June 22-23, 2009
June 22 - Delta Junction, AK Here we are at the end marker for the Alaska Highway (mile 1422). We also found some of those big Alaskan skeeters. We toured the Sullivan Roadhouse Historical Museum. The roadhouse, built in 1905, served travelers on the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail and is the oldest roadhouse in the interior of Alaska. The 371 mile trip from Valdez to Fairbanks could take up to 2 weeks by stage (sleigh in winter) and roadhouses were spaced a day’s travel apart. We drove South of Delta Junction and found an overlook where we could get a fairly good picture of the Alaska Range even though it was cloudy. We also toured Rika’s Roadhouse, which is in the Big Delta State Historical Park. The restored roadhouse was built in 1910 and also served travelers on the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail. Rika was from Sweden and worked for the owner who was away most of the time. He finally owed Rika so much in back wages that he deeded the property over to her. There was also a barn and some other outb...