We are here for the longest days of the year and because of the latitude, they are really long. The average number of hours and minutes of daylight, that is, between sunrise and sunset, are 21 hours, 49 minutes. That only leaves 2 hours and 11 minutes for the sun to be below the horizon. This does not leave enough time for the sky to even get dark. And, the Land of the Midnight Sun is real here, since the sun does not set until 12:48 AM. I have probably gone over this before, but I find it fascinating that we are here. The only thing better would be for us to be on or above the Arctic Circle, where the sun does not set at all. It would be possible to go there, but it is hard traveling and we don’t want to risk our car on that road, and we would not be able to overnight there so we could not be there for the whole event.
On our first full day here, we went to the local Farmer’s Market and Geoff went off to find a welder who could fix our mud flap for the RV. A couple days ago we turned into a wayside whose entry was too steep and the mud flap dragged on the pavement and its frame was bent to the point it was dragging on the ground after that. When we got into the next campground, Geoff saw that it could not be repaired easily, so he removed it and we carried it to Fairbanks where he could get a welder to repair or replace it. Now, we are getting a new frame built for it and then the mud flap can be reattached and it will be good as new.
In the afternoon we went on a river boat cruise on the Chena River. This cruise retraced routes used by lots of river boats during the age of the gold rush. It was very well done with a continuous narration going on pointing out historic buildings along the river as well as talking about how people survive in this area in the extreme conditions which exist here in the winter. During that season, the river freezes to the point where people can drive their vehicles over it to get to the store and dog teams run their sleds up and down it. We stopped along the way to see a recreation of a First Nation village and a real dog sled team kennel.
Our second day took us to gold rush country. After the initial claims in this area had been mined as much as they could by individuals, the big companies came in and brought the dredges. These huge machines were built in shipyards, sent to Alaska in pieces, assembled on site, and put to work chewing up and spitting out massive amount of material. If it worked correctly, it also yielded massive 
amounts of gold for the owners. After they did their jobs, it was not worth the cost of disassembling and taking them away, and usually these machines were designed specifically for the site where they were used, so, most of them are still sitting where they were last used. One of them has been turned into a historical site here in Fairbanks. We got a train ride through the area and learned about the methods used to prepare the land for the dredge. Then we got to do our own gold panning and tour the dredge. We also got to spend a lot of time in their gift 
shop.
On our way back from the gold dredge, we stopped at a section of the Alaska Pipeline. It is funny that it has already been around since the 70s. We can al remember when it was being built and now we have been able to walk right up to it and touch it.
In the evening it was the Midnight Sun Baseball Game featuring the Alaska Gold Panners vs. the Everett Merchants from Washington State. We were warned to get to the park early as there is not sufficient seating for all the tickets 
they sell. There were people on lawn chairs behind the outfield fence and in front of the bleachers. We were able to get some inside scoop earlier in the day from the marketing guy that we could sit in a section reserved for friends and family, because it was not fully sold out. The game started at 10:30 PM and went until 1:40 AM. At midnight, they sang the Alaska State Flag Song and the sun finally set at 1:45 AM. When the game was over, there was still an hour left before sun rise and the sky was barely twilight. The Panners won 7-5 in a hard fought game. It was a bit marred by errors but its not Major League ball. The Merchants had a Center Fielder who had a great arm and threw at least two strikes from deep center field to home plate, one that prevented a run scoring.
We’re still here for two more days but I am going to post this to the blog now.
