Fairbanks
With time to kill in Fairbanks I decided to kill some time wandering around…
The museum is a VERY nice facility…
Click To See Full Size
I guess I should warn folks now that I did no riding today and I’m only going to be posting stuff from the museum… so feel free to skip this if you’re not interested in the artsy-fartsy stuff I saw today.
One of my favorite sculptures of the day… it’s a life-size sculpture of a horse made of twisted and bent Alder wood branches. To me, it looks like a large rough sketch of a horse, but in three dimensions. Very cool.
The biggest bear I have ever seen… I had a hard time believing it was real…
Mastodon and Mammoth fossils
I wish this picture had turned out better, but this old BSA motorcycle was ridden by “Slim” Williams from Fairbanks to New York across the proposed route of an international highway.
The lighting in the museum was horrible, and you weren’t allowed to use flash… so sorry for the dark photos…
This copper “nugget” was uncovered during mining activity in 1936. It weighs 5,495 pounds.
Those “Baby Raven” sculptures were made of nails…
A modern take on traditional native artwork
I think this painting of Mt McKinley is as close as I’m going to get to seeing it… BOOOOOO!
An interesting exhibit called “The Place Where You Go to Listen” was very unique to say the least. You walk into this room and you’re immersed in sound and light… and what you see and hear is all linked to what is going on outside… at that moment…
Rather than trying to explain the experience myself, here is how the artist explains this work…
Click To View Readable Size
I also watched a very interesting and informative film on the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis… which I learned are not two separate Auroras, but one… bouncing back and forth between the two poles of the earth… and they are virtually identical on either side. They showed pictures where two planes flew over each pole of the earth and took a picture of the Aurora Borealis and Australis at the same exact moment and compared the photos… they were virtually identical mirror images of each other.
But enough non-motorcycle related topics! Back to riding!
It’s been interesting riding around on the knobbies today… I get to try and diagnose a whole new slew of sounds and vibrations in an attempt to determine if it’s “normal” or if the bike is falling apart beneath me. Great! Just as I head out towards one of the most desolate and remote areas in North America. Good times!
Tomorrow I start working on my relationship with unpaved roads… and gravel… my arch nemesis and destroyer of rims. My first leg will take me to Coldfoot, AK, and then the following morning I will continue on to Deadhorse AK… Population - 4… LOL…
I have a tour out to the Arctic Ocean booked for the morning of the 9th so I can join the Polar Bear club and go in the freezing Arctic waters. After I return from the tour I’ll be heading back south towards Coldfoot, and then Fairbanks. So I’ll have four days to hone my dirt/gravel/mud/etc riding skillz.
I’m not sure what internet availability will be, so I may not be able to keep the posts coming over the next few days.
