08/13 After a lovely day of riding in the rain I made it back to Fairbanks. It took a bit of hunting to find a place to stay tonight because the rates at the first couple places were extremely high. For example, the Comfort Inn wanted $170 a night. I finally found a place that only charged $60 but that was because the front window is missing (Golden North Motel). There’s a screen; just no glass. Not kidding. Good thing there’s a heater in here. 
The wifi isn’t working but they had a terminal downstairs so I just went through emails. The room is up on the second floor so I carried my 83 lbs of gear upstairs and ordered some Chinese food.
Did I mention I weighed my bags in the bike shop when I was here last week? I don’t think I did. Anyway they had a hook hanging from the ceiling so I took advantage of the free time I had waiting in the shop and weighed the 4 panniers and trunk bag. This time the bags themselves were weighed which added about 10 lbs. So 73 lbs of gear. When I left Florida I was at 99 lbs. Not bad considering another 20 lbs of that is camera/laptop weight.
Since I arrived pretty late today I’m going to go get my bike fixed tomorrow and stay one more night. I called the bike shop and the part is in. It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow so I’ll have to stop somewhere and wash the mud off it. This will only be the 2nd time I’ve washed my bike since leaving. I’ll also be relocating to another motel that has internet access (and windows).
Other then getting wet the ride back into Fairbanks was a breeze. Had the best steak sandwich at the Hilltop Cafe about 15 miles out of the city. On the People That Have Been Here board I saw a picture of Palin. She better not have been up here moose hunting. And of course my freshly-picked blueberries tasted great for breakfast.
Update: It’s 4am and I just can’t get to sleep tonight. Maybe I miss my sleeping bag?
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