Tailgater from Chackbay

The Cabin Nite dinner theater is definitely worth the price. I don't think I would have begrudged the $63 per person rate if we had not had a 2 for 1 ticket.  The all-you-can-eat  meal of ribs, salmon, vegetables, biscuits and berry pie, was very good.  The salmon was baked with a buttery lemon and dill topping and was the best item there.  The servers were energetic and enthusiastic and managed to make each individual there feel welcome.  The performance was the best of all.  Both Breland and I would love a CD of the songs, especially the opening one.
We went there for Breland's birthday, a day early but it was August 8 in Louisiana by the time we were served. We were seated right in front of the stage.  A couple we met in Seward were there with us also.  They are from Ohio and the rest of the table, coincidentally , were also from Ohio.  We laughed and sang with the performers all night.  A great show.
The next morning we made the fairly short drive to Fairbanks.  Breland washed the RV at the campground to remove all of the salt from Homer and the calcium chloride from the road construction.  We stocked up on groceries in preparation for our trip south.  We won't see any more large grocery stores for a while. Sam's Club seemed like a good choice. It was so similar to the one at home and so different.  There were huge tubs of dried food, everything from dried strawberries to powdered milk to something called Month of Meals, food for when weather would cut a family off from trips to the grocery.
We got another reminder of the special concerns of living in Alaska when we stopped at Petco for Clark's food.  There was a sign posted to tell you how to arrange for the pet food to be delivered by bush plane.
A trip on the Haul Road, the Dalton Highway, was on our bucket list.  All of the talk about the hazards of the road on the forums, the show "Ice Road Truckers, and the lengthy preparation list the Bureau of Land Management posts made the trip sound a bit intimidating.  Friends took the road just a few weeks ago and urged us to go, with details about the best stops along the way.  We decided to take the trip to the Arctic Circle and beyond a bit to keep the trip to a single day.  Fires to the west of us caused the skies to be quite dark, with the sun showing through a dimly lit orange.  The road was MUCH better than the rough areas of the Alaska Highway, paved in some areas and well-graded dirt and rock in others.
It was still a bit challenging and the trucks roared as they passed us.  Commercial vehicles have right-of-way on the Dalton Highway and we pulled over to let those big trucks by often.  One small truck stayed on our tail and started to worry me a bit.  No matter how slow we went he did not pass.  Finally we pulled to the side to let him by. and were greeted with "Where ya'll from?"  The man in the car was from Chackbay, Louisiana and headed to hunt at Antigun Pass on the Haul Road. He asked us lots of questions and seemed to be homesick for our Louisiana accents.  I wish we had asked him how he ended up living  in Talkeetna, Alaska.
At the Arctic Circle we received certificates to show we had crossed that meridian and had our photos taken by the campground host.  It has been so very warm here (Fairbanks has had 39 days over 80 degrees this summer) that everything was lush and green.  I expected a bit of ice and snow but the ground was covered wild berries and lichen. Not an easy trip, 13 hours and our car was covered with grime, but worth it.

 Tomrrow we head toward Tok on our way to Haines Alaska.