Another Trip to Bethel

I don't know why we went... I needed out of the house and the Mister will be busy with basketball until March and I knew if we didn't go yesterday we might not....

So, when the game was over he and I loaded the snow-go and took off to Bethel. We left the house about 1:00pm. The ride was good to town. The sun was still low and the sky couldn't decide if it was clearing or getting worse. We got to town and ate at the Chinese place across the street from AC ---- one of the larger groceries in town. Oh, the snow-go did get hot about 2 blocks from the restaurant. Actually, we don't know how long it ran hot as the Mister didn't realize he wasn't getting a clear look at the light.

We bought groceries and warmed up at the same time. There were no bananas, oranges, potatoes, lettuce --- well, some leaf --- there were a few carrots, onions, about 6 yellow peppers. They were really cleaned out. Cake mix was $3.00 and we paid $7.65 for a bag of Doritos. Background ---- Bethel (and us) have had crazy weather these last 2 weeks. Two weeks ago we were freezing way down below 0 with windchills in the 40's. This week has been warm and Anchorage even hit 42 on Friday morning. Anyway, snow turned to rain and rain to ice -- so much so that Bethel's airport was closed for 2 days. So, no planes, no food. I wouldn't have gone if I had put some thought into it. Live and learn.

The trip back was another story. We left town with about $750 worth of food on a $300 plastic sled. We went a little ways and had to stop to pack snow --- the snow-go is water cooled and the trail was icy, not snowy. Two guys went by with sleds and since they weren't traveling at breakneck speeds, we stayed right behind them. THEN, (I didn't see them until we were right on top of them!) we went by a group of people just standing around their snow-goes. We were in some hills and bandits have been known to stop people traveling around there. I leaned up to the Mister and yelled that I didn't care if it got hot ---- JUST KEEP GOING!!! Well, the other two guys we were following went a ways and then pulled over. We went soaring past and waved thanks. A while later we had to pull over for more snow. The mister got off and got the small shovel and put some in on the right side, then walked behind me and put some on the left side. Then he walked back behind me to put up the shovel and he said, "Our sled is gone!" We decided that we had to go back --- yes, we discussed it --- it was cold! He told me that if we went to 24 on the odometer we'd gone too far. At 25 , he stopped. We could see Bethel lights. He asked and I said go on. We went just a little farther and there it was. Those people hadn't bothered it or anything. Then (((read this quietly --- we had to pee))))) and I was hurrying to get dressed and lights came over the hill. I about died. There I wasn't quite finished dressing and the bandits were coming and I was sure we'd lose it all and get killed, too! BUT, it was a man who serves on our school board. His headlight was a great help and soon we were on our way. It was 9:15 when we walked in the house. We were exhausted and slept until 10:30 this morning.

Yep...we'll go again.