Where's the GPS When You Need It?

Tuesday it was decided, would be a really big sightseeing day! Phyllis and Larry (PaL) and Barry and I (BaMA) would take in the Iditarod Headquarters, the Musk Ox Farm, and do a nice hike.  Great plans.

We were to leave at 10, but Barry wasn't ready, so I told PaL to go ahead and we'd catch up. When we jumped into the truck I asked Barry if he knew where we were going, and of course he did.  So off we flew to catch up to PaL.  But this wasn't the right direction, was it?  Back to the Campground to look at the map.  Barry took a look and got back in the truck. 

Barry figured it was north of Wasilla and north of a town called Willow.  So we drove and we drove and we drove.  Wasilla was in our rear view mirrors, then Houston was in our rear view mirrors, and we were, 45 minutes later coming into Willow.  It wasn't long before Willow was in our rear view mirrors, too, but no signs for the Iditarod Headquarters.  Barry was grumbling that he didn't know what had gotten into Larry to drive halfway to Fairbanks to see a bunch of dogs.  Grouse, grouse, grouse, but no signs to the Iditarod Headquarters.  We were leaving Willow and Barry fired into an RV Campground parking lot.  He went to the lady that seemed to be the "greeter" and I could see her shaking her head.  Another person, a man, wandered up.  I knew we were in trouble when I saw the man shaking his head and pointing back towards the direction we had just covered!

All the while I had been texting Phyllis to give her updates on our whereabouts.  They waited at mushers paradise for a long while, but gave up on us.  I texted her to advise that we were so far out of the loop that we might catch them at happy hour!  We were about 35 miles north of where we were supposed to go.  Barry was all hot under the collar that the map posted at the Campground was wrong, and the joyful, happy feeling of launching into a bright new adventure was gone....way gone.

We finally found the Headquarters, just a very short distance from our Campground!  So we made the most of it and investigated every nook and cranny there was.  We watched every video, read every plaque, newspaper, legend, myth and book that was there.  I even read the bulletin board that was supplied for any mushers that were in need of anything, and I do mean anything (see the picture in the slide show)!  When we had had just really more then enough of dogs, sleds, dogs pulling sleds, men and women training dogs, and horrific stories of 80 degrees below freezing, it was time to leave.  By now PaL had had lunch, visited the Musk Ox Farm and gone on the hike. 

We, however, were in search of lunch.  The RV seemed appropriate and Barry wanted to show me how he was mislead.  There were nice brochures and maps in the office that gave specific directions, but he hadn't taken time for that, he just read a map posted on a wall in the back of the laundry!!!  Duh.  He had read the wrong location.  What he saw was a kennel in Willow that had sled dogs.  I said nothing.  Anybody can make that mistake. 

Ok, what to do with the rest of the day...let's go to the reindeer farm and the musk ox farm after that.  This time we picked up a brochure, and he asked the owner of the campground for directions.  We were there in 20 minutes!  It was a combo farm - reindeer, elk, moose and a bison.  Wow, we hit the jackpot!

After reading everything on the walls about all the aforesaid animals, and assuring ourselves that whatever the tour would be, we could probably give it ourselves by now, we joined the tour.  We dragged through the reindeer corral and fed the little guys, stepped carefully over all the poop, and stuck branches of trees through the fence for the moose and bison.  We had already treated ourselves to the elk section before the tour.  Fortunately, my olfactory glands haven't worked for ages, and my sense of sight kept me out of the poops all over the place. 

It was entertaining and fun, I had never imagined what an elk looked like up close and sorta personal and I was impressed.  The little reindeer were tiny and cute, they looked like they were all wearing spats on their feet.  Because of a genetic factor involving ligaments in their hind legs, they all walked like they were suffering with advanced arthritis.  Shuffle, shuffle. 

As we left the home of the reindeer, it was too late to try for the trifecta, so the musk ox would have to wait another day.  We joined PaL and gazed at the sights from a picnic table at the RV Campground.  And guess what.  We saw a moose in the waaaaaaaaaaaay distant trees meandering in and out.  Some of our neighbors strolled by and told us of the bear encounter with the garbage dumpster that morning.  Darn, another missed photo op.

Well tomorrow is always another day (!!!! am I profound, or what).  Our joint plans were to go to the Air Force Commissary, have pizza at a recommended place in Butte, AK, and let the rest of the world roll by.



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