After going all the way to the Arctic Circle on the coach
for some 17 hours on Tuesday, I had a relatively slow Wednesday morning at the
camp site. Then I went down into Fairbanks
to find a tire place to rotate a couple of my tires which were wearing unevenly. Later I went to the Univeristy Of Alaska
Fairbanks which I had heard had an excellent museum. Lazy day !!!
Both front tyres were wearing a little more on the inside
edges, so to try to make them last a bit longer I needed to swap them over from
left to right and vice versa as they are directional tyres. Found a company called American Tire &
Auto on 3rd Avenue, and Mike soon had a couple of the lads lined up
to help me. Bryan and Ethan did the
change over, balanced the wheels, and I
was most impressed when they came out with a torque wrench to finish the job
off, and had already looked in the manual and found the Elise torque settings
!!! Good work guys, and thank you. I drove all the way to Coldfoot today and the
wheels were perfect. If anyone needs
tyre or suspension work in Fairbanks, these guys are worth a call. (No they didn’t
give me a discount for mentioning them !!)
Then I went off to Radio Shack and bought a hand-held CB radio. I noticed the coach driver yesterday was
talking to the trucks all the time on the radio to let them past safely, so I
decided it would be good if I could talk to them as well – Especially since I
am so small, and might well be a lot slower on the dirt sections than them. More on how that worked out tomorrow.
Bit rainy and overcast, so I decided to go and investigate the University. I had heard they had some Musk Oxen up there, and also that their Museum was excellent. First went to the fields where the Musk Oxen live, and of course it was not open to the public till next week !! But I could see them through the fence - Funny looking animals - Short legs and great long shaggy coats to keep them warm as they stay out in the cold all winter.
Apparently they are more linked to goats than cattle, and look like it too ! Funny faces with their horns down around their cheeks, and apparently they have two coats of hair - An inner one (qiviut) that is finer than merino and which they shed every year, and an outer thick coat of hair which is hollow and protects them from the elements. The locals weave garments from the qiviut.
Then there were also some reaindeer and some caribou in there too - I got some photos, and as they do not have red noses, I presume they are caribou !!!
I then went up to the Uni Museum of the North, and first of all tried to put money in the parking meter. Then found out the parking meter was an electrical plug to plug your car in to keep it warm in the winter ! (Oh, how sweet !! They are so nice to their cars !! Rofl)
Then I went into the museum, and saw two movies - One about living here in winter in Alaska, and what it is like and what you can do, and the other about the Aurora Borealis - Which was all super technical and scientific, but interesting. Then I spent a couple of hours in their exhibit on Alaska which I found really interesting because, after reading James A Michener's book Alaska and learning lots from that, the museum display had a lot of stuff I had read about - The Russian occupation, the Gold Rush through Skagway etc, the internment of Japanese Americans in the war, and the seal fur and salmon business. Good museum - Enjoyed that.
Then home for something to eat and an early night so I could leave at the crack of dawn in the morning. (Wrong phrase here, when dawn is at 2 am, but what else can you say ?!!)
