July 14 & 15

Dear Readers,

Rain.. I hear it on the roof of the aluminum hotel on the north slope just beside the Arctic Ocean.  We've had two blessed days....  Wondering what this rain will do to the calcium chloride we watched them spreading today....  Stepped off the road and felt like I was walking on ice it was so slippery - just the natural clay in this part of the country.  But back to July 14....

Off to the Arctic Circle....
I'm not going to write much about the Dalton - yet anyway..... It seems that everyone has their own experience there and that is as it should be.  We... at least the time going north... have felt incredibly lucky with weather, construction, rain... and all the other unfortunate incidents in stories that seem to abound. 2 beautiful days.

** and this is just a warning .. It is 11:20 PM Alaska time and I may fall asleep at any moment. :-)  But.. I know I won't have internet tomorrow night in Wiseman. Oh, what a fabulous place... Right... that reminds me that I was going to try to contact that Jack guy that lives in Wiseman that I saw on PBS special....  that is another thing that happens when I'm tired - the cyclical pattern that is my vision tends to get a little disjointed.. Alright, already!! July 14
We prepare to leave UAF

 

We ride through some incredibly beautiful  Alaskan scenery...

At one point the fragrance of the flowers was intoxicating ... I felt like Dorothy in the field of poppies...

And then we arrived at the Arctic Circle...

We spent the night in a B & B in Wiseman.  (population 13 or 14... that is what Uta said... not sure if someone is thinking of leaving or thinking of coming)  This is our cabin! Heading back there tomorrow.

There are spectacular pictures from Wiseman to Prudhoe Bay... The Brooks Range is awesome in every sense of the word.

nice pipeline... don't you think??

And pulling in 15 minutes before the Arctic tour..... we managed to go straight to the Beaufort Sea before even getting to the motel (using the term loosely here).

This was after we'd all taken our shoes and socks off and waded in properly.  We've got official certificates to prove it! 

Sounds like the rain  and snoring have stopped... time to shut the light off and hope that black shade really keeps out the midnight sun. (Sun? I can hope it is drying out the road while I sleep.....)  Talk to you in Fairbanks.