Got back to the hotel, don’t remember much. Big steak, long soak, shaved . . . . early to bed, still light . . . . I remember having to pull on/adjust the black-out curtains a couple times, to get the room really dark. Big bed = slept fine.
Left Fairbanks the next day --- 15-Aug, 05:45, mi = 64404, 62 F
In some ways . . . this was the best part of the trip. Things weren’t exactly familiar --- but they weren’t un-familiar any more, either. The roads, countryside, key land-marks/check-points, and especially the places w/hi-test . . . . all sorta known, now. Coming Up had been enjoyable enough --- driving/touring, but I was still a bit on edge, circumspect . . . . watching/thinking/checking my maps/ calculating/etc . . . . between driving, taking notes/pictures, still keeping track of things . . . trying not to get into too much trouble
So, Coming Down? . . . having just come through a day-or-so before? . . . . I already had a fresh mental map of what’s what, so . . . could sit back, relax some, and see/do it all again . . . this time from a different direction, a different time of day . . .
I love to drive. Being in a car, driving somewhere, anywhere --- especially somewhere far --- keeping track of where I’m at, keeping track of the car, keeping track o’ me . . . . nothing like it, for me. And in a Real M3? NOT work. Throw in some new/spectacular scenery, stop watching a clock, roll off some easy mileage . . . . this is what I buy my cars for
(Seriously --- if I ever won a lottery? . . . probably wouldn’t have an address --- only a really nice garage . . . full o’ Drivers)
Anyway . . . having made it to Fairbanks, in good shape, seen some new country, even gone up to see the start of The Dalton . . . I was done
‘That time’ . . .
The only variable was The Weather. Leaving, things were a bit murky, then got sloppy, with an intermittent drizzle/rain trailing along --- not bad, just enough to glaze the road. And even less traffic
Cruising South, I could make out all the landscape more clearly, now with more daylight. Maybe it was the weather, but the scene looked completely different from the few days before. Everything --- the whole area --- looked under construction, almost un-finished, maybe ruined, like some giant abandoned gravel quarry, with vegetation on the tops of the piles/berms/mounds, shallow water flowing slowly around, clouds/rain/weather rolling in, like down a bowling alley, out of the Northwest, bleak
Wind shield vents open, and the foot wells, low heat, 'roof cracked, lights/wipers on . . . . and everything --- the whole place --- to myself
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