Thursday and Friday

Lots to tell you about yesterday – Randy trained 2 teams of dogs going long – like 14 miles while I worked – then in the middle of the afternoon Becky (we met her and her husband Dave last year at the IFSS race and loaned them some dog dishes – you never how developing a nice relationship can be a wonderful thing sometime down the road!!) stopped by to ask us if we wanted to go to her house for showers- didn’t have to think very long about my answer!!! I took the picture of Becky in her front window overlooking Anchorage but it doesn’t do it any justice – the day was cloudy over the mountains and you can’t really see the city from the picture – and I didn’t get any pictures of her artwork in her home –as I said before……30 years as an art teacher and everywhere you look there is art…..not just your normal run of the mill art, but all kinds of mediums……stone, ceramic, leather carving, wood, weaving, painting, metal, she even made an art project out of pop cans, silver jewelry that she is making, paper not to mention all of the things she has picked up from allover the world (they spent a year exchange teaching in New Zealand and have biked all over the place) little woven grass baskets…….it’s endless and so interesting!! So after showers Becky asked if we wanted to go to the Native Art and Crafts fair in the mall – oh to have more money to spend………….!!!! Beautiful things! Dolls, Eskimo figurines with fur coats, hats, polar bear mittens, baleen carvings (the bone in the throat of the whales to catch plankton) ivory, beaded amulet bags, kuspuk dresses, fur coats, drums, baskets made from seal gut (very shiny and delicate) mukluks, slippers, beaded barrettes, sealskin purses, tanned leather pieces – it was like the Alaska Fur Exchange store we went to with Jesse only spread out over the whole mall and with the natives from all over Alaska there with the things that they had made – there were many native women that barely spoke English- it was fabulous and I could have filled the trailer with all of the things I would have liked to bring home – as it is I only bought 4 Christmas ornaments……one of which my Mother has already spoken for! Then Becky brought us home at almost dark, fed dogs and watched “Top Gun” (thank you Jess and Cindy) and to bed.
Friday; up at dawn (did you know we are gaining 6 minutes every day of light??) and worked in the trailer, and truck after truck of dogs and mushers started showing up – until the parking lot was getting full – don’t even know who all of them were but at least 2 of the mushers are doing the Iditarod tomorrow – Tim Osmer was one of them – Randy spent quite a bit of time out and around visiting and the drivers appeared to be taking people that sponsored them for rides out on the trail– and then I was heading for the port-a-john and I was stopped by Terri Killiam (now Champainge – hope I spelled that right) a very successful 8 dog driver from the 90’s and then her husband Charlie (a very influential dog driver in the open class in Alaska for many many years and the guy who did the commentary for the Rondy, the race Randy was in last weekend, on the radio). We had a very nice visit with them – they are both not driving dogs any longer even though they both look younger than us! After they left it was my turn to go out and experience dog driving in Alaska!!!! Now mind you, we are at a dog racing/training track with clearly marked trails and Randy has taken my team out twice to run them……………but do I know where I’m going????? Randy told me keep turning right, what to look for and to trust my leader, Spiff………so with butterflies I head out and right away Spiff doesn’t go into the right starting trail……..great………..Randy runs up and gets them started on the right trail and I go through a tube under a street then under a bridge with cars going over, then through beautiful woods, over bridges, over streams, smell of pine really strong like I have never smelled it in a woods……back under the road on an icy trail, hear laughing and yelling in the woods and it’s 10 kids and the dogs don’t even care, past 3 snowmobiles and people taking pictures of me……saw a raven (up here they’re the size of turkeys!) and back to the truck! The only difficulty I had was that both of my wheel dogs (right in front of the sled) ran the whole 6 miles on the right side of the main line so every time I went around a right hand corner the sled scraped the side of the snowbank…………..When I got back I asked Randy if he thought I would really go out there by myself not knowing where I was going and he really thought that just before it was time to go I might say to him….”maybe you should take them”……..BUT! he has always admired my “gutsy” attitude and so that’s what I did!
After I ran the dogs we met a guy named Ian that was from Colorado up here visiting his father and he had made a sled at home but still had never been able to run it because he only has a Malamute that won’t pull! Then Kim Hall came here to train and she had her sponsor (the woman that owns the mall that we were at yesterday) here wanting to take movies and pictures of her (she has done very well skijouring and in the 4 and 6 dog class) so we helped her team go around the 1-dog course about 8 times so they could get good video of her. She came into the trailer to visit and was impressed with our “rig”……….lots of good stories about squirrels on the trail in a race and her brother on the SWAT team in LA and the dog unit that goes in to capture criminals by the crotch of their pants…….!! Tomorrow we are planning to walk down Tudor Road about ½ mile and be able to see the 70 Iditarod teams take off and then drive downtown to the start of the “fun run” we are being paid $250 to participate in an exhibition race (extra prize money if I could come up with a costume for Randy and the dogs,………..but I really didn’t bring anything “costumey” with me………..black garbage bags???????) So tomorrow should be very fun!! Lights out and time to drop the dogs!! Aeja we wish we could be at your birthday party tomorrow……..we will make it up to you when we get home!!!!!!