Sunday –
Today was another fun day. We met the Lette’s friend, Joseph at his church, First Baptist Church of North Pole, AK. But since church didn’t start until 11:00 we decided to hit Santa’s workshop first. You can’t go to North Pole without visiting Santa’s house, can you? It was just a huge Christmas store but Santa was there so Jennifer and I got our picture with him. Most of the town is decorated for Christmas year round. Can you blame them?
Bruce had also invited some other friends with a Wichita connection, Mike & Shari Mullen, to join us because they just moved here in July and hadn’t found a church home yet. I loved this church. Everyone was so friendly, the music was just what l like – praise songs that actually say something and don’t just repeat the same line 14 times AND a few old hymns that I knew accompanied by the praise band. And the pastor’s message was great and thought provoking at the time. But sadly my old lady brain did not retain it (this is being written on Monday – only 24 hours later – embarrassing!)
Doesn’t this just look like a picturesque Baptist Church
After church we all went to lunch at a little place in North Pole called the Country Cafe. Bruce had a Reuben – he has to get these when we eat out since I refuse to make him one at home because I can’t stand the smell of sauerkraut. I had a very delicious egg scramble. Our group was an interesting combination because Mike is the 2nd in command on the base and this is 23 year old Joseph’s first base after graduating from LSU ROTC program. But everyone was so nice it was a really enjoyable lunch with lots of great stories – that I can’t remember now – uh oh, is this a pattern?
After lunch we (Jennifer, Chris, Bruce and I) headed out to Rod’s Alaskan Adventures to do some mushing. We piled on all our warmest clothes because it was 6 degrees out. They loaned us Bunny Boots because they are the warmest. We had all brought really warm boots, but why turn down THE WARMEST boots?
While we were waiting for our turn, 2 dog teams came in (not IN to the building but IN to the field area by the building) and laid down to rest. Next thing I know I look out the window and Bruce and Jennifer are out there talking to the musher (who we later found out was Cooper) and petting the dogs. Well that looked like fun. I was getting FOMO so I started to go join them. But then I saw the sign. And then the lady in charge saw me. And immediately came out to tell me that we weren’t supposed to be out there because the dogs needed to rest. Rats! I had to watch from afar as Bruce and Jennifer got to hear all the good stories.
Our 2 dog mushers both had interesting stories. Cooper was from Georgia but has lived here in Alaska in a cabin with no running water or electricity for several years. I asked him why no water and electricity. He said it was too much of a hassle to keep the pipes from freezing. I think I would still choose the frozen pipe hassle over no water. He has around 40 dog sled dogs. He said he’s not interested in actually racing them himself but trains them for other mushers. I’m not sure if they are actually called “mushers” but it works for me. Last year Cooper’s dogs got 2nd in the Iditarod mushed by Matt Hall. Lauro is about to do the Iditarod again in 2 weeks. Last year he placed 26th. He is also a model and was featured in the show Mountain Men, which I think is reality TV. I’ll watch it when I get home.
We learned that the Iditarod is over 1,000 miles and takes around 9-10 days. They go for around 5 hours, groom, feed and rest the dogs for 3-4 hours and then repeat. The mushers only get around 45 minutes of sleep at each break. There are supply stops all along the way where everyone reloads and sometimes sleep there. Lauro doesn’t like to sleep at those because there are too many dogs and too much commotion and he doesn’t feel like his dogs get enough rest. The dogs have little booties that they wear and the owners give them doggie massages during each rest stop. The dogs actually love to run and pulling the sled seemed to be fun for them. We only had 9 dogs, but for the Iditarod they usually use 16. If a dog gets injured they leave it at the supply stop and someone from their team comes and picks it up.
We opted for the 30 minute dog sled ride instead of the 2 hour ride and we definitely made the right choice. For some reason I thought we would actually DO the mushing, but of course it makes since that we didn’t. We could potentially still be lost in the woods if we haw-ed when we should have gee-ed or hiked when we should have whoa-ed.
As we were walking back to our cars I saw this cool snow mobile. As I was wondering if that’s what we would have gotten if we had rented some, I noticed something else in the back ground. Look at your own discretion. I am only including this pic because I guess I am actually kind of a sicko. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
And since I don’t want to leave the dog sledding adventure on that note, here are some funny bathroom signs
After our dog sledding we picked up Joseph again and he took us on a tour of the base. .
We ended the evening with dinner at a little diner called Little Leonard’s Family Diner. The walls were covered with funny signs. And you know I always love the signs!
