August 20, 2026

Saturday 20th of August.

Got up fairly early and had breakfast and to start packing. It took us a few hours to get ready but check out wasn’t till 11am so we still finished in good time. What we have also done these 3 days in the hotel is to plan the rest of our trip and buy all kinds of tickets everywhere.

Now ready to leave the very nice hotel to go to a campsite it was of course raining after 3 sunny days.

We got out the hotel and walked to the road to catch a bus to Shena River campground. We basically just missed the bus that was going the short route to there but we just went to wait for the bus (in the rain) on the other side of the road that would come half an hour later and take the long way there. A short time after we got there, a woman stopped and picked us up, she did not want us to wait for the bus so she was going to take us. When we got there, it turned out that it was also used by homeless people and she said that we couldn’t stay there! Instead she took us to Sven’s Campsite a few blocks away (that was our second choice anyway)

When we got there she surprised us by paying for our 3 nights in the campsite. Both Chris and I were quite speechless for quite some time. We set up the tent and then went the Museum of the North and Fred Meyer. Museum of the North wasn’t as good as expected.

While there wasn’t much adventuring going on, this particular day was rather interesting and humbling as we were literally treated to amazing American generosity. I know this isn’t limited to Alaska, but it blew us away. Jane tells the story in her notes, but I can add that the woman, a local lawyer, was very concerned about our plans to stay in the city campsite. She just didn’t like the idea of us camping in an area known to be a little suspect, not least for drug use. But from concerned citizen to generous benefactor was a leap we were not expecting, and, honestly we didn’t quite know how to react. Beyond trying to refuse, and then thanking her profusely when it was clear she wasn’t taking no for an answer, there wasn’t much else to do but be incredibly grateful.

But in Fairbanks, something was stirring, and it felt like all our experiences on and off the river were colliding in my head, and a story was in development. Inspiration can come at all times, any time, and when one lacks a notebook on which to write these ideas down, other ‘materials’ come into play.

The story that was cooking was The Starlighter, and you can still grab your free copy here.