We made it to Deadhorse at just about midnight. Looked for the one and only gas station. Drove around the town but couldn't find it even using the map of the town in our guide book. Finally located it - there was a sign but the building looked like an industrial truck shop. The gas pump is a hose that comes from the building into a steel box mounted on the wall of the building. You go inside an entrance area, pay by credit card there and then go back out to pump your gas. The whole town is industrial without one single house. In fact, the population is actually zero, there are no permanent residents. Everyone is there for a shift consisting of 1 or 2 weeks, then flies out of the airport there back to either Fairbanks or Anchorage for days off. During the summer there are about 2000 people, in the winter 6000 to 10000. Most of the oil work is done in the winter to prevent damage to the environment. Almost all wildlife, birds, water fowl etc migrate out. The tundra becomes frozen so movement of machines and equipment is on the ice and snow. They actually creat roads using large water truck to lay donw 8 to 18 feet of ice to drive on.
After we arrived, we "slept" in the SUV from about 1:00am to 6:00am and then took a bus tour of the oil field and went to the ocean. It was about 32 degrees out with a steady wind of about 20 miles per hour making for a windchill around 10 degrees. The water was much warmer than the air. After the tour, we headed back. We made more stops along the way to see the sights. Tooks tons of great scenic pics. I intended to camp on the way back but Kim didn't want to sleep in a tent so we continued back to the mechanics lot and slept in the van. That was Friday night. And he had the van finished already even though I had told him he had until Sat afternoon. I do love our little van camper - we can sleep anywhere, wayside rest stops, Walmart parking lots, on wreckers and in mechanics yards.
After we arrived, we "slept" in the SUV from about 1:00am to 6:00am and then took a bus tour of the oil field and went to the ocean. It was about 32 degrees out with a steady wind of about 20 miles per hour making for a windchill around 10 degrees. The water was much warmer than the air. After the tour, we headed back. We made more stops along the way to see the sights. Tooks tons of great scenic pics. I intended to camp on the way back but Kim didn't want to sleep in a tent so we continued back to the mechanics lot and slept in the van. That was Friday night. And he had the van finished already even though I had told him he had until Sat afternoon. I do love our little van camper - we can sleep anywhere, wayside rest stops, Walmart parking lots, on wreckers and in mechanics yards.
The photo is of musk ox on the oil fields
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