So when I woke up at 6 something, I was tired and went back to sleep. Heard a few vehicles passed by. Probably buses. At approximately 8:30 am, a park ranger knocked on my windshield. I kind of expected someone to come knocking sooner or later. (When I slept on the side of the road once in Ohio early in the morning, a guy with a beer came knocking and it scared the living daylights out of me.) He had a green jacket on. Blonde, receding hair.
I told him arrived at 10:00 pm last night, and the lady park ranger I had met yesterday told me I could sleep at the turnout as long as the turnout did not say "no camping." He asked for my drivers license, and said he wasn't going to ticket me. Not sure how much authority he carried being a park ranger and not a police officer. He added in our conversation, "[...seen you parked here when I drove by at midnight, and that you were misinformed because no car camping was allowed anywhere in the park. There was camping at mile 234 at the turnout. That turnout was still part of the park, but I don't run people out because the campsites in the park were full."
I asked about Mount McKinley because of the death of 3 people recently got me interested in coming here to hike. He told me people either take a bus and hiked or flew in. I couldn't recall all the names of places he mentioned on the way to Mount McKinley. I thanked him for not ticketing me, and the ranger replied, "No problem." As he began to walk away, he said this was my wake up call. So I figured I better make like a tree and leave.
Drove out of the park. Saw the ranger with the car's flasher lights on pulling over a mobile home. I waved as I drove by.
While driving out the park, the Rodeo made this funny squeeking noise. Hope it wasn't anything to cause me to be stranded somewhere in the future.
Headed north to Fairbanks with about 150 miles left of gasoline. Suddenly, outside Denali National Park, I realized the lady park ranger might have meant turnouts along the highway, and not the turnouts inside the park per se.
Drove into Fairbanks with almost no gas left. It was quite hot in Fairbanks. (People have said even though Fairbanks was much further north than Anchorage, it was hotter in the summer and cooler in the winter because the surrounding land was flatter.) There was a mobile home all the way from Florida here in Fairbanks. Amazing. Later on, I would see another vehicle from Florida.
Filled up at a Texaco- Slick Willy. Went into Subway for a couple of sandwichs. On Sundays, Subway sells 2 footlong subs for $5.99 with 2 medium drink purchases. (Fast food restaurants make a lot of money from selling drinks.) Then I headed over to University of Alaska- Fairbanks, and walked campus hiked for a while. One of the unique things at the university was the model airplanes which rotated around the roof of the Atkinson building with little model airplanes.
Then after leaving the university, I decided to drive towards Livengood in the direction of Pudhoe Bay. There was no way to make it to Pudhoe Bay, but I wanted to get a taste of going that far north. Pudhoe Bay is a small city at the northern most part of Alaska which is drivable without a plane ride. Not only just Alaska, but all of the United States as well as North America. Outside of Fairbanks, at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 6, police blocked the road. Highway 2 was the only road to go north. I pulled up to the gas station where everyone was parked waiting for the police, and an old man and woman said there was a guy with a gun somewhere up north a bit. He killed a canine and disabled a police vehicle by shooting it; the road had been closed since 7 pm last night. So I decided to head north east for a while and come back later. Not going anywhere in particular- just enjoying the drive and waiting for time.
There wasn't much in the drive northeast and there wasn't much except scenic views. After about 30 miles I headed back. Stopped at a tourist attraction: the Alyeska pipeline. I had missed it when I drove by earlier, not really paying attention. At this location, the pipeline came out of the ground. The the pipeline is an impressive piece of work: it's used to transport petroleum for hundreds of miles in Alaska. Funny they made this a tourist spot, but there were quite a few people there. I took a picture and left.
Back at the road to go to Livengood, police were still there. This was where I saw another car from from Florida. I took a picture and decided to head on home via highway 2. The drive home would be long.
I stopped at One Mile Creek to take a nap. A one and a half hour nap. Tired. Dehydrated. And then drove a few miles down the road, and stopped at Whistler Creek because I saw a cross off the road along the creek. The cross was in membrance of Cecilia Barkley, who died a little over a year ago. I brought a bit of humor to a nonhumourous situation by asking the rhetorical question, "You must not get many visitors." It wasn't meant to be offensive- just that I wanted to say something and let her know I'm visiting her. Cecilia turned 35 before she died. The flowers someone left for Cecilia have wilted; I plucked a fresh plant from the ground and placed it with the dying flowers. Not sure why I stopped here. Just wanted to.
Highway 2 eventually crossed Highway 1, and Highway lead to Anchorage. Wow, it's been 2 months since I've been on this part of Highway 1. I remember that day in late April when I drove this route to Anchorage. So excited about returning home after 20 years.
Well, 500 miles later and almost midnight, I arrived Eagle River to fill up. Texaco has the same price gasoline on all grades in Eagle River on Sundays. So whenever, I'm north of Anchorage on Sundays, I stop here to fill up. Came home to midtown Anchorage. Quiet as a mug. Took a shower and went straight to bed.
It was a weekend of uneventfulness, but always well worth the drive. I didn't get to meet too many people, which is really a shame.
