Tuesday, June 16th - Day 4

We got started a bit earlier than we had been; I think we actually left at our planned time of 8:30 in the morning. We made our way over to a lady's house (from SBCC). Ms. Francis is a very sweet lady and an elderly widow. Another lady named Nina (from Russia) lives there and helps Francis take care of things (keeping the house clean, laundry, etc). Nina and Frances both love flowers/gardening/etc-- and both have green thumbs... There were tons of flowers planted in her yard; but there was also quite a bit of yard work that needed to be done.

Everyone worked really hard for several hours. Kelsey had a bit of an allergic reaction to some mulch so Tara, Nolan and Kels took a couple hundred fliers (give or take) and passed them out. Back at the house, Richard and Josh put up a tarp/shed thing, Carole and Mardene planted several flowers and bushes, Henry weed-whacked through at least an acre of overgrowth, and Camille & I cut down branches, thorny bushes and thicker overgrowth that couldn't be weed-whacked. Seriously, by the time we finished, the yard was beautifully landscaped, cleaned up and quite a bit bigger! Ms. Francis was so happy, and the look of gratitude on her face was priceless. We were a yucky, smelly bunch by the time we finished after noon sometime and we headed back to the host home to clean up. Then, it was to the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla!



The headquarters had a museum with a 20 minute video on the race. It was really an interesting, informative video... to anyone who didn't know anything about the race or the mushers. Mom got me interested in the Iditarod several years ago, and we've followed the race and kept up with the mushers for a few years... so it wasn't anything really new to me. [Yet still enjoyable!!]

Look at these cute babies!

We got to take a ride on a "sled" (it was really more a sleigh on four wheels!) pulled by an Iditarod team/dogs. I'm not going to say it's a must-do for everyone, but it was a fun experience and fun to say that I've done it!

Richard, Carole and Mardene enjoying their ride

Me, Kelsey, Camille & Josh on our ride

It was so neat seeing the dogs. They were so ready to run!!

They are all about it--they love to "mush!" ha ha.

After checking out the gift shop, video, museum and going for a ride, we headed over to Rich and Sarah's house (the music pastor and his wife). They had a gourmet meal of ribs prepared for us! Seriously, more ribs than I've ever seen on a plate before. I don't think any of us planned to eat so well this trip, but I am sure no one was terribly upset about it, either! The views on the road to Palmer (where they live) was every bit as beautiful as anywhere else we went--- every time we went around a curve it was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Tomorrow" we go to Anchorage for breakfast at Gwennie's and shopping :-)