Monday July 8 2013- Fairbanks AK

Posted on July 10, 2013 by deniselg

Alaska fact- Statehood granted Jan. 2, 1959- the 49th state

We woke to colder weather(60’s cloudy) and smoke again, although not as bad as Saturday. The local newspaper and TV station both say that the fire was started by Ft. Wainwright. The base has come out and said that they are responsible for the fire. They were denied a permit, by their fire department, to do artillery fire. The fire dept. was overruled and they went ahead with the training episode, resulting in a fire which has burned 77,000 acres(so far), displaced thousands of people, and caused thick smoke over the city. The fire is 5% contained! Think someone should lose their command?

Bob had an appointment at Ft. Wainwright to obtain a civilian DOD retiree ID card at 10:30. This card will allow us to use the Fam. Camps. Fam. Camps are military RV parks which are very nice and located all around the country. Our use of them will be at the discretion of the individual base commander.

We arrived at the Visitor Center at just after 10 AM. It took us 20 minutes to obtain the permit from security. We proceeded to the Family Help Center, were the office was for obtaining the permit. We walked in and Bob signed in. There were lots of people waiting. According to the sign in sheet, people with appointments had top priority. Well, that did not happen. Since there were limited seats, I returned to the car and read my book. Bob waited almost an hour, then they had computer issues. It took awhile for him to obtain the ID card.

We left there and returned to the motor home for lunch. On the way, Bob got on the list for a haircut at the salon in Walmart. We stopped in at Fred Meyer and picked up a few items. Then we went to Walmart and shopped. Bob ran over to the salon and had his hair cut.

We returned to the motor home and I made some Watergate salad and pea salad. We went to dinner at the Alaska Salmon Bake, which is located in Pioneer Park. Another place that was suggested to us. We were not terribly impressed. If I had not had the awesome salmon the other night at the Pump House I might have liked this, but is was just not as good. It was an all you can eat place, but the food was just so-so. You also could have prime rib and cod, with pasta salad, potato salad and a salad bar. Dessert was sheet cake, all for $32. Oh well….