Mushing to North Carolina

As stated in the last post, we started north with the temp in Florida colder than in Sitka but it didn't stay that way.  Florida started to warm up and the temps as we drove north hit 60.  So we thought that the emergency winter storm warnings we had been getting were a bit false.  We had a very pleasant drive through the rest of Florida though a bit windy, through Georgia and most of South Carolina.  Near the border between the two Carolinas, the temperature suddenly dropped and we noticed lots of road signs and trees damaged by winds,  Then we broke into the snow.  By the time we hit Charlotte we were driving in pretty horrible conditions.  We did get a lot of cars slowing down and following us along the freeway.  I guess they respected the Alaska plates!

Laura and Steve held dinner for us and we only kept them a little later than usual.  Of course upon arriving we broke out the dark and stormys and sat in front of the fire place.  This is the first time we have been to the farm since they moved in.  We got to see the fairly finished off barn (Mark helped do some repairs to it the last time we were here) and now a full working farm with a hound dog, 3 horses, 3 ponies, 1 donkey, 4 chickens and a partridge in some kind of fruit tree.

Jacob, Baylee and Emersyn came over for a visit for Laura's birthday though Jacob had to leave early as he was called in to work.  They came back for another visit before we left as well.

Later in the week the weather was better so we got a chance to see friends Tom and Carol as well.  Great to catch up with them and we took the ponies and the donkey out for a walk to the back field.  We also discussed the plans for putting in the new fishing pond behind the house.

After a week of our stay, Steve had to head out on a business trip.  We stayed a couple extra days to keep Laura company.  

Laura with Emersyn, Jacob and Baylee

The horses - Pearl, Wyatt and Sadie with Ruby the hound dog

The house on the farm

The ponies - Bella, Tokyo and Dolly and Jenny the donkey

Steve and Laura with us

We took one of those days to see Pete Crispell and his girlfriend for the day over in Durham.  They made a great lunch for us and showed us the projects they are working on to restore their neighborhood.

Pete and Liz with Storm and Sailor