Conversation so far:
What date did this alaska period start?
arriving in Fairbanks in February 1953.
What did he do in fairbanks?
In Fairbanks, Stevens cultivated the city's Republican establishment.
He befriended conservative newspaper publisher C.W.
Snedden.
How did he grow his base?
He befriended conservative newspaper publisher C.W.
Snedden, who had purchased the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in 1950.
What else did Ted do in alaska?
Loading up their 1947 Buick and traveling on a $600 loan from Clasby, they drove across country from Washington, D.C., and up the Alaska Highway in the dead of winter.

Question: What happened on the drive?
Self-contained rewrite: What happened on Ted Steven's drive across the country?