This area of Alaska has an average of 10 to 12 inches of rain per year and we must have experienced 6 inches since we got here. Today’s forecast is for 1 or 2 more inches but that didn’t stop or slow down the activities for one minute.
We started by boarding the Riverboat Discovery on the Chena River with Captain Kai, who made history in 1998 by becoming the youngest woman to be certified by the Coast Guard as a sternwheel riverboat Captain. We’ve taken many riverboat cruises on our travels but this stood out as probably the best ever.
Before we started, however, we had to go to the 40 Below Room in the gift shop for a picture with our new friends and the sense of what that temperature feels like. Needless to say, we didn’t stay in there long.
This particular company started over 100 years ago and remains a family owned business with sons, daughters, grandchildren and even a great-grandchild working in entry level tasks. We started down the river seeing some beautiful homes like this
that makes me think of the “dry” cabins we’ve seen elsewhere with no water, plumbing, or electricity. Definitely a land of contrasts. Then we watched a prearranged takeoff and landing of a seaplane right in the river near the boat.
We were told that 84% of the population has an airplane of some kind. We listened and watched while eating wild blueberry donut.
Then came a stop at the home and kennel of Susan Butcher, four time winner of the Iditarod and first woman ever to win it. Susan passed away in 2006, a Cancer victim, but her husband Dave and two daughters continue the legacy. From the ship we watched Dave take a team of dogs through their paces and watched as some puppies got their fun time training.
These dogs are so strong they have to tie off the ATV until they are ready to go. They use ATV in place of sled when no snow to keep training up during summer months
Farther down the river, they have created a replica of aa Athabascan Indian village complete with Alaskan guides.
Check out the picture of the two moose with locked horns. 
They were found locked together in the ice where they died because they could not unlock themselves.
Back to port for family style lunch of stew (not sure if it was beef or reindeer or something else) veggies, salad, sourdough bread, and some kind of chocolate dessert. Then back on the coach to head to Gold Dredge 8.
This was a functioning gold dredging operation from 1928 to 1959 when the government fixed price of gold at $35 an ounce made it no longer profitable and caused the company to permanently close down. Up until then, they had been extracting 4,000 ounces of gold every two weeks. After seeing all that was out there, we had an opportunity to pan for gold ourselves. 
Jim and I combined took home $22 worth of gold. Of course, they then wanted to sell you a $50 locket to put it in. I’ll pass.
I forgot to mention this dredge is really close to the pipeline so Jim finally got a picture in the blog.
goneagainblog.com 