You say Chicken, I say Ptarmigan

.

Well, we thought the roads were bad before but by far the worse road is from the US border to the town of Chicken. It is mostly dirt and mud and chocked full of pot holes. We were pretty worn out by the time we got to Chicken. Chicken is a fun little place.

Just don’t ask if the generators are going to be running all night. I did before I found out that is the only source of electricity – yikes. You can tell the three establishments in town (ah that is the town) must get pretty worn out with all the stupid questions us tourist ask. Or is that part of the charm of Chicken? Two of those three places are RV parks so you can spend the night. Either way it is worth the stop and do eat at “Beautiful Downtown Chicken”. Yummy scones and cookies and other baked goods.

We left Chicken the next day. The road does improve substantially. The route is along a main caribou migration path. Wish it was the right time of year that must be something to see.

I read at one time there was 500,000 caribou on this migration path but now the numbers are somewhere around 30,000. So you might ask, “What is the difference between caribou and reindeer?” Technically, they are the same except caribou is the name given to wild reindeer in North America.

Finally, back on the Alaskan Highway! Driving was a piece of cake to Fairbanks. Some pretty views and a moose sighting or two along the way. I was beginning to think moose were mythical creatures like flying reindeers at the North Pole. Oh wait, did we just pass the North Pole?