As  big kid said, while visiting the Denver Mint, we learned about the America the Beautiful quarters, which are being released from 2010 until at least 2021 and feature national sites from each of the 50 states.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve was selected for the quarter for Colorado. We decided to make the 250 mile drive and check it out …. and we are very glad that we did!!!

The park is at 8000 feet elevation, with 11,000 + feet mountains to one side, and North America’s tallest sand dunes to the other side. We had fun exploring the dunes and the visitor center. But the highlight was renting a sand sled and sledding down the dunes!! All the fun of sledding, but none of the cold and wet of snow!

(Shout out to the lovely ranger working at the entrance kiosk. Fun chatting with you!)

… in the Badlands, South Dakota.   We enjoyed some fantastic hikes in this beautiful area.  The landscape is truly otherworldly …

And, of course, no trip to the Badlands would be complete without a stop at Wall Drug.

With morning temps in the twenties, afternoon snow flurries, and the Ptarmigan turning white (google it), it is time to head south for the winter …..

For absolutely no other reason than the fact that we had already driven 3000 + miles, and that the arctic circle was only another 250 miles, we decided to take a side trip ….

“Daddy has a big boo boo on his belly button.” That is Little kid’s summation of the hernia surgery which Pa had on Wednesday,

Before heading into Teklanika Campground at Denali National Park, Pa was fairly sure he had a hernia tear (he had had the left side repaired in 2000 – and so recognized the telltale bulge). Did some googling, found what seemed like a good surgeon, and made an appointment to meet with him on our first day in Fairbanks. The doctor said that the surgery was not urgent; but after Pa and I discussed it at length, we decided to just get it over with, especially before driving thru remote areas on our return to the lower 48.

Surgery was scheduled for five days later.  All went great! They were able to do the procedure laparoscopically, which made for much faster healing time. By day three post op Pa was off the Percocet and getting around fairly well. Each day he gets better and better …..

Also in Fairbanks we swapped generators. Our old one, affectionately know as Jenny, weighed nearly two hundred pounds (weight we did not need on our over loaded tires) and was way too much power for our needs. We sold her on Craigslist, to a civilian military employee, who escorted us onto base (Ft. Wainwright) where we parked at the auto shop and he spent three hours removing the behemoth. She has been replaced with “Honey,” a super quiet and lightweight (21 lbs) Honda generator that Pa has always wanted.

Our time in Fairbanks wasn’t all medical and machines …. there was also time for some fun …… visited Pioneer Park, a 44-acre park with a playground, gold rush town, a kiddie train, museums, etc. Went to the Sandhill Crane festival, where we saw – and heard – hundreds of cranes (and lots of Canadian Geese and a pair of trumpeter swans) as they prepared to head south for the winter. Explored the University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus (and decided that we would never want to go to school where the winter temps where forty below and the sun only came out a few hours each day). Tried our luck at gold panning (no luck). Shopped at Bentley Mall, the northernmost mall in North America (even further north than the mall in Greenland!). Saw a small section of the 800 mile oil pipeline, which runs from the North Slope to Valdez. And otherwise just explored this hard scrabble, end of the road town filled with some really, really nice and quirky people.

Now we are going to spend a few days about an hour outside of Fairbanks at Chena Hot Springs, before we return here for Pa’s post surgery appointment …..