by land, by sea... or by dog sled

Before I can go on with this post with a good attitude I have got to get something off my chest. I just had a run in with the cafeteria nazi and he has left me in a seriously sour mood (or totally pissed off if I can really be honest).
So, first of all, I eat three meals a day out of a cafeteria, I will leave my complaints to myself because I know I was fully aware when I signed up. When you go into the cafeteria there is a big hand washing station with about, oh I don't know, thirty signs that say "Wash your hands before entering the cafeteria". I get that, germs, lots of people, fair. However, the water that comes out of the spout is about 45 degrees below (no, I am not exaggerating and yes, I know its weird that it can be that cold and not actually turn into ice) and after washing my hands the first 10 meals here I couldnt help but think that nothing was cleaner about my hands after putting them in arctic water, and the only thing accomplished was that I couldn't feel them for another 5 or 10 minutes.

Solution? The bathroom, right next door to the cafeteria has perfectly warm water. So what do I do? I go into the bathroom, wash my hands, and then come out to get my food. This evening I did as I explained and entered the cafeteria, grabbed my tray, and headed down to get a healthy helping of yesterdays pork.

Enter, little man with chefs hat and obnoxious accent:
"Um, excuse me."
I keep on walking toward that pork.
"EXCUSE ME."
I hear him, but I don't want to hear about washing my freaking hands.
"MISS EXCUSE ME YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS!"
I turn and very calmly state, "Look, I washed my hands in the bathroom."
I hold them up, "See, still wet."
"It does not matter, you must wash your hands or you can't eat."
"I'm sorry but the water is so..."
"YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS."
"But..."
"NO WASHING HANDS, NO FOOD."

Not that the pork was all that enticing but seriously? I just stare at him for a second, hands in the air, wet spots on my shirt, normal body temperature about to meet its plunging fate, waiting for it to register to him how ridiculous he sounds.
"YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS WHEN ENTERING THE CAFETERIA, YOU SEE THE SIGN?"
No, actually missed that, thanks for pointing it out.
Now that everyone in the vicinity is staring and Danny is energetically piling pork and beans onto his plate while heartily laughing at me, I give in. I'm not ok with it though. I went through my whole meal, not feeling my hands and plotting how I can get little cafeteria-power-trip-guy back... I think from now on I'll just fake the washing, haha jokes on him.

Wow, felt good to get out, now I can move on.

So anyway, in the last 5 days Danny and I have gone in and around Denali National Park on foot, in a van, on a bus (driving and riding), on a train, in a boat, in a small airplane, and on a dog sled. The scenery hasnt gotten old yet! Mt. McKinley (tallest mountain in North America, highest vertical rise in the world) poked its head out of the clouds while we were on the train and we poked our head through the clouds on a plane to get a glimpse of the summit and even saw about 10 climbers attempting to reach the top.

Here are pictures of each transportation adventure except a bus... funny enough its the only thing I didn't take a picture of this week.

Van - Exciting, I know




Foot - Me checking out some moose tracks and us hiking around near where we live




Dog Sled - Huskies! Ohhh, look at the puppy!



Boat - Jet Boat "Safari" Tour... though we didnt see any lions or zebras



Train!



Plane - Mt. McKinley



We spent a night at the McKinley lodge about 2 hours south of us and then we took the train all day to Fairbanks (normally about 2 hrs north of us) and spent the night there. Upon leaving Fairbanks Danny's bus internally combusted (shocking, eh?) or whatever you might call it and dumped all its transmission fluid on the ground, that proved to be quite a hold up and not all that good for the bus, surprisingly enough.

Today was take-off for driving buses with real passengers in them as the first train transporting guests arrived. Danny had a good start but I'll let him tell you about that. I didn't drive but I gave the little speal to the guests and am officially winning the race to more tips, any additional help would be appreciated.