July 22 - July 26
The main reason we went to Nome was to do some more driving. There are about 300 miles of gravel roads leading away from town into the tundra, on three main roads, each leading to a small village. The flight from Anchorage took about three hours, including a stop in Kotzebue, just north of the arctic circle. After arriving in Nome, we were scheduled to pick up our rental vehicle - a 4-wheel drive truck. But, Nome is a small place, and there are no rental counters. After looking around the airport (which by the way, was exactly the same as the Kotzebue airport) we finally decided to take a cab, and after talking with driver, he went back into the building and came back with our keys. They keep them at the ticket counter, and you just sign the paperwork when it's convenient. I guess you can't steal a car and keep it hidden in Nome, so they make it easy.
Our hotel was the Ponderosa Inn - a couple of houses connected with a covered walk. Our room had a kitchen with free coffee, and a proper bathroom with a full-size tub, of which I took full advantage. One of the negatives to RVing is a constant battle with low water pressure and no way to take a bath!
The area around Nome is bleak and rugged, but somehow even though you can't drive there, the people are in touch and moving forward. In the subsistence village of Teller, we saw musk ox pelts hanging on satellite dish towers, and the whale hunters use aluminum skiffs. Somehow it all makes sense. The people here were very wonderful - kind and helpful. The natives, who are Inupiat (Eskimo), fall into several categories. There are the stereotypes who are alcoholics and begging on the street (although if I were homeless I would find a way not to be homeless in Nome!). There are the younger generation - 20-30 year olds, who have traveled, lived in other places, have advanced degrees, and have come home to Nome to work with native-owned corporations, there are middle-class natives who could just as easily live in Plano, and there are subsistence natives who still hunt whale and seal and live off of the land.
It was incredibly interesting to see parts of "real" Alaska. Not as many tourists get here, so the place still feels much like it must have - a frontier town closer to Russia than it is to Fairbanks. There is still active gold dredging on the beaches at Nome. It is also the official end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, the Bering Strait Golf Classic - held in march on the frozen Bering Sea. (They put Astroturf down to hit your tee shot. Hook a drive and you could end up hunting for it for hours in the pressure ridges. You must play the ball where it lies. If you hit a polar bear, you lose three strokes, but you get five back if you retrieve it!), the polar bear swim, and the Labor day bathtub race down Front Street with water and a bather in each tub.
The three roads out of Nome each have a different character, but all lead to remote areas inhabited only by bear, moose, caribou, musk oxen and the like. The area here is also home to several rare species of birds. The scenery was amazing, and except for the blowout (and the somewhat suspect spare) the drives were very peaceful and entertaining with fabulous vistas and wildlife.
Also in Nome we had the best Mexican food we've had on the trip! It was in the same restaurant that served Szechwan Chinese. There was also a pizza place that served pretty good sushi.
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