We have been staying in the Fairbanks townhouse at Eielson Air Force Base. As always, The Air Force does it right:

 John and Romeo at the Alaskan Pipeline. Remember all the controversy when it was being planned and constructed? It still pays a dividend to every citizen of Alaska every year, but there's concern that climate change will cause the permafrost to thaw and some of the pipeline will become unstable.

 We went to the Fairbanks Ice Museum and learned how ice blocks are harvested and carved. Ice is shipped from here to Frankenmuth, Michigan, each year for the Frankenmuth winter festival. Romeo was the only one of us brave enough to try the ice slide. Three times!

 John fantasizes an Iditarod run:

 Cheers-but hurry and take the picture, it's only 20 degrees!

 Reluctantly, we left Glenn and family for Anchorage early Monday morning July 18. We stopped in Nenana to take a few pictures, including this tripod which is placed on the ice on the Nenana River to determine the exact moment of ice breakup so a lottery winner can be named.

 A fish wheel and drying fish.  Gina and Glenn spend time at a fish wheel each summer and we're looking forward to seeing a video of one in action.

 This little tugboat plied Alaskan waters from 1938 until 1978.

 An eskimo scout:

 Back on the road

 This isn't part of the job for highway workers in mid-Michigan.  They are working in a landslide area.

 There were signs posted all around this area stating it was closed because of bear activity. A juvenile grizzly had been getting too familiar with people-including 2 bite incidents. The rangers stationed here were frustrated with how hard it is to get people to follow instructions and to respect that the animals were here first and deserve to live without human interference.

 Mt. Denali is the highest peak in North America.

 The Alaskan Veterans Memorial in Denali State Park.

 On to joint base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. We had a choice of Army or Air Force Lodging and chose Air Force. I'm sure you can understand why:

 We are in the Adak Chateau, named for the Aleutian island which became an operations and support center for the Aleutian campaign during WW2 and in honor of the men and women who fought in that campaign.
We had intended to travel down to Seward on Tuesday, but a wildfire broke out close to the Seward Highway late last week and is still spreading. About 110,000 lightning strikes per year cause many wildfires in Alaska. There is also one burning near mile 115 of the Tok Cutoff, the road we'll take tomorrow (under control enough that firefighters are being shifted to the fire near Anchorage), and one near the Salcha River by Fairbanks.
We went to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, mostly because we had free admission because of a reciprocity agreement with the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, which we visited in February. It's also listed as a "gem" in the AAA TourBook, turns out deservingly so. Very good Alaska history and representations of Alaskan natives and similarities and differences among and between the native cultures.

 We visited Earthquake Park, a reminder of the Good Friday, 1964, 9.2 magnitude earthquake that devastated south-central Alaska. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America and the second most powerful in the world.
Downtown Anchorage from Earthquake Park: