Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Homer the end of the road.. and the trip!



Homer is a most beautiful spot.  The weather is mild for Alaska, and there is water, fishing, mountains, moose and eagles.
Homer's famous spit


View from our window
Lots of  Moose

Eagles soaring


Seldovia: St. Nicholas Russian Church. Rita and Kayla, a lovely young women who showed us around. She lives here with two children in a dry cabin.





The Russians settled here in the late 1700's. It is off road...only plane or boat access

Ready for Dangerous Catch
Frequent Alaskan site... Resources are short.


The end of the Trip.... and the Road

Homer's famous Salty Dog

Saturday, March 12, 2011

THE Last Great Race: Iditarod

Lance Mackey waving to us
Dee Dee Jonrowe's dogs on the run


Dogs awaiting




Dogs getting ready
The Anchorage Fur Rondevous Fur Auction
Pete on the blanket for the blanket toss
The Willow Lake restart
Like a U of I football game on a frozen lake!




Our pilot Brian... off to the the checkpoint

In the air...

Skwentna Road House
The Skwentna Check point
Pete ready for the cold


Ten year old Allie gives me a snow machine ride!



Dee Dee's dogs come in first
Our host Cindy.. awesome cook      



Skwentna Post Office: mail delivery twice a week. The mail goes across the
Our Host Mark who ran the Iron Dog 18 times     

river by snow machine or boat, then to the airport..


The next day...last two teams

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Amazing World Ice Carving Festival in Fairbanks

One of 48 Beautiful Ice Carvings
One of the slides
Pete running the back gate
The weather news...-20 degrees
Fragile
Some Knot Theory
Our Favorite
The single blocks start with this
Mining the 3-5-8 foot blue ice blocks
The Cat raising the blocks for multi block
The Finns also did a Sauna..However in Finland no clothes!
Rita patroling the grounds at -20
I watched this being moved...it took over an hour
The winning single block
If you would like to see some photos taken by a REAL photographer, you can visit:

http://icealaska.com/

Pete and Rita wearing their Ice Classic shirts

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Faces of Fairbanks

Kelly  Griffin 5th place Yukon Quest winner.  She farms and raises dogs near Wasilla.                        Roni... won her first 4 dog spring race. She is a teacher in a native school and a dog raiser near Tok.


Mykel. house cleaner from a village. On her way to Anchorage


The only bear we saw...








Jim Carlson Ice sculptor.. was an electrician. It took 50 hours plus ice digging for this great sculpture in front of the Big Dipper
One of many hockey fans
Denny parking his bike at -33  and eating lunch




Christian... high school volunteer who wants to be a welder

     Monica attends Catholic high school, plays basketball and the violin


 
Dogs are everywhere, even in the Boatel Bar.


Cliff Joseph from Tanana... his brother Ben lives two blocks from us in Washington, IL!!! He works for the Native Corporation
My friend Anna originally from Tanana. She was a nurse and a PA
Dixie...was home schooled.. likes to read
Brenda who wants to be called luscious... has a condo in Whittier


                                            Gentleman musher lover who is from the Netherlands... had a horrible experience in Chicago on his way here 50 years ago and still remembers!


Our neighbor Joyce... just had cataract surgery. Moving into her apartment next week.
Pete working  Security at ICE ALASKA
Rita solving the case of the missing pry bar...Rusians and Americans

Miles.. Mechanical Engineering student at UAF. He worked as a technician for 4 years...has a job lined up with BP. Yes you CAN smoke in bars and restaurants.... the laws are few here and weakly enforced







Dog musher dog handler..                   note Chicago Bears

Wood carving artist Scott Houghton... from 30 degrees below zero
Pete working daily to keep the Green Trucking Running