Tok to the North Pole

Tok to the North Pole

Arrival at the North Pole.....finally! Not sure it ever existed except on my compass.  So sure enough we were driving along and were politely informed the North Pole is close by. Our previous assumption that they hadn't painted it, was proved incorrect.  However we discovered "The Pole" is considerably shorter than even we thought.

Shorter than my Bride!

No wonder it is hard to find. Explorers have spent major energies and massive amounts

of resources to be able to get there. We got there in less than 6000 convoluted miles from 

North Carolina.

No wonder we couldn't see it from the Top of The World Highway!!!!

The famous Alaska Pipeline

Brings many million barrels of North Slope Crude to market.

Four feet in diameter, wall thickness about 1 inch. The vertical stanchions are filled with refrigerant

that keeps the permafrost from heaving the pipeline too much. Note the thermal fins.

An engineering marvel for sure. This section is on the North side of Fairbanks Alaska

They call this "The Pig". It is pushed along the inside of the pipeline

as the 100 degree crude is pumped along. It cleans the inside to assure good flow of crude.