A Black and White World

This past week I filled out paper work so I could "technically" become a Fed Employee. Fed Ex employees are actually not "employees" but "contractors". Jody will be doing a bulk run to Wasilla and the Kenai Pennisula on Saturdays for a few weeks. It's about a 10 hour day,traveling and unloading included. He gets paid by the trip, not by the hour so we thought it would be nice if I could go with him. So the only way that could happen was if I became his "helper" which meant I had to become a "Fed Ex employee" and have a full background check, watch the "how to" videos and sign off on it all. Any way with Jody's help I did them and got cleared.

So today my day started at 4:30 a.m. We had Joleesa to work by 5:45 am and we were at the Fed Ex garage to pick up the truck by 6 am and on the road to Wasilla by 6:30 am. I slept going to Wasilla (an hour drive)and coming back to Anchorage from Wasilla (after all I'd been there before and it was dark). By 8am we were on our way to Kenai. As we hit Girdword and the Alyeska resort it was snowing. Alot of the time it was a complete white out. The snowbanks were about to the windows on the Fed Ex truck,and the trees were so laden down with snow they were bending over. Every now and then there would be a break and I would see some mountains. It was beauiful at first but there were times the sky and snow cladden mountains and ground look like one. One big "white" landscape with black spots of trees and "some times" road. The mountain pass (I believe it's calld Moose Pass) was the worst with the winding roads. When we reached Soldotna and the pennisula, it was like we were in another state. No more mountains, and it wasn't snowing. There was still the gray skies (that's how I knew we were still in Alaska ~grin). We didn't go far enough to see the ocean though. Temps were in the high 20's. We got to the Fed Ex garage and Boss Jody put his "helper" to work as he handed the boxes off the truck to me and I sorted them on pallets by zip codes (I did only the light ones ~ dah). Anyway it took us about an hour and I was starving so he paid me by taking me out for lunch. We at the Bear's Den. It was really unique. It was log cabin and when you opened the door the sound of a bear growling met us. The decor was rustic and comfy. We had their pancake and ham special. We made the mistake of not asking how much it was and wound up leaving with a $30 bill (it included two coffees and a homemade blackberry cream soda to go). Ouch! But we enjoyed ourselves. They also had an ice sculpture of a bear with a fish outside the restruant. Believe it or not I did take pictures. Hopefully, I can get Jenna to put them on for me in the near future. We made one side stop at a woodcarving shop but headed home because Jody didn't want to drive the mountain pass in the dark. It was a good thing we did as it worst then the drive up. I couldn't see ANY mountains it was complete white with spots of black trees. Forget about the black road as it too was snow covered most the time. Fortunately the truck had 4 wheel drive and with God's help we made it back to Anchorage at about 5:30 pm

Even though Jody was disappointed that I didn't really get to see the mountains, I really enjoyed my time with him. AND we finished studying our Alaska DMV book so we can go get our Alaska licenses hopefully next week.

Next weekend's men's retreat so he won't be going (which I'm really glad) but then he has to make the trip the following weekend so I'll probably go with him again. We'll just have to pray the sun shows up and the snow stays away. But no matter what we'll be headed that way again as Family Camp is in Soldotna...it's in June so the snow better be gone ~ grin.

Watch for pictures. I'm not the photographer Jenna and Sister Tammi are, and I was taking them from inside the truck through the windows; but you'll get the idea of MY BLACK AND WHITE WORLD.

By the way I'm really tired of seeing white!!!