THURSDAY...Packages finally arrive !

Well, this morning we woke to 3 inches of new snow...and it was still snowing. We drove out to Shirley Towne, one of our favorite hill training areas and it was still inaccessible to dog teams and sno-goes alike. Really a bummer. Then we drove over to Ted's to see how "snowed in" Whitey (the dog truck) was.

Then we drove on over to the post office...more packages. I received a pennant of my mother's ashes. I also got my ruff and trapper's hat. They are so very beautiful. The ruff I bought and the trapper's hat was my Christmas present from Bob. The two additional battery packs for our magicshine headlamps arrived...we are still waiting the arrival of our headlamps.

We opened up our box that arrived yesterday with our sledbags. It seems like Christmas...The sleds arrived a week ago and we have been waiting for the arrival of the sledbags. I can't wait to drive my new sled with the sled bag. I really like the sled bag!

We also opened up the big Cabela's box. We ordered two Trans Alaskan Trail Suits. Pretty funny...we were both layering up and trying on the different sizes. It is a bummer that there isn't a Cabela's in Anchorage...so usually we end up ordering different sizes and then trying them on and then sending back the size that doesn't work. We are still waiting for our back ordered boots.

We got a late start for our run today because of all of our running around and trying everything on. I took out a 12 dog team and we traveled flat trails, twisty turny trails, short up and downs, steep up and downs, and long up and down trails. For part of our run it was white out conditions.

I wore my pennant and my mother was with me on the trail today and will be for each and every run....all the way to Nome. I also wore my new hat and it kept me so warm.

Today was a close encounter with a moose. It was about a two year old so it wasn't all that big, but never the less, it was good size and totally startled me. I was so glad that it ran from us rather than to us. I think that he was all of 10 to 12 feet away from the team. The dogs took off like a lightening bolt and then we took a hairpin turn which turned us back in the direction that the moose had taken off to. I was so hoping that we wouldn't have an encounter with him around that corner. Thankfully, he stayed in the woods. Whew !

When we got home from our run I walked into the house and was going to dry my booties in front of the stove...I noticed that the stove was out....we ran out of fuel...not good. I called Newman's and the fuel truck drivers had just gone home for the day. So we had no choice but to drive out to Newman's and fill two 5 gallon cans and return home to add it to our tank. Then we lit the stove...waiting for the warmth to fill the house once again. You can believe that we will be monitoring our fuel tank a bit more carefully.

Getting ready to feed dogs and then heading to bed. A great day !