Mileage 6622, long trip?

Hey, Sort of running out of stuff to report, STILL NO BEAR!
Every turn is another calendar scene, there is no way to describe the sights.
Hanging out in Fairbanks for a couple day to get some work done, now need to clean up before heading back to Denali. Schedule is still loose, as long as we head into Denali by 14th.
Cant say enough about the people up here, sure isn't like we are used to, a small question can turn into 3 hour coffee at Mickey D's.
Keep checking back, will get mind in gear again, don't forget click on postcard to enlarge pix.
Remember: it's the journey, not only the destination!!!!!!!!

Fairbanks (pronounced /ˈfɛərbæŋks/) is a Home Rule City in and the borough seat:
Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States.
Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage. It is the principal city of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and is the northernmost Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States.
According to 2008 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 35,132,[1] and the Fairbanks metropolitan area's population was 97,970.[3] Fairbanks is home to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the oldest college in Alaska.
History
Main article: History of Fairbanks, Alaska
Captain E.T. Barnette founded Fairbanks in August 1901 while trying to set up a trading post at Tanacross (where the Tanana River crossed the Valdez-Eagle trail). But the steam boat Barnette was aboard,[clarification needed] the Lavelle Young, ran aground and he was deposited seven miles (11 km) up the Chena River. Smoke from the steamer's engines attracted some prospectors, and they met Barnette where he disembarked. The prospectors convinced Barnette to set up his trading post there.[4] The city is named after Charles Fairbanks, a Republican senator from Indiana and later the 26th Vice President of the United States, serving in Theodore Roosevelt's second term.[5]
The Tanana Valley is an important agricultural center for Alaska, and during Fairbanks' early days the vicinity of the town was a major producer of agricultural goods. Despite early efforts by groups like the Alaska Loyal League and the Tanana Valley Agriculture Association, and the editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, W.F. Thompson, to encourage food production, agriculture in the area was never able to fully support the population, although it came close in the 1920s.
On August 14, 1967, after an unprecedented record rainfall upstream, the Chena River began to surge over its banks, flooding almost the entire town of Fairbanks overnight. The results of this disaster eventually led to the creation of the Chena River Lakes Flood Control Project, which built and operates the eight-mile long, fifty-foot high Moose Creek Dam, designed to prevent a repetition of the 1967 Flood by being able to divert water in the Chena River upstream from Fairbanks into the Tanana River (and thus bypassing the city).
Further information: History of Fairbanks, Alaska#The Great Flood


Topography
Fairbanks is located in the central Tanana Valley, straddling the Chena River near its confluence with the Tanana River. Immediately north of the city is a chain of hills that rises gradually until it reaches the White Mountains and the Yukon River. The southern border of the city is the Tanana River. South of the river is the Tanana Flats, an area of marsh and bog that stretches for more than 100 miles (160 km) until it rises into the Alaska Range, which is visible from Fairbanks on clear days. To the east and west are low valleys separated by ridges of hills up to 3,000 feet (910 m) above sea level.
The Tanana Valley is crossed by many low streams and rivers that flow into the Tanana River. In Fairbanks, the Chena River flows southwest until it empties into the Tanana.[9] Noyes Slough, which heads and foots off the Chena River, creates Garden Island, a district connected to the rest of Fairbanks by bridges and culverted roads.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 32.7 square miles (84.6 km²); 31.9 square miles (82.5 km²) of it is land and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²) of it (2.48%) is water.
Railroad


The Alaska Railroad provides regular freight and passenger service between Fairbanks and Southcentral Alaska towns.
After large-scale gold mining began north of Fairbanks, miners sought to build a railroad from the steamboat docks on the Chena River to the mine sites in the hills north of the city. The result was the Tanana Mines Railroad, which started operations in September 1905, using what had been the first steam locomotive in the Yukon Territory.In 1907, the railroad was reorganized and named the Tanana Valley Railroad. The railroad continued expanding until 1910, when the first gold boom began to falter and the introduction of automobiles into Fairbanks took business away from the railroad. Despite these problems, railroad backers envisioned a rail line extending from Fairbanks to Seward on the Gulf of Alaska, home to the Alaska Central Railway.
In 1914, the U.S. Congress appropriated $35 million for construction of the Alaska Railroad system, but work was delayed by the outbreak of WWI. Three years later, the Alaska Railroad purchased the Tanana Valley Railroad, which had suffered from the wartime economic problems.[60] Rail workers built a line extending northwest from Fairbanks, then south to Nenana, where President Warren G. Harding hammered in the ceremonial final spike in 1923. The rail yards of the Tanana Valley Railroad were converted for use by the Alaska Railroad, and Fairbanks became the northern end of the line and its second-largest depot.
From 1923 to 1994, the Alaska Railroad's Fairbanks terminal was in downtown Fairbanks, just north of the Chena River. In May 2005, the Alaska Railroad opened a new terminal northwest of downtown, and that terminal is in operation today. In summer, the railroad operates tourist trains to and from Fairbanks, and it operates occasional passenger trains throughout the year. The majority of its business through Fairbanks is freight.The railroad is planning an expansion of the rail line from Fairbanks to connect the city via rail with Delta Junction, about 100 miles (160 km) southeast.[