said, he just wanted to see what it would like. The little girl got a new hat because she went ballistic when dear old dad tried to remove it.

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If you wanted to make giant mosquitoes for your own lawn ornaments The Knotty Shop had the raw material for you.

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As I mentioned earlier we are in an Air Force base. Think jets. Think very loud jets. Fighter planes. Taking off and landing several times a day. Flying low overhead in tight formations and practicing maneuvers. Then there were the huge, huge cargo planes delivering who knows what. Noise. Deafening noise. Rattling windows. And after two days, we didn't even hear it anymore. Simply amazing.

Coming back from the commissary one day we happened upon two moose. A very close encounter. They were right there! Paying us no mind, just grazing in the roadside field. And I didn't have the camera with me. Actually, I did, but didn't know it. It was on the floor and I didn't know it until the next day that it was there all the time. The photos would have been fabulous! True closeups. See how my week went?

I was reading Linda's (new friend that I helped earlier) blog and read that she too was in Eielson AFB fam-camp. The friends they are with are retired service so they could stay here too. I went and knocked on her door and she and her husband were surprised to see me! He swears I'm following them! Little does he know that unless plans change we're going to meet up in the next campground too.

We went to the commissary and did a large grocery shopping again, filling the freezer to practically overflowing. If nothing else, we are eating well!

Next stop....DENALI

Wildlife Count:

2 Bears

2 Marmots

4 Moose

and a dead porcuine

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