Diary for Harry and Judy's RV Trip


Day 9-June 7, 2014-Train to Denali

2014-06-07

Day 9-June 7, 2014-Train to Fairbanks

Got to sleep til 7:00AM again.  Sunny and warmer today about 70.

Breakfast again at Prey Restaurant.  Packed our bags and left them at the office to be boarded on the train. Shuttle to the train doesn’t leave til 3:00 so we have some free time and decided to get the shuttle into Glitter Gulch again and finish seeing the stores.  On the way back we saw a moose just about where we saw her yesterday but no calves with her.  The shuttle driver said a pilot flying over last night saw a bear dragging a calf across the street and chances are if he got one he got them both.  They say it’s rare that twins of any kind survive more than a week.  Wow, this sure is survival of the fittest out here.

Got back to the cabins and read some more, than took the shuttle to the train station.  We’re again Gold Star class and this ride was even better than the first two.  It’s 123 miles to Fairbanks, took a little under four hours and every minute was interesting.  Janet, the commentator knew so many facts about the area it was enlightening to listen to her.  She was very personable and loved to talk.  The “conductor” came around and mingled too.  Saw quite a few moose on the way.  As we pulled into the train yard there were idle trains with seagull nests atop them.  The trains move every now and then and I guess the nests stay put (at least I hope they do).  The train was almost empty, the Gold Star section was about ¼ full and the rest of the train was probably less.  Had dinner in the dining car, chef’s special pot roast, then pulled into the station where the shuttle was waiting for us to Rivers Edge Resort, a group of individual cottages, all nicely decorated with huge baskets of petunias and a patio in front.  The smell was wonderful.  They say with all the daylight, in a few weeks the baskets will have grown so much they’ll be touching the ground.  The sun “sets” at 12:20AM and “rises” at 3:15AM.  It never gets dark, and at 2:00AM you probably could read by the light outside.  The moon and the sun in the sky are very close to each other which is really eerie. On the Summer Solstice, June 22nd, the longest day of the year, the sun won’t even set and there’s all kinds of events, a gold tourney that tees off at midnight, a baseball game that starts at 10:00PM, and other things all with no artificial light.  Then it starts to get darker by seven minutes every day ‘til Dec. 22nd when there’s no light for six months.  No thanks!