Did you know that if you took a Taxi in New York City in 1895 you would most likely be riding in an electric car? I was today years old when I learned that until the middle of the 1910s electric cars were the most common vehicles on the road. Among the most popular and best selling was the 1903 Columbia (Electric). It had a top speed of 19 km/h. By comparison, the 1913 Argo was a speedster reaching a maximum speed of 32 km/h.
Steven, a volunteer at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in Fairbanks, was telling me that the big cities even had garages where drivers could recharge. They have an antique charger at the museum. It doesn’t look terribly different than the charging stations we use today. However, by 1917 hybrids had been designed (Owen Magnetic), and eventually, gas-powered vehicles took over. At that time they could be more cheaply produced and could travel longer distances. Over a century later, for a lot of reasons, we are swinging back to electric. Do you know someone who already owns an EV? Do you know where the charging stations are in Listowel? Learning so Much. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom.
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As we headed out on our dogsledding adventure you could smell the cold in the air. I wiggled my fingers inside my beaver mittens—perfectly toasty warm. Our lead dogs, Panda and Jake, pushed against their harnesses at the front of the twelve dog team. The dogs love the cold. They nip at mouthfuls of snow to cool off. Through the trails and over lakes the team performed flawlessly. Eight miles into our ten mile journey it was my turn to drive the team (with some help). My heart was racing—there is no feeling like it. A huge thank you to Bill Cotter Dog Sleds and our guide Jaimie for a very special Alaskan experience. Staying warm. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Being at Ice Alaska every day means we can watch the sculptures from their beginning to completion. First Prize in the two-block competition was awarded to Gladiator by Nakamura (Japan) & Demarsis (Texas). When the light falls on the sword it almost looks real. Now we are in the single block with one sculpture competition. All the way through I’ve been watching an artist carve a gigantic rabbit (hare). I love them all, but I hope the rabbit wins After all, 2023 is the year of the RABBIT! We also have lots of time to play volunteering at Ice Alaska. Check out our race. Spoiler alert: I win Staying warm—Loving Alaska. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. On Wednesday we were living our best lives at Chena Hot Springs. The geothermal springs are on average 41 degrees celsius. It feels amazing when you float on your back in the super hot water and drift by the rocks covered with snow. The natural salts in the water make you very thirsty so we headed off to the Chena Hot Springs dining room to get rehydrated. Our soup was basil tomato made with fresh tomatoes grown on the hot springs property. They grow tomatoes all winter in the greenhouses. The greenhouses are heated with the same geothermal water that feeds the hot springs we were swimming in. As if the day wasn’t already the best, we ended our trip with a visit to the Ice Hotel. We didn’t stay overnight because it is crazy expensive, but Ray tried out the polar bear shaped ice bed. Before we headed back to Fairbanks we had a drink of Dr. Pepper in ice glasses and then smashed them for good luck. What do you think you would have to do to stay warm overnight in an ice hotel? Would you try it? Enjoyed a good night’s sleep in our warm non-ice bed! You are always in my Prayers. Love Mom. The cold temperatures in Fairbanks Alaska are great for the Ice Alaska competition. It’s so cold that the sculptures don’t melt. That also means that you can count on your outdoor winter activities happening.
They have incredible outdoor rinks hat last all winter without even having to be refrigerated. We went skating outdoors at the Secondary School in North Perth on Monday. The outdoor ice was as big as the Steven Kerr Arena. Our lodge is on the Chena River, which is very, very frozen. They have sleds and we can sled down the river banks any time we want. When your sled finally stops it is a cool feeling to think “I’m lying here in the middle of the river”. Our winter hikes are so white because everything stays covered with snow. Yesterday we went hiking in the Boreal Forest. They have signs up that warn you to watch for sled dogs--we definitely don't have that on the North Perth Trail. The not good part was that Ray fell in a hole–he is okay. The good part was we saw two moose. They were really close. One was lying down and one was munching on tree branches. Did you know that moose means twig eater in Algonquin? What are your favorite outdoor winter activities? Staying warm. Make sure you click below to see our Alaska Outdoors Video--having so much fun! You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Yesterday we traveled to North Pole, Alaska. This isn't THE North Pole, but a town just outside of Fairbanks where Santa keeps a home and a few backup reindeer. When you drive down the roads, with names like Snowman Lane and Kris Kringle Drive, all of the street lights are wrapped in red and white and look like candy canes. Even the McDonalds sign is wrapped in red and white!
