Fairbanks almost didn’t make this Alaskan trip. Going back in forth near Anchorage due to RV repairs, messed with our original systematic loop that we were going to do. Better roads and going through Denali brought it back into the plans as well as the need to get some packages delivered.
This was the last stop on our Alaskan adventure. I think with being newbie full time RVers, trying to deal with the new lifestyle as well as all of the nuances that pop up with traveling full time in your RV, we were ready to start heading back south. We were excited to get back to bigger cities where we had more access to get repairs done or, have the ability to go pick up parts to fix it ourselves. It was a gamble going to Alaska for the first leg of our journey with the rough roads, no cell service areas and quite desolate areas in not just Alaska but, Northern British Columbia and the Yukon. I am so glad we did and got to experience Alaska. I know a lot of full time RVers say this, you don’t really know what your travel style is going to be like until you get out there. You also are not going to know how your lifestyle is going to change until you give it some time and really get into your new day to day. It can be very overwhelming and although there are some YouTube videos or other Blogs that show the not so glamorous life of RVing, you really need to go into it yourself and experience it. I think if we were a little more seasoned full time RVers, we may have dealt with all of the surprises differently. Maybe, we would not have let repairs that we dealt with in Alaska dictate our journey or get consumed by too much planning that got changed anyway. In the beginning, we would spend 1 hour or more planning what to do next, where to stay, and all of the activities we were going to do. All this planning and most of the time, it got changed anyway. We needed to stop so much planning and start more adventuring! It is all part of the travel journey and understanding how to move forward and learn from our mistakes only prepares us for our adventures to come. We still saw Alaska and all of it’s glory! Personally, I was definitely excited to see some more sunshine in the near future too after a lot of rain here!
Where we stayed
We parked at Rivers Edge RV Park and enjoyed some full hook-ups before our journey back south. We were able to have some Amazon packages sent here … OK maybe a lot of Amazon packages before we left civilization for awhile! I finally got some of my Instant Pot accessories including a steamer and cake pan. Can’t wait to start making new creations with it! We also got a screen protector for the door since Kenya has started to paw at it. Our site had 30 amp and decent WiFi to enjoy before no service areas. Annalise is downloading as we speak! This is a beautiful RV Park, probably one of the best we have stayed in with friendly service, facilities, dog walk and a lovely path along the river just steps away from any site. Along with package delivery, we would give this park a 5 Stars!!!
What we did
PIONEER PARK
We met a couple in Valdez on our Lu-Lu Belle cruise that recommended we go to Pioneer Park. When wanted to go do something fun when we arrived in Fairbanks that evening and decided to check it out. Not knowing much about it other than containing historic buildings and free admission… we like FREE! It really exceeded all of our expectations and we could have spent a good half day there. You can actually go into the majority of these historic buildings. They moved them from the city in order to preserve their heritage and just engulf yourself with their story inside and what it was like during that time. We really enjoyed the museum there and they had more artifacts and information that you could get through in one day! It was awesome and all running off of donations. We even picked up some gifts for our nieces at one of the shops. Just an all around cool place that is definitely worth a visit!
TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Viewpoint just outside of Fairbanks allows you to come close-up to the pipeline. We spent around 30 minutes looking at the information and learning more about it. Definitely worth the visit!
FOUNTAINHEAD AUTO MUSEUM
We had gone back and forth about doing this museum but knew it would be a fun short activity for the afternoon. We had seen that Keep your Daydream went there while visiting Fairbanks and they had mentioned a really interesting piece on display that peaked our interest. Owning an electric car until recently, we found out that they had one of the first electric cars made in 1903 on display. We had no idea that the history of the electric car went that far back! We all enjoyed our visit there and walked away with more knowledge of electric and steam cars as well as vintage fashion that they had on display.
