Carnival

This past Saturday Molly and I went to a carnival in New Stuyahok which started on Wednesday and went through Sunday. New Stu is about 22 miles away from Koliganek and took us an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there on our snow-go. For a while people thought it wouldn't be possible to get there because of the warm temperatures and the multiple lakes, ponds, and swamps that needed to be crossed. Most of the snow had melted away, making for a very bumpy ride across the tundra, but we tried to stay on lakes and patches of snow.

The carnival had dog sled races, basketball tournaments, bingo, raffles, and McDonalds' cheesburgers! There were only five dog teams in the race and there are typically more than ten, but this is a fast disappearing activity. I talked with Gusty about before snow machines came and how there would be a line of dog teams seven miles up the river coming to Carnival. In this day and age it is much easier to fill up the tank with gas than to take care of 20-50 dogs for a sled team. It's a sad thing.

Our teams didn't do well in the tournaments, but I blame it on the refs. Molly and I lost some money at bingo, but had fun chatting with the older women at our table. . .They had to teach us how to play the different games!

Finally the highlight of my day. . .McDonalds' cheeseburgers!!! For the low low price of $3 you could eat a little McDonalds cheesburger that had been made at McDonalds, shipped to Stu, and warmed in a microwave until it was just right!! You can bet that I was thinking the same thing you are now, I want one! It's the little things that count. We were going to take a picture of us by the advertisement, but we ran in to the art teacher there and wanted him to show me how he does some carving. He showed us a moose antler that he had carved a lynx and a hare into. It was amazing! I don't think mine or my students' carvings will look like that, but we can try.

There was a pageant and a dance that night, but we opted to head home in daylight. Molly lost her goggles in Stu, which made for a cold not so fun ride home for her. Compounded with the fact that she doesn't enjoy riding around on the snow machine like I do didn't help. At least we made it home safely.