Fairbanks to Tok: 271 miles. 55-60 degrees F most of the day, up to 65 in the afternoon, now back in the low 50s. (View in Google Maps)

I spent the day poking around town, running errands. First, over to Lowes for the two missing bolts. Replaced those, loctited one of them and the twin to that one. I think they'll be fine. Threw away the loctite- not worth dragging that back with me and risking it oozing everywhere.

Next, Wal-Mart. No, really. I needed Shell Rotella Synthetic, and they are the only ones who might stock it. Truck stops do, but the one I checked only had Rotella T, which isn't even close in formulation. Anyhow, that's all Wal-Mart had too. I also looked for a watch battery for my thermometer- it's been literally fading in and out. No luck on the battery. So there was no way I was going to buy the final item, AAA batteries, even though they have them.

Next, happened across a jeweler/watch shop. Sure enough, they were able to help.

On to the more mundane- did some searching, found a nice pressure-wash place to degunk the bike. It turned out reasonably well- good considering how it looked, but only moderate compared to a normal wash.

Now on to Northern Powersports for the work. They fairly quickly took the bike and my custom-order tires back to their service shop. I got comfortable and worked on some of these reports- plus chatted with them, tried to be a salesman for them, and chatted with Tamara.

The service went well, though it needed new front pads. $80 in parts, which was decent, and they threw labor in for free. I was out of there around 2:30, on for my other errands (needed new face shield cleaner from an auto parts store, clean laundry, eat). For laundry, I stripped down, put on my one clean shirt and boxers, then put on my moto pants and boots (no socks). Whee. Oh well, everything else is clean now.

While that was going on, I went next door to a really cool Italian shop. I had the special of the day- Avocado and Artichoke pizza. Mmm. The cool artsy waitress chick apologized because they burned the first one, so they had to make a new one. No problem, I'd been outside talking with some people anyhow, so I hadn't noticed the delay. Ended up being $8- bargain considering I ate the whole damn pizza.

Laundry done, I gassed up and left town by 5:15. Yay- good to be on the road. I thought the destination (Tok) was 100 miles away- no, double that. Oh well, theoretically I'll get in at 9:30, which is plenty of time (sun sets at least an hour later).

The ride over was neat, nothing really new. Oddly, I hadn't been on this stretch of the highway- I'd just circled it in several directions. So it was cool to go through Delta Junction, the official end of the Alcan. The gal in the visitors center was from Monroe- there have been Seattle-area connections everywhere up here.

Rode my bike in front of the visitors center, took pictures of the cool stuff, my bike, and sometimes even me. I love being able to put a bike in places cars aren't allowed.

On to Tok. Pretty river deltas- it's amazing to see them where we are- hundreds of miles from the ocean, and at about 1500 feet.

After searching, then giving up my search, I accidentally found Thompson's motorcycle campground. What a great place. It's set up very nicely, with lots of cool little touches. I'm staying in one of their canvas side "tents". Really it is a wood floor, wood sides halfway, then a wood roof. So not much canvas anymore. I hear it does very well in the rain and such. I'm tickled to have found it, and especially that it is so neat. I'll never go through here with at least stopping, if not staying the night.

They're willing to be the recipient if someone needs to ship gear, they have a well-equipped moto garage (hydraulic lift, etc), so it is really good to know about. I'll do that in the future.

Off to Dawson and probably Ft. McPherson tomorrow. Depends on what I do for time. I may take a couple days to do the Inuvik leg- I'd love to poke around Chicken, Dawson, and Inuvik. That means I'll probably blow some money on hotel rooms, or cheaper places if possible. Camping any further north is sketchy. Of course, this is only if the weather holds..