New, New, New

I have been getting comfortable in my new job as a server and yesterday I had some of my own tables while training!!  I think I did a pretty awesome job considering that it was only my third day.  Friday will be the first "non-training" day and I will actually be able to make tips.  I do, however, work this Saturday so I won't be attending Rondy, but at least I have off on Sunday and get to go out to the Iditorod start (yay!!).  I am definitely going to take some pics and I plan on writing on a somewhat tough and confusing subject:  dog mushing.  If you do not live in an area where dog mushing/dog kennels are predominant, then a lot can be misunderstood.  So I want to bring about some clarification.

Sunday's hoop jam was a pretty good success in my opinion.  My neighbors came out and hooped for a while and some friends attended, too.  I got my neighbors really excited about hooping and I think they are now more willing to recruit their friends to jams, classes, and workshops now that they have a taste of how truly awesome hoopdance is.  I plan to extend the invitation to the public for the hoop jam at the end of this month, in hopes to gain some interest in classes.  I am very excited.  Check out my photo album on Hoop City for the pics I took.

On another note, I have been working ridiculously hard on my website.  I think I have found a layout and design that I am happy with.  I am going to start doing posts and announcements so that people can become more involved on the site versus it just being static pages.  I plan to add a little more oomph to it, but I am satisfied with what has become of it as of now.  If you are a website designer or even html/code friendly and would like to give me any tips or tricks, I would sincerely appreciate it.  I am not at all computer illiterate, but when it comes to coding, I am pretty lost.  Thank god for google.

I wanted to share some pics and things from the Iron Dog that I went to a few weekends ago.  I got so busy, but it is an amazing thing.  It is a snowmachine race that starts out in Big Lake, paves the way for the Iditorod to Nome, then over to end in Fairbanks.  All in all, the races covers over 2000 miles.  And what is the craziest part?  It takes about a week, the riders are required to takes a minimum of 50hours in breaks (spaced through out the race at specific check points), and their average speed in 90 mph.  Yes, it is pretty insane.  You can check out the website for the Iron Dog to get a better view of the extent of the race, see the map (go 5o "for race fans" and click on map and checkpoints), and even check out the racers.  Bill wants to do the trail team (which is a group of riders that just takes the trail to Nome and isn't in the competing group) next year.  If I had more experience on snowmachines, I would, but it is pretty hardcore going out there this time of year.

So here are some pics I took that I never got a chance to post.

Bill and I

Snowcycle

And here is a random pic of me on the snowmachine when we were out at the cabin last weekend.  It was cold and blustery, so I am all geared up to the point I feel like Ralphie's brother in A Christmas Story haha.

And as a side note, the boots I am wearing are waaaaay too big.  I know they look like clown boots, but they are good for -60 degrees and when it is freezing and your riding on a snowmachine, you DON'T want your feet to be cold, so I borrowed Bill's bunny boots.  Interesting thing about bunny boots:  they are a huge accessory up here in AK for the winter months, especially for things like dog mushing, snowmachining, and any outdoor work during the winter.  They were originally made for US soldiers to use when dropping out of air planes.  For more info check out the wiki page for bunny boots.  There, a short history lesson of AK :).

Off the Grid

Over the weekend we went out to our friend's cabin for a few day get-away.  I had been up there before, but this was the first time I was to actually stay at the cabin.  Ahh... it was GREAT.

It is pretty much as "middle-of-nowhere" as you can get without driving a long way, north two hours by car and west an hour by snowmachine.  I LOVE riding on the snowmachine and haven't been able to go out much this winter.  We haven't had a good amount of snowfall around here until recently.  Up north, they have quite a few feet of snow, though a lot of it has been compacted from the warmer temps and wind.

We left early on Friday to go out, gathering all of our stuff to load into the snowmachine sled, and off we went.  It is a beautiful drive, normally, but grey skies filled our driving view.  Clear skies were in the forecast, so it was only slightly disappointing that we didn't get a good view of the mountain.

Halfway down the off-road, the sky became crystal clear.  It was amazing how within just a few miles, the sky could go from the dreary "ruin my good weekend" to "hello blue skies."  We, then, even got a small peak of the top of Denali (Mt. McKinley).

The ride in was not bad, as we both had on enough gear to probably sustain us at about 30 below.  Even with temps in the positive, if we happen to run into wind, with the wind chill it could drop the temps to 5 or 10 below, which is cold riding on the back of a snowmachine!!

Our friend's cabin sits on a nice lake about 50 miles off the main highway that runs north to south here in AK.  It is a nice little two room cabin about 40x40 with a loft, kitchen, and a nice large hoopable living room (look for the cabin hooping clip in my up-and-coming 1 year Hoopiversary vid).  Being so far off from the main highway, the cabin is completely off the grid and self sustainable, no running water or electricity.  And yes, that means so toilet or shower.  Hell-o outhouse :).  When you go out there to stay, you tote enough water in jugs that will last for the length of stay.  The cabin is heated with a wood stove that keeps the place nice and toasty; way warmer than even our heating system at home (and cheaper!!).  It is, however, furnished with a generator for if you want to watch the TV and propane for the stove and non-powered lights.

It was great to go out and not have to worry about anything, just the two of us.  There is only two other cabins out on the lake, so we weren't expecting any company.  The guy who has a house across the lake is also a friend, but he wasn't there.  He actually lives out there in a real house and not a cabin.  He is also completely sustained on a wind turbine that generates his electricity and charges up these huge batteries that turn on the generator if he is using more power than the wind turbine is creating.  His place is AMAZING.  He has a complete view of the Alaska Range out of his living room window.  Since this lake is out in the middle of nowhere and only accessible by snowmachine or four-wheeler, he owns a plane in which he flies back and forth into town when he wants.  He invented this thing called Mr. Funnel which extracts water from gas in air crafts and has become a multi-millionaire off of it, hence how you has all of this stuff.

We came back pretty early because the temperatures were supposed to be in the negatives and we wanted to make sure our old truck was going to start up.  Anytime a temp is in the negatives, it takes a lot more energy to start anything, including the snowmachine, and with my hoop jam going on today, we didn't want to get stuck being there is no cell service out there.

With this new job I just got, I thought this may have been the last weekend we could do anything if they started putting me on the weekend.  My BF might be having some out-of-town jobs which would keep him away during the week and only home on the weekends.  Hey, at least the new job is closed on Sundays, so I will always have that day I can spend with him.  He enjoys working in remote locations, so as long as he is happy, I am happy.

The days are starting to get longer (it is actually light when I get up and when I get off work!!) and I can just taste the spring coming.  I. cannot. wait.  There is much to do this summer and I can't wait to get started.

So the Hoop jam is today and I am so excited.  Hopefully I will have a good turn-out.  I also have pics from the Iron Dog I am going to post.  Next weekend is the start of the Iditorod and I will definitely have some pics and good information on dog mushing.  Have a great week everyone!!