Road Trip!

Just got back from a semi-spontaneous road trip to Fairbanks, AK. Laura was up for the trip, so we headed out Wed morning at the ungodly hour of 7:00 am. It's just over 1,000km. We both started out a bit groggy, but as the trip went on, we woke up a bit and had a blast travelling together. Laura is fairly new to this mushing obsession, so there was no lack of conversation. It was her first trip up to Fairbanks and the first time I'd be up there not handling for the Quest - so I'd actually have some TIME to check it out. The scenery was amazing and the roads were dry and great to travel on. We were most excited about this part of the trip:

Yes, Cold Spot Feeds - the store that meets all your mushing needs!

We sat outside this place before they even opened with our coffee in hand, excited to be here. These guys have a ton of stuff related to mushing that we can't get in Whitehorse. Often, whenever anyone heads up, you have a whack of people giving you money and lists of stuff to bring back. We successfully spent well over $500US and had our shopping cart full in minutes!

I think we picked the biggest dive in town for a hotel though. The first night, the police visited, banging and yelling into a door across the hallway at 2am. The second night there was an apparent shooting nearby... so by this time, we were excited to hit the road again. And that's only after a mere 2 days in Fairbanks. It was a little overwhelming with all their "expressways" and traffic and craploads of stripmalls! Although, I must say, the Quest store had some cool stuff that ours doesn't, and they also had a dog mushing museum in the back. It was great and very extensive! Definitely a highlight!

North Pole, Alaska was fun to visit as well. Boy, it wouldn't be an understatement to say they took this "Santa" theme and RAN with it:


Hmmm... what else can we do for the Xmas theme?! Street-light candy canes!!


Even McDonald's gets in the swing of things:


The Christmas store - which to Laura's disgust was CLOSED!! It looked very cool in there. Must be weird to visit that in summer. But there's no denying the drawing power of a gigantic Santa on the side of the highway!


Would the "North Pole" be complete without reindeer? I don't think so.



Me and my new "friends" in Santa's sled:


More later on these lovable, happy guys that mysteriously found their way into the back of my truck...