Steve and Ellen's Adventures

Stay with me while I learn to put the pictures where I want them to go.

I'm trying to add a few older pictures I didn't get into the earlier blogs.

Skyline of Yellowknife, NWT.

Buffalo on end of airstrip in NWT.

Stone sheep on road in Yukon

Airport runway next to road in Yukon.

What a GPS looks like when we were on the ferry.

Chapter 7 9 July 2015

Nenana decided in the year 1916 to hold a raffle on the exact minute of ice breakup on the Tanana River. A tripod was erected in the middle of the river with a rope attached to a clock on shore. When the ice broke up and moved the tripod down river, the rope pulled away from a clock and stopped it at the exact minute. Records are kept and published for each year on the day and time of ice out. Now you will have the opportunity to enter the raffle for 2016 for a mere $2.50. Tickets are sold from 1 Feb to Apr 5^th. Look it up on www.nenanaiceclassic.com. Last year the winning time & date had a payout of, take a guess, ……. , nope, more than that,……., more that too, ….. close, but it was $330,330.00. Right, almost a third of a million dollars. The town has paid out over 13 million dollars since it started. From the total collected, the town finances scholarships, the ice classic event, 4^th of July festivities, and other needs.

We were in Nenana for the 4^th’s celebration. They start with a community breakfast, parade, and games for everyone all the rest of the day till 3:00 pm, when they have a dog pulling contest. Early games were races, kids under 6 ran 20 feet. The winner gets a dollar, 2^nd place fifty cents and everyone else gets a quarter. Then the winner was out and everyone ran again. Winner get a dollar, 2^nd place fifty cents and everyone else gets a quarter. This was held in main street and when there were too many kids wide, they split the group. Then the age group raised to 8 to 10 with the same rewards, and on up to 18 and over. Then it was sack races, three legged races, egg toss, egg spoon carry, rolling an inner tube, tricycle races, stroller races, and many, many more. Each time, winner gets a dollar, 2^nd place fifty cents and everyone else gets a quarter. There were constant games for over 3 hours, then there was a huge sawdust/shaving pile in which they buried $200.00 of coins and let the kids age 8 and under dig in it and keep whatever they could find.

What a wonderful time we had watching all the kids have such a great time. At 3:00 pm, was the start of the dog pulling contest. The dogs are weighed and pull against other dogs in their weight class. The empty sled weighs 500 lbs and with each round of successful pulls, 75 lbs was added to the sled. Our friend Lucy, had entered 3 of her sled dogs, two ultra lightweight and one lightweight. She had one winner and one second place for a take home payoff of $750.00.

Tripod and clock tower.

Kids races.

Bag races.

Sawdust/shaving pile.

Digging in pile.

Dog pulling contest.

After the dog pulling, it was the human pulling contest. Each contestant put on the dog harness and pulls the weight 20 feet, just like the dogs. I think this was just for bragging rights not for any financial gain. They had only 2000 lbs of blocks to put in the cart, so they added kids to the top of the blocks till a winner was decided.

I’m going to get this on line with more to come later, meanwhile, stay safe, and enjoy the summer. Cheers, Steve