Alaska -- Day 49

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

We are in Fairbanks, Alaska, the furthest north we will go on this trip. The sun rises at 3:19 am, sets at 12:15 am. In case you are interested, this is what the Alaska sunset looked like at 12:44 this morning.



This morning we visited Santa Claus House and then watched the North Pole 4th of July parade. The murals on the outside of Santa Claus House are great.

Do you know how many shopping days you have before Christmas? Just subtract one day from what you see here.



There used to be an RV park right next to Santa’s house. It has been turned into a craft market. Maybe street signs like this didn’t sell to the RVers.



There are two military bases nearby—Eielson Air Force Base and Wainwright Army Base. This group of air force led the parade. Several candidates running in the fall elections were represented.





The VFW float was named most patriotic. A group of motorcycle riders came along just before the parade began. they included this father and son.





We love local parades. You see the most interesting people.

How about these roller derby girls.









All morning, we watched these little girls, who didn’t know each other before the parade, playing and enjoying the day.



The local fire departments were the last units in the parade. This truck extended its hydraulic water snorkel, at times shooting water into the air—and down on the folks watching the parade.








 Jets from the Air Force base performed a flyover at the downtown Fairbanks parade. We didn’t see that, but we did see them returning to their base.



We are so proud to be Americans and grateful to live in this wonderful country.

July 4 and Beyond

We did stay up late enough on Sunday to watch the fireworks. Actually, we could clearly see displays that were sent up from the south end of Mackinac Bridge and on Mackinac Island. We also had glimpses of those from the town of St. Ignace and some other place on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

This is a small part of the crowd sitting along the shoreline in our campground.



This little fellow had his baseball mitt full of popcorn. At least half of it ended up on the ground before he got settled on those rocks to watch the show.



Could you ask for a cuter (is that a word) front row?



Some of the campers shot off their own fireworks before the professional show began.



The "real" show was a little more impressive.



We left the next morning and drove north over the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula. It was a foggy morning, so the view was very limited.



This was all we saw of Lake Huron. The fog continued as we drove along Lake Superior. We are glad we had seen that lake years ago when we lived in Wisconsin.



As we drove west, a black bear ran across the road. How exciting. The fog finally cleared and we did get to see this pretty scene as we headed west.



It was a long drive to Wakefield, MI, where we spent one night in a public park on pretty Sunday Lake.



Now we are spending three nights at the Gull Lake Corps of Engineers campground outside of Brainerd, MN. We are feeding our souls with the quiet and the wooded campsite. Isn't this a pretty entrance for a public facility?



This morning, while John took his three-mile run, I walked over to the lake to take some pictures. How's this for a gaggle of geese (and one duck)?



I walked the nearby nature trail. It is unusual to find a grassy trail.



I caught a glimpse of this White-Tailed deer before it bounded away.



The forest floor has lots of ferns.



Our campground has a vintage trailer and an unusual one.



We saw these different kind of trailers in a sales lot in town yesterday. I think they would be very hard to level. Once you take them off the truck, the wheels and hitch are raised, lowering the trailer to the ground.

Amazing

Amazing is all I can say about the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground, where we are spending the 4th of July weekend. During the past month we have not needed reservations, but this weekend is a different story. Almost everyone that owns a tent or RV wants to get out for the Independence Holiday--especially when it provides a three-day weekend. That is especially true for families with children.

We knew we were heading north through Michigan to the Upper Peninsula and we wanted to visit Mackinac Island, so we chose this campground. I made a request online for a large 50-amp site for three nights. They called back and said those were full but they had regular size with 30-amps. We took it.

We've never been in a campground this large. We stayed at Valle del Oro in Mesa, a 55+ resort with 1700 sites (I think), but that is a little different. Here they have 600 camping sites, 200 with full-hookups. They have one mile of shoreline on Lake Huron, sites with views of Mackinac Bridge or Lake Huron (at a premium cost), cabins and cottages and lots of tent sites. I have never seen this many tent campers.

We arrived early Friday, checked in, and were given direction to our site: follow the yellow poles; at "C" turn left; at "J" turn left; drive to big rock; at "5" turn left to site 109, a back-in on driver's side. All we had to do was pay attention--quite a task on narrow roads with RVs and tents, cars and bike riders everywhere. But we found our site and got settled. This is a view from our dining room window down the "alley" between two rows of trailers.



Friday night RVs just kept coming in. There are several different areas where they are parked. Here is part of the line-up coming to our section.



I wake up to the sound of sea gulls. They love to sit on the top of poles when there aren't looking for food in the trash or under campground tables. Isn't this guy (or gal) great?



We can walk to our right along about six RVs to a lawn along the shore. There we can see Lake Huron and the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge spans the Mackinac Straits between Michigan and its Upper Peninsula. The straits join Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. Here is the bridge from our shoreline.



Tonight we will sit on the lawn (if it doesn't rain) and watch fireworks at 10 pm. There will be shows off the bridge, off Mackinac Island in the distance, and from a town on the right. It should be quite a show, if we stay awake long enough. People were saving prime seating by 9 am, so our lawn chairs are out there, too.

We think Michigan is a very pretty state. For most of the last three months we have been surrounded by trees in most campgrounds and along most highways. Here we have seen more sky and more open views. And the water in Lake Huron is an amazing color of blue on these clear days we have had. Tomorrow we will be on the edge of Lake Superior to the north. This is certainly a great part of the country.

However, we are looking forward to getting out of this "city" on the edge of Lake Huron. Hopefully, many of the families will go home so the parents can go back to work. This weekend has been too busy, and smokey. No family can go camping without building a fire, can they?