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posted: June 30th, 2016 |
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This page begins as we were finishing up at the Rock Glacier area on June 4th (Day #11 of our trip north to Fairbanks, Alaska from Ashland, Oregon). We arrive at our home in Fairbanks on June 4th and then this page ends on June 16th while cleaning our house after a 24 year and 7 month absence, during which time the house was rented out to many different people and really needed a very thorough cleaning. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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Note Well: The photos shown on this month's pages mark the beginning of Kazuya's and my life in the U.S.A. We flew from Tokyo to Medford, Oregon on May 18th, a friend picked us up at the airport and graciously permitted us to stay at their house as long as we needed to. A different friend took us out "car shopping" the next morning and by the end of the day we were the owner's of a 2015 Toyota Tacoma Access Cab, Automatic Transmission, 4 Wheel-Drive with less than 10,000 miles on it. On the 20th we got a canopy put on it so that we would have a place to sleep as we traveled up the Alaska Highway to our home in Fairbanks, Alaska. We managed to kill a few more days in Oregon with friends as we prepared for the trip north and then we headed north on May 24th. We finally arrived at our home in Fairbanks on June 4th.
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| June 3rd Continues From Page 4 (Day #11 Of Our Trip North) |
The three amazingly colorful flower shots in this row were all taken along the highway just below the Rock Glacier parking lot. We stopped here upon the recommendation of our Haines friends and we were not disappointed.
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Now we've made it to Kathleen Lake, Y.T., Canada and the first shot in this row is a two-shot panorama of Kathleen Lake. It was a pretty lake which would undoubtedly have been much prettier if it had been sunny. The second shot shows some more flowers along the highway and the third shot was taken just a few miles before we arrived in Haines Junction, Y.T., Canada. That sign likely says "Haines Junction, 2 km".
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The first two shots in this row also appear to be taken just before reaching Haines Junction. The third shot was obviously taken at Sheep Mountain (Tachal Dhal (Sheep Mountain) Visitor Center) beside Kluane Lake
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The first two shots in this row show scenic mountains and were taken from the Tachal Dhal (Sheep Mountain) Visitor Center. The third shot was taken from the same place and is zoomed in to a group of five Dall Sheep on the mountain. This is at the very southern end of Kluane Lake.
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Here is a different group of only two Dall Sheep which we saw at Tachal Dhal (Sheep Mountain) Visitor Center. The second shot shows some scenic mountains and the outlined area shows what is included in the next photo.
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The first shot in this row is zoomed out and shows the same group of five sheep as seen in third position in Row 4. The second shot shows Kluane Lake and the third shot shows Forget-me-not flowers.
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Here are two shots of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). And that brings us to the end of "Day #11 Of Our Trip North". We traveled 289 miles (465 km) today. The weather was more cloudy than sunny today with a bit of rain now and then.
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| End June 3rd, Begin June 4th (12th and Final Day Of Our Trip North) |
Now it's June 4th and the start of the 12th and final day of our trip north. My journal entry for this date follows.Up at 0500 with Kazuya. Leave Lake Creek Campground at 5:52 AM after eating breakfast, drinking coffee, repacking things and so on. Continue on towards Fairbanks and cross through Canadian Customs without stopping at 6:58 AM and continue on to US Customs and cross through with very minor problems at 7:24 AM. Pass through Tok, Delta Junction, North Pole and so on and arrive in Fairbanks at Lithia Chevrolet at 1:40 PM. They did not know anything about the rig title so I asked them to call Lithia Toyota in Medford about it. They agreed and will call me when they have information. Call Chris & Mary and they call back and we get gas for the final time and head for home. Get to the house at 3:00 PM, show Kazuya the place and then Chris & Mary come out with some food, keys and so on. Then look in the shed and talk and Mary talk us into going to supper at the Silver Gulch Brewery and Restaurant, so we went and had a good meal and didn’t spend a penny. Return home and unpack our stuff from the truck and kind of put stuff away. So, now it’s 9:29 PM and we are in our own home as a married couple in the USA! We traveled 384 miles today. The trip was begun @9,727 miles on the odometer and ended @12,475 miles so the total miles traveled = 3,132 = 5,040.5 km. We used 74.182 gal and 238.928 liters of gasoline = 137.3 gallons and 3,132 miles = 22.8114 miles/gallon average for the entire trip. Now it’s 9:47 PM and time to sleep – a long day, a lot of mental events. The first and third shots in this row show a moose (Alces alces). The center shot shows a nice yellow group of flowers and is out of order for balance. |
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Here are two shots of the Tanana River as we close in on Fairbanks. The third shot shows some distant mountains as we get even closer to Fairbanks.
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Both shots in this row show a moose in a pond near North Pole, Alaska. Getting closer and closer to home.
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Now we're passing Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska and the next stop after that is our home! And that's the end of "Day #12 Of Our Trip North - THE FINAL DAY". We traveled 384 miles (618 km) today. The weather was pretty good today, there were a few scattered showers, but we had no complaints. WOW! What a trip!
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| End June 4th, Begin June 11th |
For the next week we spent all of our time cleaning house - the house had been rented out for 24 years and 7 months, as stated in the page header. There was a lot of dust, dirt and general grime, even though the previous renter had cleaned up pretty good because he knew that the owner was coming home. Nobody cleans like the owner! We also had to take some time to go through some of the boxes which I have in storage and find cooking stuff, eating stuff, blankets, a radio and other stuff which are necessities for at least a somewhat comfortable life. We finally got things in pretty good condition so, on June 11th we went to Creamer's Field in Fairbanks, a location which is famous for having a lot of migrating birds, and we took photos of the Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis).
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Here are some more Sandhill Cranes and some Geese.
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| End June 11th, Begin June 12th |
We were amazed at the variety of flowering plants which are growing on our own 3 acres here. Kazuya went out and picked this Twinflower (Linnaea borealis) bouquet to add some color to our life in the first few days. AMAZING!
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| End June 12th, Begin June 16th |
On June 16th we finished the final cleaning of the house with the cleaning of the upper portion of the loft, the part shown here, which of course has no floor.
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| We have had another significant adventure since the final photos shown here and we have several more photos we plan to show you which were taken during the month of June, but they will have to wait until next month. |
| End June 16th, End June 2016's Photos (Through the 16th), Begin Miscellaneous Links |
Here are links to separate web pages - all of them will open in a new window (or new tab). The first link shows some photos of our DVD Collection, an AVI Movie of our Home Theater System and 9 photos of our Sharp Aquos TV. The 2nd link shows our entire DVD collection in DVD Profiler (if you're asking yourself what might be good to rent for the weekend). The DVD's will be sorted by date purchased. You can click on the "Title" Column to sort that way if you desire. The 3rd link shows our entire DVD collection in php DVD Profiler, which is much more sophisticated than the plain vanilla DVD Profiler just above it. The 4th link takes you to a set of pages which show you the FRONT cover-art of our entire DVD collection.
