7/19 Healy to Fairbanks to Tok

By the end of these journals you will be sick of my weather descriptions. Sunny, hot, dry. That's it. We had only a few short experiences with rain on the entire trip, and nothing in Alberta or the lower 48. Aftern negotiating the driveway from hell for the last time we headed for Fairbanks and what we hoped would be a quick visit to the HD dealer to get our plates. I'm not sure if I noted this before but we had a slight mix up at Anchorage HD. They were unable to provide our plates by Monday and promised to express them to Fairbanks HD for our pickup on Thursday. Well, when we got to Fairbanks HD, UPS had not delivered yet so we visited the Alaska Pipeline interpretive site on the north side of town. It was a good photo op and provided answers to questions we had about the design and construction of the pipeline. They also had two "pigs" on display that are used to clean the pipeline and check for wear and damage. We got back to the dealer and UPS had delivered the plates. As you will see in photos they are consecutively numbered 9631, 9632 and 9633. We slapped them on, bid farewell and rode down the road to the North Pole. Of course we had to stop and ask Santa if he would kindly send a note to the little ones at home. I had a brief discussion with their staff about the true home of Santa at the North Pole near Wilmington. My impression of Fairbanks was a depressing as Anchorage. I know, I really didn't see all of each of these cities, and didn't talk to many of the people (and those I did were uniformly pleasant). I'm thinking it may be the light that made me feel this way. There is no yellowness or softness to the sunlight. It is very bright, white and doesn't turn off in the summer. Of course, it might also have been because I was sick as a dog and had a fever when we ran through town. Lou and I both caught something early on that made us hacking fools. Sneezing and coughing in a full-face helmet is absolutely no fun, especially with a microphone that you have to have up against your lips to talk into for the rest of the trip.