July 24 - Day 19 - Chitina to Fairbanks

July 24 - Saturday

This morning we left the small campground in Chitina. It was obvious right away that the airbag was definitely not holding air. Donny put in some more, but it came out right away.

We decided to check out the village of Chitina, hoping to see the fish wheels in action, then head north in search of an RV repair shop. We figured there might be a place in Delta Junction, which is about 150 miles north on the Richardson Highway.

We found the fishing site, but no one was operating the fish wheels. We did see some fishermen "dip-netting" - they use long handled nets about 3' in diameter to snare salmon in the silty gray water. We took a few shots of some of the old buildings, then headed for Delta Junction.

The ride north was rough, lots of thumps and bumps, due both to the frost heaves in the highway and the flat airbag. We drove slowly, so it took quite a while to get to Delta Junction. When we arrived there in late afternoon, we asked around and found that the nearest RV repair place was in Fairbanks, 90 miles from Delta Junction, so we continued after stopping for a delicious pizza.

The day had begun with rain and clouds, but it had gradually cleared to sun and blue sky as we moved north, so we got some excellent views of the Copper River and the Alaska Range. We stopped for the night at a campground in North Pole. Since it was already early Saturday evening, we knew we could not get the airbags replaced until Monday, so we didn't plan to do much on Sunday.