Sunday, June 27, 1999

Today was a beautiful day and a good one to just kind of relax and enjoy.

The balcony on the front of the house always has a lovely breeze and a lovely view.  In the winter when the leaves are down they have a spectacular view into forever.

 

We took a trip to the North Pole this morning and visited at Santa Claus village.  This is the place that everyone sends their Christmas mail to have it postmarked.  It was pretty much a gift shop with a couple of caribou outside!

Lunch was at the Food Factory (a local franchise)  We parked out on the porch since it was such a lovely day.  Good food  - good company!  From here we began our little tour for the day.  We're beginning to get a feel for Fairbanks.  

We drove out to see the Alaskan Pipeline.   It was a pretty phenomenal feat. It's interesting learning about permafrost and how the construction is so dependent on the soil involved.   If you build something in the permafrost it will melt the frozen soil and the structure will sink.  In the case of the pipeline that could be a real problem.  The temperature the oil starts out on it's trip from the north is about 116 degrees... In places where it can't be buried it's a minimum of 5 feet off the ground so that the caribou and animals can cross.  It actually has 554 special animal crossing areas.   This structure was built between 1974-78 or so... Sometimes that is absolutely the only sign of man you see on the horizon.  There are just no roads here to speak of.  The population is so thin... just one road going north and south and much of that up north is gravel.  Bush planes and sled dogs take you to those outlining communities.

The pipeline is about 800 miles long and was built at a cost of 8 billion dollars.  It takes 6.2 days at 5.4 miles per hour for the oil to get from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez and the Marine Terminal.  This source delivers more than 20% of the U.S. domestic oil production.  Six pumping stations currently work along it's path.

When we came back into town we were doing a little shopping or running errands and noticed the dark sky off to one side.   It wasn't long before it was pouring down rain.  We brought a Taco Grande meal in for a light supper since we overdid lunch!! 

The family-rec room is in the basement and that's where we are staying.  We set up the equipment to watch our video and Ted pulled out the one he made when Rus and Sherry were here six years ago.  We all started a jigsaw puzzle that has become a group project.  I can envision many a winter evening up here doing something like that.