Santa wasn’t home–hopefuylly he is someplace safe and warmer. Apparently he is going to drop by on Saturday. However, the giant outdoor Santa did check his list to see if Ray has been naughty or nice. We did meet a few backup reindeer. They looked nice and warm in their winter coats,. Reindeers have the largest and heaviest antlers of all deer species. They grow a new set every year. I didn’t get the name of my favourtie backup reindeer, but I think a good name for him would be Ralph. What would you choose if you got to name one of Santa’s Reindeer? Alaska is Amazing. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. It is really interesting to watch the artists carve their sculptures at Ice Alaska. They are working with gigantic blocks of ice. They bring the blocks here in January from a pond in an old quarry. There are no organics (living things) in the pond so the blocks are very pure ice. They have to cut them with a five-foot chain saw!
The university student competition (unicorn) and multiblock (lizard) competition were finished when we arrived. We have been able to watch the two-block competitions from the start. They use heavy equipment to move the enormous ice blocks into place. When we start our shift the sun is usually out and when we finish the sculptures have lights shining on them. I haven’t decided whether I like them when the sun makes them a pretty blue or the lights make them very colourful. Which do you like? It was -35 C overnight. We are working hard to stay warm. You are always in my Prayers. Love Mom. We had a few hiccups along the way, but we arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska. Unfortunately, my iPad is having its own vacation in the Manager's Office at an airport hotel in Toronto–oops! I will do my best with my very, very old phone.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be volunteering at Ice Alaska. Tomorrow I will share photos of the incredible sculptures, but I thought you might like to see Ray hanging out in the games room. All of the games are made of ice. They have checkers, mini putt, ping pong and tons more activities all sculpted out of ice. Challenge: I wonder if it is cold enough in Listowel right now to make a mini putt game out of ice (real golf ball and putter allowed). We have a rental car to get around. Even though it is not an electric car, every time we stop we have to plug it in. All of the parking lots have places to plug your car in. It is so cold here that unless you keep the engine and fluids warm your car won’t start back up again. You have to do that in some places in Northern Canada too. Staying warm. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom Everywhere you turn in Alaska there is fascinating wildlife. Mostly you see them running away from you because they don’t want to hang around with humans. We did have a couple of close encounters. In Denali, we met a caribou that sort of danced and ran in front of our bus for about five minutes. Another scarier encounter was on the Winner Creek trail in Alyeska. As we were hiking we turned a corner and all of a sudden I was staring down a giant bull moose just a short distance away. He stood there for a moment and I thought “oh, oh!” Then he saw Ray and took off. Whew! We saw a lot of Alaskan animals up close near Anchorage. They were living on farms and in research centres. Mostly because they were abandoned as babies and saved by park rangers. I fed Rocky the moose willow branches. Ray was super close to a rehabilitated grizzly. And guess what else we met?—Santa’s reindeer in training! I know Santa lives at the North Pole, but some of his reindeer seem to live near Fairbanks and Anchorage Alaska. Just in case you are already thinking of Christmas, Running Reindeer Ranch in Fairbanks has a “secret” cookie recipe. Do you think it might be Santa’s favourite? You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Running Reindeer Ranch Cookies
• 1/2 cup white sugar • 3/4 cup brown sugar • 1 cup butter • Mix well • Add: • 2 eggs • 2 teaspoons vanilla Mix well Add: • 1 cup of flour • 1 teaspoon baking soda • 5 cups oatmeal • 1 cup dark chocolate chips • 1 1/2 cups coconut Optional: 1 cup walnuts Divide dough into 24 roughly equal balls. Flatten balls and shape them into cookies. The dough will rise a little but will not change shape significantly. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or so There are still more than five producing gold mines in Alaska. So, it's fair to say chasing gold is still a big deal. At Goldaughters, in Fairbanks, we had our first lesson in panning for gold. Dad was pretty good at it, but I’m pretty sure some of my specks of gold floated away. These days most of the gold is collected in the mines, but there are still some miners staking claims and panning. I held a giant nugget worth over $18 000 dollars! We visited a couple of abandoned mines—one gold and one copper. Independence Mine mined gold until the 1950s. Set above the Hatcher Pass it was easy to imagine the miners enjoying this beautiful location. However, it was also easy to imagine how remote it would be in the winter. The miners' children had their own school right there. The coolest thing about visiting the Kennecott Mine is that we had to get there by small plane. The Kennecott Galcier was massive! We are loving our adventures. Stay safe. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. |
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