Another Road Trip

May 10, 2011

Another Road Trip

Headed back to the glacier from our first day off. What a view huh?

Thanks to Pete and Therese... and probably Chris and Dan, they own AIE, I was able to have a nice four day off adventure. I drove to Tok, well about 50 miles out of Tok, and met up with Scott so I could see the dogs one last time, go for a road trip to Haines, hop a ferry to Juneau and meet the owners and the Juneau crew. Well, what a trip. It all started with Matt, Zane and I hitting the road at about 1600 to meet Scott at about 0100 or 0200 in Tok. Not the case. The gas God's really had it out for Matt. Long story, somewhat shorter, the gas stations were either out of gas or the credit card machines at the pumps didn't work. That's a far way to drive, with a trailer. That was the problem, the trailer. Matt had never towed this trailer before, he had extra gas, he'd done this trek before, but this time, no luck. So, we stopped at a gas station, the boys slept on the dog trailer and I, in the front of the truck after we had a lovely dinner of Ramen, it was fun. I made a call to Scott on the Sat phone, Satellite phone, left a message as to where we were and hoped he'd find us. We weren't hard to miss. Then at about 0300 there was a knock on the truck. It was Scott. He found us without a hitch apparently. He talked with Matt and we were off in Scott's truck to Haines, another 7 hours or so away.

Home, at the first site

TEMSCO Helicopter, they're our "Porsche"

Wow, was it beautiful. We drove through areas I had just driven through with Therese on the way down, and what we just drove, but then we turned to head towards Haines. Now that was a new territory for me. Scott had his truck loaded with 21 dogs. Mouse, the main breeding bitch, was pregnant from the "breeding" at the Two Rivers Race awards dinner. It took! Anyway, on we went and we got to see some more wildlife. This time, we saw... A BEAR!!! I was hoping I would get a chance to see one. I was talking then all of the sudden I point and say, all super excited, "Scott, a Bear!!" So he turned the truck around and we saw it scratch at a tree walk around a little, then go off into the woods. So cool! We also saw a couple porcupines, ptarmigan and a commercial in the making... What?? Yeah, there was a commercial being shot when we were about a few hours or so out of Haines. It was a car ad I believe.

So, yadda, yadda, got to Haines... want to talk about beautiful. It reminds me of a Maine fishing village. I love it there. Went to breakfast one morning at Bamboo Cafe, I think that's what it's called, and we ran into Devan and Judy Currier and Laura. She was there handler back six years or so. She's working on the Juneau glacier and will run their dogs. What a hoot she is!

So yeah, that day we got on the ferry to Juneau, got to Juneau, went to crew housing, ate, drank beer, went back to the truck, slept, and I was off back to Skagway that morning and Scott was going to go up with the dogs. I woke in the morning, very stiff, we dropped the dogs, and I said my so longs and whispered in Mouse's ear to have all healthy strong pups. I said so long to my boyfriend, Nibbs, told him to have fun and not to fight. Said so long to Scott and met up with some of the new crew members that I was going to be working with for the summer. Now the really journey begins, just hope I don't kill anyone, with my cooking... or my hands! HA!