Ira & Beverly Miller Rig #8
Today is Sunday, July 04, 2010 and we woke up to a cloudy, cool day, but at least it was not raining as it rained last night. What a storm that came through the campground. I am sure most people would have liked to go to church this Sunday; however, our wagon master had other plans for the adventurers.
We started out at 9:00 this morning in which the temperature was only 56 degrees. We first went to the University of Alaska Museum of the North. It was an interesting place to visit. From Alaska’s wildlife to contemporary Alaska Native Art, whatever your interest, you were sure to find something appealing on exhibit. One of my highlights of the museum was the outhouse on display. Some rural areas of Alaska still use outhouses. Imagine being outdoors in forty below freezing temperatures and sitting in an outhouse. Brrrrrrrr. Ira showed interest in the double-headed dagger. It was made of steel I beam with steel cable and cast concrete.
The second stop on our trip was the Robert G. White, large animal research station. Here we learned about muskox, caribou and reindeer. This research center has about 3,000 Muskox, and you will find about 160,000 worldwide. Muskox can also be found in Canada and Greenland. Muskox is horned as where Caribou and Reindeer are antlered. Muskox and caribou are wild where as reindeer are domesticated. The Muskox pictured in this blog is Ingrid and was adopted from the San Diego Zoo.
After the research center, we were supposed to be dropped off in town for a lunch of our choice before our next planned event; however, due to it being Sunday and Fourth of July, most restaurants were closed. We had one option that would work for our group, and guess what that choice was. CHINESE BUFFET. We all ate lunch at the Mayflower. Luckily, for the adventurers who did not like Chinese, there was American food as well.
Our final stop of the day was the Ice Museum. Here we saw a film on ice carving and after the film, we got to actually see some fantastic ice carvings. We actually got to go inside an ice room and have the opportunity to see the sculptures up close and personal. We had a rare treat as we also had the pleasure of seeing a sculpture being made. A beautiful flower and stem with leaves was made right before our eyes.
We were supposed to have a 4th of July barbecue after we got back, but because most travelers were full from the Chinese buffet, we postponed that until Wednesday after our next travel day to Denali National Park.
The final event of the evening was a travel briefing and a brief ceremony where we all received our certificates for traveling the length of the Alaskan Highway, all 1,422 miles of it. From Dawson Creek to Delta Junction. Since the next two days are free days for the travelers, it was best to have the briefing so that it would not conflict with the travelers plans. The highlight of the briefing was the Patriotic Bear that was brought along by Bill Kern. This bear sang America the Beautiful for the group and what a better way to end the day on this Fourth of July holiday.
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