Still in Fairbanks....

Yesterday morning we drove the MH over to Alaska RVCenter for our 10:00 appointment, and, without realizing how close we were, got there almost an hour early. The owners were so nice, they pulled two Techs off other jobs and put them to work resetting our fridge circuit board so that it will work on propane.  They also found some rust in the chimney, which may also have contributed to the problem.  Our other gremlin problems seem to have disappeared (for the moment).  As expected, the Techs told me that they could only attempt to fix the problem when it is evident.  They seemed relieved that they didn’t have to deal with it anyway.  Now I can only wait  for it to reappear (probably when we are out in the boonies, somewhere).

Afternoon, we drove down to the Alaska Prospector’s Supply with Sharron and Don to pick up gold panning equipment for our outing today.  We’re going up to a stream, which is North of here, to try our hand at securing our fortune (LOL).  Our equipment consists of one pan for each of us, one vial in which to place our gold dust….pretty much a bare bones operation!

The lady who runs this shop is a character.  Shelby asked her if she used to be a prospector, and she replied “I am still a prospector!”.  She showed us her cache of gold dust….I told Shelby to take a good look, it may be the only time she’ll ever see it.  Her name is Lela Madonna, her husband is a professor of geology at the University of Alaska, and they work as a team at determining where to search for gold.  They also purchase “rocks” that contain interesting semi prescious gems (amethyst, for example).  while we were there, several people brought in bags of rocks for appraisal.  Didn’t see her purchase any of them.  Kind of sad, though, for some of the people looked like they could use the money.

We also talked to a local school teacher, a parttime prospector, in buying some supplies.  He gave us some good advice on pans, etc., where to prospect, books on the subject.  Nice fellow, he seems to be typical of other people we have met here, they have jobs or other ventures to keep them fed, but their primary interest is getting out in the mountains and streams.