5,592 miles

Oiy! Am I having trouble with my days and nights. Sunset about 1 am and sunrise at 3 am. All that seratonin is nice, but I am getting sleep deprived. Mom and Dad sometimes stay up too late too. Then we are all grumpy next day. Worse yet, they close all the blinds and I am not ready for bed yet. But I love the weather. No rain for several days, lots of sun, and really cool nights. Just like November at home.

We have been hanging around Fairbanks since we left Chena Hot Springs. Mom and Dad like the University of Alaska Fairbanks a lot. Stunning Campus on a hill with ultra modern white buildings jutting into a blue blue sky. Especially the Museum of the North, which is supposed to resemble the crevace of a glacier. Mom says they learned all about winter there. Do you know that the sun is rising and setting in the south now? In the winter it will be in the north. Has to do with the earth's wobble. Spring and fall it will be "normal". They also saw Blue Babe, the mummy bison 30,000 years old. If you click on the title of this section, you will be at the museum site and you can see for yourself.

Alaskans are an independent breed. The girl working in the museum was born in a tent while her parents were building their cabin sans plumbing. Some Alaskans cross county ski by moonlight in the winter. It takes a certain mindset. But mostly they love the wilderness, and so they are willing to endure the winters.

We also visited the Large Animal Research center on campus. I was not allowed inside, but we were parked right by the Muskox and I got to whimper out the window at them. You think I have issues with hair? They have the warmest coat on the earth. There were babies, too. They are born at 25 pounds and gain a pound a day in their first year. Got to get tough for the winter. There are about 4,000 muskox in the wild in Alaska. They defend themselves against predators by forming a tight circle, horns facing out.

Here at the Large Animal Research center we found out that a reindeer is just a domesticated caribou. Caribou migrate, reindeer don't. It takes several generations for them to adapt to domestication. The huge antlers on the male caribou here had only been growing a month. As soon as the male takes a bride and defends her honor in the fall, off come the antlers.

Just in case you think mosquitos are bad where you are, you should be glad you are not a caribou. The mosquitos drive them crazy. They suck several pints of blood a day out of a caribou. Zaps their energy.

Rudy a German student led the tour. He said the caribou won't cross roads in their migration, so they may end up in a less desirable wintering ground than they had in mind. Rudy is getting a masters in Global Warming Politics. UAF has extensive lines of study in this field. Since Alaska is doing the melting, seems appropriate.

I was welcome to walk in the woods with Mom on campus near the botanical gardens. I had to wear my bell because there was a sign about moose in the forest. I was also welcome at Creamers Field on leash. Creamers Field used to be a dairy farm, and now it is a migrating waterfowl refuge. I have never seen so many birds in one place. I thought it peculiar that I could walk the trails with all the waterfowl in the field, but I couldn't get near the birds if we stayed on the path. Mom walked me at least 3 miles into the boreal forest. I wonder what she is thinking? That I am getting too porky? Had to nap the rest of the day.

Dad and Mom have been biking too. Mostly Dad, because Mom takes me on a walk and she says she can't do both. Not enough daylight she says. I think that sounds pretty hoaky with 22 hours. She should be doing both.

Fairbanks has trail upon trail for road bikes, so Dad is now up to four or five days in a row, riding every day since Tok. Today Dad fell in with some Race for the Cure riders, and this morning we met the Tour de Fairbanks going up the Steese Highway. Lots of hills and two serious peletons in that group.

We spent one night at a campground up the Steese Highway, and mom walked me there too. That was the night I got in trouble over squirrel barking. Like, who can hear me with the Chatanika river making all that noise? I won't mention that she collected rocks and hid them under the seat of the RV. Dad wanted to go up that highway to see the Alaska Pipeline. They were big old pipes. Yep, sure were big. There are also a number of satellite tracking stations up the highway, including Nasa's. Phone home, ET.

Mom's phone got to North Pole today, and it works too. As soon as she reads the instructions she could probably call somebody. Now that we have that taken care of, we can leave for Denali. I sure hope I get to see wildlife.