Earl has another friend in Anchorage--Shane Ramsey.  Shane is an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic and a flight engineer.  Thankfully he was in town and was gracious enough to fix my tach yesterday (Monday).  We also changed the oil in both planes.   

We planned to fly to Nome yesterday so we'd have the morning to prepare for our flights to Russia.  We requested 12:30 departures.  However, we still didn't have our Flight numbers from Moscow.  That coupled with the time we needed to fix the tach and that there is a low pressure system sitting over Provideniya, we decided that our trip to Russia is now scrapped.  We are disappointed, but remind ourselves that the opportunity to fly to Russia came up after we had already begun planning the trip to Alaska--it was going to be frosting on our cake.   There is a lot of Alaska to see and we are going to see as much as we can while we are here. 

Today, the briefer said that although Nome had a marine layer this morning, it was forecasted to burn off by afternoon.  We saddled up and headed out.  We crossed the Alaska Range for a second time at Rainy Pass.  Although a bit hazy, we could easily see Mt. McKinley and Mt. Foraker.  

Passing the mountains, we stopped at McGrath for fuel.  A double-check of the weather showed that Nome was good.  Sure enough we landed in Nome and the marine layer was about a mile out to sea.  

Nome, Alaska built a name for itself around the turn of last century due to the gold rush.  The streets still have the influence of those days.  At the airport, we met the husband of an employee at Bering Air.  Jay gave us a tour of Nome including showing us where people are still free to put up a tent on the shoreline and pan/set up a box for gold.  Apparently, in the short summers they do quite well for themselves.  He also showed us some of the bigger mining operations too.  After an hour, he dropped us off downtown for a burger.  

Back at the airport, we checked the weather.  Kotzebue was open (weather-wise), but since it was so late, we decided we'd try to make it back to Fairbanks.  We landed shortly after midnight.  As it is the land of the midnight sun, we landed just before the sun went down.

We flew over 10 hours today and covered nearly 1100 miles of magnificent country.  A good day.

Crossing the Alaska Range.  In the distance, you can see Mt. McKinley and Mt. Foraker--about 75 miles away.

Crossing the mighty Yukon River.

Nome, Alaska sits on the edge of Norton Sound and Bering Sea.

Do you know what this is?  Betcha you can't guess.  It is the "freezer."  When you live in a country where the ground is frozen during the winter, you have to make provisions for folks that die.  The bodies are stored here until the break up in the spring.  One other note, this is on short final to the runway...makes a pilot think!

You can still put up a tent and a sluice box and try your luck.  Apparently, these folks do well as the sea turns over the shoreline every year.

Mainstreet in Nome.

Nome is also the end of the Iditarod sled dog race.  The race commemorates a heroic medicine run from Anchorage for an outbreak of some sort in Nome...we're a little fuzzy on details.